Great article from Lifeway President Thom Rainer. This could make your Sunday worship even more powerful.
FBF: Marking Time
Before I began this blog, I had another blog on a different site for several years. That blog is now closed, but each Friday, at least for a while, I want to resurrect some of my favorite posts from the previous blog. These will be my Flashback Friday (FBF) posts.
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Several events of late have cast me into a contemplative mood and led me to evaluate my life and the priorities by which I live. Psalm 90:12 challenges us: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. As I thought about that verse, I resolved to make three life adjustments.
First, slow down. Psalm 46 contains a word unique to the Psalms. The word selah is a musical notation that means to pause and to reflect. Three times the word is used in this psalm, as the writer encourages us to stop and reflect on God’s presence (vs 1-3), provision (vs 4-7), and power (vs 8-11). In today’s rat race, however, we find ourselves too busy to stop and reflect. We have lost the disciplines of silence and solitude practices by the saints who walked before us, and as a result, our faith is not as deep as was theirs. I am resolved to building margins of time into my regular schedule that I might reflect on God and what He wants to say to me and work in me.
Second, simplify. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 challenges us “…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” This “quiet life” is not one absent of sounds, but rather absent of strife. We can accomplish this objective by following the instruction found in the rest of the verse: “to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands…” How much “noise” do we create in our lives by not minding our business? These two statements work in tandem to instruct us to stay so busy fulfilling our own responsibilities that we have not time to meddle in others’ affairs. My grandmother used to say, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” We create more drama in our lives by involving ourselves in things that aren’t ours to own. I am resolved to eliminating the unnecessary from my life and taking care of the responsibilities God has entrusted to me . . . and ONLY those responsibilities.
Third, focus. In Colossians 3:1-2, Paul challenges us to trade our earthly perspective for a heavenly one.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
In his essay The Tyranny of the Urgent, Charles Hummel laments that we sacrifice the important on the altar of the urgent. Life has a way of distracting us from eternity. Christ followers live with a view to eternity. Not only is this life not all there is, this life is inferior to what awaits us in eternity.
Unfortunately, sometimes I fall victim to the temptation to focus most on things that have the least (if any) eternal value. In Philippians 1:10, Paul prays that the believers in Philippi would “approve what is excellent…” We need to learn the difference between acceptable and excellent; between good ideas and God’s ideas. I am resolved reorder my priorities around God’s eternal values.
I am not sure how many more days I have to number, but I think it is safe to say I am past half way. I have lived more days than I have left. The question that matters most is “what will I do with the days that remain?”
Fulfilling My Purpose for Life
Several years ago, I ran across this summary of the life of David found in Acts 13:36:
For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.
The phrase, “he served the purpose of God in his own generation,” has forced me to ask myself what I am living to accomplish with my life. One question that struck me this week was, “What do I want the preacher to say about me at my funeral?” That seems a morbid thought, but in reality, we preach our own funeral by the way we live our lives.
A couple of good diagnostic questions we can ask ourselves are, “For what do I want to be known, and how do I want people to remember me?” We can find a plethora of good things with which to occupy our lives. It is a noble intention to be good spouses, parents, teachers, workers, friends, and citizens. In the end, however, will I be able to say honestly, “I have served the purposes of God for my lifetime”?
I guess the more important questions are WHY and FOR WHOM do I do the things I do. Do I live my life each day to fulfill my own agenda, or do I live for God’s purposes? When God made us, and specifically when He redeems us, He hardwires us to bring Him glory. Much of the emptiness and frustration we feel in life is because we devote ourselves to things other than His things for us.
Take some time today to get alone and ponder the direction your life is going. Ask yourself how you can use the everyday events of your life to reflect glory away from you and toward Him.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. – Romans 11:36
Three Questions That Set Priorities
How do you decide what you decide? What goes through your mind as you determine what needs to be done or how you should feel about a certain matter? Is there a framework that shapes who we are? Is there a matrix through which design and order our days?
Yes. It’s called PRIORITIES. We think, say, and do according to what we believe are the most important things. Our priorities will determine, in large part, if we will live intentionally. The question then become how do we set our priorities? How do we determine what is important?
For some, the goal is to make others happy, so they prioritize those things they believe will please the object of their desire. For others, the goal is to make oneself happy, so they go about doing what they want to do. Some set goals for achievement that they deem worthy and order their lives in such a way as to accomplish those goals.
For the believer in Jesus, the only way to be truly successful is to make it our aim to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9). In the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7, Jesus sets forth what successful Kingdom living looks like. In Chapter 6, we find three important questions that help us determine Kingdom priorities that will please God. Constantly asking ourselves and evaluating our lives by these three questions will help us be able to focus on what is truly important in our lives according to God’s perspective.
Question 1 – Where is my HEART? (6:19-21). Does my heart gravitate toward earthly pursuits or do I first think of the eternal significance of my life and actions? Paul encourages us to set our minds on things above (Col 3:1-4). The most important things are those that have an effect for all of eternity.
Question 2 – Whom do I SERVE? (6:24) We choose each day between two worldviews – secular or Kingdom. We seek please one of two masters – flesh or God. The word Jesus uses is “devoted.” Am I sold out totally to Jesus? Do I seek to please only Him? The most important things are those that most bring glory to Him.
Question 3 – What am I SEEKING? (6:31-34) All to often we establish priorities based on self-preservation. We want to get through this life as comfortably as possible and our priorities reflect that goal. The Kingdom mindset is free to focus on the Kingdom of God FIRST and foremost because it recognizes that God takes care of those who focus on Him.
Think through these three questions. Regularly evaluate your goals and priorities according to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and you will see a change in your priorities.
Living Intentionally
Many years ago a man by the name of Charles Hummel wrote a pamphlet entitled “The Tyranny of the Urgent.” The main idea of the writing was that all too often we “sacrifice the important on the altar of the urgent.” Hummel reminds us that we are easily derailed by good things often at the expense of the best things.
The last several months I have made a commitment to what I call “intentional living.” I am prayerfully asking God to shape my purpose and priorities and I am beginning to base my decisions on those things that He shows me matter most. I am sure it is not a minister’s-only malady to get so distracted with so many things that we have little time or energy left for those things most important.
How many of us live our lives with a clear sense of the specific purpose to which he has called each of us? Sadly, most people occupy their days dealing with what lies in front of them, spinning plates, putting out fires, and just trying to stay one step ahead of life.
How would your life be different if you knew God’s purpose for each phase of your life? Would decisions be different if you considered God’s purpose for your family role? Would your job take on new meaning if you began to see it as the place God strategically placed you to affect people for Him?
God has divinely ordained your stations in life not by accident but INTENTIONALLY. How can you then INTENTIONALLY invest yourself by choosing the important over the urgent and the best over the good. I invite you to come with me as we live our lives ON PURPOSE.
Paul’s prayer for the Philippians, and my prayer for me and for you:
…so that you can approve the things that are superior and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ… – Philippians 1:10
Tomorrow’s blog: Help for setting priorities.
The Word of God: Affirmation or Transformation?
His family thought He was “out of His mind.” (Mark 3:21) Yes, even Mary. She was there, too, and presumably she agreed with Jesus’ siblings, her other children, that Jesus had crossed the line.
How could Mary misunderstand? She had received an angelic announcement tell her she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and carried the Son of God in her womb. At Jesus’ birth, she received visits from shepherds who had received a heavenly announcement as well, telling them that this baby was the long awaited Messiah. Magi from the East came calling, bearing precious gifts, and recognizing the significance of her firstborn.
She had watched her son grow from the twelve year old boy who confidently taught adults in the temple during a trip to Jerusalem to the man who now forged out on his own, teaching other men the ways of the Kingdom. Really, how could she miss it?
She missed it the same way we do. She had preconceived notions about the Messiah that obscured the truth right before her eyes. She thought Jesus was blowing His chance, misusing the opportunity that God had given Him, and going about Messiahship the wrong way.
To her, the Messiah would be a popular, national and political leader who would rise among the ranks of the religious establishment and eventually take His place at the top. He would lead Israel away from Roman domination and establish His throne in Jerusalem. But all He was doing now was alienating the religious establishment and acting quite… well, foolish.
If only she had read and received God’s Word with an open mind and heart she would’ve seen the truth. The Messiah would be not only a Righteous Ruler but also a Suffering Servant. If she had listened carefully to what He spoke and recognized that even though He was her son genetically, He was her Lord supremely.
We come to God’s Word the same way all too often. We have a notion of the way things should be, or at least how we want them to be. We consequently either twist Scriptures to mean what we want them to mean or ignore them if the meaning cannot be manipulated. We read the Bible looking for affirmation rather than transformation. We claim the Scripture is unclear or difficult when actually it is quite clear, but fails to say what we want it to say.
Let me challenge you to come to God’s Word humbly and with an open heart. Let God’s Word shape your understanding rather than your presuppositions shaping God’s Word. Let the Word speak for itself. Consider it in its contexts – historical, literary, grammatical, and revelatory. Seek its true meaning and conform to it. Let God’s Word speak authoritatively in your life.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. – Hebrews 4:11-13
What Does “Judge Not” Really Mean?
I believe that the single Bible verse most taken out of its context in Matthew 7:1:
Judge not that you be not judged.
Often a person will employ this verse to defend sinful behavior, but such is not the meaning at all. The Bible actually encourages us to look at the behavior of others.
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him – Titus 3:10
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Matthew 7:20 (Speaking of false prophets)
Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. – Hebrews 13:7
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him… 1 John 5:16a
We are not judging when we measure our life and the lives of others against the plain teaching of Scripture. Judging occurs rather when we make value judgments and assume that we know the heart and motives behind the actions of others. We are encouraged to observe the behavior of others but we must NEVER assume to know their heart.
In addition, this verse is part of a larger passage of Scripture (Matthew 7:1-5) that encourages us to examine our own hearts before judging the hearts of others. We must not overlook the Biblical admonition to remove the foul motives of our own hearts. When we do, we more accurately see the hearts of others. In fact, when we remove our own foul motives (the beam) we recognize that the motives of others were nobler than we imagined (only a speck).
So the true applications of these verses would include
1. Don’t be so quit to assume to know the heart of others, and
2. Be careful to examine your own heart.
Somebody’s Knockin’
In 1981, I remember a hit song on the radio titled “Somebody’s Knockin’.” The song would be the first hit for a soulful sounding, piano playing lady named Terri Gibbs. For me, it was one of those songs I remember all of my life. I was blessed this past Easter Sunday when Terri Gibbs worshipped with us at Ty Ty.
The song and the fact that Terri visited our church also connects my memory to one of the Bible verses that is often misapplied.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me. – Revelation 3:20
Most of the time I hear that verse employed as an appeal to an unbeliever to “ask Jesus into your heart.” A well meaning preacher or witness will present the plan of salvation and then quote the verse above as Biblical admonition to offer Jesus an invitation.
I find two problems with that application. First of all, salvation is not about me asking Jesus to come into my life, but rather about me surrendering all of my life to Him. I am not asking Him to join me, I am joining Him. The second problem with that application is that it misrepresents a most important application for BELIEVERS.
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation contain letters Jesus dictated through John to seven CHURCHES across Asia Minor. Churches. Presumably filled with BELIEVERS. The verse is less Jesus requesting an unbeliever to let Him in and more of an invitation FROM Jesus to believers to enter a personal and intimate relationship with Him. We have Jesus’ invitation to talk to Him (prayer) and hear from Him (through the Bible) on a regular basis.
Sadly the verse portrays a church going about its business as usual, but with Jesus on the outside. It stands as a stark reminder to believers that we can go through the motions and still leave Jesus out of our daily lives. Do you have regular, meaningful fellowship with Him? He stands ready, waiting for you.
What to Do When Two or Three Are Gathered Together
I love corporate prayer. Few things compare to interceding alongside other believers. Even since my days of youth I have enjoyed prayer meeting. Having said, however, there is a Bible passage that is often mistaken for a verse about prayer.
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” – Matthew 18:19-20
While encouraging group prayer is always a GOOD thing, using this verse to do it omits another very important Biblical instruction: dealing positively with another believer who has sinned against you. A quick reading of the preceding verses in Matthew 18:15-18 clearly reveals the context in which Jesus was speaking.
These verse indicate what a believer is to do when another believer sins against him. Notice the catalyst for this confrontation – SIN, not disappointment, disagreement, or difference. When another believer doesn’t measure up to our expectations or does something with which we disagree, then we are called to exercise forbearance and patience, but when the offense is clearly a SIN against us we are instructed to take positive and proactive steps.
First we are to lovingly confront the believer and make him aware of his sin against us. Hopefully, at that stage reconciliation is achieve and the matter is over. If not, then the offended believer is to take two or three people to attest to the fact you tried to resolve the issue peaceably. If that doesn’t work, then it is time to hold the sinful brother accountable to the congregation.
These steps seem incredibly uncomfortable because we so seldom employ them. Most of the time, we ignore the offense and allow the sinful brother to continue in his sin. Quite often his sins grow increasing egregious, because no one lovingly confronts him. Still other times, we skip the private first step and we bring a “posse” to the one who has offended us and we attack him in a group setting. That always creates more hostility rather than fostering reconciliation.
Taking the prescribed Biblical steps honors God, shows respect to fellow believers, and testifies to the Grace of Christ. It is simply the RIGHT way to do things. When two brothers in Christ come together when once there was disharmony, the presence of Christ is evident in their union, and the testimony of Christ to the lost world is encouraged. Sure, it is great to pray together as believers, but it is even greater to come together Biblically when one believer has sinned against another.
Do We Really Speak Truth and Is It Really in Love?
One of the most popular Scripture misquotes is a phrase found in Ephesians 4:15:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
Many believers have used the concept of speaking the truth in love as found in this verse to assault verbally other brothers and sisters in Christ. It seems as though anyone has the liberty to say any matter of hurtful things to another by claiming to speak the truth in love. The problem with that approach is that (1) usually “the truth” is not God’s truth, but rather opinion, and (2) the motive is most often not loving but self-serving.
When we see the context of Ephesians 4:15 we can gain a more accurate understanding of what it means to speak the truth in love and a better idea of how to practice it. The verse immediately preceding holds the key for our understanding. Verse 14 admonishes us not to be gullible and vulnerable to teaching that not grounded in truth. So then, verse 15 stands in antithesis to encourage us to speak TRUTH. “Truth” contrasts “every wind of doctrine” in verse 14, and “love” contrasts “by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
While some will manipulate and spin doctrine to suit their own agenda, the true believer, from a heart of love (love for God, His Word, and for His people) will be careful to speak the truth of God’s Word; to teach God’s truth rather than personal preference.
This verse, then, is not license to speak harshly to another believer, while claiming to do it because we love him or her. A more appropriate guiding principle for our speech toward others can be found a verses after verse 15:
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. – Ephesians 4:29