Engage

It’s another Sunday morning at church. The band (or pianist, or organist, or guitarist, or worship leader…) takes their place. The music starts. You are invited into worship.

What now?

The topic of “how to worship” has been tossed around for centuries. Some churches are told they are too energetic and loud, while some are ridiculed for being lifeless and lackluster. There are accusations from just about every angle that nit-pick the specific ways through which people worship. If you are a student of the Bible, it is apparent to you that there are certain actions and postures that reflect worship. I’m not here to list them or tell you what to do or not to do (though I highly recommend everyone to take the time to learn what God desires from our worship). What I will do is ask you this question:

Are you engaged?

I’m not asking if you are participating in worship. I’m asking if you, however you’re “doing” worship, are engaged. Sure, you show up and sing along with the leaders. You might even clap a bit or raise your hands during an emotional or reverent moment. But are you fully engaged? Are you awake, aware, alert, present, connected, and involved? Not sure? Check yourself through the filter of the greatest commandment, shared with us by Jesus…

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” Matthew 22:37

Love and worship are not exactly identical in meaning, however one way we express our love to God is through our worship. So, are you engaged? When you find yourself in a moment of worship, be it at church or anywhere else, are all three of these parts of you involved? Let’s break it down…

1. Worshiping with your heart–Are you emotionally checked-in? This doesn’t at all mean that if worship doesn’t bring you to tears, you are not worshiping God. Not at all! But, it is extremely important for the emotional part of us to be engaged in worship. Think of it like this: I tell my husband and daughter “I love you” every day. There is more than one way to express that phrase, but if I say it with absolutely no feeling behind it…do you think they will actually believe that I love them? Highly unlikely. Now, pull God into the picture. God, the all-knowing, all-seeing One…He will not mistake our empty words for love. He knows what is in our hearts, and that is what He is after. Read these familiar words and ask yourself if being emotionally engaged during worship might matter: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” I Corinthians 13:1-2
   
2. Worshiping with your soul–Are you spiritually checked-in? When we sing the name of Jesus and use words to recount God’s marvelous attributes, something should be stirred in us. We often pray for the day that “every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11 paraphrase), yet we habitually lack any response to His name ourselves. So I ask you…what stirs in your spirit during worship? Anything? I wonder what would happen if we all took some time prior to worship to echo this prayer of David, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:10-12)
   
3. Worshiping with your mind–Are you intellectually checked-in? Have you ever taken off on a trip to the grocery store, found yourself pulling into a parking space thinking, Um…how did I get here? I don’t even remember anything past pulling out of my driveway!? So much of what we do on a daily basis is a result of our brains being fine-tuned machines that can take care of actions without our conscious minds being even slightly engaged. It’s a tad scary to think about, but very cool nonethless. That leads me to my next question… Have you ever found yourself praying or worshiping and thought to yourself, Um…what did I just say? We have the privilege of learning catchy worship tunes with simple melodies, easy rhymes, and strong dynamics, then singing them over and over again. It makes sense, since the God we worship doesn’t change and if we’re worshiping in truth, our words may at times be repetitive. But does the intellectual mind have any place in worship? Heck yes, it does! How aware are we of the words that are coming out of our mouths? Just because a song uses big, holy-sounding words does not make the lyrics biblical, just as an emotional build in a song does not necessarily mean that the glory of God has fallen on your congregation. We have got to be aware of the words we are singing and crying out to God. Here are a couple of reasons why:

• We need to be sure that our words are full of truth. There are quite a few worship songs out there that were written with good intentions, but lack biblical truth. While it is partially your worship leader’s responsibility to guide your congregation in truth-filled worship, it would be foolish for any of us to follow blindly and not check things out on our own. This is something Pastor Bill does often in his preaching. He’ll present things, but many times will challenge us to check them out for ourselves.
• We need to understand the words we’re saying. “Revelation Song” by Jennie Lee Riddle is a very popular worship song among churches today. The melody is beautiful, it is emotionally engaging, and the lyrics have some pretty complex moments. I was talking with a friend (who is involved in worship ministry) a while back about this topic, that we often sing things blindly, and this particular song came up. I said something along the lines of, “How often do people sing ‘Revelation Song’ without even knowing what it means?” She responded by humbly saying, “I have to admit…I’m not even sure I know what it means.” I don’t say this to fault her in any way (I have her permission to share our conversation), but merely to point out how easy it is for us to disengage because a song is pretty, yet complex. There are many times in which I am baffled by the meaning of a song (or many things in life itself!). But if I am to worship with my mind engaged, it is my responsibility to find out what it means, from where it originated, if it has a biblical foundation, and all of that. It’s our responsibility. We don’t have to know everything, but we do need to seek answers when we have questions instead of simply regurgitating words that sound pretty and make us feel good. How much more beautiful will our worship be to God when we actually connect with the words we are saying to Him?
• We need to be sure that we are not making false assumptions based on emotion. We talked earlier about it being important for us to be emotionally checked-in during worship. A lot of times, this is an easy one for people. The danger comes when we get so wrapped up in the emotion of the moment (usually brought on by song dynamics, lighting, etc.) that we make assumptions about what God is saying and doing. This goes hand-in-hand with the first reason we should be connected intellectually during worship–as emotional beings, we can very easily ignore what is actually being said or done simply because the moment feels good or intense. Because a moment is emotional does not make it wrong, but we need to be sure that our minds are just as active as our hearts in an effort to remain true to honest worship. The heart and mind balance each other out so well. God gave them both to us, so we need to use them to keep ourselves in check.

In order to offer our whole selves to God in worship, we have to be engaged. Chances are, each one of us is struggling to connect with God in one of these ways. Our first step is to humbly come before Him, express our desire to love Him fully, and ask Him to show us how and empower us to do so. I challenge you to pray that way today, tomorrow, and every time you enter into a time of worship. Remember, it’s not merely about what you do, but about your heart being humbled before Him.

“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)

What’s Up With That?: Part II

After yesterday’s post, I was hit with something incredibly humbling. Let’s take a look at Matthew 18:15-17 again…

“If your brother sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church, Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or corrupt tax collector.”

I’ve read this passage at least a hundred times throughout my life, either as a reminder to myself or to encourage someone else on how to handle offenses. But it’s simply amazing to me how the Holy Spirit can bring to life something brand new from within the words on those beautiful pages.

Even though the first part of Jesus’ instruction regarding confrontation shows us the right way to confront those who have wronged us, and we have the promise that He will never leave us in those moments…I’ve always felt a little bit liberated after reading the last line. “Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or corrupt tax collector.” Remember…at that time, these two groups of people were especially low.

“So, Jesus… You’re saying that if I try all of this stuff and it doesn’t work, I can treat this jerk as the scum of the earth? Perfect! That’s what I wanted to do all along. I guess I’ll just follow what you told me, and if he turns around, then great. Otherwise, I’ll be fine in the end because I can just turn my back on him and be done with him.”

Then this came to mind…

One of the things that ticked off the Pharisees more than anything about Jesus was his habit of spending time with “the least of these.” Does the name Zacchaeus ring a bell? When Jesus went to his home for dinner, people claimed that Jesus had gone to the house of a “notorious sinner”, a corrupt tax collector. He went and spent time with this man, despite his track record of robbing those in his town. And in the end, because of being humbled by the presence of Jesus in his home, Zacchaeus repented and Jesus declared salvation in that place. That is how Jesus treated pagans and corrupt tax collectors. Do you think He meant something different when He called us to do the same?

So no…the end of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18 doesn’t free us of the responsibility of doing the right thing. It requires more of us. The whole passage has us move in an unrelenting way: go and confront; take someone else, and go and confront; take it to the church, and go and confront. And in the end, if that person’s heart is not won over to repentance, then keep on loving that person. Treat them like pagans and corrupt tax collectors, just as Jesus did. After all, that relentless pursuit of a life fully changed… isn’t that what He did and continues to do for us? We were all blemished by our sin against Him, yet the beauty of the Gospel is that He didn’t leave us to rot in our transgressions though we deserved it. No, brothers and sisters. We’re saved by that amazing grace.

What’s Up With That?

We live in the age of offense, don’t we? Someone is always feeling wronged or slighted or, dare I say, bullied. Depending on our upbringing, we’re taught extreme responses: fight back or ignore the offender. Despite the fact that most parents these days would not teach children to fight back, we do it more often than we think. Culturally, we have this passive-aggressive tendency to confront in a vague manner, attacking the offender without really pointing them out. Or we point them out, only to leave no room for the other side to be heard and much room for everyone else’s opinions to be changed.

Is this right? Who does this help? What does it accomplish?

Nothing.

If you’re at all familiar with Scripture, you’ve most likely heard Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 18:

“If your brother sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church, Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or corrupt tax collector.” Matthew 18:15-17

Hmm… Do we usually do this? HA! Of course not. That’s why feelings continue to be hurt and relationships become forever severed. We have this nasty habit of starting this whole process backwards. If someone hurts us or ticks us off to no end, we first feel the need to publicly shame them. We want to make sure that everyone knows how badly we have been wronged and by whom. Sure, we may not “take the case to the church”, but by golly we do take it to Facebook/Twitter/blogs, don’t we? And in doing so, we, and a whole bunch of other people, get terrible ideas of who the offender is and will begin to treat him or her as the scum of the earth.

I’ll ask again, who does this help? What does this accomplish? I’ll say it again…it hurts more feelings and severs relationships. Don’t believe me? Read what happens to Noah:

“After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked th other way so they would not see him naked.

“When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. The he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: ‘May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.’

“Then Noah said, ‘May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant. May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and my Canaan be his servant.'” Genesis 9:20-27

Yikes!

This paints the perfect picture of what not to do. If someone does something wrong, our first instinct should not be to make their mistake public. What if every mistake you made was blasted out into the open so all could see your embarrassment and brokenness? But that’s just what Ham did. He exposed has father’s weakness to people who had no rhyme or reason to know it…and he was cursed. The relationship, present and future, had been damaged within the whole family.

Back to Jesus’ instruction… Here’s the process:

1. Go in private. Yes, it’s uncomfortable. No, we don’t like to do it. But we have to grasp the importance of this! And it’s really quite simple, if only we’d put it into practice. Simply approach the person who “did you wrong” and calmly say, “Hey, so-and-so…What you said/did hurt me, and now it’s come between us. What’s up with that?”
2. Take someone with you. THEN, if the person still acts like a jerk and won’t own up to their mistake, take a few people with you who will also lovingly confront them. Yes, lovingly. This is not your opportunity to gang up on them until they break. It’s a chance for the offender to come to repentance. If your goal is anything other than that, step back, take a deep breath, and count to ten.
3. Take it to the church. Not to a billboard (ie. Facebook), but to a group of people who know and love the person. This will not only provide yet another chance for the offender to repent, but will also give you an opportunity for a new and fresh perspective. By this time, your blood may be boiling at his or her indifference, so a group of folks who will lovingly bring you back to reality and to God’s grace will do you some good.
4. Turn away from them. This is a last-ditch effort. Don’t let this be the first thing you do. And especially do not change the opinions of others so they will do the same. If you have been wronged, don’t seek to make your offender a public enemy.

This whole thing is about loving your offender enough to want them to be in right-standing with God and with you. It’s not about being right or “taking the high road”. This is love. Laying down your comfort and loving someone else enough to do the hard thing.

One last moment of begging… Please stop doing this on social media. It doesn’t resolve anything and it causes much, much more harm than good.

CPR

“The tongue has the power of life or death…” Proverbs 18:21a

I could spend a whole blog post talking about the ways in which we destroy ourselves and each other with words, but I think that if we’re honest with ourselves, we already know the destructive behaviors. We either recognize them and choose to change, or we recognize them and choose to continue being the self-centered jerks that we are. Simple as that 🙂

With it being November, the month that holds Thanksgiving, you don’t have to look far on Facebook to find many folks listing their gratitude on a daily basis. I love that for thirty days of the year, people can make it a priority to be “outloud” about giving thanks for some of life’s biggest and smallest gifts. I’m usually one who sends out a list every other day or so, but being the anti-bandwagon gal I am, I’ve decided not to participate in sharing daily. I know…it’s weird.

It’s refreshing to witness people using grateful, encouraging, others-centered words. Being thankful for other people forces us to think outside of ourselves and identify characteristics in others that are unique to them and a gift to the rest of the world. But I can’t help but wonder…what would happen if we would actually begin to speak these words? What if we spoke words of gratitude directly to these people in our lives who bless us so much?

I’m a huge fan of sending cards and emails, and I’m not suggesting that we stop doing that altogether. But can you imagine the look on a loved one’s face when you choose to stand face-to-face and utter words of encouragement and thankfulness right to them? Their hearts will swell! That one moment, those few words, will give life.

Let’s do it 🙂

Some Grace for Grace

If you read my most recent post, you know that I do not at all consider myself “Mother of the Year”. However, I need to share with you a small, yet profound moment I experienced earlier today.

While I was cleaning up in the kitchen this morning, Lucy was playing at eating a bowl of dry Cheerios in the living room. Shortly after giving her the bowl and walking away I heard her little voice call out to me, “Uh oh, Mommy. I spilled it. I can help clean it up.” With my hands wet from dish water, I started to speak with the intention of saying in a not-so-forgiving voice, “Lucy! You have to be careful! Do not spill your Cheerios!” (Nevermind the fact that I should have made her eat them at the table, right?)

But before the words slipped out, I felt a calmness wash over me and from within that calmness came a whispered, “Stop.”

I dried off my hands and echoed her exclamation from before. “Uh oh! Did you spill your Cheerios? We better clean them up, huh?” And one-by-one we cleaned the cereal pieces up, dusted off the crumbs, and moved on.

In that span of about 45 seconds, I pictured my daughter five, ten, fifteen years down the road making a mistake and what her response might be. Could the way I respond to her screw-ups pave the way for how she will respond to them? Today, she contentedly said, “Uh oh, Mommy,” because she has not yet learned the torture of feeling ashamed for being imperfect. I don’t want her to grow up feeling shame for her mistakes–as a beloved child of God, she should know that she is loved through them and covered by His grace. What if I choose today and everyday to set the stage for her to be honest about messing up? Instead of responding with a lecture or “How could you?”, could I offer her grace when she needs it most? Could I create a safe place for her to make a mistake and know that she is unconditionally loved as she picks up the pieces of what has been broken? And could I, like today, take a brief moment to bend down into the pit with her and help her find her way out?

Lord, give me the grace to show grace. As simple and lovely as that…

Hello, my name is Martha.

I have a rather ugly personality trait. It’s not always something I wear on my sleeve, but it eats at my mind nearly every day. It has only been recently that I’ve discovered the problem, and I’ve begun the journey of mending the problem; repenting, so to speak. Here is my discovery…

I love to serve. (This is not a pat on the back–it’s just a fact.) I love the feeling of seeing a need and being able to fill it. I love knowing that God can use a wretch like me to bring light to this broken world. I’m not saying that I always have a servant’s heart, or that I’m always busily working. But I would say that much of my time and energy is spent doing things with others in mind. Heck, I’m a homemaker…it’s a huge part of my job description.

So what’s the problem?

My name is Martha.

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.’

But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.‘”   Luke 10:38-42

In some ways, I look up to Martha. She was a hospitality rock star! Knowing who He was, she invited Jesus to have a meal with her. She planned the details, worked out a menu, and dug in to the work that needed to be done. I often forget to offer guests drinks, don’t have toilet paper on the roll, or am clueless about what and how in the world to serve. For those reasons, I look up to Martha. But her attitude stinks.

And so does mine.

In my own defense, I will say that I often serve with a joyful heart. But in moments of high stress (like…inviting the Savior over for supper!), I get in attack mode. In my head, I’m criticizing everyone around me who is not doing what I’m doing. Yes, it only makes sense that I would be the only one cooking if we only have one stove…but I still manage to get frustrated when someone else is sitting instead of cooking. It’s as if I expect everyone to think and act like me, simply because I am an all too often self-centered brat of a human being. (Man…thank God the world is not full of Abbys!)

When Jeremy and I were first together, I would go nuts before having people over. Who am I kidding? I would be nuts the whole time. He would be enjoying the company of our guests…you know, the people we invited over because we like their company… And I would be frantically throwing things around in the kitchen, beating him upside the head in my own mind because he wasn’t helping me. While I seem to be getting much better at this, I think it may have only shifted and become an issue when it comes to the regular running of our household. Sometimes I will be getting dinner around and become so angry that he is just playing with Lucy.

Just playing with Lucy? What is wrong with me? There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with enjoying our daughter, especially when she is at an age when she actually still enjoys us! Oh, Lord, my heart is so ugly sometimes…

I’ve just begun to discover that it wasn’t Martha’s service that was holding her back from enjoying the Lord. It was purely and simply her attitude. While Mary sat in the beautiful presence of the Lord, Martha had the opportunity to joyfully serve Him with her gift of hospitality. Instead, she served Him with a frustrated and complaining heart. And if you ask me, that just negates her whole attempt at using her gift to serve. (See 1 Corinthians 13– “If I don’t have love…”)

I don’t think that when Jesus said that Mary had discovered the thing to be concerned about He was referring to sitting there and doing nothing. All throughout the Bible, we’re taught to serve, and I doubt He was going against all of the prior teachings and what would come later in the Bible. I truly think He was saying that Mary’s heart was in a better place. She had discovered that a heart for the Lord was what could never be taken from her. Her primary focus in that moment was to serve Him with her presence and worship.

My angry attempts at “serving” my family through making dinner, cleaning the house, ironing clothes, etc. are nothing in comparison to actually showing them love. I have realized that in those moments of being frustrated at the “unfairness” of the situation, I need to stop myself and ask how I can best show love to Jeremy and Lucy. Maybe sweeping the floor is the way that I will show them love–but that will only work if I do it joyfully and lovingly. Maybe putting the vacuum away and playing with Lucy or sitting with my husband is the best way. Whatever it is, I need to do it with love in my heart.

It’s not about Mary unfairly not doing her share of the work. It’s not about the other people at all. It’s about Martha’s attitude. It’s about my attitude.

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people…” Ephesians 6:7

 

A second dose of cleaning the kitchen…

I woke early this morning in order to get a few things done before Lucy wakes up. Blogging was not on my to-do list, but after walking through my kitchen, I knew I had to squeeze it in. So here I am!

One of the things on yesterday’s to-do list was vacuuming. I love that I can use my vacuum on both carpet and hard floors. It makes my life so much easier. Plus it’s delightful because I love to vacuum! Aaaanyway… After sweeping during Lucy’s lunch, staying out of the kitchen during nap, playing outside, going to visit Grandma at the hospital (who gets released today!!!), and not returning to the kitchen until about 8:00…

How did I get crumbs all over my feet while walking through the kitchen this morning!?!?!

And everywhere I looked, there were pieces of Lord-knows-what scattered all over the place! Either I’m a bad housekeeper (which I wouldn’t voluntarily submit to a contest of World’s Best Housewife…) or there are evil kitchen fairies who like to toy with well-intentioned women trying to get ahead. Boo.

True to my usual style, my mind went directly to how this could apply to our life with God (hence my appearance in blog-land)…

A lot of times, I think we get into the mentality that we’ve “done enough” to get us through. We’ve prayed and listened to God enough for the day. Reading the Bible passages in the church program is enough Bible for the week. We don’t need to love others today because we served someone yesterday–I’ve done enough. But the truth is, the less our lives are filled with the good stuff, the more room there is for the bad. The less intentional we are with “keeping house”, the easier it will be for clutter to come in and destroy what little work we’ve done.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

Just food for thought 🙂

Reverence

Intimacy with God does something to us. It calls us to action. It requires more of us. Meeting with Him leads us to do things we wouldn’t do simply in the presence of another human being.

Intimacy with God does not allow us to be indifferent. It leaves no room for pride or shame. When we spend time with Him, we are in the presence of our Creator and Sustainer. He is not just our Friend, but our Life. Our God is deserving of more than lip service, stiff necks, and disinterest.

Abram built altars.
Moses removed his shoes.
David danced.
Saul fell flat on the ground.
Jesus surrendered His life.

Reverence.

How can I please You?

If you hang around in Christian circles long enough, you’ll hear that people often ask the question, “What does God want me to do?” While many Christians ask that sincerely and intentionally seek God’s direction in situations, it’s often obvious that it is said because it sounds like the “Christian” thing to say when people are faced with decisions to be made. Because when life starts to get difficult, we’re faced with temptations, or we’re just feeling uncertain, we want to make decisions in which we can be confident while relying on our own common sense and feelings…but those are the very things we shouldn’t have confidence in. So, to cover up our insecurities and to keep us from looking bad, we say, “What does God want me to do?” (How do I know this? Oh, trust me…I’ve been in that place 😉 )

“Carefully determine what pleases the Lord… Be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”” Ephesians 5:10, 15-17

I love Paul’s choice of words here. Carefully determine. Be careful. There is a good reason to ask the question, “What does God want me to do?” He really does have things He wants us to do, directions in which He wants us to go. And He really does want us to be careful in figuring those things out–not going through life always making choices on a whim. However, the thing that usually ends up happening is that the people who ask this question have not done their daily homework.

We are naturally “big picture” people. We want to know what’s going to happen, how one particular situation will impact the grand scheme of things. Many of us don’t often heed that, but it’s part of us nonetheless. We have these grand ideas of how life could or should be, but we forget that life is not made of one single breath or one single moment. It’s not composed of one word or one stroke of a paintbrush. Each life is full of details and complexity–little moments. But we have this unfortunate tendency to only feebly attempt to “carefully” determine what God wants in the big moments and haphazardly breeze through the small ones.

Do you see the disconnect?

The reality is that the small moments build up to the big ones…and the big moments impact the small ones. So if we don’t get them both right with careful determination, what’s the point? And remember what Paul said, “Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.” Paul is reminding us that we no longer live to satisfy the “old man”. We are now living as new creations in Christ, so the Spirit in us gives us the power to determine and do what pleases the Lord. It’s not all about making these decisions so everything works out “perfectly” and with no glitches. It’s about setting our focus on what brings pleasure to God–much of which we’ve been talking about in the past few blog posts. And when we peruse the Bible, we see so many more different ways to please and honor God.

So much of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 and prior to this in chapter 5 has been specific. This one short phrase almost seems as if he’s saying, “People, please get this. Remember, this is our focus. This isn’t about rules…it’s about pleasing our holy God.” Dear reader, it’s about obedience. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) Not so he can put our names on the “nice list”, but to show Him love. And in our obedience, He promises to provide for us…

“…I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

Jesus promises that we don’t have to have the details figured out because our Father already has them covered. He has the tomorrow, the “big picture”, covered, too. But notice that He doesn’t just say, “It’s all good, then. Just go about life as you want and I’ll take care of it all.” No! He says that we are to 1) seek the Kingdom of God above everything and 2) live righteously. He wants to give us everything we need, and He will… But He desires obedience today! He desires for us to seek Him, to carefully determine what pleases Him. Ah, then He will delight in providing!

Tidbits Part III

I took a little over a week off from blogging because I honestly didn’t want to be a part of all the shenanigans surrounding last week’s Supreme Court buzz. And soon you’ll see why…

“Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people… You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.” Ephesians 5:3, 5-6

I’m not going to go into detail about what sexual immorality or impurity might mean here. Why? Because I believe that each one of us knows when we are sinning. Very rarely do we sin out of ignorance. When we make lists of what defines “sexual sin”, we are either trying to point fingers at a speck in our sinful neighbor’s eye, or we’re attempting to excuse our own behavior. God gives us a clear picture of what is right and wrong. Sure, each person has the ability to interpret Scripture as they wish, but that is ultimately between the individual and God.

Time out…notice I said “ability”. I didn’t say that we all have the right to interpret Scripture as we wish. Read what Peter says about Paul’s writing…

“…Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him–speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15-16

Don’t get mad at me 🙂 I didn’t write that! Again, we have the ability to interpret…but what we do with that is forced to either line up with God’s intentions or we are against Him. We cannot serve two masters.

With all that being said, let’s go back to the original passage at hand. Paul urges us to refrain from immorality (which, I will point out, is based on morality derived from God’s standards–that’s why unbelievers have such a hard time accepting it), impurity, and greed.

In thinking about impurity, I thought about how Jesus called the Church His Bride. One of the things a bride does before her wedding is maintain purity. She doesn’t sleep around, defile herself, make a bad name for her future husband, or sow wild oats. She keeps herself pure so that when the big day comes, she and her husband will come together to form a beautiful union (not perfect, but as close as they can!). I believe that’s exactly what Paul is directing us toward when calling us to rid ourselves of impurity. He gives us Christ’s example in purifying the Church…

“He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other belmish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” Ephesians 5:25-27

Yes, Jesus’ blood made us holy and blameless in God’s eyes, and for that we can rejoice! At the same time, Paul (the same one who wrote the above passage…) tells us that we’re also responsible for maintaining purity. Why? Because we are the Bride of Christ–the wedding day hasn’t come. We are chosen and we are called as His own…but there is still work to be done to prepare ourselves for His return!

And as a reminder of why and how we’re called to leave these things behind, Paul shares these words…

“Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and true.” Ephesians 5:7-9

That’s how, friend. It all goes back to what we first talked about. Since we have heard about Jesus, we can throw off the old man and put on our new nature, renewed by the Spirit! We don’t accomplish these things, any lasting change, outside of the Light. It’s like trying to put on make-up with the bathroom light turned off. (Go try it and see how pretty you look 🙂 ) It’s only when we allow the Lord to shed light on our lives–our weakness, our shortcomings, our old man–that we have the power to grow and change into the pure Bride He longs for us to be.