Fatness

One of America’s biggest health challenges today is obesity. We have so much food and apparently so little understanding of our physical frame that many of us are eating ourselves to death. Our blessings of plenty have become a curse. There is a parable in that for our spiritual health. I am not, by any stretch of imagination, a health-food fanatic, but I choose not to eat very much ‘junk’ food. Oh yes, I love snacks that are salty and rich in fats! Knowing that weakness, I just don’t keep them in the house. Sugary beverages are not on the menu either.  Drinking a glass full of 250 empty calories just doesn’t appeal to me.

I’ll leave nutritional advice to those who know the subject better than I do.  But, here is something I do know well. Even more important than what you put into your stomach is the ‘soul food’ that feeds your mind and heart!  How do you nourish your spirit?

Moses, at the end of his life, called the leaders of the people of Lord together and recited a long ‘song’ to them. (see Deuteronomy 32) He pointed out the ways that God had cared for them, describing their wonderful place in His love. Then, with the wisdom of the Spirit, he warned them of the perils that would come with the blessings of being a settled people in the Promised Land. "God made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape. Jeshurun (a name for Israel, the people of God) grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior."  (Deuteronomy 32:13-15, NIV)

When we take in the Word, understanding Who God is, aligning our lives to His will, we are blessed. The favor of the Lord is a great gift and leads us to a place of prosperity and contentment. Where we find ourselves contented, we risk neglect of the soul, and our blessings allow us to forget the very God Who provides them. We may become “Jeshurun;”  a fat, forgetful Christian. Worship will hold little attraction for us. Prayer can turn into an empty form if we allow our hearts to cool towards Him.  Sated by Pleasure, we can lose our desire for the Bread of Heaven. To ‘busy’ to serve, we will content ourselves to pay others while we remain on the sidelines.

What’s the answer?  Is it to live in perpetual misery? Must we live on the edge of desperation to remain faithful to God?  Not at all! 

When God blesses, the right response is to receive those gifts with gratitude, to remember how we came to the place of His favor so that we will continue to walk with Him, love Him, and to share the grace we’ve found with others.  The disciplines of the Spirit – worship, meditation, community, service, humility, generosity, fasting from time to time – will keep us from the falling in love with our Self, from slipping into the deadliness of spiritual obesity.

Has your life in the Spirit led you to a place of blessings? Wisely accept the wisdom that warns of becoming fat and forgetful, but do not fear.  Instead, with gratefulness that recognizes the source of those blessings, give yourself generously to God’s work.  You will then experience a life that is both rich and God-aware! 

Here’s a word from the Word. "God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God. " (2 Corinthians 9:8-11, The Message)

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Break Thou The Bread Of Life

(An a cappella version invites us to prayer)

Break Thou the bread of life

Dear Lord to me

As Thou didst break the loaves

Beside the sea

Within the sacred page

I seek Thee Lord

My Spirit pants for Thee

O living Word

Bless Thou the truth

Dear Lord to me to me

As Thou didst bless

The bread by Galilee

Then shall all bondage cease

All fetters fall

And I shall find my peace

My all in all

Thou art the bread of life

O Lord to me

Thy holy Word the truth

that saveth me

Give me to eat and

live with Thee above

Teach me to love Thy truth

for Thou art love

Mary Artemisia Lathbury

Public Domain

Though this world with devils filled

Yesterday, I stood at the bedside of an old saint whose awareness is gone, her brain tangled with Alzheimer’s Disease. It was a privilege to read the Scripture and pray for her, though I don’t think she knew who I was or why I was there. Walking to my car, I thought back several years to a time when she came to me for prayer as she realized she was descending into that ‘long good-bye.’  She was afraid of what was beyond her control. The memory broke my heart.  I also felt the chill of fear for a moment, “Jerry, what if …”   There is much that can make us afraid. Aging, sickness, death’s approach, the threat of war – a long, long list somewhat unique to each of us.

That is why God says this, over and over, throughout the Scripture: “Fear not!”  He keeps reminding us to look higher, to trust that He holds us secure in His hand.  In my reading this morning, Moses knows that he is near the end of his time of leadership. "Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:7-8, NIV)

Our fears are not baseless nor are they silly. Our flesh is frail. Our world is full of threats. The Devil is at work to destroy. Think about that and you will tremble. So, how can we live fearlessly? Never does God counsel us to ignore reality or to try to just ‘be positive.’  God says that we face our fears with the promise of His eternal Presence. “I go before you and will be with you.”  It was true for Israel, it is true for me. That elderly saint I visited yesterday is not alone, for the Spirit of the Lord surrounds her and she will be lifted to His Heaven where the awful will be forever forgotten. Let this declaration settle over you. "This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and He delivers them." (Psalm 34:6-7, NIV)

Martin Luther, in the great hymn of hope, included these lines:

And though this world with devils filled

Should threaten to undo us;

We will not fear for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us!

We will not always understand why He allows the darkness to encroach on our lives. But, we know Who He is. “O for grace to trust Him more!”

Fearful? Is your future uncertain?  In the word from the Word today, we read Paul’s affirmation of hope. He did not write from the Hilton Presidential suite in Rome, at the end of a string of unbroken triumphs, while waiting for a ceremony to recognize his amazing accomplishments. He penned these words to a younger pastor, while sitting in a dark prison cell, knowing that he was days from execution for his faith. Was he afraid? Was he asking somebody to please to do something to save him? You read the words and pray to know the same faith that conquers fear.

"So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  …Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that Day." (2 Timothy 1:8-12, NIV)

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A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

(A video from 1987 of Steve Green singing this great hymn)

A mighty fortress is our God

A bulwark never failing

Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe

His craft and power are great

And armed with cruel hate

On earth is not his equal

Did we in our own strength confide

Our striving would be losing

Were not the right Man on our side

The Man of God's own choosing

Dost ask who that may be

Christ Jesus it is He

Lord Sabaoth His name

From age to age the same

And He must win the battle

And though this world

With devils filled

Should threaten to undo us

We will not fear

For God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us

The prince of darkness grim

We tremble not for him

His rage we can endure

For lo his doom is sure

One little word shall fell him

That word above all earthly pow'rs

No thanks to them abideth

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through Him who with us sideth

Let goods and kindred go

This mortal life also

The body they may kill

God's truth abideth still

His kingdom is forever

Martin Luther © Words: Public Domain

Making things complicated?

Ever heard of the K.I.S.S. Principle of design? Now, don’t get offended. It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.  Systems work best when they operate in the least complicated way. When Steve Jobs set about designing the IPhone™ he insisted on a design so clean, so intuitive, that no manual would be needed. He wanted someone to pick up the device and be able to use it immediately. He succeeded. Even a child can take a ‘smartphone’ in his hands and start to use it with no instruction!

God wants to know us and says that He is near and accessible.  When Moses spoke to the people of the Lord for one of the last times, he reminded them of this. "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess." (Deuteronomy 30:11-16, NIV)

Christian, that word remains for you and me. The Spirit of God lives in us, makes the Way plain to us, and asks for our obedience. We don’t have to travel to the far side of the world on a vision quest to find Him. We don’t have to go through esoteric rituals to unlock spiritual mysteries. God is here, now, active in our hearts.

Jesus endorsed that simplicity, teaching us to keep our hearts pure and our words a simple ‘Yes’ to God, the Spirit. He told those who came to Him wondering about how to please God that it came down to just two basic commands – “Love God wholehearted and love your neighbor as yourself.” "All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40, NLT)  He reserved only scorn for those who tore up the Word of God looking for loopholes and minimal ways to remain in God’s favor.

This does not suggest that learning or theology is unimportant. Those who are blessed with hearts that are responsive to the Spirit and minds that are diligent in study bring benefit to us as teachers, helping us to gain insight. However, at the core of our faith there remains the pure truth summarized this way – Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!

Do you want to know the will of God in your life? Start with “yes” to the Spirit that has no reservation. Like Samuel of old, make your prayer “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Living with a yielded heart allows us to know the Spirit’s leading, keeps us from “grieving” Him, and blesses us with revelation.

Here is a word from the Word. Lord, help us to have open ears, responsive hearts, and hands that move at Your direction. Amen

""But the way of getting right with God through faith says, “You don’t need to go to heaven” (to find Christ and bring him down to help you). And it says, “You don’t need to go to the place of the dead” (to bring Christ back to life again). Salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is the message we preach—is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, “The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart. For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved." (Romans 10:9-10, NLT)

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Holy Spirit

(a song of adoration and invitation)

There's nothing worth more that will ever come close

No thing can compare You're our living hope

Your Presence

I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone

In Your Presence Lord

Holy Spirit You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere

Your glory God is what our hearts long for

To be overcome by Your Presence Lord

Your Presence Lord

Your Presence

Oh God how we love Your Presence Lord

Let us become more aware of Your Presence

Let us experience the glory of Your goodness (Lord)

Bryan Torwalt | Katie Torwalt

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