Why do we bark at the people who mean the most to us?

OK. Not literal barking.

You know what I mean though. At least for people like myself who struggle with several of the parts of the Fruit of the Spirit and who struggles with self-control a lot, I find myself "barking" at the people I love the most. I keep my guard up at work, at church, in the store, and (usually) in the car. However, when I get home, and I get more "comfortable" I find myself short on patience (Fruit), kindness (Fruit), I don't act very loving (Fruit) sometimes, and I just find it hard to control (Fruit) those frustrations that well up in me.

I hope it isn't just me...and yet, I kind of hope it IS just me. I'd like to think there are NOT a ton of people out there who act the worst around the people who mean the most to them.

I kind of understand it. I know that at a subconscious level I presume that my wife and children won't leave me, hate me, or despise me. I also assume that they will forgive me. That's subconscious though. When I think about it, I know they shouldn't and I don't always understand why they put up with me.

So, in the name of God's glory: "Thank you Pam, Maya K, and even Layla, for being loving (Fruit), patient (Fruit), kind, (Fruit), joyful (Fruit), etc. when I am not at my best. Thank you for demonstrating what Jesus did for all of us: he loved us when we were at our worst!"

...who do you need to thank today? Or, who do you need to apologize to AND thank today?

To God be the glory!

Self-Control....wait, I have to control what I say too??? :-(

After spending a week and a half talking about the Fruit of the Spirit, they were in my mind this morning. I was reflecting how each time I notice that one of them is missing, I can usually notice that 2-3 more are missing too. (Not acting lovingly, probably not being kind or gentle either. Being impatient? Where is the joy, love, or even self-control?)

Then our pastor continued his series in James this morning and he hit on the part that talks about NOT bridling your tongue is sign of a false religion/worship. Then he gave an acronym (because he's a pastor and we would fire without without a acronym a week!) for questions to ask before saying something.

I wanted to share that acronym today as a help for those who ALSO struggle with their tongue and what they say!

Seven question to ask yourself before talking!

N: Necessary. Is what you are about to say necessary?
E: Expedient. Something that is expedient is defined as "Convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral." So, is this something that isn't necessarily going to be right, but it's easy for you to say? THEN DON'T SAY IT!
C: Confidential. Don't betray the confidence of people that trust you!
K: Kind. Ephesians 4:32 commands us to be kind to one another. Kindness is also one part of the Fruit of the Spirit. I like how Ephesians 4:30 also reminds us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, which is apt since kindness is a part of the Fruit of the Spirit.
T: True. This should be self-explanatory.
I: Impulsive. James 1:19 reminds us to be quick to hear and SSSLLLLLOOOOWWWW to speak. So, don't be hasty to talk impulsively. (This is really hard for people like me to often speak reflexively, but that just makes it that much more important for us to pay attention and use more discretion.)
E: Edifying. Are you building up or tearing down??


I want to remind you here of the same thing I said about the Fruit of the Spirit (especially since self-control IS a Fruit of the Spirit), which is, it will always be harder at first, but it will become a habit in time and you will find yourself starting to do these things without having to consciously think about them. Always? No. ...but more often than you did BEFORE you started working on it! That's how God works. Through your work and sssssslllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

To God be the glory!

Fruit of the Spirit: is this optional? or Fruit of the Spirit: as long as I have some, can I ignore the others?

Well, we have gone through all 9 Fruit of the Spirit now. As a recap, we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. This has been a really good series for me and I hope that those of you who have read any of these have either learned something new or at least been reminded of truth.

What a rough list though. Honestly. Think about what it looks like to live this out. Parents! Think about spending a full day with these 9 things in the front of your mind (or not, see below) in the way you respond to your children. Better yet, in the way you respond to other people while your children are watching you!

These really won't always be at the front of our minds. Why do I know that, because they will only be at the front of our minds if we are the ones doing it. No, that is NOT what Galatians is talking about. Galatians is talking about life-change that comes to us as a result of the Holy Spirit working in our lives every day. Which means that these will become habits and routine. They are incredibly hard now because they are the opposite of how we would behave naturally if no one and nothing got in our way. Because it is not how we naturally respond to things, it requires mental effort and to do them. Yet, over time, as the Spirit works in us, we will find times (not necessarily always, but at least times) when they just happen. These moments we can say, "To God be the glory!"

How about which "Fruit" is your fruit? That was my first question. What we've seen though is that they are all tied together. It's like a circle that has been cut into 9 pieces. It is incomplete without every single piece being there. Unfortunately, that means that no matter how good we are in the areas of patience and self-control, if we are not loving and faithful people, then the patience and self-control are our own doing and not the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Does that make them bad? NO! That's not what I'm saying. However, as we have areas that we struggle in (especially if we struggle daily, or at least consistently) we need to take that to God in prayer.

"God, I am not consistent in the area of self-control. So often I fail at it miserable. God, I want the Holy Spirit to work in my life. I do not want to quench him (1 Thess 5;19) or grieve him (Eph 4:30). Rather, I want to, in giving you control of my life, allow the Holy Spirit to guide me and shape me in to the person you want me to be."

...and, according to Galatians 5:22, if I am doing that, then Self-control will be a part of my character. Will I be perfect, no. However, the overall character that people see in me and that I see in myself will be one of self-control. And love. And joy. And peace. And patience. And kindness. And goodness. And faithfulness. And meekness.

To God be the glory...because I would not demonstrate those things consistently without the Holy Spirit working in my life to make me something other than what I would be without God's work in me!

Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control

Wow. We are back to control. "But this is different Nate. You've talked so much about God being in control, but this is now about ME being in control....in control of myself!" False!

Sort of.....

Don't forget the context. This is the Fruit of the SPIRIT....not the Fruit of My-Own-Self-Will! Not the same as what we think about a lot of the time when we think of Self-control.

Ironically, this is the same Greek work that we looked at in 1 Peter 1:6 that talked about the progression of things to add to our faith (here). After knowledge was self-control.

So, how is it "self-control" if it is a result of the work of the Spirit in us?? Simple. It's a God-given Self-control. :o) That's right. As Christians, even our self-control is something that we should use to point God (and his glory) and not our own. Besides, having a God-given self-control will also allow you to be led by the Spirit so that you have self-control in the areas that God wants you to have control and not just the "convenient" ones.

Yes, the Greek word is often used to mean control in the area of sexual passion. However, the term and word equally apply to all the other areas of our lives. In fact, having a Spirit-led character quality of self-control will show itself in SO many areas of life. In fact, it will show it self in the other Fruit of the Spirit too! Think about it: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and meekness. Which of these isn't better served with a large helping of self-control??

May none of these Fruit of the Spirit be something that drives us to our own glory but may they ALL point us (and others) to God's glory!!

Tomorrow I plan to have a quick wrap up to this series and one more talk about them being Fruit!

Praising God today and praying for His fruit to be manifested in my life (actions, thoughts, words, etc.) today!

Fruit of the Spirit: Meekness

This Greek word appears 9 times in the New testament and every time it is translated as Meekness (at least in the KJV). I also noticed that it always a command to us to be meek, or restore someone in meekness, etc. It is not an attribute of God or something he has towards us.

What is meekness?

The dictionary defines meekness being submissive or quite/gentle/easily imposed on. I remember when I was younger hearing it as, "Strength under control." Meekness is having ability and having rights and not demanding them. It is allowing people to impose on us when they have no right to. It is being submissive whether we really should or not. Obviously we are not going to go against the Bible or God's law in doing this. There are other, Biblical, limitations to this, but let's not hit all of those right now.

The Fruit or result of the Spirit is meekness. It is an attitude of being willing to submit. It is not demanding things of our pastors just because we think we know better (even if we are right) and it is not being demanding of those around us. We all have roles to play (parents and children, bosses to employees) but this is speaking in a generality. I should, as a Spirit-led Christian, not feel like I need to demand that I be heard (or listened to for that matter) by my fellow Christians. There should be an attitude of mutual submissiveness that allows us to communicate and, in prayer and supplication, determine what the will of God is.

This is NO unnatural for us. Too often we feel that we won't be heard or get any say unless we demand it. Did you hear it? YES!!! It's a control issue! Meekness is making a conscious decision that God will fight your battles and have your arguments. Always? No. Obviously God uses us to accomplish his work, we see that clearly in Scripture. However, having the character of meekness allows us to allow Him to be in control and direct us instead of jumping on this and making a mess of them. Man, I'm not good at this yet. So I am continuing to pray for the Spirit to keep working in me so that I can see the result of him in my life.

To God be the glory!

Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

Whoa. This Greek word is used 244 times in the New Testament. So, when something is used that often do you think we should be paying attention?? I think so!

First of all, the faith here in Galatians 5:22 is obviously not faith for salvation. That would not make sense since the list is a list of the results of the Spirit in our lives. Yet we do not have the Spirit unless we already had faith for salvation. So, that can't be what he means.

The old King James Version (KJV) of the Bible just had the word "faith" instead of "faithfulness" which gives a different idea to the word. Just having the word "faith" gives the idea of having faith in someone or something. In fact, that's the tact that Martin Luther used in his commentary on Galatians where he says that this faith is faith in men. Faith in men even when they are faithless.

The interpretation here has "faithfulness" and that gives me the idea of being faithful people. Being people who can be depended on. People who will say something and they will do it. They won't have to swear, but rather, when they say "yes" or "no" then "yes" or "no" is what will happen! (Matthew 5:33-37)

I'm NOT a Greek scholar. I know just enough to be dangerous and even that is just using a very helpful website. So, I can't tell you if one of these is correct or if both are viable. I want you to remember that "translators are interpreters." This is always true.

So, faithfulness. Are we faithful people. Do we say things and they happen? Do we act in faith towards our fellow men? Towards God in what we've told God we will do? Are we faithful in our business practices? Are we faithful with time (Do we arrive when we tell people we will arrive, do we waste our time, are we good stewards of our time, etc.)?

Then, I would use the "faith" application, but I would use it toward God. not for salvation, because that is assumed in our "Fruit of the Spirit" conversation. However, do you have faith in God on a daily basis. Do you have faith that he will provide for you today? Do you have faith that if something bad happens, it is because God has a bigger plan for your life? That God may even be reaching others through your life and it may not be about you?

To God be the glory!

Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness

The Greek word used here has the idea of goodness, even kindness, but also "uprightness of heart and life." The dictionary defines uprightness as being honest or honorable.

Some of you may not know this, but I was a habitual liar as a child. Another way I have found to describe it is a "reflex liar." Someone who, when asked something, would often lie by reflex with no consideration to the consequences and without any pre-conceived plan to lie. I didn't think about lying or even think about smart lying...it would just pop out.

I did get caught sometimes, but, unfortunately, my parents never recognized it for what it was. So, I moved into my upper-teen years and adulthood with the same problem. It doesn't manifest itself often, but it still happens. Thankfully, God is working on me (working on me HARD) which means the Spirit is trying to work "goodness" into me. I see it coming, but it comes so slow sometimes.

I say all of that as an example to those of you who might find themselves (or someone they love) in the same position. To focus on killing the bad behavior is good, but it isn't enough. We have to focus on what we are replacing it with. I have found, in the last 6 days, that I have the Fruit of the Spirit memorized. Having talked about 6 of them now, it is great to just take some time to pray through them. To ask God to show me how the Spirit is evidenced in my life and then to ask him to show me where I'm lacking. That encourages me to focus on those areas and see how the Spirit is stretching and growing me.

I love Philippians 4:8 here because thinking of things that are honorable is listed. Just dwelling on and filling our minds with things that are honorable is important to this whole process. What goes in our minds comes out in our attitudes and actions. I used to think that was cliche, but it is incredibly true. The kind of music I listen to can be evidenced in my attitude and behavior.

Praise God that he is still working on me. How about you? Jesus died on a cross for our individual sins. He died so that we could have direct access to God, through prayer. Do we use that tool? Do we then allow the Spirit to work in us and to work on us to make us more like Christ and to keep us growing in this Fruit of the Spirit?

To God be the glory.

Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness or Gentleness

Have you noticed the pattern yet? So far, all of these have revolved around choices and today is no different. There is nothing about this word that suggests emotional reactions to things, but rather a choice and a decision to be gentle and kind in our character. The dictionary will give us such things as "friendly, generous, or considerate." The Greek word actually lists both kindness and "benignity" as a meaning for this Greek word. I like that picture. Not something malignant and taking over and destroying wherever it goes; but something that is benign. I get the image and idea of being present but non-obtrusive.

The interesting thing is that the word used in Galatians 5:22 is the same as Romans 3:12 where is says that "All have turned aside...no one does good."

Ephesians 2:4-10 is such an amazing section of Scripture. I mean, we have God's great love for us, and we have our own inability to do anything to save ourselves SO THAT no man can boast in what he has done. There is, however, also a great line in verse 7 about how, in the ages to come, God is going to show his immeasurable grace to us in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That's the kindness we are looking for too in Galatians.

Colossians 3 is about putting on the new self that we have in Christ and verse 12 specifically lists kindness as well.

Titus 3 is a wonderful passage that gives us several reminders about how we are to act as Christians (including being submissive to rulers and authority) and verse 4 tells us that when Christ appeared it was his goodness and loving kindness that appeared...and he saved us!

Why do I bring up those passages? Because this is the Bible we are talking about. Not only am I NOT a good commentary, but the Bible is it's own best commentary, so I thought we could look at the other places that word is found. I hope that you clicked the links and looked at some of the context surrounding the verses. Being kind is not natural and the older we get the easier/harder it can become. :o) It's easier in certain settings, but much harder in others. However, for God to be glorified, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and one thing that will produce, is kindness and gentleness in our character and bearing.

Lastly, look at the interplay with the different aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit so far. Kindness is going to work to produce more love, joy, peace, and patience....and love, joy, peace, and patience will work to produce more kindness. Also, if any of these are missing, it will be a detriment to the others. Each one helps to build the others and, by nature, having one of them missing will also make the others harder to practice as well. That's why this is the Fruit (singular) of the Spirit and NOT the fruits (plural).

To God be the glory!

Fruit of the Spirit: Patience

Really. I am the one to write a blog about patience!!! God is in heaven laughing up a storm right now!!

In all seriousness though, I have not been a very patient person in life. Patience requires self-control and, when I'm constantly battling for control of everything and everyone....well, you don't have time for patience. :o)

God has taught me SO much about patience in the last two and a half years (since Maya K came home), almost 8 months (Since Layla was born and joined our families), and the last two months (while God has been working on me in the areas of control, worship, and prayer...and of which require lots of patience to do them correctly).

According to the dictionary, patience is "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset." Wow, that's a tall order. Every parent struggles with patience at some point. Me? I struggle with it at some point almost every day. However, I see the Spirit working to build more patience into me. How? By giving me a constant stream of situations that require patience and letting me fail over and over again...but succeed once in a while. Then succeed a again after many failures. Until, eventually, the successes become more common.

Besides Galatians 5:22, what are some other passages that talk about patience? I want to point out one of them. 1 Timothy 1:16 is the first. I just love this verse. This verse is actually talking about the patience of Jesus toward sinners. I mean, let's be honest, many of us have at one point or another thought that, perhaps, God was mad at us for our sin or that we'd finally done something that he would not quickly forgive. Paul puts that entire notion down. He says, "look, I was the chief of sinners and Christ saved me. In fact, he specifically saved ME so that his patience toward sinners could be shown." :o) Seriously, that's fantastic. Paul is saying that he was so broken and against God that God saved him SO THAT the patience of Christ could be made known to us. That also goes back to Galatians 1:24 where people were glorifying God because of the changes God was making in Paul's life!

Praise God for the example of Christ's patience. As he has been patient with me, and with you, so we are working toward that level of patience with others. Patience with ourselves, our circumstances, and even God. God, in the sense of having to wait on his timing and, instead of getting frustrated and taking control, we put our hands at our sides (Psalm 46:11) and we wait patiently for his leading.

May the Spirit continue to produce more and more patience in all of us....for God's glory!!

Which beliefs are the important ones??

I will get back to the Fruit of the Spirit tomorrow. However, in talking about peace, I was reminded how hard it can be to decide what we need to stand firm on and what we can simply apply peace to. I heard a lecture recently that really helped put this in perspective for me and I wanted to share.

I am shamelessly telling you up front that I have taken these ideas from Erik Thoennes (professor at BIOLA in California) and his Theology class.. The class is in the context of teaching and learning Theology, but it applies to all of us.

I have tried to give a good summary of it below, but this is hard to explain by typing it out. Pam has even said that watching the videos will make more sense, so but you are better off spending the quick minutes watching it and then jumping down to where you see the next link of times!

(35:13 to 39:44) - only 4 minutes and 31 seconds of your time! :0)


It is important to have discernment about how important different teaching is. There is relative weight with different doctrines. Some teaching is more weighty, more important, more central than others.

You have what we call absolutes: core doctrines/teachings that really define Christianity.Things like the trinity, and the deity of Christ. The inspiration of Scripture. Salvation by faith.

Convictions: things that are is still weighty, but not as weighty as absolutes. These are things you hold strongly, that really matter, that make a difference Biblically, but not to the same degree as absolutes. So these don't necessarily define whether or not a person or a church is "Christian" or not, but these sorts of things (gender issues, gifts of the Spirit, or your view of baptism), these sorts of things will determine what church you go to. What ministries you support. What mission agencies you support or go on a mission field with. They will decide who you marry too. (If you believe the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are active, and you practice them; and you are thinking of marrying someone who thinks they stopped at the end of the NT. That is going to cause some issues!! ...on a daily basis!!!) We would say that both of those individuals are believers and Christians, and know Christ, but this is a weighty enough issue to ask if you can go into a marriage or ministry relationship with them.

Next we have a category called opinion. These are not as important as convictions, but you still have opinions and maybe even strong opinions. Baptism is an example. Notice how baptism was in both the convictions and the opinions section. If it is baptism as in the Roman Catholic verses Protestant sense, maybe that should be a conviction or even an absolute. But if it is baptism in a baptist verses Presbyterian sense (or Lutheran, or Quakers who don't do baptism at all), then is it an opinion or a conviction? These are the kinds of questions we should ask.

The last category is questions. These are things that you don't think that the Bible determines clearly. That it gives you a definitive answer on. So you suspend judgment on it. So you think that's a question: maybe a good question, maybe a helpful question. Maybe a question you need to seek to answer, but you don't think that the Bible gives you a definitive enough answer to make a clear decision.

Now, for his really great explanation for how to Biblically discern HOW to determine what should go where in a general sense, watch the times listed here: 39:44 to 46: 15. If you don't want to, I have tried to give a good summary below...but I still highly recommend the video link above.

These are the categories. Well, how in the world do you decide what goes where? Because this not only is about what goes in what categories, but, do I want to go to to that school that teaches a conviction that I differ on. Is it important enough to go in a doctrinal statement for a school or a church? Do I want to link arms in ministry with folks that I have different opinions or convictions than they do? Are they some issues (say, fighting abortion) that I can link arms with people who have different absolutes than I do? (From another angle, can I link arms with people who agree with me about abortion, but we disagree on another core issue?) How do we normally decide decide what issues go in which categories? For opinions, isn't it often what your church "pounds" on? Or what you feel is intuitively important. Or what was an issue for your family. Rarely do we step back and ask ourselves, "how do we decide, Biblically, where do things belong?" Also, we have to remember, there are some absolutes that are closer to the core than others. Right?

Next, he jumps into talking about: How clear is Scripture on this issue? Is it plain as day or do we base a teaching on two really hard to understand texts? Does the Bible teach something once (which still makes it true) or does it teach it over and over again and we need to pay attention to that. He's got some great thoughts there at the end.




So, why did I bother with this? I mean, my original thought was talking about peace in Galatians 5:22 and wanting us to clarify what things are worth "fighting" over. That thought, however, is ridiculous. God didn't, through, Paul, say, "the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (unless it is an important belief, etc." That's not what it says. So, why didn't I just scratch the whole post?

Because, as professor Thoennes mentions at the end of the last section I noted, we have a tendency to swing the pendulum and not treat important what is or to treat important what isn't. I think we miss out on some VERY important witnessing and discipleship moments because we are keyed in to the wrong issues. So, as Christians today, it is extremely important that we know WHAT is important and WHY it is important. Also, I wanted to be able to say, peace, as a result of the Holy Spirit, should be guiding our conversations and attitudes no matter how important a belief is. The importance of the belief should drive when we talk about it, not HOW we talk about it. With passion? Yes. And, is truth itself sometimes going to be offensive? Absolutely. But we don't need to add our own offensiveness to it because that just muddies up the waters!

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

While love and joy can be seen to be working together, today's "Fruit of the Spirit" is very obviously one that feeds off of the others and helps to instill the others as well. It's not a stand-alone quality is us as Christians.

Peace. Peace with God and with men. This one is actually easier to understand if we look at a bunch of examples of when the word is used in Scripture. There are way too many to list here, but a couple of themes caught my eye.

Paul's greetings at the beginning of his letters. Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, etc. - a greeting from Paul wishing peace (and often grace) to fellow believers. Praying for peace for our fellow brothers and sisters. How cool is that.

Another theme I saw was peace as part of a description or title.

Romans 10:15 - the Gospel of Peace
Romans 15:33 - the God of Peace
Romans 16:20 - the God of Peace
2 Corinthians 13:11 - The God of Love and Peace

Lastly, Ephesians 2:11-22. I just loved finding this one. This whole section is a beautiful passage about how God has brought the Gentiles (non-Jews) closer to God and brought Jews and Gentiles together in Christ. The word peace appears 4 times. Twice God is/makes peace and twice he preaches peace; once to Gentiles and once to Jews.

Praise God for how he has worked through the gospel. Man's rebellion against God that caused a division that seemed impossible to breach. Then, Christ came, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Now, as Christ has left us temporarily, the Holy Spirit has come on us and we have the ability to have peace be a part of our character.

Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, put it this way, "Peace towards God and men. Christians are to be peaceful and quiet. Not argumentative, not hateful, but thoughtful and patient." It's so true. In fact, looking at love and joy, you can see a mindset that will foster peace. Also, looking forward to patience, meekness, etc. you can see that the other Fruit of the Spirit also play a key role in this "peace" process.

Are we argumentative or are we, through the influence of the Spirit in our lives, finding ourselves to be more peaceful people? Do we apply love and joy to our relationships with each other and with God so that peace is another outpouring of the Spirit's work in our lives?

I planned to end there, but I just realized a false impression that I might be giving. There is an unhealthy extreme that could come from this. This does NOT mean, rollover for everything. Do I think we don't acquiesce enough? Yes. However, Jesus (in the temple) as well as Paul, Barnabus, and James (issue of circumcision being needed for salvation and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15) all show us that there are times when a Christian should NOT back down. Should not look for peace. The link? Doctrine (or, right teaching). That's what we miss sometimes in our culture. We think we need to look like the culture to win the culture and we lose our right teachings....which is madness. So, how do we know when something should be worth fighting for or when to practice peace? Stay tuned tomorrow! :0)

Fruit of the Spirit: Joy

Joy. Wow. What a day to talk about joy. Let's contrast: I'm not happy today. This has been a hard day. Strife with my daughter, feeling frustrated with the baby, miscommunicating with my wife so that something that should have been a huge deal has turned out to be smaller than she wanted...

Wow. What a failed night on my part. And believe me, there is more. However, that just shows why I'm not happy. But it has NOTHING to do with Galatians 5:22. That is because the 2nd listed result of the Spirit in our lives is joy; not happiness!

Difference? Here is something I found in a commentary tonight. Joy is more intense than happiness and is not, like it, dependent upon outward circumstances or happenings. The difference may be illustrated by a river that flows steadily and continuously onward as compared with the transient hillside torrents produced by cloudbursts. There is no joy to compare with that which flows from a deep, rich and sweet communion with JESUS CHRIST.

How amazing. I also love that joy also gives the idea of a choice, verses happiness which is an outpouring of our emotions. Emotions have their place, but joy will last where emotions don't come in to play or when they betray us.

I don't have to be happy tonight to be joyful. Why? One quick example: God reminded me that he of his justice tonight!

When I wasn't being frustrated and down-right irritating tonight, Pam and I talked about God and his being all-powerful. About how cool it is that this doesn't mean that he can do anything, but rather than he can do anything he chooses to do...which will never contradict his character or be irrational.

15 minutes later, Maya K (who had been reading when Pam and I talked about all of that) asked me what things God couldn't do, besides sin. (That stinker was listening even while reading....) So, the first thing that came to my mind was that God will never keep someone out of heaven who has accepted God's gift of salvation because Christ's blood paid for our sin and God is just.

Wow. What a moment. To understand that no matter how hard my circumstance is, I can always rejoice (have joy) in the fact that I know that God is just and that this justice now works FOR me and not against me because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

However, so that you don't get the wrong impression; joy also allows us to be "happy" more often because we can make the choice to see our circumstances in light of God's love for us which will eventually help to shape our wayward emotions. Remember, though, that this is a result of the Spirit working in our lives and not something we are trying to attain on our own. It is God who works in us!

To God be the glory!

Fruit of the Spirit: Love

We know that the Bible talks about different kinds of love. Phileo (Philadelphia) is the kind of love that Christians should have for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Then there is agape. The love that we most often associate with God because of verses like John 3:16 where God loved with that self-sacrificing love. (In a note of irony here, when you red on and get to John 3:19 where men loved darkness rather than light...that's right. It's the exact same form of the Greek word for loved used in verse 16. Wrap your mind around that sometime.) Another example is John 14:21. Here was have the word love 3 times and every single time it is the agape form of love.

Another example is Ephesians 5:1-2. Here we see that we are to imitate Christ. How? By loving the same way Christ loved us (both are agape) in that he sacrificed himself for us.

Last one: Romans 5:8. But God demonstrated his love (agape) for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

There are SO many passages that have these words that I couldn't begin to put them all here, but this just a taste. (If you want to look this up more and don't know how to use blueletterbible.com, post a comment and I'll be happy to message you how you can do it.)

What then is the significance to this being the word used in Galatians 5:22? Agape love is a choice. It is not an emotion. It is a sacrificial love that will do anything for the person that this love is being poured out on, even if it means death. That's is a different kind of love than comes naturally for most of us. Now, I would argue that most of us have an agape love toward our spouses. Most of us have an agape love toward our children. Parents? Friends? Neighbors? The jerk who cut you off on the way to work this morning? The jerk who got mad at you for cutting him off when you were just confused because you were going to work a different way than normal? If we are to love as Christ loved (See Eph. 5:1-2 above) then that would be everyone listed here. People we "love" and people we "hate." People who hate us. Why??? Because that's what Christ did for you and for me!

Remember what I said yesterday, "fruit" here is a result of the work on the Spirit in our lives. What it produces though, in concert with all the other aspects that we'll look at, is a love that is sacrificial and that is a choice. (You are going to catch a theme of "choice" as we talk about the Fruit of the Spirit.)

Closing thought: 1 Corinthian 13 (often called the "love" chapter) is so much more significant than I think we realize. Understand this, every single time you see the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13, it is agape. It is never any other form of the word. It is always talking about a sacrificial love. So, all the gifts and abilities in the world (even tongues) and you are a loud, obnoxious noise if you don't have agape love. Now, if you combine the verses that I've talked about today (John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 5:1-2, and John 14:21) with 1 Corinthians 13, you get a different taste for what Paul was getting at. Hopefully you can also see why it is a product of the Spirit's work in our life. This is not a shallow, "convenient" love. It is a love that changes lives. Not just the one who is doing the loving, but the one who is being loved!

Which Fruit of the Spirit is "your" fruit??

OK, that was misleading, but I enjoyed it. See, at least I was honest....right AFTER being misleading!


I am going to start a series and, over the next few days, talk about the different fruits of the spirit....except that there are no fruits. There is fruit (singular), but not fruits (plural).

Who cares? Well, we all should, because it is a huge distinction. If it is the "fruits" of the Spirit, then we can pick and choose. We can have one fruit that we are really good at and others that just aren't our specialty. But that's not how the verse works. It is "fruit." Each word that follows is a different aspect of a single "fruit" and that is what happens when we allow our lives to be lived by the power (and influence) of the Holy Spirit. ALL of them are applicable to us and equally applicable. None of them stands above the rest. This isn't the progression that we saw in 2 Peter 1. This is a large list that is all just as important.

I actually just looked up the Greek word and thought it was kind of cool. The word that is here is karpos. It can either mean, literal fruit, or it can mean "that which originates from something else, an effect, result."

How clear is that? Fruit grows from a tree. The tree itself does the work of bringing in the nutrients and the fruit grows. The fruit is evidence of a healthy tree. The fruit can't grow without the tree. In fact, if you pick fruit early it will never get ripe...because it can't become what it is supposed to be without the tree feeding it.

Guess what? Same thing for us. This is the "fruit" of the Spirit. We can't just look at this list and go "Yup, I'm going to work on being more patient now because I can see that I'm lacking it in my life." I mean, we can see where we are lacking and pray about it, but we aren't going to get it the right way simply by bending our will to it. No, this is fruit of the Spirit. This is about surrendering our lives to God (control....anyway here it?? Yes, this is a control issue) and then allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.

No, I am not a Pentecostal. I think that they are to one extreme about the Holy Spirit and they OVER emphasize his role. However, Baptists have a terrible, but legitimate, reputation for UNDER emphasizing the Holy Spirit and that is to our detriment. We need to have a healthy love and respect (yes, I just spelled "worship) for the Holy Spirit, just as we do for God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Lord willing, I hope to get to the first aspect of the effect of the Spirit on our lives: love.

How do I keep from being ineffective?

Yesterday, we talked about 2 Peter 1:3 and how knowledge of God is how God has given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness. Now, we are going to look at how to keep from being ineffective or unfruitful in that knowledge of God.

2 Peter 1:5-8 gives us a progressive list. I have always found this list fascinating. It isn't like the fruit of the spirit which is a general list (Love, joy, peace) where the order doesn't matter. No, this order matters. At least, it mattered to Peter. We know this because it doesn't say "add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, etc." No, it says to add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge, etc." They are listed in a way that at the least demonstrates that they grow out of each other. So, what are the things that Peter suggests we add to our faith? How significant could the order be? Let's take a look.

Virtue - The Greek word here is also "Moral excellence." Now, as we go through the rest of the list, think about all the things that Peter has coming AFTER you have added moral excellence.

Knowledge - this is the word that literally just means knowledge. It is not the special word we talked about yesterday that is more specifically about divine or ethical knowledge. It is just....knowledge. It's having a practical knowledge of life and applying that to our Christian life. A practical knowledge that allows us to live a Godly life. I love that virtue came before knowledge. Right living will us to learn and know more, but with a Godly context to the things that we know. Rather than knowledge for knowledge sake, we will have the foundation of our faith and our morals to guide what we learn.

Self-control - I love how blueletterbible.com puts this one. "the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions." Self-control is just that, the ability to control one-self. Now, self-control, from a Christians perspective, is a God-given ability. Christ freed us from our sin. "We are free to struggle, we're not struggling to be free." It is a great truth that God has given us the power to be master's of ourselves. Now, don't hear me as saying that non-Christians are not self-controlled; that would be ridiculous. In fact, Christians can be self-controlled in their own power too. That, however, is an issue of control and submitting yourself to God's control!

Steadfastness - Most of the Greek options I see hear have the theme of some kind of patience. The ability to remain faithful through....something. Also ,the idea of not being swerved in our focus and being loyal.

Godliness - here the Greek is talking about...part of worship. Reverence or respect and specifically toward God. To have a reverence and a respect for who God is and to have that built into my character. I heard a professor today who said "to love what God loves and to hate what God hates."

Brotherly-affection and love - yes, I'm lumping these together. I love that brotherly affection comes first. Having a brotherly type of love (this is Philadelphia in the Greek) will help you to then develop a God-type of love (agape).

I know this is strange, but here is my example of love tonight. We were watching Family Matters as a family and they were having a school dance. Steve asked Laura to go with him 28 times and she told him "no" every time. He finally asked her why she kept telling everyone else know and yet wouldn't go with him. She said that she was hoping a guy named Ted would ask her and he hadn't yet. (There was a great moment here about not settling for second best too.) So, the next day, Steve went to Ted and asked him if he wanted to ask Laura. Ted said he did but that he was scared to because she'd been telling all the boys "no." So, Steve tells Ted that he knows that if Ted asks Laura out, she will say "yes." Ted gets excited...and then stops and asks Steve why he's telling him this. "Everybody knows you are crazy about Laura. Why would you do this." Steve responds, "Because I know she really wants to go out with you and what I really want is for her to be happy." Self-sacrifice for the ones we love. Simple example, but true!!!

In summary: faith helps us to see and build correct morals, our knowledge then is shaped by those, we then have a greater understanding of where self-control is needed, and steadfastness allows us to be loyal and "unwavering" while exercising that self-control. Having self-control can help us as we work to remain faithful no matter what we go through and this allows us to better respect and revere the God we already claim to love. respecting and who God is and learning to hate and love what God hates and loves, helps us to have a brotherly affection for our fellow Christians and our fellow man, which also begins to develop in us a self-sacrificing love. These don't just happen on their own. that's why Peter says to "make every effort" to see things things added to our faith.

How about you and me today? What are we "making every effort" to add to our faith? May I suggest praying and asking God to show you the areas that you need to grow in and praying for opportunities to grow them! (Yes, it's dangerous...but God is not a passive God and we can be grateful for that.)

Verses 8 and 9 wrap it up. Verse 8 says that if we have these qualities, it will keep us from been ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of God. Verse 9 says that if we lack these things we will be so nearsighted that we will basically keep forgetting that we are free from the power of sin and able to struggle against it.

For God's glory!

Do we know God or do we just know a book?

My father-in-law gave me a project that involved looking up a few words and seeing how many times I could find them in Romans - Revelation. Then, looking at the Greek words for those words and just reading the passages.

And God smacked me with 2 Peter 1:1-12. There are so many things here though, that I can't hit them all in one blog post. So, today we will just cover one of them.

2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us all the power that we need for life and godliness. It then says that this power is through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Do we know God himself and Jesus Christ? Or do we just know a book that talks about them?

This might sound like heresy, but, God's Word is nothing more than a book without God. Yes, it's true that it is God's revealed truth, but even Satan knows the Bible and its contents. That doesn't make him a Christian. Knowing the contents of the Bible is not the same as having a personal relationship with Christ.

Praise God that he chose to reveal himself to us through the person of Jesus Christ and through his Word. Now, are we taking the time to get into his word and get to know him personally? That isn't your pastor's job...it's yours (and mine).

To God be the glory!

What DOES the Bible say about praying for each other?

I have to admit that there are more verses about praying for others than I had remembered. It was a challenge to me to be reminded of all the times that we are told to pray for others. I wanted to just list and link a few that stuck out to me.

Here are three examples of Paul asking for others to pray for him.
I Thessalonians 5:25
Romans 15:30 - I love this one because Paul specifically says that he wants them to pray WITH him, to God, on his behalf. He doesn't just say "pray for me," he says "pray with me."
II Thessalonians 3:1 - here it specifically gives a reason for praying for them. Pray that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored.

Verses that tell us to pray for each other:
James 5:16
Ephesians 6:18 - this one is actually both. Paul asks the Ephesian believers to pray always...and to that end to keep all the saints and himself in their prayers.
I Timothy 2:1 - for all people. If that doesn't challenge you. I mean, are we even praying consistently for our loved ones and friends? Much less everyone else that we know? Much less all the people we don't know??

Here Paul says that he has been praying for these believers, so he serves as an example.
Colossians 1:3, 9

Jesus tells us to pray for the people who persecute us.
Matthew 5:44

Just to tie this off. I was reminded of this verse by a friend the other day and it is very apt to this conversation about praying for each other. We don't always know HOW to pray for each other or WHAT to pray for each other. Thankfully, there's a verse for that!
Romans 8:26

...I know God's will for your life!

Anyone who knows me, who has talked to me at all, knows that "knowing God's will for my life" has been an obnoxious struggle. I have at many times in my life had desires, thoughts, and intentions. I have seen several of these through (still married, adopted twice, Associates degree, Bachelor's degree, etc.) but for everything I've seen through there are at least 5 things that I haven't. Believe me that when you think that it's frustrating: I find it much more frustrating.

I also remember, especially in high school, talking about and hearing people talk about wanting to know God's will for their life. Well, I have good new for me and good news for those of you thinking this. While there is plenty about God's will for us (individually) that is NOT known, there are three things that I Thessalonians 5:16-18 tell us that ARE known. There is no question, that if you are a Christian, these things are God's will for you. Let's look...

Rejoice always. That's right. When God blesses us materially, we are to rejoice. When God takes those things away because we stopped glorifying him, we are to rejoice. When God takes those things so that we can be prepared for the future, so that others can glorify God because of us, or for some other area of growth; we are to rejoice. We don't always have to be happy, but there is a peace in knowing that God is in control and he has a plan for you and me. That let's us rejoice WAY more often than those who do not have this hope and security.

Next, pray without ceasing. What a challenge. First of all, this level of quantity CANNOT replace times of quality. We need our alone time with God. I can't stress this enough. I'm not getting enough myself and I can tell the days when I have because I simply have a different outlook on life and the circumstances I come across when I've had that alone time with God. However, I'm also challenged in this to keep God in my mind as often as I can. "God, thank you for that green light," "God, thank you for my daughters and their smiles," "God, thank you for that encouragement that was just given to me," "God, help me to see what you want me to see in this hardship so that I can grow from it," etc.

Lastly, give thanks in all circumstances. This is different than rejoice always, and pray without ceasing, but I think they build off of each other. If we strive to always rejoice, it will drive us to prayer. Asking God to help us rejoice, to show us ways to rejoice, etc. Then, striving to rejoice constantly being in communication with God will allow us to see things that we should be thankful for and then to express that thankfulness to God.

These things aren't natural for us: either as humans or as Americans in the 21st century. However, I can tell that as you focus on one or two of them, they all flow well and build off of each other.

By doing these three things, we allow God to grow and teach us and to shape our lives in a way that pushes us towards thing that are (currently) his unknown will. Praise God for the "simple" truths of God's known will for all of us!

If I prayed for you this week....I'm sorry! :o)

God has been challenging me on control, prayer, and worship. Oh, and on wanting him to be glorified. All of that put together means....I'm getting confused about how to pray for people. A couple thoughts to help with what I mean.

I think that prosperity and happiness in this life are not things that God promises us in Scripture. He says he'll take care of our needs (Matt 6:25-34). No problems yet. However, he also promises us that trials are going to happen and Scripture tells us not to be surprised when they do (I Peter 4:12, John 16:33,  and James 1:2 are just a few quick examples. Here is a cool list!) Trials are expected and needed. I think that prosperity may be something that we, as Americans, often use as a crutch to not run to God...ever!

Next, I don't know your future. Or mine for that matter. So, if God is in control, and he knows our future, then he knows what we need to go through so that we are ready for our future. I talked about this here. God DOES know. So, he may very well know what you need to go through so that you can go through something else that will glorify him later.

Another piece: what can you handle? If God gives you huge blessings and peace, will you still glorify him in it? If you would, then may God bless you richly and abundantly. But, if you won't, then I don't want God to bless you. You heard me, I DON'T want God to bless us if we won't glorify him in the blessings.

Then my prayer life just gets confusing. "God, I really want you to bless them, but I want you to be glorified more. So, bless them if they can handle it, but don't if that won't bring you glory."

I have wanted joy and peace and prosperity for everyone around me. Which I do....but I also have come to realize that if God won't be glorified in those things, then we shouldn't have them. ....but it sure is hard to pray, "God, if what you need is for Joe Smith to NOT be happy or blessed today so that you can be glorified..." Wow. Did I just pray that you will have a bad day??? Well, if that's how God will be most glorified by you and through your life: yes! (If you want me to NOT pray for you now, just go ahead and comment and I'll take you off my list! :)

This has, however, also been an encouragement to me to be paying attention as I talk to people so that I can get a feel for what they are going through and I can pray more for them. It's boring to only have one or two things to pray about (even if I end with "may you be glorified" or some variation of that each time). If I have someone I want to pray for every day, I need to know them well enough to keep that from getting stale!

Wait, what did I just pray???

I had a moment today. I was just praying. Praying for some friend and family and myself. I would like to think that I was letting the Holy Spirit lead me. Then I suddenly prayed like this:

"God, if my death would glorify you more than my life, then you can kill me right now."

...and then I realized what I'd prayed. I did a double-take on the Interstate going about 65 miles an hour!!

For those who don't know, this kind of follows Philippians 1:20 where Paul says that he prays he will not be ashamed but that with courage, Christ will be honored in his body whether it be by his life or his death. That whole body thing also echoes Romans 12:1 where Paul says that offering our bodies is the most reasonable act of worship we can give to the Lord for all that he has done for us.

So, now what? What do I do with a prayer like that? I don't want to leave my wife or kids behind without a husband or father. I don't want to leave behind some great young adults that I'm loving see God grow and mature. I don't want to leave behind other people that God could use me to help them grow and become more like Christ and, ultimately, to glorify God.

But, who am I to make that call? I mean, if my death more greatly glorified God than everything else that I will do in my life, then that is the glory I seek. I am not in control of my wife, my kids, or my loved ones. They are in God's hands already. Since he doesn't need me, then he can take care of them without me, right? So, am I just being morbid tonight?

No. In fact, I'm the guy who really doesn't like the prayer "Lord, come today." There is so much that I'd like to do before God comes back. Even in an unselfish way. I want to be a witness for Christ. I want to be someone whose life, and God's influence on it, causes others to glorify God. I don't want to miss those opportunities. So, hear me well: I have no desire to die today. So, what do we do with that then?

To be honest, I make my life worthwhile. I live for God's glory every moment I can so that my life glorifies God more than my death would! Not that I'm trying to avoid death, it will be great to be with my Savior. Somehow, though, this thought of glorifying God with either my life or my death has challenged me to make my life worth something to God. Not to just do whatever I want or be whatever I want to be. Not to be lazy with the truth that God has shown to us through his Word. No, to be a man who strives to live every moment for God's glory.

On an encouraging note, since I know that I was praying in Jesus name and for God's glory, I know for a fact that God has ways for me to glorify him in this life or I have no doubt that he would have answered my prayer. Amen! Let it be so.

Prayer: I need it, but how do I do it?

First of all, this is not an exhaustive list, nor is this some perfect recipe for prayer. I am not perfect, but I have some thoughts I'd like to share.

I had a whole bunch of thoughts here and God just completely moved me to delete them and type this instead. Just know that I don't believe in unanswered prayers. I believe that Scripture clearly teaches that there are times when God simply will not listen and does not hear your prayers (sin, husbands having wrong attitudes towards their wives, etc.) but as long as you are praying in the right way with the right heart and no sin in the way, God will ALWAYS answer you. You just have to realize that "wait" and other forms of "silent" answering may very well be happening. Including "you don't know what is best for you, I do, so 'no' because I love you."

OK, what I want to do is quickly look at the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. However, I want to remind you of verse 7 first. Verse 7 is a reminder not to "heap up empty words."  The Greek word literally means to stammer or say the same thing over and over and over again. my point here is that it is easy for us to memorize the Lord's Prayer, rattle it off and move on. We love worship and Scripture says here in Matthew that it is pointless and that they will not be heard.

Also, this is obviously not Christ's intent. If it was his intent that we memorize and quote this prayer, he would have said in verse 9, "When you pray, pray this" or "When you pray, pray this prayer." But he doesn't. He says, "pray then like this." In other words, "pay attention to the content and importance but don't just use these exact words and forget the meaning of them."

Let's look at a quick summary of the themes that Christ gives us and the order in which he gives them.

1. May your name be glorified or may I bring glory to your name.
2. May your will be done here on earth and in my life just as it is already being done in heaven
3. God, please provide for my basic daily necessities
4. Father, please forgive me the exact same way that I forgive others (if that doesn't challenge you to forgive unconditionally, I don't know what will)
5. God, don't let us allow ourselves to be overtaken by temptations. Save us from ourselves since all temptations start inside us.

Is it wrong to pray these out of order? Absolutely not. However, I think we need to understand the importance of the ordering and keep that in mind as we go to God.

Remember, prayer, like everything else, should be an act of worship. Respect and deep love towards God. That means thinking about how we approach the omnipotent God of the universe and being reverent towards him at all times.

Prayer: powerful or pointless

Let's be honest. We, in America, often live as though grace was cheap. It was expensive and we know this. We know this because God sent his son to die for our sins...that is expensive grace. Yet, in our need to avoid both legalism and works-based salvation, we have, as Protestants/Baptists, over reacted to those two things and flipped to the other side of the coin: no works at all.

This cheapening of grace seems to have also come hand-in-hand with a cheapening of the power of prayer. Now, I don't know if these are two completely separate symptoms of our Christian culture, or if they truly go hand-in-hand or not. Either way, they are both here.

Proof?

You know the people who we call "prayer warriors," right? Well, the Bible calls them "Christians." Well, the Bible doesn't use the word Christian per se, but those who are saved by grace and who take the call of Christ to be his disciples (which we call "Christians") are call called to pray. Not just the select, faithful few...ALL OF US!!!

Jesus himself talks about it. He says, Don't pray in vain repetitions, but pray with intention and purpose (Matt 6:5 ff). Christ also goes on in the book of John (chapter 14, verse 13) to say that we are to be praying in his name and that whatever we ask, will be done, in order to glorify God. Two things here. 1, praying and ending with "In Jesus name I pray" can become legalistic and ritualistic, but it is also very Biblical. In fact, as sinful humans, we REALLY don't want to approach God in any other way since it is the blood of Christ that gives us that access. 2, it is for God's glory. So, "God, I really want that car" doesn't fly when your only purpose is because you want to be awesome.

I listened to part of a sermon Francis Chan was giving on prayer as a way of walking in love. However, since most of us don't know him personally, I'll make this more personal. Pam and I have SO many times taken things to God in prayer and had him answer amazingly for us. God is such a powerful God and when we have his glory in mind and in our hearts, he will do such amazing things.

Let's remember the power of prayer today and take things before God constantly today. Little things. Big things. God things. Me things. God is our father and he loves us as adopted children. ....and as an adoptive father, I promise you, there is nothing greater than knowing my children and finding ways to show them love....in a way that is best for them (to the best of my ability). Tomorrow I am planning to hit how to pray and yet keep God's glory first in our minds....which is something I'm not good at!

This is not about you...or me!

What a challenge. I have started reading through Matthew and yesterday I sat down to read chapter 6 and I didn't get past verse 1. Matthew 6:1 says to beware of practicing your righteousness before other people so that you will be seen by them because that will be your only reward.

Rewards aside, where does God get the glory in that? Honestly. Even if you convince people that you are doing something "for God's glory" (see below for why you won't keep doing that) God isn't going to bless you. He will be faithful to you, but it won't be what it could be.

Why don't I think you'll even continue to TRY to convince people that you want to glorify God? Simple, because it is all about us, as the doer of the action, and not about the God who gives us the ability to do it. If my goal is to be seen....or to not actively pursue not being seen, then I am focused on me and not on God.

 The verses that follow are an important example. It talks about giving to the poor and doing it so secretively that your left and right hands don't even know what's going on. The point isn't just that you simply don't look for glory. The point is that you go out of your way not to get any.

Whoa. That's not what I've been taught. That's not what I've understood. I always thought that it was OK to be praised for things (which it is) and it was OK as long as you didn't ask for it. Well, sorry, I was wrong. Our goal should be to not get human praise and to leave that up to God.

Now, do I want to praise my pastor for his ministry to us? Absolutely. Am I going to? Absolutely. Is that sin for me? Nope. What I'm seeing here is that we don't seek glory, when we can we actively avoid it, but we still allow God to work in people's lives. However, when no one recognizes what we have done, we can't care. Because we are not in this to be glorified or to be praised. While affirmation is fine and can be helpful, it isn't necessary when I have "Christ alone" and no one else.

Motivations are huge. But to actively pursue only allowing God to see and not anyone else is a different level of "to god be the glory, great things he has done."

May God be glorified in us today. especially in the things that are done that no one ever knows about!

So...now what? How do we make this stick?

I posed this question to three good friends of mine and the answers were super helpful. So I wanted to share a condensed version with you.

Plug into God all the time. Read his word, pray, and meditate on him as often as possible. In an age of smart phones, where a person can have an app that will READ the Bible to THEM, there is very little excuse to not spend my free time learning about and communicating with God. (As a note, even the times when I'm not at 100%, I need to be making sure that what I DO and SAY are still things that I can do in Jesus' name and for God's glory.)

There was an encouragement to make sure that we are not a different person at one place and someone else somewhere else. That we strive to always be who God would have us to be no matter who is around us. Thankfully, Paul talked about that some in Galatians when he said that if he was still trying to please men, he would no longer be a servant of Christ. If that isn't convicting to those of us who have masks that we wear, I don't know what will be.

Then there was the "you are what you eat" idea. That what we think about is often what drives us. We can't just hope to have God be our focus, we have to intentionally put the time into making that happen to cause our lives to change.

Self-discipline and an attitude of humble worship.

Another great point was that this comes down to control again. How it seems easier to give God control of ourselves, but to actually give God control of EVERYTHING is so much harder. Because then it is the stuff we have and the friends and family that we love. THAT is so much harder to give up often.

God has blessed me with so many people who are willing to talk with me about spiritual things. My wife, my friends, my pastor, etc. I don't know how I functioned without them, but it has been SUCH a blessing to me.

...All for God's glory!

The curse of the monastery...still haunting us today!!

Brief summary of some church history:

Christ ascends to heaven at the end of the gospels and then the book of Acts gives us a brief summary of the very early church.

AD 66 the Jews rebel against Rome and in AD 70, at the end and defeat of the rebellion, there is a serious breach between Judaism and Christianity.

Christianity is then an illegal religion until 311 AD when Constantine makes it legal. So, until Constantine, to be a Christian is to break the law and to be willing to be put to death for a capital offense. Why so serious? Because religion was a glue in the Roman Empire and Christianity threatened this cohesion since Christianity denied other gods and paganism.

During this period we see the beginnings of the same "hero worship" that we see today in martyrdom. Ironically, Christians weren't encouraged to become martyrs at first, but were encouraged to face it courageously if it did come. Even Paul himself escaped in a basket at least once and Peter was rescued from prison. (When God is done with us, he'll take us home in his way...why pursue it on your own? Sorry: rabbit trail)

Then, Constantine makes Christianity legal. He then proceeds to start giving favors to the church. In subsequent years we will see his son make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and then we will see paganism outlawed for a time.

So, this transition from Christianity being outlawed ( then favored, then the official, then only) religion was a huge set back for people who wanted to live lives devoted to God. Martyrdom is out of the question. There are actually a lot of people who are becoming Christians for political or social reasons now which was never the case before.

The answer? Monasteries. People started living ascetic (almost no earthly goods) before monasteries, but this gave them a place to live with other people (to try to avoid extreme eccentricities) and it gave them structure in life. However, a mentality began to develop. The idea that "those" people are the ones who devoted their entire lives to God and not the common people. If you wanted to devote your life to God, you became a monk (or abbot).

Today, we have the same idea. But instead of monks and abbots we have pastors and missionaries. They are the ones that devote their lives to God and the rest of us just do what we want or "try" to be a good testimony. Admit it, we feel a lesser responsibility to live a Godly life. We expect a greater level of spirituality from pastors and missionaries than we do from ourselves.

Praise God for monasteries. They preserved a lot of knowledge and information through the Middle Ages. But may God grant us the strength to break this mold of Christian living and realize that we are ALL responsible to live for God. Romans 12:1-2 ff apply to ALL of us...not just those whose job it is to "do ministry."

...all for God's glory!

Lord, complete me

There is a song by "Among the Thirsty" called Complete Me that God has really been impressing on me for several weeks now. I realized tonight that I have spent all of my life trying to fill myself with everything but God. Even since accepting Christ as my savior in 2008 I have still been trying to fill me with everything and everyone around me. Relationships, games, my wife, my kids, etc. Yet, all of these things fail at some point. In fact, I do them an injustice when I try to. I place those things and those people in the role of "god" for me and no one can stand up to that.

However, to give God control of my life and allow him to fill me means I have to give all of those things and all of those people up to God. I can't control them...but even more, I can't depend on them. When I have a bad day, I have to run to the cross, to grace, and to God...not to Pam, or to my friends, or even to this blog. They can't be what completes me. God has to do that.

The encouragement is that God will allow me to have some of those things and allow some of those people to be in my life. It isn't like he's going to say, "Ha! Now that you are mine I'm going to take everything you love away from you." Now, don't get me wrong: he could. He has every right to. I know this for a fact. I see it. I see things in my life that have been so important to me that God should rip that out of my life just to ensure that he has my attention.

But it hurts. The process of letting go of things and people that I've held so tightly to in my life is a painful process. My heart is heavy and I'm so tired or struggling with all of this. So, what now? Now what do I do?

I have a choice. I can give God my life, my wife, my children, my friends, and my stuff...or I can try to keep it all for myself. Sounds simple, right? Yeah, well then you do it. I can't describe for you how hard this week has been and what a struggle God has seen fit to put me through. I don't want to struggle. I want an easy solution. I want life the way it was about 40 days ago when I was blissfully unaware of how messed up it was. Because then I don't have the responsibility of knowing what God expects of me and knowing what I need to do in response. That was the simple life. That was a no-work life. No pressure. Discipline may be good for you, but the process is terrible.

OK. I'll say it for you. Living what I've been "preaching" for the last month and more is much harder than just talking about it. 

Grace is not free...it is actually really expensive

If you saw my post last night that was a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, then you might know that I have started reading his book The Cost of Discipleship. However, even if that didn't do it, then the first sentence of this blog should have! :o)

Yes, he was no Baptist. Any the reviews I have read would suggest that he was not even an Evangelical in the sense that we view it. I don't know since I have not studied out his life and religion at this time. However, I am going to apply the same principle I do to St. Augustine: I may not agree with everything, but I can still learn as long as I am careful what I accept as fact or not. So, that in mind, here are some opening thoughts that are mine but greatly influenced by the beginning of his book. So here goes.

First, don't yell at me about works based salvation. I said that grace was not free....not that salvation wasn't free. In fact, James talks about this in James 2:14-26.

Think about it. Did God send his only son to die on a cross so that we could accept salvation and then... only think about our heavenly father for about 1-2 hours per week? What is that? That is a lack of appreciation and gratitude for a gift. Yet....it is more than that too.

Romans 12:1-2 tells us in the ESV that offering our bodies as a living sacrifice is our spiritual worship. The KJV uses "reasonable service." The idea is that offering our lives as a sacrifice is the logical act of worship that we should be doing based on Christ's fulfillment of the law and our being justified by faith alone. So, justification by faith should drive us to giving Christ our lives...which is a heavy price. This isn't what the most spiritual of us should be doing ,it is what ALL of us should be doing.

So, in the Middle Ages, we had the monasteries and the monastic system. The goal was pure, but what it taught people was that a select few Christians - the best of us - would dedicate themselves to living for God and everyone else could do whatever and still be justified. Even if they weren't terrible Christians, it was only the monks and abbots that truly dedicated their whole life to God. Today we have the same concept but we put it on pastors and missionaries to be the super Christians. Not only is this ridiculous, it is dangerous and it is terrifying. It breeds a mentality of apathy which, I would argue, is one of the (if not the) most insidious kind of sickness in our modern, American, Christian circles.

Yet, instead of dying to self and sacrificing myself to God, I live no different than the people around me. Unless a conversation comes up about "religion," people around me may or may not even know I'm a Christ follower. That is me living either ashamed of my God or ungrateful for his sacrifice. Shame on me!

Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below or on Facebook. I'd love to hear them!

Worship IS more than a song...but it still requires one too!

OK. Let's finish Malachi 1 with just one more quick look and application.

From verse 6 to verse 20 God is accusing the priests of despising him and by offering polluted food on God's altar. The in turn "asked" God how they had done these things and God answered them.

So, what were they doing? They were fulfilling the sacrifices from Leviticus that God had commanded them but they were using blind animals. They were using animals taken by violence or that were lame or sick. In Leviticus, God was clear that it needed to be the best animals that they had. The first and the best...but they were scraping the bottom of the barrel and giving that to God.

So, God said, in verse 10, "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand." Wow. God literally said that he would rather they not even offer a sacrifice than that they would offer such unworthy sacrifices. Remember, God doesn't want just anything from us...he wants (and deserves) our best.

Why did I title this that a song was "required"? Simple, Scripture tells us to sing! :o)

Ephesian 5:19 is actually kind of funny. It says to address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So, when I burst into song while talking to my wife, children, and friends...I'm being Biblical!! :o)

The second half of the verse is really my point though. "singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart." See, God tells us, through the Apostle Paul, that we are to be singing to him....with our heart. Not a sacrifice but as an act of worship. A song that is given with respect and deep love in our hearts and minds. Try singing "Jesus, thank you" while having respect and deep love in your heart. It will break you! I promise.

Other verses that will give you the same idea: Colossians 3:16, James 5:13, and Acts 16:25 are just a few. The OT is filled with them too. This was a great link for ideas!

So, sing to the Lord today! (Ignore the mockers and scoffers and don't laugh at me!)

Devotions...is this just a ritualistic act or what?

I still promise to finish Malachi...eventually! :o)


Man. I don't like the word "devotions" or even "devos" as it is used in our modern, American language. The irony is that when I Googled the definition for "devotion" I got two answers.

1. Prayers or religious observances.

Sadly, I think this is where we are at. Not that prayer and religious observances are wrong, but it just sounds so bland (especially after I give you the other one). There is a lack of passion or relationship in this definition. It's just another observance we do because our youth leaders kept hassling us to do our devos and made us feel guilty if we weren't doing them. As though the act itself was the issue. But it isn't. It is the symptom to a greater problem that many of us face. So, let's look at the other definition.

2. Love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.

See, now that sounds so much more exciting. It is about love (remember, part of worship is showing deep love) and it is about being excited. But...in our Christian context what does that mean?

It means that I don't do my "devotions" because I HAVE to. I don't even do them because I intellectually know the benefits of it. Now, we all know that there are times when we do this...though I will argue in a minute that we shouldn't. We at least shouldn't be calling it "devos." This falls under the "religious observance" category and God really isn't pleased with that.

No, what we are looking for is a Romans 5:6-8/1 Corinthians 10:31/Col 3:16-17/Philippians 4:4-9 mentality. It is a response to God's great love and our desire to live the way that Scripture teaches us to. Thankfulness is everywhere in Scripture (including the passages above) and we aren't nearly thankful enough a lot of the time.

So, why would I say that we shouldn't be getting into God's Word as a mere "religious observance." "But Nate, isn't it better to get something than to get nothing at all?" I've been asked that (or something similar) by plenty of men that I greatly respect. However, I think this is a misunderstanding of the God we serve and love. (Don't misunderstand me here. If you are exhausted after a long day but you really want to get into God's Word and pray, then jump in. God will give you the energy needed or you won't make it and it is better to try than to give in to fatigue and neglect your most important relationship. This is when we just don't feel like it.) God isn't in heaven going, "Well, at least he's trying to talk to me and read my Word so I'll take whatever I can get." Not at all. I believe God is in heaven going, "You know, Nate, there is a reason that you don't feel like expressing gratitude toward me or spending time with. You either need to reflect on what that barrier is or pray and ask me to show you so that you can actually worship while showing 'devotion' to me. I don't need your second best. I want to help you get to where you can be so that you can give me your best."

THAT is the God we serve and love. That is a God who loves us and doesn't want us wasting our time. Reading the Bible and getting "something instead of nothing" doesn't deal with whatever root issue is causing the problem and can actually function like a band-aid so that you feel better and don't try to fix it at all. Except, this is a band-aid on top of a bite from a poisonous snake. That isn't going to help anything or fix anything. 

Which is real life? ...and which is the illusion?

You know how it works. Our teenagers go to a retreat in the winter/spring or to a camp in the summer, make big decisions for God, and then go home. They go back to reality and real life and those decisions are forgotten. Within a month it will be as though nothing happened. Of course there will be one or two kids who will stick with it or who will be reminded of it later in life and there will be a huge impact from it, but that seems so small.

Then there are the leaders. I never thought about this as a kid, but those leaders are listening too. In fact, this last weekend, I had a few things to tell the leaders. They have a hard job: to be in ministry with young people. They look to them for an example. An example of giving God control. An example of what it means to truly worship. Yet, even still, an example of continuing to live what God taught them even after they leave the retreat and get back into the grind of life. They get to talk about the lessons from the retreat and keep bringing them up so that those lessons and decisions can stay fresh in the minds of the teenagers....and themselves.

So, which one is real life? We know the easy answer, here is real life. There (the retreat or camp) is an illusion. Yet, I might beg to differ. I would argue that we spend our days often wrapped in an illusion. An illusion of control. An illusion of power. An illusion of popularity. An illusion of worship that isn't really worship. Getting away from the noise and the responsibilities (this was huge for me this weekend) allows us to pray so much more openly to God because I don't need to get done so that I can go to work (or to bed). I don't need to rush through my time of building relationships because we aren't going anywhere.

Now, can we live in that place and make that our permanent reality? No. We know that. But we can look at some lessons from it. We are WAY too busy. Our kids are way too busy. If I can't give the God of the universe enough of my time and attention to say "thank you" for what he has done and really mean it, then my life is an illusion. I'm not really living the life God wants me to. "In everything, give thanks" the Bible says. But, not "thanks" like a child who is required to say thank you does it. No, thank you like the child who got the one thing they never thought they'd get because they knew you couldn't afford it. That excitement and appreciation that bubbles over and cannot be contained. Have you thanked God like that today??

Once I was your enemy and I hated you. Now, I am sitting at your table. I didn't think it was possible because my sin is so great and terrible when placed in front of a holy God...yet the blood of Christ covers me and allows me to have a relationship with you. Jesus. THANK YOU!!!! :0)

To God be the glory

I promise to get back to Malachi soon. But I just can't leave this alone.

What a great weekend. Our church had their annual youth winter retreat. I have never been so blessed to be a part of something like this and I'm sure I'll be jealous next year whenever I find out who will be speaking and I learn that I can't go with them! :0)

I was a co-speaker and our topic was, you guessed it: Control - the great illusion. It was so challenging to be prepare this message while I had been blogging about control. But it was even more challenging to get there and find myself adjusting my notes and adding thoughts as God continued to teach me, stretch me, and grow me. I pray that I can retain and change from even a fraction of what God laid on my heart because I will be a completely different man if I do.

Joel (the other speak) talked about O. T. examples and their struggles Saturday night but then Sunday morning he talked about Christ and his example to us. It drove me to my knees (figuratively and literally). I felt so unworthy to be getting up and talking to these kids about things I do not consistently practice and about things that I don't fully appreciate. Jesus Christ died on a cross for me!!! Seriously. That is AMAZING and yet we often say it so flippantly as though it was old hat and no big deal!!

For all of the control things that we talked about this weekend (which were a lot) I was also still thinking about this whole worship thing and being confronted with my own lack of worship in times of "worship." So, I started reading....really reading the words to the songs as I sang them. And I'll be honest and say that it struck a chord with me. I was almost not able to go up and speak right away because God was hitting me with my own unworthiness and ungrateful attitude.

There was one particular song called "Jesus, thank you." The last time we sang it, I realized that I have never..mark it, NEVER, sung that song and truly been thanking Jesus for the things listed. Here's the chorus.

Your blood has washed away my sins, Jesus, thank you. The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus, thank you. Once your enemy, now I'm seated at your table. Jesus, thank you.

What? How can you sing that and not be truly thankful? Well, we do it all the time. Let me tell you, to reflect on the words and then try to worship my God (respect and deep love) and I found myself crying. From fatigue? Maybe. But mostly from the shame of my ungratefulness and awe at what God did for me!!

Have you worshiped God today??