An Original?

Americans are a competitive lot, always comparing! We love lists: winners and losers, the 100 richest people, the worst-dressed, the best-dressed, who's hot, who's not. So, what's the matter with that? It is destructive to all that is good, whole, and best for us. Comparing ourselves with others will always produce a bad result. We will become vain, superficial, hypocritical, miserable people. Why would I say that?

Let me illustrate what I mean in this way. A young man decides to start going to the gym to improve his health. His is a great, admirable motive - being healthy.  But, while he is getting himself in shape, he starts to watch others who are coming to work out.  Their sharp muscle definition and perfect abs become a source of envy. By comparison, he is nothing.  A few questions reveals that that with some help from chemicals and steroids he can have a body like those he admires with much less effort on his part. With injections and pills, he achieves the look, but actually destroys his health in the process.  He lost sight of why he was going to the gym and what he started to do to gain health, begins to destroy him.

Christian, do you realize that your spiritual life can be derailed in the same way?

It is possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.

You can attend worship regularly to love God and build strong relationships within the church, or you can do it to gain social acceptance and admiration.

Prayer, Bible Study can be done to enhance spiritual vitality; or they can be done for show, a means of gaining status in a spiritual community.

Giving can be an overflow of a grateful heart or a way to get your name put on a plaque for all to see.

Spiritual acts done in the service of self are corrupted and soon stink like the rotten things they are!   The Word says, "wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every kind of evil." (James 3:16, NLT) Another way to say it - "Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats." (James 3:16, The Message)

Christ-followers are called to humility and contentment, completely opposite competition and comparison. Nothing is more deadly to true spiritual development than allowing the opinions of other people to shape our sense of personal worth. In Matthew 6, Jesus spoke to prayer, giving, and fasting illustrating the importance of keeping God as the focus of our spiritual service. He reminds us that if we do our spiritual disciplines to gain the approval of others, the sole benefit will be their applause! "When you give a gift to someone in need, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. … And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. … And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get." (Matthew 6)

When we turn from comparing and competing and choose to become an integral part of the Body of Christ, something of great beauty emerges. God invests the Spirit in us, equipping us with gifts (divine enablement) that allow His work to be done effectively. Have you ever watched a person who is amazingly coordinated dance? Every limb moves in sync, every muscle contributes to the graceful movement of the dancer.  You do not really notice the hands, the feet, the arms, the legs because you see the dance!  This is the picture of the Church, where Christ is the Head and each Christian a submitted part of the whole!

So, how can we be content and contribute in the best way?  Accept this declared truth - God loves you completely just as you are! There is nothing you can do that will make Him love you more than He does at this moment. Your significance as a person, your worth, is secure in His love. Settle that for yourself, then begin to live for the approval of just One Person. Make it your goal to be all He wants you to be, no more, no less. There we will find genuine humility that leads to sweet contentment.

Here's a word from the Word. Think on it today - "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." (Galatians 5:25-26, NIV)

"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load." (Galatians 6:2-5, NIV)

What did He say?

Every Christian is urged to “Read your Bible.”  Most of us own several of them.  I carry 8 versions in my pocket all the time; on my phone!  But … getting the most out of the Scripture is no easy task. One of the more formidable obstacles, until fairly recently, was the ancient English of the ‘Authorized Version.’  Translated in the 17^th century, the King James Bible, the most commonly available Bible to English speaking people, was full of archaic terms, thee’s and thou’s, and sentence structure that Shakespeare understood but that we don’t!  In the last 50 years multiple translations have become available, some much better than others, that retain the truth while updating the language. (I recommend the NIV or ESV)

We love the Bible until we hate it.  What?  Yes, we love to hear that the “Lord is my Shepherd”  and that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son.”   We are not so thrilled to learn that God hates divorce, that Jesus commands us to die to Self, that the Lord gave universal and lasting moral directives that are not the “Ten Suggestions.”   Students of the Bible will find themselves conflicted over the message, sooner or later.  The choice?   Accept and obey; or explain it away.  (Or, just don’t read it, at all, which seems to be the choice of many 21^st “Christians!”)

Then, too, there are those issues that just bother us. 

Why does the New Testament seem to tacitly approve of slavery?

How do we reconcile the free will of human beings that is taught in some books with the language of ‘sovereignty’ (God rules it all) found in others? 

What do we make of the different interpretations offered by multiple reputable pastors over issues like ‘the End Times,’  the ministry of the Holy Spirit, miracles, and such matters?

I am not suggesting these are simple matters or even that they do not matter. 

But … will we discard the whole revelation of God because we find some parts of the Holy Book hard to understand?

Strong Christians will read the Bible and anchor their minds in the truth revealed there.  There are some ways to help that to happen, to keep from being discouraged along the way.

First of all, understand the layout of the Scripture.

It’s a library, not a novel!  The Bible not laid out chronologically. It is thematic.  It opens with the story of creation and quickly moves to tell about the emergence of the people of God through Abraham.  The first half of the Bible is largely the history of the Jews, the covenant people of God. The middle books are literature – Psalms, Proverbs.  The prophets are preachers, most of whom delivered their messages about 600 to 800 years prior to Christ’s coming.  Then, you come to the Gospels, that tell the story of Jesus.  Following is the Acts, where we learn about the establishment of the Christian church.  The Epistles (letters) are the sermons of the apostles that shape our knowledge of how to live the Christian life. And the last book is the Revelation, a story of the conflict between good and evil which reveals, in the most colorful language, the ultimate triumph of the plan of God.  Rather than read the Bible straight through, from cover to cover, it is best to read individual books, to mix in a Psalm, to include an Epistle, too.

Second, give yourself time to grasp the historical context into which the Bible was written.

Context is critically important.  It is almost impossible to understand the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Amos, etc.) apart from understanding the events that were happening to God’s people at the time.  Even the Epistles, the letters of the New Testament, take much deeper meaning to us when we understand the churches to which they were first written and the reasons they were written.  A good study Bible (remember the notes are not inspired) can help with this.

Third, stay connected with a solid church and a good Bible study.

God’s people have always studied the Scripture together, realizing that it protects them from going off into some error. Some of the most twisted heresies and worst episodes of Christian history have come out of somebody deciding that he or she alone knows the real truth, discarding the weight of the church’s understanding and the guidance of the Spirit given to the Body of Christ.

Fourth, develop a habit.

Establishing a regular time and manner for reading the Word will (I promise!) yield amazing and rich rewards. “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.  I will speak of your statutes before kings

and will not be put to shame,  for I delight in your commands because I love them.  I lift up my hands to c your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.”  (Psalm 119:45-48)

Fifth, use technology!

Because of the world we live in, our minds do not always respond to the written page like those of our fathers.  A great way to ‘read’ the Bible is to read while listening to it, too.  You can find many editions to download into your digital devices.  The reader will pace your mind as your eyes take in the written word and understanding will deepen.  There a resource online, too-  https://www.biblegateway.com/

You can read and listen to multiple versions of the Bible, without cost. 

Here is a word from the Word.
"The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes.

God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.
God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.

There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure." (Psalm 19:7-11, The Message)

So, read it for all it’s worth!

In On The Secret?

Don’t we love being an ‘’insider?”  Getting the scoop, owning privileged information, is something that started when we were kids in school.  That ‘secret’ that is whispered on the playground does not stay a secret for very long, however.  Everybody needs to tell at least one person what they know.  How many times have you said or heard another say, “This is just between us,” only to repeat words that someone else shared with them with the same prefacing statement?

There is an open secret (can you say oxymoron?) that we need to share! See if you can find it in this passage from Colossians. “You’re not in this alone. I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”  (Colossians 2:1-4, The Message)  The key to understanding life, the solution to the riddle, the answer to the question is found in Christ Jesus.  He is theopen secret that we know because God has chosen to reveal Him to us!

There are thousands of competing ideas offered to us that promise us a better life. Prophets and philosophers claim to know the secret that we can know, too – often for a price!  Even among Christians there are all kinds of sects with some private interpretation, some esoteric practice, that claim to know a ‘higher’ revelation, an insider’s secret.  My own tribe (Pentecostal Christians) can sometimes imply that theirs is a superior experience, that ‘we’ own ‘all the Gospel’ because of our understanding of the ministry of the Spirit. While I love the experience of worship, the expectation of the Spirit’s move, and the intimacy of praying ‘in the Spirit,’ I also realize how very divisive this sense of being an ‘insider’ can be.

In the passage you read a moment ago, Paul warned about being led off on a chase for ‘the Secret.’  If you know Christ Jesus as Lord, you are already in possession of the mystery of life, more life, and eternal life! You do not have to go to some special location, find some eloquent teacher, or engage in some painful ritual! “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ.”(Colossians 1:26-28  The Message)

Believe! Receive! Live!  
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. 

There it is, God’s open secret, entrusted to His Church, to you and me, called out of the world and into His Body.

Here is the word from the Word.  It’s the secret that is open to all, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He is our hope, that He has given us the promise of more and better and eternal life  So,  “see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, NIV) “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” (Colossians 2:16-19, NIV)

Father, I am so very thankful that You chose to make
the secret known to children, to the simple,
to those regarded as being of ‘no account.’

Thank you for the good news of Jesus, Your Son,
Who came to show us Who You are,
to open us the Way to Heaven to us, and
to secure us in hope.

When I am struggling, confused, or afraid,
keep me, by the work of the Holy Spirit, centered on Christ Jesus.
Strip away the pretensions of religiosity.
Make plain, again, to me the emptiness of so-called “higher truth.”

Rather may I stand, by faith, in Christ alone;
full of the assurance that comes from knowing Him.

Amen.

____________

Knowing You

 All I once held dear, built my life upon,

All this world reveres and wars to own;

All I once thought gain, I have counted loss,

Spent and worthless now compared to this…

Now my heart’s desire is to know You more,

To be found in You and known as Yours;

To possess by faith what I could not earn,

All surpassing gift of righteousness…

Oh to know the pow’r of Your risen life,

And to know You in Your sufferings;

To become like You in Your death, my Lord,

So with You to live and never die.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You;

There is no greater thing!

You’re my all, You’re the best,

You’re my joy, my righteousness,

And I love You, Lord, love You, Lord!

Graham Kendrick

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