How to find maximum freedom

Parenting teens is seldom fun, almost never easy, is it?  Bev and I aimed for a balance between love and respect.  We tried to affirm a sincere ‘try’ even if it failed, but also let our teens live with the consequences of their choices. I smile when I recall an oft-repeated line that I spoke when they were angry with me. "I'm not your best friend; I'm your father."  Nothing brings greater joy to my heart than seeing those ‘kids’ navigating adulthood, creating good for others, loving God and their own families.  



Let me ask you this. Which child will be a happier person when they reach adulthood;  the one who is indulged and therefore thinks the world owes them everything; or the one who knows how to show up responsibly, who understands the concept of commitment, the one who can choose wisely for long-term gain?

Just as loving discipline, sometimes unpleasant, trains a child for life, we who are God’s children need our Father’s training for godliness!  He is not a cruel God when He allows us to feel the sting of His correction. In the letter to the Hebrews we learn: "Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God."  [12:11-12 The Message]

Freedom is often confused with irresponsibility.  Those who do what needs to be done regardless of how they feel often are mocked as drudges.  But, doing the daily things, the little things, consistently and in an orderly fashion, frees a person from the chaos that comes with the snarls of unmet obligations and unpaid bills.  Do I always enjoy finishing a project on-time? No, sometimes I would rather goof off.  Do I like mowing my lawn on a hot day, or doing the laundry when I’m tired? Not any more than anyone else. But, I do enjoy the beauty of a well-kept property and finding a clean shirt in the closet at 6 am.  Yes, there is a freedom that discipline produces.  When we take care of the little stuff, the larger problems are less likely to develop tomorrow.

Disciples (see the connection with discipline?) who want to know God and to walk with Him in joyful freedom will choose well today.  I cannot recall ever having a discussion with a Christian who said, "Jerry, I just want to do the minimums, live spiritually on the edge, and squeak into Heaven by the razor edge of grace!" Yet, that is exactly the way of so many who claim to be followers of Jesus.

One last thought today …  We love quick fixes, easy solutions, and pills to heal our ills.  Truth is there are no 'magic pills' that will produce instantaneous or effortless spiritual health and maturity. There are choices to be made, disciplines to practiced.  Most are not huge, earth-shattering, turn life inside out, kinds of choices.

They are ordinary life decisions, things like -

• Turn off the TV an hour earlier and go to bed so you can get up 30 minutes earlier and have time to prayerfully meditate and take in some Scripture before rushing out the door to work;
• Make a first line priority of being in corporate worship on Sunday morning.
• Deal with temptation in its infancy instead of letting it turn into an enslaving habit.
• Settle conflict quickly, forgiving instead of carrying around the weight of a grudge.

One writer puts it this way: "Each of us becomes another Michelangelo, for choice is nothing other than the chisel we use to sculpt our life. The chisel doesn't come free, however, for the price of choice is responsibility. But when we accept and carry out our responsibility, the reward is great. The reward is happiness."  (Learning to Laugh, Gary McGuire)

Let’s ‘grow up’ in grace. Our Father provided the means for freedom of choice by saving us through the gracious gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit persistently leads us to life. Now, let us use that freedom to grow into Christians who live worthy of His investment in us. 

Here are a couple of thoughts from the Word. Take them with you today. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7, NIV) "If you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." (James 1:25, NLT)

___________

He Set Me Free

Once like a bird

In prison I dwelt

No freedom

From my sorrow I felt

But Jesus came

And listened to me

And glory to God

He set me free

He set me free

Yes He set me free

And He broke the bonds

Of prison for me

I'm glory bound

My Jesus to see

For glory to God

He set me free

Now I am climbing

Higher each day

Darkness of night

Has drifted away

My feet are planted

On higher ground

And glory to God

I'm homeward bound

Good-bye to sin

And things that confound

Naught of the world

Shall turn me around

Daily I'm working

I'm praying too

And glory to God

I'm going thru

Albert E. Brumley

© 1939. Renewed 1967 Bridge Building Music, Inc. (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.) CCLI License # 810055

You gave them the keys

On my front door is a little device into which I enter a code to unlock the door. My family and a few of my friends know the code. It is implied that they are welcome to just ‘’walk in” anytime. They do not need an invitation. I truly enjoy extending hospitality, but not everyone I know gets the code to the front door.

In the passage we are reading this morning, Paul reminds us not to give the code to the front door of our heart to just everybody! "Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, NLT)

Christians are to be loving and accepting of others, regardless of their status, their beliefs, even their moral choices. We model our lives after Jesus who spent time with the outcasts and received condemnation for it. The Pharisees scathingly accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”  He wore the label even insisting that He came to save those who were spiritually sick, that it was those most in spiritual distress that received His message of the Kingdom. However, the people to whom Jesus opened His heart, those with whom He prayed and shared the deepest parts of Himself, were His disciples. Even within the 12, there 3 who were an inner circle; Peter, James, and John.  These men were included in His sorrows, witnessed the raising of a dead girl, and joined Him at the Transfiguration.

We must be loving but wise, recognizing the importance of our own inner circle, the people who know our failures and successes, who know the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ of our lives, who share our faith and love. The Word tells us that those we invite into that place in our lives must love God.  It is not that we are superior to anyone else. We want those who have the code to be able to share the weight of serving God, to  pull in the same direction as we do, to be those who know and speak ‘truth’ into our lives.

Who has the code?

Who is on your team?  
Are they people who love God as you do?

Will they stand with you – when you fail as much as when you win?

Is theirs a heart full of the Spirit?

Here is a word from the Word.  May it remind all of us to strengthen the ties with those who are in our inner circle.  "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, NLT)

________

Friends

(a classic!)

Packing up the dreams God planted

In the fertile soil of you

Can't believe the hopes He's granted

Means a chapter in your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always

It won't even seem you've gone

'Cause our hearts in big and small ways

Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever

If the Lord's the Lord of them

And a friend will not say never

'Cause the welcome will not end

Though it's hard to let you go

In the Father's hands we know

That a lifetime's not too long

To live as friends

With the faith and love God's given

Springing from the hope we know

We will pray the joy you'll live in

Is the strength that now you show

No a lifetime's not too long to live as friends

Deborah D. Smith | Michael W. Smith

© 1982 Meadowgreen Music Company (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

Building a connection

Staying connected!  It is one of the things that I most appreciate about the technology that fills my life. My phone signals the arrival of text messages dozens of times each day; everything from the mundane, “Won’t be home ‘til 6”  to the urgent, “Call me, it’s an emergency!”  I can be reached anywhere, anytime, with that amazing little device that I carry everywhere. Facebook keeps me aware of what’s happening to my friends and relatives scattered around the country.  (Yes, it also keeps me aware of a lot of nonsense, too, but I’ll wade through those to enjoy the smiles, family pictures, and personal updates.)  Yes, I like being connected in this way.

There is a responsibility that comes with having all those connections. 

Paul says that a priority for me, and all Christians, is to work at connecting people to their Creator. "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.  … If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5: 11,17-18, NIV)  We love and respect our Father, gaining from Him the gift of eternal life through Jesus. Because we are changed, inside out, to love, to serve, to hope;  we want others to know Him, too.

How do we offer Jesus’ love to our world?  

Yesterday I had a brief conversation with some teens who complained about a friend who was so ‘religious.’  Her “God-talk” was counter-productive, obscuring the offer of God’s love with what they saw as her personal agenda to ‘make some converts.’  Christians must be bold in faith, to be sure, but also take care that we do not come off as trying to ‘sell’ Jesus. The Gospel needs a context. That is why Paul says that we are a ‘new creation.’  If our lives are not marked with a genuine love for others, if Christ Jesus is not known by us in a way that is producing real and observable change, we are mostly wasting our breath when we ‘preach.’  We cannot live with hate and division, behind walls that cut us off from those with whom we differ, and then preach the good news that Jesus brings people together in the family of God with authenticity.

The aim of our work at presenting Jesus to others is not just to get them to make a ‘decision.’ We are to make ‘disciples.’ The Church, in my opinion, too often is content with having a person say the right words, making a verbal acknowledgement of Jesus and ‘accepting Him into their heart.’  The ‘sinner’s prayer’ has become something of a sacrament to many of us. That’s a start, but our goal is not just to lead someone in a brief prayer of decision. We want to help them form deep faith, to make a real connection with God, and begin to experience the change of heart and mind that the Spirit desires.  Discipleship may begin with a prayer, but it continues for life, one choice after another as a person grows in grace and faith!

Here is a pointed question for us: 
Does my life create a hunger and thirst for God in those with whom I am connected? 

Asked another way:  Is my Christianity authentic, my love for God and others real, my heart surrendered to God, and my hope on things eternal?

Nothing in life compares to the joy of seeing a person who does not know the Lord come to faith, become a disciple. It is something like becoming a parent. When my children were born all those years ago, the delight was incomparable. When someone is born into the family of God, there is a similar reaction in me. How about you?

Here is a word from the Word.  I pray it helps us all to get our priorities aligned with the desire of our God. "For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ." (Colossians 1:27-28, NLT)

Abba, help me to be connected to You,

Intimately, deeply, and honestly.

As the Holy Spirit works in me to lead me to love,

to help me to serve without self-interest, and to

hope in things eternal,

I pray that the Goodness of Jesus will be evident.

Let Your radiance shining through me, invite those who live around me,

to love and trust You.

Amen.

Prepping for Exams

Long ago, when in college, I had friends who showed up in class who obviously had not slept much the night before.  They were up into the small hours of morning ‘cramming,’ trying to absorb weeks of material in preparation for an exam to be given that day. Cramming was not my style. I preferred to pay attention in class and read my the material as it was assigned. I don’t recall ever spending an entire night before an exam trying to stuff information into my brain. My exam prep was a review to refresh what I had already learned.  I still generally prefer methodical preparation over last minute scrambling to meet a deadline, a plodder by nature, I suppose.

Paul urged maturity of faith for the Corinthian Christians who were notorious for their impulsiveness, their abuse of spiritual gifts, and their love of personalities. He tells them about the promise of their immortality in Christ, that He opened Heaven to them by His death and Resurrection. "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:6-10, NIV)

When faith informs us in our day to day experience, life and death lose their fearfulness! “Always confident,” Paul says.  Twice we see him affirm that our boldness to engage life, to deal with the unexpected that comes our way, grows out of our understanding that there is more going on than meets the eye, that we are on a road that leads to home.  This assurance led Paul to say that he was, in fact, eager to be ‘home with the Lord.’  Christians sometimes repeat this thought, but then when I see the choices they are making, I wonder if they really grasp what they are saying? The ‘rest of the story,’ so to speak, is that there is an exam waiting for each one of us.

Knowing that we have an eternal life, a prepared place in God’s house, gives us great confidence.  It is not just a promise for the future, however.  This hope, if firmly believed, will cause us to make significant changes in the choices we make about the things we do and say. Why?  Because we know that each one of us will stand before Jesus for exams!

Our salvation is a gift, let’s not forget that. The question asked at the ‘judgment seat’ of which this passage speaks is not about whether we ‘make it in’ or not. If there were any doubt about our adoption into the family of God, how could we live with the confidence of which Paul writes? Christ has written a ‘new covenant’ in His blood, which we celebrate in Communion.  We trust in His promise. But, knowing that He will ask about how we used the gifts of the Spirit invested in us, knowing that our lives will be an open book before Him, should be a powerful incentive to make the will and ways of our Father priority in life – now.

Why live at a distance from the Savior, taken up with the temporal things of life as if they were what really mattered?  Too many do and then, when years advance, they try to cram for the exam, attempting to correct the neglect of earlier decades. That is impossible. Today’s opportunities are exactly that – of today!  The past is over and done, and cannot be reclaimed.  The future is not ours yet, but we have this day.  The counsel of the Word is that we ought to "Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5, NLT)

As you read this word from the Word, ask the Lord for a faithful, steady heart, a willingness to do what He asks today.  Jesus said that we could ‘lay up treasure in Heaven,’ and, by His grace, let’s do it. "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." (1 Corinthians 3:11-15, NIV)

No cramming for us as we near the test. Instead, let’s live with the holy confidence that comes from a faithful life, well-lived – for the glory of God.

____________

Take My Life
(a prayer in song, a reworking of the beautiful hymn)

Take my life and let it be consecrated

Lord to Thee

Take my moments and my days

Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move

At the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing

Always only for my King

Take my lips and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold

Not a mite would I withhold

Take my intellect and use

Ev'ry power as You choose

Here am I all of me

Take my life it's all for Thee

Take my will and make it Thine

It shall be no longer mine

Take my heart it is Thine own

It shall be Thy royal throne

Take my love my Lord I pour

At Your feet its treasure store

Take myself and I will be

Ever only all for Thee

Chris Tomlin | Frances Ridley Havergal | Henri Abraham Cesar Malan | Louie Giglio

© 2003 sixsteps Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055