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Your Own Understanding.020415

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In Proverbs 3: 5-6, Solomon says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

What does this mean? “. . . lean not to your own understanding?” The hardest thing about truly trusting God is giving up our death grip on reality. From the very beginning of our lives we learn to trust in, to rely on, what we can see, what we can touch, taste, feel and hear, to carry us through; to keep us out of trouble. “Look both ways before you cross that street!”
As we grow it quickly becomes a struggle between trusting in what we can see versus trusting in what God says; and it’s especially hard when most of the people standing around are saying, “Logically, you must be a fool to trust in stuff you can’t see.” ‘Course, 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “But we trust NOT in the seen, but in the unseen; because the seen is temporary, but the unseen is eternal.” (Tex’s paraphrase)
When it comes to ‘leaning on my own understanding’, I’m weak. My understanding is weak, like walking on a crippled foot. When you step on it you fall down.
You get to choose. Do you want to keep relying on yourself, or are you really tired of trying to run your own life; falling farther and farther behind; wondering why things are still not working; praying that some miracle will happen to deliver you from a bad job, or a truly failing marriage, or the bottom of a bottle.
That’s the question. How tired are you? Are you tired enough to admit that you and your self just can’t be trusted; that you’re unreliable? Are you tired enough to trust God, even when you have no idea how even God can fix all the stuff that’s wrong with you? Are you ready to trust God even if you have to give up trying to control your own life?
That is what this leaning thing is about. If you’re tired enough that you’re ready for a little rest from your own understanding, a little relief your own abilities, your own results; all you’ve got to do is stop trusting you and start trusting (leaning) solely on God. It’ll change your life.

With All Your Heart.020315

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In Proverbs 3: 5-6, Solomon says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

What is, ‘with all your heart’? For me it’s no reservations, no forethought, no doubt, no prior planning about what I’m gonna do if it appears He might not take care of me.  Sorry, but if He doesn’t do it, it’s not gonna get done. I am just too flaky. Even on the days when I think I’m the smartest person I know (which is less and less often); without God’s TLC I don’t have a prayer. Same as “Love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind.” Whatever there is in me that I count as me, I’ve got to turn it over to God. That’s trusting with all your heart.

Leaning on God.020215

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In Proverbs 3: 5-6, Solomon says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him,  and He will direct your paths.”  Some versions, in the last line, say “and He will make your paths straight.”   It may just be semantics, but to me the first version is more all-encompassing, says more, covers more, has more depth and breadth, about what God does if we’ll trust Him and surrender to Him in all our ways.

This is my verse.  It expresses the essence of my understanding of what our relationship with God is all about.  My experience has been that even when I really try, when I really work hard at seeking the Lord’s Face, and work hard at trying to do what God wants me to, I still have things happen that I didn’t expect; things that at the time seem hard; hard to live with, hard to understand, hard to reconcile with my understanding of who God is, and who I am in Him.  But you know, our sight is so limited, we think ‘all my ways,’ is just what I expect,  what I think God wants for my life, for my family, my ministry, my country, my church.  Notice how minutely focused I am on my stuff?  A little myopic, ya think?  And maybe, once in a while, God has been thinking about somebody else.  Maybe He’s been spending a little time thinking, dare I say it, about you.  Heck, your life may require a little attention too.  In fact, you may think your life is as complicated as I think mine is.  It’s not all about me.

I just love this verse.  This really is my verse.  Maybe out of the whole Bible, this verse fits my situation best.  I really need, in all my ways, to trust the Lord.  Not just a little bit.  I need to throw myself at His feet and beg Him to keep on taking care of me, like He’s been doing from the beginning.  Every day I need to thank God for His overwhelming Mercy and ask Him to keep on giving it to me; and tell Him I’m trusting Him to keep on doing it, because otherwise, I’m sunk.

Believe vs Trust.020115

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There’s one thing I’ve discovered since I’ve been thinking about God and trying to surrender to Him.  Every time I see the word “believe” or “faith” in the Bible I substitute the word “trust”.  Works almost every time, except in that verse, in James, that says, “Even the devils believe, and tremble.”  For example, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever [trusts] in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)  And, “Abraham [trusted] God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” (Gen 15:6)  And, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through [trust], and that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)   Like I say, works almost every time.

In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the word for ‘believe’ is the same as the word for trust.  In Greek the root word is ‘pisteuo’, and it means, to believe, to have confidence in, to trust, to rely on; the same root, different ending, pistis, is faith; and pistos, means ‘trustworthy’, ‘faithful’.

Today, in the United States, ‘believe ‘ is a different word with a different meaning from ‘trust’.  Believe is something we do with our heads; trust is something we do with our hearts.  Believe is mental assent to a fact or to the truth of something; trust is reliance on the object of our belief.  So James 2:19 is right.  The demons do believe; they do recognize that God exists; and they do tremble.  But they don’t trust Him.  They give mental assent; but they don’t rely on Him to take care of them.  Oh, and if trust is something we do with our hearts, we should remember one other thing, which it says over and over, throughout the Bible, “Men look at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart.”  So God knows; He knows very well, whether we trust with our hearts, or whether we just believe with our heads.

And what about ‘faith’. In Hebrews 11:1 and following, it says, “Faith is.  .  .”  Please substitute [trust]. “Now trust is the substance and the evidence . . .Without trust it is impossible to please God, for whoever comes to God must trust that He exists and trust that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Still fits, and it still conveys the true message of what God wants from us; and it’s not something you do with your head.

THE FIERY FURNACE. 013115

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Daniel chapter 3, is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace.  My paraphrase goes like this: Three Jewish ‘boys’ (young men) were mid-level officials in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom of Babylon.  The King thought he was important, so he built this gold ‘obelisk’ that was 90 feet high and 9 feet wide. He sent out a decree saying, “When you hear the music, everyone must bow down and worship the image the King set up.”

Shortly, some other officials, who didn’t like our Jewish boys, went to the King and said, “You know that decree, where you said if the people didn’t bow down to the image when they heard the music, they’d be thrown in the fiery furnace? We’ve been watching those Jewish boys, and they don’t bow down.”

The King was hot.  He called them in and said, “I heard that when you hear the music, you don’t bow down and worship the image.  The next time you hear the music you better bow down.  ‘Cause if you don’t, you’re gonna be thrown in the fiery furnace.  And what god will be able to deliver you?”

And the ‘boys’ said, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to answer this. If you do that, our God is able to, and He will, deliver us.  But even if He doesn’t, know this, we don’t serve your gods, and we won’t worship the gold image you have set up.” (that, my friends, is trust in God!)

The King was even hotter.  He had them thrown in the furnace. Almost immediately after they fell in, the King saw four people walking around in the furnace, and the fourth one was “like the Son of God.”  The King called to the ‘boys’ to come out.  The Bible says they were not hurt, they didn’t even smell like smoke!

This is the rest of the story:  in verses 28-29 it says, “Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.’” NKJV (emphasis added)

Have You Made Peace with God? 013015

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All my life I’ve struggled with how to start a conversation with someone about their relationship with God.  I’ve longed to find some way to get started without offending them or making them mad, or driving them away.  It’s a very personal subject, one that many people are uncomfortable talking about.

One time 3-4 years ago, I had a friend named Evelyn, who was dying of pancreatic cancer.  She worked part-time for the same guy I worked for.  She was about my age.  She was in the hospital, fading fast and I went to visit her.  I didn’t know whether she had a relationship with God or not, but I wanted to talk to her about it.  I didn’t know how to start or what to say.

I don’t know if it mattered, but I took her a prayer blanket that had been made by ladies at our church.  They even prayed over it and anointed it with oil, especially for her.  Now that I think about it, maybe God used that prayer blanket to touch Evelyn and me both.

Anyway, I was standing there beside her bed, trying to think of something to say, when God says, “Ask her if she’s made peace with God.”

So I did.  Right out of the blue I said, “Well, have you made peace with God?”

She thought about it a minute and said the most amazing thing, “Since my husband died about 9 years ago, me and God haven’t had much to say to each other.”

After I thought a second I said, “Evelyn, God loves you; and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or failed to do, He forgives you; and all you have to do to get right with God is to trust Him and accept His forgiveness.”  She said she’d think about it.

She must have done it though, because after she died, her daughter told me that after we talked, she was at peace, happy and thankful; free of all the fear and anxiety she’d had before.

Praise the Lord!

It’s a Lot Like Baseball.012815

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Life is a lot like baseball.  In order to play you just need to understand a few rules, get down the fundamentals, and then practice.  How much you practice has a big bearing on how you get along.  A coach in Texas used to make his players follow the “Rule of 100″.  Every player had to throw 100, catch 100, hit 100 balls EVERY day.  Sounds like work. But he produced some great baseball players and some great teams.  Went to the State championship a lot of times.

Life in Jesus is like that.  To be a follower of Jesus you just need to learn the rules, get down the fundamentals and then practice. What are the fundamentals?  Talk to God, listen to God; trust God and obey Him. EVERY day.  Pretty simple, but not easy.  Takes practice.  The more you do it, the easier it gets.  The reward is that you develop a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe and He comes to live in your own private heart.  Life just can’t get any better than that.Like I said.  It’s like baseball.  When you get on a losing streak, what do all good coaches recommend?  Get back to the fundamentals.  When you stick with the fundamentals, it’ll turn your game and your life around. Thanks Tex

THANKS IN ALL THINGS? 012615

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

What I want to know is, how in the world can we ‘give thanks in all things”, in every event; irrespective of its apparent goodness or badness relative to our lives?   The short answer is, there is only one way.  And that one way is that we don’t really focus on the outcome of events in our lives, because we’re focused on something else.  The only way we can do that is if we are focused on God, on His Presence, on His LIFE in our lives. We can only do that when we truly surrender our selves, deny our selves, die to our selves, and focus our entire attention on Jesus and what He wants.  When we do that we begin to be able to fulfill Jesus’ expectations for us, to fulfill His prayer in John 17; to become one with Him and the Father and with each other as He is one with the Father.  That’s the only way, the only condition, the only state of being in which we can experience what this passage says about Rejoicing and Praying and Being Thankful, IN ALL THINGS.  But that’s what Jesus wants for us, just like He said in John 17.  So we can’t give up.  We’ve got to keep on asking and seeking and knocking.  (surrendering and trusting, rejoicing, praying and giving thanks)

RESTORATION. 012515

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James 5:19-20: Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Galatians 6:1: Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

These two passages are talking about the same situation.  Both of them are generally sympathetic to the sinner (that’s a brother or sister in the faith), saying he ‘wanders from the truth’ or is ‘overtaken in a trespass’ like it wasn’t really his fault.  And both, starting with “Brothers”, indicate they’re addressing those who are born-again and members of the Body.

That’s the main difference between the two.  Paul’s version is talking about someone who is mature in the faith.  The signs of maturity are 1] one who is spiritual; 2] has a spirit of gentleness; and 3] ‘considers himself lest he be tempted’.  On the other hand, James’ protagonist is just 1] ‘someone’ who 2] turns a sinner from the error of his way’ and ‘covers a multitude of sins’. Clearly not as mature in his perceptions.

How does this apply to us, right here, right now?  We need to be alert to see when people are straying.  Though it doesn’t say exactly how we’re supposed to ‘turn ‘em back’, or ‘restore such a one’;  but probably we should tell them what they’re doing wrong, ask them to stop; and tell them what they ought to be doing instead.  While the Bible gives specific instructions about what to do to confront them, but ‘gentleness’ would indicate we should ‘speak the truth in love’ (persistently when necessary).  And don’t give up trying, for the reward for success if great: saving a soul from death and covering a multitude of sins.

UNVEILED FACE: 012415

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“We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image…” —2 Corinthians 3:18

Here’s what this means.  After Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Law on the tablets of stone, from God, he was so affected by being in God’s Presence (and having God’s tablets in his hands) that his (Moses’) face shown with such a brilliance that the Israelites couldn’t stand to look at him; so he put a veil over his face, to ‘dim’ the glory of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3: 7  .  . and if the ministry of death, [the Law] written and engraved on stones, was glorious,  .  .  . 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 11 For if what is passing away [the Law] was glorious, what remains [life in the Spirit] is much more glorious.” (The glory of the Lord that comes from the Spirit being in our hearts is much more glorious than the glory of Moses with the Law on the tablets in his hands.)

“15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their (the Israelites’) heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” [So] we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror [in our own faces] the glory [of the Spirit] of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  So because we have the Spirit, the veil has been taken away, and when we look at ourselves, having the Spirit in our hearts, it’s like looking in the mirror and seeing God looking back at us. and we are being changed (transformed) into the image of Jesus day by day; and the glory of Jesus keeps showing up in our faces, over and over! Keep looking, and you’ll begin to see Jesus!