Understanding Life

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
~1 Corinthians 2: 14

One of the most amazing parts of living the Christian life is experiencing joy and sorrow from a position of faith. I know that life is more fulfilling for me than for the average person, not because I'm any more talented, any more wealthy, but because I'm looking at life through goggles from God. In such a small act of submission, my willingness to open my life to the Lord allowed a completely new world of existence.

Material possessions, personal goals, and relationships all look so different once God's Spirit is revealing to me worthy pursuits. The flip side of this tells me that people are going to look on many of my comments and decisions as odd. As the transformation in my life progresses, I know that my biggest challenge is to see opportunities for love and ministry in the eyes of those who most frustrate me. May I stay away from gossip and focus on relationship guided by the gift of spiritual discernment.

Peace God's Way

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

~John 14: 27

I will never cease to be amazed at the poignancy of God's actions. This verse and the accompanying message by Mr. Chambers matches up incredibly with the topic of conversation last night as my wife and I fell into sleep. I'm sure there are statistical probabilities on this occurrence in my life, but for me it is yet another way to identify the presence of a faithful God caring about my life.

Mr. Chambers states: "As long as we try to serve two masters, ourselves and God, there will be difficulties combined with doubt and confusion." The peace we receive from checking everything off our list for the day is nice, but not to be confused with the peace of existence that comes from the Lord.

I may control my list.
I will never control my life.

Lord that we may execute on the simple things: Wake. Die to myself. Live excellence for you. Be thankful. Worship. Share.

Getting to Here

Occasionally, I look back at my life and find it hard to believe that I'm sitting where I am at this moment. Not that the steps are hard to comprehend if I take the time to break it down, but when I try to look at the whole, I am overwhelmed by the idea of it all. The existence of a person is such a miraculous thing. To think that my complicated little story is just one of billions that have and will exist in time and that God has been an intimate component to every story blows my mind.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

~Colosians 1: 15 - 20

Dang. Holding it all together. All together. I get overwhelmed by a couple good ideas, imagine the glory of seeing all creation as a whole outside the realm of time and space. People, the Church, reconciliation, sacrifice.

Dang.

How Good am I at Loving?

"Love is the overflowing result of one person in true fellowship with another."
~Oswald Chambers

How much time to I spend developing "...true fellowship...?" Yikes, how convicting. I tell my wife I love her every day, but it has been a while since I have pursued her with the idea of creating a true fellowship... How much more seldom with my Lord? I'm afraid many relationships follow this same trap.

I have a thought bouncing through my head: Pursuit creates valadity in our minds. I think we can pursue someone or something for two main reasons:

1. We think we need that person/thing. It would seem the pursuit effort is compounded when the person/thing is just a little hard to attain-there is likely a bit of selfishness involved in this one, but also the excitement of romance, or
   
2. We understand that a continual pursuit is required for excellence at anything. We continue the effort-not for the pride of conquering, not so we can pridefully say we've attained, but so we can look back at the entire journey and believe we understand the Word telling us: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward." ~Colossians 3 23-24
   

Having these ideas in my head is much easier than acting them out in my life. Mr. Chambers talked of the effect these things have on personality. He describes personality as the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man. What a great test. What are the loves of my life (and what order should they fall into)?

1. God
2. My Wife
3. My children
4. My extended family
5. Friends
6. Work/Hobbies

Can I honestly say my personality--my thoughtless, characteristic traits reflect a pursuit of the items on this list-in this priority? Am I able to honestly answer this question? Mr. Chambers would say we can't answer such a loaded question. Since God is the only one able to fully understand the depths of our personality, there is only one place-one way to measure something so vast: Our Life vs. The Word.

A Godly pursuit of excellence involves understanding how my personality (willingness to give pursuit) and priorities match up against the Word of God. I must make note of the areas that disagree, and I must beseech God for His help in understanding and changing these areas.

One last great quote from Mr. Chambers that sums up so much of this internal dialog of mine:

"Once your rights to yourself are surrendered to God, your true personal nature begins responding to God immediately."

Pride and Individuality

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

~Matthew 16: 24-25

It seems pride and individuality go hand in hand in my life. Every time I catch myself thinking of myself as a different sort, or too much of a non-servant leader, my prideful ways become almost disgusting. These are the times I am most likely to curse in laughing camaraderie, jest on someone else's behalf, pass a tasty bit of gossip, or perhaps let my eyes linger longer than they ought.

Since the time of Adam, we've struggled to understand our right place as one of the created and not the Creator. What a simple root of so much sin.

Lord, every day that I might love you more than myself.

Meeting Opposition With Delight

33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

~John 16: 33

It sounds good, but is it visible in my life? In taking this scripture to heart, I must believe that a struggle has taken place and Jesus has emerged the victor.

Why have I then spent so many days in the same struggle? I swear I have been in a similar fight with the world innumerable times... and have rarely emerged victorious by myself. I, like the disciples, struggle to separate myself from the world that I might truly believe.

Wake. Die to myself. Hear the call of the Spirit. Answer. Have peace. Delight in opposition. Worship. Show Christ to the world. Be thankful. Sleep.

Wake. Die to myself...


It really doesn't seem like it should be too difficult, but that second one is a doosy...

A Simple, Beautiful Message

"If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality."

~Oswald Chambers

Since I am so often caught up in myself, it would be hard to quantify the number of times that I/Me/We have gotten in the way of God's work. More times than I care to admit or think about, the simple, beautiful message of salvation has undoubtedly been convoluted by me seasoning things with learned observations.

At least in my life, nowhere is the friction between let go/let God more apparent than in my intellectual thoughts. The same abilities and habits that enable success in the material world form roadblocks when it comes to simply and clearly communicating the Gospel message.

We all sin. None of us measure up to the standard of a wholly righteous God. We deserve eternal punishment. A perfect, sinless substitute for our punishment was offered by God in His son Jesus Christ. We have freedom to choose. If we think about it, there is no other choice but that of Jesus Christ.

Now.... if I can only stay out of the way...