respond

More important

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Every Sunday before church starts, we encourage our volunteers to join in corporate prayer. I sometimes feel like a broken record calling people to stop what they’re doing and come and pray. I’d rather our hearts and spirits be joined together in prayer than have every technical aspect of the service perfect.

Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.

Hosea 6:3 (NLT)

Oh, that we might know the Lord! Is there any better or more significant that we can strive toward in this life? Is there anything more important than knowing the very One who created us?

Anyone who has spent a long time serving in church may find themselves in a circle of service. Your spiritual life may be lacking and yet you try to convince yourself that what you do in the church makes up for it. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. We must all find a balance between service and relationship. I believe we all need both. But service without the relationship is empty.

I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that’s more important than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

More important than our offerings is knowing God. And not just knowing about Him. Truly knowing Him. Understanding His love and grace. Passionately pursuing Him. Serving is an important part of our Christian walk. But it is more important to know Him whom we serve.

Daily Bible reading: Hosea 5-8, Revelation 1

Don’t bother

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Maybe I’m the only one, but when I read a controversial article online, I can’t help but scroll through the comments. And then I start to get riled up. Some people can be so ignorant! How can they even believe things like that? How can someone agree? How can they disagree? Can’t they even bother to use spell check? My initial reaction is to respond to every ignorant and inane comment right away. On the few occasions I have, I end up regretting it.

If you’re reading this, you have internet access and you’re probably aware that there are thousands of people out there who feel it is their calling to set things straight. They troll news and social media sites looking for topics that have the potential to spark debate and then they light it up. They believe themselves to be enlightened and on top of current social justice issues. They’re right. Every time. I have to resist the urge to respond to these types of people. The book of Proverbs would refer to them as fools, simple minded, wicked, liars. There is no use in responding to these people.

Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get a smart retort. Anyone who rebukes the wicked will get hurt.

Proverbs 9:7 (NLT)

Whether online or in “real life”, the best way to respond to these types of people is to not respond at all. But they need to know the truth! Yes, they do. But if they’re not looking for it, reading one comment from you isn’t likely to lead them down the path of enlightenment.

Don’t talk to much, for it fosters sin. Be sensible and turn off the flow!

Proverbs 10:19 (NLT)

Why would you bother to pour out the wisdom that God has given you into a fool? They won’t receive it. Save it. Don’t join in the foolishness of the simple-minded.

So don’t bother rebuking mockers; they will only hate you. But the wise, when rebuked, will love you all the more.

Proverbs 9:8 (NLT)

This doesn’t mean that we leave this group of people alone entirely. It means that we learn from Kenny Rogers.

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run

Save your wisdom. Save your knowledge of truth. Don’t waste it on those who don’t want it. Don’t bother trying to guide the blind. Don’t try to correct those who won’t accept it. Spend your energy leading those who are searching. And, above all, learn to fear the Lord, not the bored musings of blind fools.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 (NLT)

Daily Bible reading: Proverbs 9-10, 1 Corinthians 15:1-32

He bends down

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If you want to speak to someone of consequence, you must first put yourself in a position to be heard. If I want to speak to the Queen of England, I’m going to need a better position than the one I have. I’ll probably need a title (which she’d have to give me, but never will because I’m not British) and more than a few connections (which I don’t have because I’ve never been to England). I’m never going to have a conversation with the Queen of England, even if we share the same name.

In order to even speak to, let alone ask for aid from, a person in power or of status, we generally have to be in a position of power or status ourselves. Us lowly citizens don’t have the ear of our nation’s leaders at any given moment.

We have a tendency to put these same requirements on God. Us lowly church members can’t just talk to God, we must have a mediator, someone with greater connections, someone with position.

What a load of garbage!

I love the Lord because he hears
and answers my prayers.
Because he bends down and listens,
I will pray as long as I have breath.

Psalm 116:1-2 (NLT)

A raised position is not on the list of requirements for approaching God. In fact, I believe that the lower we are, the more likely He is to respond because the lower our state, the more sincere our prayer.

If a child cries out to a parent, how does that parent respond? They bend down to listen. If a person trips and falls, how does a friend go to help? They bend down to listen.

We called out to God in our sinful state and He bent down to listen. If God has already stooped down to pull us from our sins, He will do it again and again and again.

It is when we are at our weakest, our lowest place, that God is at His strongest.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 2:9a (NKJV)

Don’t ever believe the lie that you are to lowly for God to care about.

Whenever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action. He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees. He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion.

senior devil, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.

If God is not ashamed to bend down to listen to us, we should never be ashamed to cry out to Him at our lowest. He hears and answers our prayers.

Daily Bible reading: Psalm 116-118, 1 Corinthians 2

Quickly

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Let’s assume that, if you attend church regularly, that you trust your pastor and other church leaders. You trust that he or she is a man or woman of God. You trust that they spend regular time in prayer and reading their Bible. You trust that their messages are Holy Spirit-led.

Then they approach you and tell you something you didn’t expect. It may be a word in season or it may be a word of correction. Some people take it to heart and are encouraged or work to make necessary changes in their lives. Others may ruminate on it for a while before responding. And others will get mad, stay away, or even leave the church thinking, what right does this person have to say this to me?

The truth is that they have every right. If you consider yourself to be a member of a church, you’ve put yourself into a position of submission to the pastor and the leaders he or she has put in place. So long as they are speaking and acting according to the Word of God, they have a certain amount of authority over you.

So why does our response matter so much?

Israel has wandered away from God. There are yet a few righteous men and women, but not many. Jehu is leading the army. Elisha is the prophet. Elisha sends a man of God to anoint Jehu as the next king. Jehu can do several things: he can send the man away, scoffing at him, he can listen to what he has to say and think about it, or he can accept the word and act on it.

Jehu accepts the anointing.

Jehu went back to his fellow officers, and one of them asked him, “What did that crazy fellow want? Is everything all right?”

“You know the way such a man babbles on,” Jehu replied.

“You’re lying,” they said. “Tell us.” So Jehu told them what the man had said and that at the Lord’s command he had been anointed king over Israel.

They quickly spread out their cloaks on the bare steps and blew a trumpet, shouting, “Jehu is king!”

2 Kings 9:11-13 (NLT)

Israel may have gone astray, but something (I believe the Holy Spirit) was still working in them. A deep respect and honour for the Word of God still resided in these men and, instead of getting upset that Jehu had been chosen to be the next king or taking the time to think about this news and whether or not they wanted to accept it, they immediately responded to it.

When we have a relationship with God, He will lead us and guide us. His Spirit works in and through us. He brings us insight and revelation.

When we are in submission to the leaders God has placed before us, God uses them to help lead and guide us. Between God speaking to our leaders and the Spirit working in us, I believe that we are well able to discern truth and allow that truth to guide us. When a word is presented to us from a trusted source and resonates within our spirits as truth, our response, like Jehu’s men, should be immediate. If we trust God and we trust our leaders, the time to ponder should be minimal. We should respond quickly.

Daily Bible reading: 2 Kings 9-11, John 5:1-24

Lavish

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LAV’ISH, adjective. Expending or bestowing with profusion; liberal to a fault; wild; unrestrained.

Lavish is a pretty amazing word. I don’t think we use it enough. I also don’t think most of us really know what it means. Our society tends to hold things close. We clutch whatever we have to our chests in hope that we are never called upon to release whatever it is we hold.

What if we were a lavish society? I don’t mean the kind where everyone walks about in silks and satins with cigarettes at the end of impossibly long holders. I mean the kind where we’re completely selfless. Where everyone, no matter who they are, is generous to a fault.

What’s stopping us?

But I lavish my love on those who love me and obey my commands…

Deuteronomy 5:10 (NLT)

It’s a common complaint among church-attenders that they don’t feel God. They keep waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever does. These are usually the fringe people. Those who never truly involve themselves in much of anything, but come to church waiting for something to happen. Something rarely happens for these people. Why?

Notice that God didn’t say that He would just lavish love on everyone. He loves everyone—never doubt that—but the lavishing is His response to our response to His love.

How likely are you to bestow great love and gifts upon someone who is continually sitting in front of you with arms crossed and a scowl on their face? The more likely response is a kick in the shins. I think God sometimes feels the same way about us. We’re made in His image, after all, and even God vented a lot of frustration with Israel on a regular basis.

But lets say someone knocks on your door and you answer in your bath robe. This person at the door is dressed to the nines (I never really did understand what that’s supposed to mean) and has with them a home-cooked gourmet meal. The works. Not only that, but they’ve left a brand new car in your driveway—full of gas and insurance paid. After dinner has been served on starched linens and fine china, a group of maids comes in a cleans your house top to bottom. This person no longer deserves a kick in the shins. You’ve probably spent every moment since the doorbell rang trying to figure out how you can show your gratitude for this lavish gift.

It’s easier to love someone who loves you back. If you’re looking for the lavish kind of love from God, why not try showing a little to Him?

Daily Bible reading: Deuteronomy 5-7, Mark 12:1-27

Respond

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Are you ever disappointed by someone’s response to one of your actions? Are they ever disappointed by your actions?

“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked [Cain]. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it.”

Genesis 4:6-7 (NLT)

In pondering my own responses to certain people and their actions, I have to wonder how those situations could have had different results if only I’d responded in a different manner. Often times our first response isn’t the correct one. Like Cain, we get upset as a spoiled child might. Sin waits to destroy us.

But also like Cain, God is waiting to accept us if we come with the correct response. Every situation has the potential for multiple outcomes. Most often, the outcome has a direct relationship with our response to it.

The next time your first inclination is to respond by lashing out, pause. Subdue the incorrect response and ask God to guide you in the correct one.

Daily Bible reading: Genesis 3-5, Matthew 2

Your Future

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Does it ever feel like the whole world is against you? Like nothing goes your way? As though God has turned his back on you?

If you think you’ve got it bad, take a look at Job. Not to make light of anything you may be going through, but Job had it bad. Really bad.

Job is also a bit of a whiner. I’d probably whine, too, if I were in his situation.

But in chapter 8, Job’s buddy, Bildad, gives him a bit of a smack upside the head.

How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

Job 8:2-7 (ESV)

Bildad is basically telling Job that he’s wasting his breath. God doesn’t change. Get yourself into a place where you can seek God and He will respond.

Where you began will seem unimportant, because your future will be so successful.

Job 8:7 (NCV)

It’s time to stop looking at your circumstance and start looking at God.

God is greater than your circumstance.

Daily Bible reading: Job 7-9; Acts 7:44-60

Love me

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If you love me, you will keep my  commandments.

John 14:15 (ESV)

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

John 14: 23-24 (ESV)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

John 13: 34 (ESV)

There are – at least there should be – several by-products of Christianity. Once we make the decision to believe in Jesus as the one and only Son of God, that he died and rose again as payment for our sins, there are several things that occur.

Our response to Jesus’ sacrifice should be love. How else could we respond to someone who took our punishment as his own? And, if we truly love Jesus, we love one another.

Jesus wasn’t telling us to love him because he needed that security, because he needed the validation of generations so that he could accomplish what he set out to do. Jesus knew who he was and was confident enough in that to go to the cross on our behalf whether we professed our belief or not.

Jesus was telling us to love him because our love for him affects our love for other. If we truly, truly love Jesus, we can’t help but love others. Loving and being loved by Jesus should change our entire outlook on our lives and the lives of those around us. Jesus went so far as to say that, people who don’t love other people don’t really love him.

Ouch.

So my question today is: do you really love Jesus? And, if you really love Jesus, how does that love reflect in your love for others?

Daily Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 13-16; John 14

At once

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I love reading the accounts of Jesus’ miracles. He did a lot and I’m sure not everything even made into written records. In fact, Jesus said we’d see even greater things.

I tell you the truth, whoever believes in me will do the same things that I do. Those who believe will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:12 (NCV)

That’s good stuff, but it will have to wait until next month to take a deeper look at it when it comes up in our daily reading.

What I want to focus on is the response to Jesus’ commands. Miracles didn’t just happen because Jesus was there, they happened because people believed and they were obedient. In John 5, we read the account of a lame man at the pool at Bethesda. He wanted to get into the healing waters, but no one was around to help him. He’d been lame for 38 years.

When you live your life resigned to something for nearly four decades, it’s nearly impossible to imagine life any other way. I would think that many people might argue if someone told them to pick up their things and move along. But that’s exactly what happened.

Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

John 5:8-9 (ESV)

I wonder if the man would have still been healed if he refused to get up. He’d been lame most of his life and then some stranger came and tells him to get up. Who did this guy think he was? But he got up anyway. If he’d stayed down, he may have lived another 38 years acting like a lame man when he’d already been healed.

I wonder then, how much we’ve actually been given and don’t even realise it. How much of our lives do we spend too afraid to get up because we’ve always been down? The lame man got up immediately. There was no hesitation.

I wonder if we’d see more of the greater things promised in John 14 if we stopped hesitating.

Daily Bible reading: 2 Kings 9-11; John 5:1-24