A Spiritual Dad Bod

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 and went with my friends to the YMCA in Waukee to play basketball.  I hadn't played a full court game in years and I was excited to get to do that.  We played for about two and a half hours.  I was sucking wind in the second game we played but after that I had my wind.  But I tell you what, Sunday morning I woke up so sore and Monday morning wasn't much better.

I am out of basketball shape.

As I dealt with my soreness I remembered a couple of things.  Well, a couple of things other than the fact that I'm not eighteen anymore.  I remembered that God never gets tired and nothing is so difficult to make Him sore the next day.  And I remembered that faith is like a muscle.

"Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and His understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:28-31

It is such good news that God never grows tired or weary.  It is such great news that He gives strength to me when I need it.  I must hope in Him and not in my own strength.  It is when I trust in His strength that I can soar like an eagle and run the race with endurance (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Faith could be describes as belief in motion or simply as obedience.  The Apostle James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17).  Faith isn't simply belief, but it is belief that blossoms into active obedience.  Abraham believed and so he went when God said go.  Noah believed and so he built the ark.  Paul believed and so he went to places and people that would arrest and eventually kill him.

Faith is belief in motion.  Basketball is me in motion, but I'm sore because Matt wasn't in motion enough prior to Saturday.  I was out of shape. 

Many of us have a faith that is out of shape.  

We are like the couch potato who says they could run a marathon or that couch potato during March Madness that tells you how he could have gotten that rebound that the in shape 22 year old didn't chase down.  We read our Bibles and the tales of the great heroes of our faith and imagine that we might be able to do the same, yet we are Spiritual couch potatoes. 

The way to get into shape is to exercise often, if not daily.  Getting into shape is hard and is a long process.  Getting out of shape is easy and fast.  Our faith is no different.  We must exercise our obedience muscles daily.  We must lift the little weights of obedience before we get to the heavy stuff.  We must exercise our faith in the layup line of daily acts of faith if we want to fancy ourselves ready for the main event.

Don't get out of spiritual shape.  Do the next right thing.  Exercise your faith in the things of today and God will renew your strength: you will soar on wings like eagles; you will run the race and not grow weary, you will walk and not be faint.

Flex your spiritual muscles through the Omnipotent God who gives us strength today.

Grace That is Greater Than All Our Sins

Today was another great Sunday at Grace Baptist Church.  During Discipleship Class we learned about the famous story of Abraham and Isaac and the near sacrifice that happened.  The sermon was on Ruth 1:22-2:3 and it helped us see the great providence of God.

I want to share my favorite worship song from this morning.  Pay close attention to the words.  I especially love how this song reminds me that while my sins may be many His grace is infinite.  So, listen and ponder God's grace that is greater than all our sin today.

Earth Shaking Prayer

Which attribute of God is your favorite or which one are you holding on to today, and why?

That was the question I posed to my fellow church elders one morning as we met for prayer.  We went around the room and shared what attribute was either a favorite to remember or one that was a necessity to meditate on during this particular season of our lives.

One said God’s faithfulness was a buoy during the past year.  Another said God’s sovereignty kept him sane during a time of uncertainty.  Another said that God’s holiness kept him fearing the Lord.

What attribute of God is your favorite or which one are you holding on to today, and why?

 

Perhaps you marvel at the eternity of God or the self-existence of God.  Maybe God’s omnipotent power or omnipresence causes you to worship.  Could it be that God’s justice and mercy gives you hope?  Maybe God’s love and goodness gives you rest.

Whatever it is that blows you away I want you to think about it now.

The first line of A. W. Tozer’s classic book The Knowledge of the Holy says this, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

I believe that to be a true statement.  We are all theologians in a way.  We all think about God in some way, shape or form and that molds us greatly.  In fact, our thoughts about God may even change regarding our circumstances.  Not that we necessarily believe different things but the favorite attribute of God may change depending upon what our greatest desire or need may be at the time.

The attribute that I shared this morning was God’s infinitude.  As Tozer puts it, God’s infinitude means: “When we say that God is infinite we mean that He knows no bounds.  Whatever God is and all that God is, He is without limit.”

God’ infinitude is such great news to me.  This attribute speaks so much to me because it means that whatever other attribute I need from God is available to God at no limit.  God has the power to be infinitely good and gracious and merciful and sovereign and faithful.  At no point does the bank account of any of His attributes read bankrupt.  God is infinitely all that He is.

So, whatever attribute you thought of before exists immeasurably and this should affect our prayers.

Think again about that attribute of God that you desperately need or that you deeply are in love with right now.  This is a great tool in prayer. 

In Acts chapter four the Apostles Peter and John were arrested.  They were arrested and from this point on in the book of Acts we see persecution of the church.  When the believers got together following Peter and John’s release from jail, they realized that more persecution was coming and they prayed to God.

“’Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.  You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rageand the peoples plot in vain?The kings of the earth take their standand the rulers gather togetheragainst the Lordand against His Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.  They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.  Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4:25b-30 NIV

Notice what shaped the believers’ prayer.  The leaders of their area had arrested Peter and John and persecution was about to heat up from those sovereign in their land; so, God’s sovereignty was likely His attribute on their minds.  They called Him Sovereign Lord and then meditated on His sovereignty in the Scriptures in generality and specifics and thought about what they’d seen God sovereignly do in their lifetime.

This focus on the attribute of God they needed most and likely loved most helped make the supplication part of their prayer truly incredible.  The believers asked for boldness to speak the truth and signs and wonders to reinforce their words.  Please notice what they didn’t ask for: protection from persecution!  The believers’ focus on God’s sovereignty enabled them to have such trust in God’s ways and His plan that they only asked for tools to do His will in His sovereign plan.  This, friends, is remarkable and is only possible through right thinking about the attribute of God they most needed.

Which attribute of God is your favorite or which one are you holding on to today, and why?

Use that attribute in your next prayer.  Call Him “Loving Father” or Good God” or Merciful Savior” “God of Justice” or “Faithful Lord.”  Direct your prayer to Him using your favorite moniker.  Then recite Scripture about this attribute.  Rehearse ways you’ve seen this attribute at work in your life.  Then let the meditation and proclamation of His attribute make your next prayer time simply amazing and rich. 

I’m not trying to tell you that this is the one true way to pray.  There are many types of prayers in the Bible that God loves to hear us pray, but this is one that I encourage you to try today because it is one modeled well by the believers in Acts chapter four and one that God approved of greatly that very day.

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4:31 NIV

 Pray an earth shaking prayer today.

Take the Mad Out of March Madness- A Repost

Below is a post I wrote last year at this time.

Take the Mad Out of March Madness

I have been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately because of my meditating on The Lord's Prayer.  What I've been dwelling on the last few days is forgiveness and anger.

Are you angry at someone?  Is there someone that you are holding a grudge against?  Is there someone that has made your blood boil?  Is there someone that you've pushed over the boiling point?

Now, there is nothing wrong with anger in and of itself.  Anger is love in motion.  We get angry when what we love is threatened.  If someone came and attacked your friend you would not be wrong to get angry and then do something about it.  If you read the news and get angry about injustice and misuse of power there is nothing necessarily wrong about that.  However, most of my anger and your anger is selfish.  Most of what makes us angry is when our pride is threatened.

"In your anger do not sin': Do not let the sun go down while you are angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."  Ephesians 4:26-27

If you are angry with someone you need to make it right.  If you are causing someone to be angry at you, then you have to make it right.  The Apostle Paul tells us that anger is something to be dealt with now.  You can be angry and not sin but most of the time anger is a source of sin.  Uncontrolled or un-dealt with anger gives the devil a foothold.  Satan loves to use our anger, even righteous anger at times, to tempt us to sin.  Deal with anger quickly.  Do as much as you can to not go to bed angry.

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.'  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.  Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca' is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of Hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." Matthew 5:21-24

In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus ratchets up the seriousness of anger and unforgiveness.  He says that anger against a person is the same as murder.  He says even if we call someone an fool or 'raca', which means blockhead, they are committing a serious sin.  He says sinful anger, like all sin, interferes with our ability to worship God.

Jesus says if you have something causing anger between you and another to set it right immediately.  Jesus says that if someone were bringing a sacrifice to the temple in Jerusalem and then remembers a relationship that is out of whack that they should leave the sacrifice for later and take care of the relationship immediately.  This is radical.  Imagine someone from Jesus' hometown of Nazareth doing this.  According to Google Maps it would take someone 31 hours to walk from Jerusalem to Nazareth and that's without stopping.  Jesus tells those listening that ridding anger from a relationship is worth doing that.  What have you done to make a relationship right?

Don't let the sun go down on your anger.  Take anger against someone very seriously because Jesus does.  Fight against anger because Paul says the devil uses anger against us.  Anger is not a little issue, it is a big issue.  With whom do you have a beef?  Have you done your part to fix it?  Obviously you can't force them to not be mad at you, but have you given it a try?  Pastor Scott said on Sunday that no one can make you angry but you.  Have you given up on your anger?  My dad says holding a grudge with someone is like having a jail on a U-Haul trailer and taking it with you everywhere.  Have you unhitched the jail cell?

Do this.  Do this as soon as possible.  Anger and unforgiveness are huge problems.  Take the mad out of March Madness today.

* "Anger is love in motion." is a quote I misattributed to Tim Keller but upon further investigation I believe I took that from Jonathan Parnell

This Isn't a Joke

In 2008 Liam Neeson kicked some butt in the movie Taken.  Neeson was fighting to rescue his daughter from sexual slavery.  His character throat punched his way through Europe searching for his daughter and exposing the seedy world of human trafficking to the audience along the way while we cheered each throat punch and bullet that found its way into the Johns and pimps.

This movie seemed to be a seminal moment in the fight against human trafficking.  Millions of people were taken by the fact that sexual slavery and kidnapping was happening in our world today.  Documentaries like Nefarious: Merchant of Souls were produced and distributed,  Passion 2013 saw college students raise over $3 million to fight this evil, police upped their efforts to the catch criminals involved.  Overall I believe that this movie, though it misses a lot of marks, was important in catching the public's attention and casting it toward a horrific problem.

Yet some things haven't changed. 

Billionaire owner of the New England Patriots Robert Kraft was involved in a sting that involved a "day spa".  The business was really a brothel where foreign women were tricked into sexual exploitation in exchange for passage to the U.S.  The women lived trapped in this "massage parlor".  More than 100 people were linked to this crime by the sting operation. 

Recently Mr. Kraft and 24 other men were offered a plea deal.  The misdemeanor charges would be dropped in exchange for an Alford plea (not acknowledging guilt but that a jury would find you guilty in court), community service and a fine.  Kraft has turned down that deal and will fight the charge in court.  Perhaps he is innocent.  I don't know about him nor will I pretend to know, but the whole thing stinks.

Using and abusing enslaved women and girls is a weak misdemeanor.  Late night comedians respond to Kraft's charges with low hanging sex and happy ending jokes.  People talk about the case jokingly as if it wasn't a big deal. 

I host a morning radio show and we've talked about this subject and I'll write here what I've said on air.  If you cheered Liam Neeson throat punching people in Taken then you should realize this is what he was throat punching people for.  Do we not care because the girls and women in these situations are often Asian?  Do we not care because we honestly don't see this for what it is?  Do we not care because we find more guilt in the women than the men purchasing their bodies?  Or have we bought into the idea that it is normal behavior to abuse women?

I'm not calling for violence against men who exploit our daughters like this.  Please, no throat punching. What I am asking for is for justice to do its job.  I'm asking for the law to curb demand for sexual exploitation instead of putting most of its weight on the victims.  I am asking for us to not call evil good and to not call a mountain a mole hill.

"Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter." Isaiah 5:20

We need to take these issues seriously.  I know great progress has been made in recent years, but we mustn't mislabel this issue.  This isn't someone caught in a "boys will be boys" situation.  This is an ancient sin that must be fought against.

Grace is infinitely available to men and women who abuse people in this regard.  It is.  God's grace isn't beyond anyone.  There is no sin that Jesus didn't die for.  But Jesus has a special love for the victims.  Christ was friend to many prostitutes.  When the world saw them as evil and the men as simply "meeting a need", Jesus loved the prostituted women and spoke words of warning to the lusting men. 

The Church must be like Jesus. 

Being like Jesus in this I believe starts with our tongue.  We have to talk about stories like this the right way.  Our language must show that this is serious.  That the using and abusing of the least of these for the sexual pleasure of others is an abomination.  We can't call evil good or light dark or bitter sweet.  Words matter.  I'm not asking late night comedians to be the answer because they likely won't be.  But the Church is supposed be be the voice in the wilderness.  We are supposed to let our light shine and light exposes darkness. 

Let your tongue speak truth today.

A Little Word to Change Your Week

As many of you know, our church does the Fighter Verses program for memorizing Scripture together.  Last week we memorized the first half of Psalm 100 and this week we're memorizing the rest.

'Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into His presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, He is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
and His courts with praise!
Give thanks to him;
bless His name!
For the LORD is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100

Last week on this blog I looked at the first half of this psalm, but tonight I want to look at verses 4 and 5.

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving,

and His courts with praise!

Give thanks to Him;

bless His name!

For the LORD is good;

His steadfast love endures forever,

and His faithfulness to all generations." 

I want to be more thankful.  I want to be able to be rejoicing in thanksgiving.  I want to and I know that I should be more thankful.  But how do I cultivate this thankful response to God?  How do I become this overflowing with praise?

Anytime in Scripture you read "for" or "therefore" you have to ask what the for is for or what the therefore is there for.  Notice the word "for" in this psalm.  What follows the word "for" is the fuel for all this thanksgiving and praise.

We "enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise" and we "give thanks to Him and bless His name" because of all that follows the word "for". 

Our's God's goodness causes us to be thankful people.  Our God is the definition of benevolence.  God doesn't simply do good, He is good. 

Our God's everlasting steadfast love causes us to be thankful people.  God doesn't have a love that is shaped by His present situation, nor does He have a love that can fade away.  God's love is steadfast; it is unchanging, it can't be greater or less because it is God-sized.  God's love also can never, ever end.  It won't fade away because it it a forever love. 

God's faithfulness inspires thanksgiving because it is a forever faithfulness.  God always keeps His promises.  His Word is always true.  When He says He will do something, it is sure.  As a parent my faithfulness isn't enduring; I make promises I won't keep and can't keep, but God isn't like this at all.  God's faithfulness isn't just for me either.  God's faithfulness is for me and my children and my children's children and my children's children's children.

Meditate on God's goodness, His eternally enduring steadfast love and everlasting faithfulness.  Think deeply on what this means for you.  If you are also memorizing this psalm then you will have plenty of occasions to do this.  Meditate on the last part of this psalm and you will be like the first portion of the psalm.

Consider Psalm 100 and be joyful, thankful and full of praise today.

Necessary Humility

The more I read my Bible the more I'm convinced that Christian virtues are not simply nice things to have, but they are necessary.  We may not all have the virtues in the same measure, but the virtues are things that must be growing in us and producing fruit.

Humility is one of the necessary virtues.

Without humility one cannot properly please God.  This isn't to say that our humility is necessary for our justification, because it isn't.  God would spend eternity searching for worthy souls if it were not His way to go about giving grace upon grace where none is due.  But without humility one cannot properly please God.

What is humility?  Rick Warren famously said, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking of yourself less."  C.S. Lewis is often attributed with that quote, and quite frankly I thought it was his until I went to my copy of Screwtape, but Lewis likely started Warren's gears in that direction when he described humility as a self-forgetfulness.

That seems to be humility in our relation to other people, but what about in regards to God?  I think humility in the vertical is a right understanding of our extreme smallness in comparison to God's infinite enormity.

We need both types of humility and the vertical humility will feed the horizontal.   Let's look at a few passages on humility.

"Then King David went in and sat before the LORD , and he said:
Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far... Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign LORD?" 2 Samuel 8:18 & 19b

"When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

"Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5

"... whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave... just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,  and to give His life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-27

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10

Humility is necessary for all Christians because in the economy of the Kingdom the way up is down.  Humility is not only necessary for greatness in the Kingdom, but for entry.  No one that thinks too highly of himself will think highly enough of his Lord to submit as a true disciple must. 

Humility is not a nice character trait.  Humility is what believers are to be clothed in.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because,
'God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.'
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time." 1 Peter 5:5b-6

Clothe yourselves in true humility toward one another and God today.