February 21, 2010
Ron preached a great sermon this week from James 4:13-17. James never pulls any punches, you know? James talks a lot in this passage about what Ron calls “Presumptuous Planning.” Basically, making up your mind about what you are going to do without taking God’s desires into account. Making your own plans and not even considering that God’s might be superior. (Aren’t they always??) In dialoguing this week with the Lord, He showed me that one of the things that He wants for me, and the worship team, and our Church Family is peace instead of worry.
I see this concept relating to this passage in James. Why do we make these plans? Why do we decide, on our own, what needs to be done and how we need to do it? For me, at least, a big part of it is because I worry about the future both immediate and far reaching. I feel the drive to make plans to avoid pain, and waste, and heartache, and boredom, etc. I wonder if the way that the Lord wants to deal with those worries is different than the plans that I try to make? I think I know the answer to that one! God’s peace comes with giving our fruitless plans to Him and allowing Him to guide our paths.
Our response song this week was Refiner’s Fire. Here are some of the words:
Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver.
Purify my heart, let me be as gold – pure gold.
The only way to choose God’s peace over worry, His plans over our own, is to ask him to purify and refine us as we follow him. The more that we come to Him and pursue His will, His thoughts, and His heart, the more we will see the plans and purposes that He has for us that are so much better than the ones that we think up. The more that we do this, the easier it will become. The more that we do this, we will remember to come to the Lord. Father, I do ask You to purify my heart.
The last verse in this passage gives us an even bigger warning than “presumptuous planning.” It hit me pretty hard this week when I was meeting with God to plan our worship service. More to come later…
Here are the lyrics for Refiner’s Fire:
Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver.
Purify my heart, let me be as gold – pure gold.
Refiner’s Fire, my heart’s one desire, is to be holy – set apart for You Lord.
I choose to be holy – set apart for You my Master, ready to do Your will.
Purify my heart, cleanse me from within and make me holy.
Purify my heart, cleanse me from my sin – deep within.
Refiner’s Fire, my heart’s one desire, is to be holy – set apart for You Lord.
I choose to be holy – set apart for You my Master, ready to do Your will.
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This week my daughter and I were working on experiencing God’s pleasure and enjoying spending time with us, so I asked her what her favorite part of the day was. “Recess!” was her immediate response, so I asked her to try to focus on God being there with her during recess, enjoying watching her play, then ask after recess if He had fun.
When I got home from work I asked how it went, and the results were very interesting. She usually plays with one of her good friends, and for some reason on this day my daughter got upset and treated her friend badly. When I asked why she got upset, she said she didn’t really know.
I began to suspect that there was more to this than simple little girl fickleness, so I asked her to pray about what happened today and ask God why she got so upset with her friend. This sent her into a very uncharacteristic reaction, getting very upset and saying that she didn’t understand what it was I was asking her to do.
I believe that our daughter was experiencing spiritual warfare.
If you haven’t listened to the excellent sermon John Young preached on how we are blocked from hearing from God, I’d highly recommend it, because it helps to identify many of the reasons why we sometimes have difficulty hearing from God. One of them is spiritual warfare, and I don’t believe we see just how often this affects our walk with God, and indeed our everyday lives.
One factor that helps to identify this as spiritual warfare is the uncharacteristic and disproportionate reactions. When we are being attacked, it isn’t just that we believe a lie, we are pushed into reacting to that lie. It is a very active attack in most cases, though I’m sure that some people experience very subtle and passive attacks. Now, an important distinction here is that we aren’t forced to react. This isn’t possession. But spiritual warfare can be extremely persuasive.
Buddy tells a great story about going into the Marines. Everyone told him that the Corps would break him, make him into a fighting, killing machine. He didn’t think that was possible, so he said that he would do everything asked of him, but keep his mind separate, knowing that he was only playing along.
It didn’t work.
The conditioning did exactly what it was designed to do, creating in Buddy a perfect soldier, capable of following orders even when he didn’t think he could, even when he didn’t understand, even when he disagreed.
When we allow spiritual warfare to shape our minds, we are submitting to this same kind of “persuasion.” We forfeit our ability to control our actions willingly, if perhaps unknowingly, and become very much like the soldiers on the battlefield that simply obey orders.
The good news is, we don’t have to let ourselves be controlled – our God can and will deliver us from this warfare. But many times we need help to identify it. In our families, this is easier to spot, as we’re often more open, more “ourselves” around those we care about the most. But sometimes we feel the need to shield ourselves from our church family. We put on a mask around others, and it becomes difficult to see what’s going on behind the facade.
I’m especially guilty of this, I tend to be more introverted, so it’s easy for me to give polite responses when asked questions, and I’ve taught people not to expect much in conversation from me, so I give fewer clues that things aren’t going well than others. But when it comes to this, we are all called to be protectors of our brothers and sisters. We should press when we get the polite and appropriate answers to the standard questions of “How’s it going?” or “How was your week?” It reminds us to take a look at ourselves and that gives God an opportunity to show us things that we’ve become desensitized to over the course of the week.
Let’s commit to using our time before and after church to guard one another’s souls, and watch for signs of spiritual warfare. It is so much more prevalent than I think most of us are willing to admit. As Peter said, our adversary is prowling like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
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February 14, 2010
Today in Sunday School we were talking about James 4:2:
“You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them.”
For some reason this verse really didn’t resonate with me. I don’t see many people I know this consumed with envy. Sure, there is always something better than what we have, but America is so wealthy, I wonder if another form of this same sin is more prevalent today. In the next verse James tells us the real reason for these envious feelings:
“…you want only what will give you pleasure.”
Today we live in a society of instant gratification. When we want something that will give us pleasure, we simply go get it. As Americans, everyone but the very poorest in our society is susceptible to this mindset. Food, TV, sex, drugs, the internet, sports, movies, TV, they all cater to our new mindset. This mindset allows us a more passive approach to satiating our envy. Instead of fighting to take away from another, we simply substitute another pleasure.
And the most concerning part of this is that some of these pleasures are not sinful. Even James didn’t villify what his readers envied, but instead blamed them for seeking the things of this world before seeking God.
You see, God wants us to be happy. He wants us to come to Him so that He can give us good things. Our banner verse talks about God giving us the richest of fare. And in many cases what God wishes to give us is exactly what we could purchase ourselves.
This morning my daughter and I went to get donuts before church, and, being Valentine’s day, they made some heart-shaped donuts with chocolate and sprinkles. Well, as soon as she saw them, my daughter’s eyes lit up, and I knew she wanted one. We began discussing whether I would give her one, while the man in line in front of us watched with a quiet smile on his face. I let her know that she could have one, and the man in line voiced his pleasure with my decision, saying, “if you hadn’t bought her one, I would have. In fact, I’ll pay for it.” And he did. My daughter said thank you and we walked outside. I explained that I thought God had provided that donut for her, His special gift to her on Valentine’s Day to make her feel loved. He could have provided this donut through me, but he chose to do so through the kindness of a stranger to help us both see something.
So many times we don’t stop to think about a good thing, even a noble thing, and ask whether God wants us to have it. For even a selfless act has selfish aspects to it. It makes us feel good to make others feel good. And it isn’t that God will necessarily say “No” to our request (though He certainly does), sometimes He simply wants to share with us that He is the one providing this for us. He wants to share in the joy we receive in even the simplest of pleasures, from helping a friend to eating a delicious meal, to a donut shaped like a heart and covered with chocolate and sprinkles. God is the giver of all good gifts, and yet we deprive Him of sharing His pleasure with us when we simply go out and get them ourselves.
Let’s try to remember to include God in even the simplest of decisions. He wants so much to show us, at every available opportunity, how precious we are to Him. How much He loves us. And when we give Him that chance, many times we’ll find that we end up with the very thing our heart desired, sweetened by the love and generosity with which it was given.
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February 10, 2010
Usually during the worship time here at Crossland we sing a “focus song” that is a great fit with the sermon. I pray over all parts of the worship service, but this in particular is something that God communicates to me very directly. Last week, I believed that God wanted our focus song to be Ancient of Days. Hmmm. It surprised me a bit, because it did not fit very well with the passage that Buddy was preaching from. However, as I prayed about it, I was convinced that the Lord had it for our church that week and that he was going to use it to speak to our members. So, what does this song mean to me? What did I pray when I led this song?
One of the things that I like about this song is the fact that it talks about our mighty God and how His kingdom will reign over all of our earth. Here is my question to you and to me as well – are we letting God’s kingdom reign in our lives? Are our knees bowing at His throne, or are we running around mindlessly? Are our tongues, daily, declaring His glory?
Every tongue in Heaven and earth shall declare Your glory, every knee shall bow at Your throne in worship. You will be exalted oh God, and Your Kingdom shall not pass away, oh Ancient of Days!
When we sing this song, I ask the Lord to make us aware of our desire to do these things, I ask His Holy Spirit to help us do these things, and I ask that we will experience God’s GREAT pleasure and affirmation. He loves us so!
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February 7, 2010
We say a congregational affirmation each week in our church, usually after the first couple of songs but before we’re through singing and before the sermon:
Leader: Is the Father with us?
All: He is.
Leader: Is Christ with us?
All: He is.
Leader: Is the Spirit here?
All: He is.
Leader: This is our God!
All: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Leader: We are His people!
All: We are the redeemed.
All: We praise You Lord God and bless Your Holy Name.
I really love this affirmation, because it reminds me of why we come together on Sunday. Not to learn or encourage others. These are good things, but they must flow out of the true reason we come together: to meet with our God.
But when we aren’t intentional about why we’re at church, it usually becomes something else entirely. This is a big reason why I think so many people have trouble hearing from God at church and don’t really look forward to it. It isn’t God’s fault or that He isn’t there, ready and willing to meet us. When we’re honest, we have another agenda, and that isn’t to say our agenda is bad, just not God’s. We may be coming to church to honor someone else, or because someone is counting on us, or because we think we should, or because worship makes us feel better, or even because we truly want to minister to someone in need. But this isn’t why we meet. None of these things, in and of themselves, are the goal. They may occur, and even allow us to accomplish the goal. But they can only ever be means to an end.
The real danger comes when we aren’t aware of our goal. Jesus told us that the Pharisees, when they prayed loudly and publicly, received their reward. Not that their actions were fruitless, but that their goal was not to communicate with God, but to appear pious and holy and receive the praise and honor of men. The Pharisees accomplished this goal. Yet, when compared to what they could receive by doing the same thing in a different way with a different goal, what they accomplished seems so inferior. Now, my goal here is not to bash the Pharisees. I believe some of them (Nicodemas comes to mind) were genuine in their faith. They wanted to serve God and His people. They were simply blind to God’s true goal for them.
I’m so guilty of this. Many times I come to church out of obligation. And even in those times, I do receive a reward. But it isn’t what God wants for me. When I come expecting to simply meet with God, I do. And that will always be superior to coming because we have to perform a task, or even because we want to perform a task.
Our banner verse calls us to come. Without other goals or agendas, without skills or knowledge, without holiness or piety. Simply come and listen. And sometimes we come with these things and not even know it. So we must be intentional when we meet. Seek out the things we unknowingly come with, the things we normally cling to. Let’s drop our pretense, conscious or unconscious, and simply meet with God.
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