Tag Archives: Faith

Where Is My Investment? Where Is Yours?

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. – Luke 1:1-4

Luke addresses Theophilus as “most excellent”, indicating he could have been a high ranking Roman official. We really don’t know much about him, but Luke wrote not one, but two letters to him – the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. Clearly, Theophilus is a man that Luke was invested in on a spiritual level. He wrote to him so that Theophilus could have an assurance of the truth he had been taught. Perhaps doubts or confusion had been expressed, which is understandable, since Luke addresses the fact that many people have given their account of what had taken place. No doubt there were false stories, conflicting stories, and even deceiving stories, humanity being what it is and all.

I am intrigued, because I don’t think Luke wrote these historical accounts to this man in the hopes that they would someday become part of the holy scriptures. Apart from being called by God, perhaps without even realizing it, to write what would become two books of the bible, I believe Luke was genuinely attempting to disciple Theophilus to be able to walk in truth.

Luke was a physician. A man of science, if you will. And it is with that mind that he undertook this task to lay out the events that had taken place starting from the birth of the Christ, through His death and resurrection, and then the formation of His Church. He would have been thorough, methodical, and given to the gathering of as much proof as possible. Funny how God did that. Brought in a man who had not been one of the disciples, a man of science, to authenticate and document things of the Spirit.

Naturally, I have questions.

Who am I investing in? Who is benefitting from my own eyewitness testimony of God’s power?

We can all shout about what’s going on in the world around us today. We can tell anyone who will listen how horrible/great we think our government is or how we think the Church is failing by either taking too much or too little a stand in the political arena.

Anyone can do that.

But how many of us are quietly investing in someone else’s walk with Christ? Are we speaking more about what God has done and is doing in our own lives and in the world around us than we are about what the government is or isn’t doing wrong, or right?

We are called to endure. To keep going. To keep speaking the truth of salvation, the good news that we can be saved from our sin and from the wrath that will come. I can only speak for me, but I don’t think getting worked up over the latest political issue is enduring. It’s getting distracted by what we think is at stake, from what is actually at stake. Nothing this government, or this world, does is eternal. Souls are eternal. People are eternal, and they will be eternal in one of two places. With God, or without Him. God’s desire is that they be with Him.

Is that my desire? Is it yours? Where is the bulk of our investment of this life God has given to us?

His Disciple: A Table for Sick Sinners

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Matthew 9:10-13

Close your eyes and imagine the scene. It’s ok, just play along with me. Close your eyes. What do you see?

I see a table full of people I probably wouldn’t spend time around. I see the people our society hates, the ones we turn away from, the ones our religious spirit avoids.

And at the head of the table I see Jesus. Laughing, passing the green beans, telling stories. Loving the ones in front of Him because He knows how desperately they need what He has come to give them. A way out. Stripped of their filthy rags and given clean garments. Life. Love. Freedom. Redemption. Forgiveness.

It’s what we all need, but for some reason, the ones who have already had their time at the table of sinners with Jesus resent the ones who are drawn to that same table. And when the religious spirited people have the boldness to ask His disciples about it, Jesus slaps back with what we all need to hear.

I came for these. For sick sinners. I didn’t come for anyone who is already healthy. Do we get what He was saying? Maybe this will help us pick up the sarcasm in His voice – “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

The only difference between us and the sick sinners around us is that we came to the table before they got there. We sat with Him, just as sick as they are, and found healing, forgiveness, and eternal life – all the things they need. The table for sick sinners is as much our table as it is theirs.

We are His disciples. The ones who get to watch Him heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, feed the hungry, and offer forgiveness to all of them, because we watched Him do it in us. Let’s choose to watch with joy, gratitude, and fascination rather than with scorn. Let’s invite sick sinners to the table, instead of questioning why they’ve come and why on earth is Jesus sitting there with them. Let’s get over our indignation that Jesus loves them the same way He loves us.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Ps. 23:5)

Father, forgive us for when we choose to bow to a religious spirit rather than to You. Teach us how to invite others to the same table where we found forgiveness and eternal life. Give us eyes to see people the way You see them instead of the way we see them.

His Disciple: Teachable

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He taught them. He didn’t send them to the Pharisees, to Rome, or to any other source to learn how to be His disciple. Instead, He called them to Himself and then He taught them. And much of the time, He was quoting the Old Testament.

And then they wrote down His teachings, and they taught others, and then the others taught even more others. But the reason there was something to teach, is because Jesus taught teachable disciples.

Today, we have so many sources of teaching, and I wonder if it’s made us lazy. It’s so much easier to be taught through listening to a podcast than to sit down and open our bible. A whole world of teachings is available at our fingertips, and it is enticing. But so very much of it is simply untrue and, unfortunately, because we are not actually reading our bibles, we are drawn in by what sounds good to our ears, perhaps unaware that it contradicts the Word of God.

Only the Scriptures will teach us what is true and if we don’t believe that, we are starting from a deficit. Without a plumb line, everything will be skewed.

There are good sermons, good books, good podcasts, good voices out there who are teaching good theology, grounded in scripture. But there are also plenty who are teaching a “different gospel, that is no gospel at all.” People who don’t like what the bible teaches, so they’ve decided it’s not true, and they’ve made up their own truth. They twist the bible to fit what they believe, rather than allowing what they believe to be formed by the bible. It’s not a new thing. It was actually happening in Jesus’ day, Paul’s day, and every “day” since. It’s no less dangerous now than it was then.

The problem is not that we aren’t teachable, it’s who or what, we allow to teach us.

A couple of lines from John, chapter 6:

“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

 “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

They didn’t like what He taught, so they walked away, much like so many people are doing today. He didn’t chase after them to try to convince them, and He never once apologized for the truth. He gave us free will, and He allows us to use it. But what we can’t do is reject His Word and still claim to be His disciple. It just doesn’t work. If we attempt to separate Jesus from the whole of the scriptures, we only end up with a god of our own making.

Listen to this interaction out of Matthew 16:

 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

Many people said (and say) many things about Jesus, and those many people were wrong. But Peter knew the truth, and I believe it is because He was with Jesus, following Him, learning from Him. He was teachable to the truth because he was following closely to the One who is truth.

We are not told that we shouldn’t listen to other teachers. The scriptures tell us that God gave teachers to the body. But there is a way we are to listen to others who are teaching us.

Acts 17:11: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.“

They eagerly listened to the teachings of Paul, but then they verified what he taught by searching the scriptures. Sadly, many today use their feelings as verification of whether something is true or not. How it makes them feel, and whether or not it lines up with what they think should be true. Truth is now subjective to each person and their viewpoint, their feelings, their experience, and their trauma. And when you have a generation of people seeking to have their feelings validated, it is guaranteed that there will be a multitude of people willing to step in and do that as a means to build their own platform, bank account, or kingdom. God help us.

I am asking myself what may seem like simple questions, ones I’d like to answer quickly, but I know that it requires an honest look at my life:

Am I still teachable? Who is teaching me? Do I verify what I’m hearing by going to scripture? Am I willing to learn hard things from the Bible?

Lord, forgive us for what we’ve done with Your Word. I pray for a revival of the holy scriptures in me, and in Your Church today. I pray for a great thirst to come over us, a thirst for Your truth, found in Your Word. I pray that the heart of the Bereans would be in me, and that Your Word would be my plumbline, always.

His Disciple: Surrendered

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.– Matthew 4:18-20

To follow a rabbi… meant living with the rabbi, sharing life with him and taking part in the rabbi’s whole way of life. A disciple might accompany a rabbi on all his daily routines: prayer, study, debating other rabbis, giving alms to the poor, burying the dead, going to court, etc. A rabbi’s life was meant to be a living example of someone shaped by God’s Word. Disciples, therefore, studied not just the text of Scripture but also the “text” of the rabbi’s life.” – Edward Sri, Into His Likeness: Be Transformed as a Disciple

The life of an early disciple was a life of following close, not at a distance. They weren’t part of a crowd of onlookers. They wore the dust of their rabbi’s feet, and in order to do that, they had to leave their own lives behind.

Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! – Matthew 19:28

I see it when I read the gospels, and again when I read Paul’s letters to the churches. There is a leaving that must happen in order to follow Jesus; a surrendering of my plan for my life, in favor of His. There is no way to read the New Testament and come away thinking that we still get to call the shots. That we decide the when, the what, and the where for our lives. Not if we’re His disciples.

What have I left in order to follow Jesus? This is the question, and part of it I can readily answer. My right to choose where I live and work has been surrendered so that He could put me where He wants me. My desire to walk away when something became too difficult, too painful even, so that I could let Him transform me through the difficult and the painful thing. To teach me to love difficult and painful people (and to realize that sometimes, I am the difficult, painful one). I forgave people I didn’t want to forgive, remained where I didn’t want to be, and left when I didn’t want to go.

But there is always more leaving to do. The temptation to take the reins is ever present, breathing down my neck. The desire to do what I want to do with my remaining years, which would involve laying on a beach everyday, mostly in silence. The thought that I could pick when and where I retire, or whether I even get to retire, is a wonderful thought indeed. But that’s not how following Jesus works.

He leads, I follow, and in that, my heart must reach the place of surrendering all the ‘I wants’ and ‘I needs’ that keep calling for me to do it my way. Surrender, not control, is what I signed up for. A life that pleases Him more than it pleases me.

If it weren’t for my desire to remain close to Him, I would not have made many of the choices I made in my faith journey. I would have lived where I wanted, worked where I wanted, kept only the relationships I wanted, walked away when it got hard, set way more boundaries around me… all of it. But I wanted to follow at His heels, not at a distance. I wanted proximity to Jesus, not just the identifier of “Christian.” And this is still my greatest want. To be near Him. To follow Him, even when it’s hard. He has become and remains my greatest obsession, worth every bit of leaving and surrendering and hard thing I’ve had to do.

Today, I am challenged to look at my life again and ask Him where I am still trying to maintain control. To assess whether I’m still following Him, or if I’ve veered off to follow the many voices I have access to in this life, or even if I’m just simply following myself. Am I still His disciple, or am I just a Christian in the crowd?

It is good to look around at our lives and figure out if we are still following Him, or just acknowldging Him.

Father, help us be honest with You and with ourselves. Turn us, if we have veered off. Call us up if we have fallen behind. Remind us that You, not this earthly life, are our greatest reward, and that You are worthly of our lives laid down. Help us become people who are fully surrendered to You and not to this world or our flesh.

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

His Disciple: The Search & The Priority

Intro

There is a narrow path and a broad path, of that, I’m sure. Not just because Jesus told us so, which would have been enough for me, but because I see these paths. I see what leads to life, and what leads to death. But through the blurry vision of just past middle-aged eyes, I see something else and it stirs emotions in me that I haven’t been quite sure how to manage.

I see those who chose the narrow road now attempting to widen that road. Cutting away things that make it harder to walk, things that make the narrowing. Redefining sin. Cutting out whole parts of God’s words. Twisting what is left to fit nicely over flesh that wants control of the ship and I am grieved somewhere deep and wondering if I too have a machete in my hand.

So I am doing the only thing I know to do. I’m going to search the scriptures for what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus. A follower who walks a narrow road behind the One who walked it first. I’m doing this for two reasons: to let God uncover my own heart in this matter, and to know how to pray for others who are widening what must remain narrow.

Let’s Go

We hear Him speak for the first time when He was twelve, after a frantic search by His parents found Him in the temple courts “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Other versions say “My Father’s House.”, but in either version I see the same thing:

Jesus was, and is, always about His Father’s business (and personally, I think the Father’s business is His house, which is His Church). Regardless, what Jesus is not always about is our business. Our agenda. Our vision. Our dreams and goals and ideas. Listen to what He said when Peter attempted to rebuke Him for saying He must suffer—

“But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)

Strong statement made to someone Jesus loved. But let this sink in: Peter thought he had in mind the right thing. He knew in part, saw in part, but thought he understood in full. We are Peter’s brothers and sisters, cut from the same cloth. I just don’t know that very many of us would admit to it.

From the first recorded words of the Son of God we get our first glimpse of His priority, and that priority never changed.

“ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” (John 12:49)

“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)

 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)

If I desire to be His true disciple, my priorities must align with His and that, dear friend, is easier said than done. As much as I wish it were not true, self-interest runs deep through my heart, filled with my preferences, my assumptions, and my wants. Oh, they aren’t presented that way. No sir. Sometimes they’re labeled as my calling, how I’m wired, my giftings, my mission.

So this is the first stop on my search for true discipleship. To wrestle with my own heart and what it wants and why it wants it and most of all, is it willing to give all of that up for what He wants? To let Him strip away the stuff that gathers over time that tends to make me forget what I know to be true: The whole world and everything in it is about God. The wide road makes it about us.

Lord, have Your way in me. Let something shift in me that brings down the idol of self-interest, self-priority, and self-preservation. I want my heart to align with Yours, so Jesus, show me Your heart.

We’re just getting started. Thanks for reading. See you next time.

Exodus 10: No Compromise

Pharaoh said, “The Lord be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. No! Have only the men go and worship the Lord, since that’s what you have been asking for.”  (v. 10-11)

The eighth plague was promised if Pharaoh did not let God’s people go. By this time, Egyptian officials were advising (begging) Pharaoh to let the people leave so they could go worship their God, because Egypt was being destroyed. So an attempt at compromise was made.

P: Who will go?

M: Everyone, plus our livestock

P: Ha! No. Only the men can go.

M: Cue the locusts!

(You have to read the chapter to get more than my fantastically detailed cliff notes.)

Twice Pharoah tried to compromise. But God was after all of His people, and their belongings, because He had no intention of letting them remain in slavery in Egypt.

I think we, you and me, make our own attempts at compromise, if we’re honest.

Always trying to hold back some control over something. Surrendering all, but not. Trusting Him with everything, but continuing to hold that one thing that helps us feel like we’re keeping a part of us that we just can’t imagine living without.

But God doesn’t compromise. We’re doing that dance all by ourselves. He bought the whole of us with blood and He won’t settle for just the parts we’re willing to hand over. The blood of Christ that paid for our freedom wasn’t a deal being made, it was a no-compromise takeover for the keys to death and the grave so that we could come out of slavery and worship our God.

Pharoah wanted to hold back the women and children, because he knew it would bring the men back to him.

So what might happen if we woke up and realized that our holding back parts of ourselves or our lives from God is being influenced by an enemy who thinks it will bring us back to him?

And what if we have a God who won’t compromise? What if He is ready and willing to bring in the locusts in order to set us fully free? (If your life has ever been hit by something that felt devastating, but resulted in setting you free from something, then you know that I’m talking about.)

The thing is, there is no Pharoah controlling our freedom now. It’s just us, holding the choice to give everything, to leave our bondage fully, or keep trying to compromise with an uncompromising God.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes, it feels like all of life is my very long Exodus story.

Tent Pegs

We raised our kids in Illinois. After years of apartments, we finally bought a home. We both had jobs, we had a church home, our kids had friends and school. The relationship dynamics in our family were a trainwreck on fire, but there we were, firmly planted.

Then my husband lost his job. He worked off and on, trying to find a steady job in an unsteady job market.

Then my son left for college in Texas. A couple of years later his sister joined him in Texas and my nest was empty and that was that.

In 2008 the housing market crashed with a bang.

Then, I suddenly lost my job that I had been at for 8 years, due to a missed deadline. Total fluke. Total confusion as to why I would be let go.

Now we had no income except unemployment, and a mortgage that was now upside down, meaning we owed more than we could have gotten for the house if we sold it, because of the crash.

Tent pegs. This was the picture God was giving me. A large tent held in place by firmly planted tent pegs, and now, one by one, those pegs were snapping out of the ground. Why? Because it was time for us to move and we weren’t going to move as long as the things we trusted in were holding our tent up.

God had begun to plant the seed that He was calling us to move, but we kept brushing it off. We had jobs, a home, deep roots right where we were, so it would be foolish to just pack up and move. We weren’t young and carefree anymore. We had stuff.

So one by one, the tent pegs snapped. And then one day we had packed what we hadn’t sold off into a u-haul truck and set out for Texas. No jobs, no community, just faith that God was calling us there and would take care of us.

This July will be 13 years since the day we pulled into Waco, and so much has happened since then. Kids married, grandkids have come, kids have moved away, we’ve finally bought another home, and here we are. And I find myself asking God, what are our tent pegs now, in this season of our lives, and are they keeping us from what You have for us?

Tent pegs. They hold the tent in place, but more significantly, they are what we trust to hold the tent in place.

They become our reasons, then our excuses, for staying in a place, even a place that has become unhealthy or barren. Because change is hard and scary and we’re a cautious, even nervous, people.

A house. A job. Friends. Family. A church. Provision. A place in the community. A ministry. Deeply rooted tent pegs. Things we trust in to keep our world spinning in familiar directions at a familiar pace. Things we can’t imagine leaving because they offer us comfort, purpose, belonging, and safety.

Tent pegs are good, until they become our excuse to stay when God may be calling us to go.

So what are your tent pegs? What holds you here, wherever here is? What would your reasons be for not dropping your nets, or selling all you have and giving it to the poor, or getting in the boat? Leaving that job, that town, that state, or that church? I’m not talking about irresponsibly leaving on a whim. We’re all grownups here and we know that’s not how it works. I’m talking about hearing or sensing the call of God to pull up stakes and follow Him into something new, even if it’s scary. Even if we can’t figure out how it would work. Even if we don’t understand it, and can’t control it. Gasp.

He sends us. Leads us to new places to work, to minister, to live and to reflect His image. The question is would we go? Or would we assume that it wasn’t God calling us because why would He take us from this place where we have invested and worked and ministered? Why would He take us from our land of provision, ministry, community, and maybe even family? Why would He call us into something, and then call us out of it?

Maybe…

– Because He has plans we know nothing of, sees what we can’t possibly see and knows what we can’t possibly know.

– Because we gave our life to Him and called Him Lord and said we would follow Him.

– Because He has no need to be concerned that we won’t find another job or a place to live or any other thing we need. He knows what He can do, and He asks us to trust what He can do.

What are your tent pegs? Are they keeping you from following God to the next place?