I read a quote today from Seth Godin that powerfully struck me: ‘If failure is not an option, then neither is success‘.

While it’s true that some people have a more risk averse nature than others, in the spiritual realm, the removal of failure requires the removal of faith.

If I know all the answers, I have dotted every I, crossed every T, eliminated any possibility of the unknown, mastered laying the bat on every curve ball…then why do I need God?

After two years of church planting, my tolerance for the unknown has deepened remarkably. I have grown uncannily comfortable with the ‘what if?’

The Bible tells us without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Why then do we spend so much time trying to address every variable and possible outcome, once we know God has called us to take a step of faith?

What has God called you to do that fear of failure is stopping you from pursuing? Could it be that you are really trying to ‘solve’ God out of the equation?

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” – Galatians 4:8-9

Turning back

It’s easy (or at least natural) to look at the Christian life like this: we used to do certain things, but now that we’re believers – we don’t. And that’s a true and noble aim that we can only hope to attain through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But that’s not what Paul is writing about here. He’s not saying I used to be a drunk, but now I’m not. I used to act sexually immoral, but now I don’t. I used to cheat people, but now I don’t. He writes about that in other places.

The challenge of the Galatians is the challenge of every believer who grew up in a particularly religious environment. Paul is issuing the challenge to resist returning to a system of rules and regulations as your metric for measuring or earning your standing with God!

The Law

The law has a very specific purpose. Simply put, the law was given so that we would realize our complete and total inability to keep it. Period.

Paul says it like this: ‘Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith‘ (Gal 3:24). The law is, and has always been, a mirror that allows us to see our true selves in light of God.

The bottom line: we don’t measure up.

We can’t measure up.

None of us.

Not even close.

The law is like looking in a mirror that shows us something is wrong. But the mirror can’t fix what’s wrong!

Only Jesus can do that.

Jesus Breaks the Cycle of Futility

Jesus is the only one who ever has kept (or ever could keep) the Law perfectly. He is the perfect, unblemished sacrifice offered for our forgiveness and salvation. When our trust is placed in Jesus as our only necessary and sufficient sacrifice, our standing in eternity is based on the work Christ did.

We actually receive His righteousness!

Once you realize and embrace that Jesus did the work – because you couldn’t and only He can – it releases you from an endless cycle of trying to earn God’s love or measure up to His standard (which is perfection by the way).

You are freed from the slavery of sin and freed to yield yourself to the power of Christ working in you. Apart from that, we would have no hope.

But we do.

His name is Jesus.

‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’ – Galatians 4:4-5

My dad’s house

There’s something comforting for me about being at my dad’s house. Now I realize that everyone has different experiences growing up…and your childhood or upbringing might not be a pleasant memory. For some of you, it might be downright painful.

I can’t relate to that. My childhood memories bring me great joy today when I think of them. I mourn the fact that children are raised into adulthood without ever knowing what it is to have a loving father and mother. But I am thankful for mine.

When I’m at my dad’s house, I am totally at ease. I am not worried about feeling comfortable. I don’t put on a performance so that he will be impressed with me. No actions are taken for show. I do not question the fatherly pride he takes in me as his son.

Adoption as sons

Scripture gives us this beautiful picture of the believer’s relationship with God. He actually chooses to adopt us as his children!

Wow!

I have several friends who have adopted and, to be honest, Tabitha and I have talked about it a good bit. I have other friends who are themselves adopted. What a different perspective they are able to have on the adoptive love the Father has for us.

Just like my earthly father beams with pride, so does my heavenly Dad – but here’s the kicker:

God’s affection toward me has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with who I am – his son!

Can you feel the weight of that difference?

Some of you reading this can’t because your earthly father blew it. He wasn’t there. He was there but you wish he wasn’t. Physical and emotional abuse. Neglect or apathy.

Many of you are locked in a struggle of trying to earn the affection and approval of the God of the universe because the approval you so desperately wanted from your own father was never realized.

It’s a Family Thing

Don’t miss the freedom that comes from the security in knowing you are God’s chosen son or daughter. God’s word says in Psalm 139 that God formed you and knew you – that even when you were unformed substance the days of your life were formed for you.

Though fractured by sin and desperately wicked when left to our own desires, the regenerate heart is precious to the Father – in spite of your sin and shortcomings.

You are a child of the King! An heir to all that he has for you! A full member of the family.

He loves you.

He has a plan for you.

He wants you to trust His unconditional love for you.

Quit trying to earn what is already yours. Stop striving to deserve what cannot be lost.

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” – Galatians 3:3

This is a question I have asked myself at least a thousand times. Why am I so foolish? Why do I frequently try to earn what is already mine?

Our Nature

We have an insatiable desire to value ourselves. It may manifest itself in selfishness, jealousy, self-aggrandizing, greed, or even lust. These are all slivers of a larger pie – PRIDE! The early church leader Augustine said pride is the mother pregnant with all other sin.

C.S. Lewis reminds us that if not for pride, the devil would not be the devil.

At the end of the day, we seek to feel good about ourselves (often by comparing ourselves to other people) in an attempt to convince ourselves that God should love us because we are not THAT bad!

Christian Pride

Those two words don’t really go together. Sort of like ‘vegetarian meatball’! It’s what we call an oxymoron in English where two opposing words are placed in juxtaposition to each other.  The words “Christian” and “pride” don’t go together, yet all too often we find ourselves demonstrating this frustrating behavior.

Here’s the fallacy we buy into:

“If I behave better, God will love me more.”

Very few of us would make that statement aloud, but many of us operate under the pressure of this practically. We live under the crushing reality that we don’t ever and can’t ever measure up.

The Solution

So what’s the answer?

For the true follower of Christ, recognize the weakness of your flesh and embrace the fact that Jesus bought and paid for your redemption when you were ‘dead in your trespasses and sins‘. He loves you right now and he can’t love you any more. He loves the you of today – not some future version of you! Not the you 5 or 10 or 30 years from now that has it all figured out.

When you realized that Jesus didn’t accept you because you were all nice and shiny, it frees you up to lean into that truth and ‘be transformed by the renewal of your mind‘. As Paul said, you started out by the Spirit. How can you keep trying to perfect yourself by the flesh?

Knock it off! Quit being so foolish.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

A Tale of Two Natures

Though there is nothing simple about it, there exists within the life committed to Jesus two natures that are at times directly opposed to one another. To put it another way, you are at war with yourself.

Constantly.

Paul expressed it fully in Romans 7:15-20 as he talks about the tension that exists between what we want to do and what we actually do.

The Death of Me

In this verse from Galatians, Paul is identifying with Christ in his death. When Jesus was crucified – in our place, bearing our sin – our sinful natures were provided a means of death as well. Even though the ultimate eradication of our sinful nature won’t come until Heaven, we now have the means to crucify our own sinful passions and desires as we place them under submission and the authority of the Cross.

It requires work. It’s probably what Jesus was referring to when he said “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). This is a daily act of dying to yourself.

The Life of Christ

It’s not just the death of our old selves that Paul writes of in this verse. Christ died but didn’t remain buried. He experienced death but it could not hold him! He walked out of the tomb – it’s empty! Paul is also identifying with the risen and reigning King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We have the power of the resurrection to draw from as well. The life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the son of God!

That’s the key. We don’t kill our sinful desires for sport or spiritual exercise. We assault them with the new life that is found in Christ. Every time we do that, we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit a little better. We gain encouragement and strength that the enemy really is defeated and doesn’t own us any longer. Our conditioning increases so that tomorrow’s battle is a little easier.

Are you practicing dying to yourself?

It’s not easy.

It is necessary.

“…when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” – Galatians 1:15-16a

One of the most common questions I hear as a pastor has to do with people seeking purpose in their lives. Actually, it usually comes as a statement, but it points to a bigger question. It goes something like this:

“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing!”

Ever felt that way?

On a very basic level, God has designed each of us with an ultimate purpose. This purpose never changes and contains the full measure and totality of God’s plan for your life. Do you know what it is?

You were created to bring God glory.

Simple. Yet complex.

Easy to say. Difficult to apply.

Ultimately unique. Particularly varied.

Your Purpose

I can tell you with authority about your ultimate purpose, because that’s the purpose of all things in the universe – God’s glory. It really is all about Him! Every fiber, molecule, and particle in all of creation points to the glory of the creator.

But there’s a difference in your ultimate purpose and your specific path. That’s what Paul is so secure about in this passage. He knows what he was born to do. Peter and John too, were absolutely secure in their calling to preach the gospel (Acts 4:19-21). I can relate to that. Sometimes I feel like I will explode if I don’t get the message out God has placed within me.

But that’s not everyone’s specific purpose. We know the church is a body made up of a lot of different parts – all with different specific functions. Some of you would be as out of place if you tried to preach as I would putting on a pair of ballet shoes and attempting an arabesque penchée!

We have to know where we are going before we can choose a path to get us there. Failing to realize our ultimate purpose is God’s glory, keeps us from settling on a particular plan to do that in our lives because we don’t have a clear destination in mind.

The exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland sheds light on this (paraphrase):

Alice: Would you tell me please where to go from here?
Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to go.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter much which way you go.
Alice: As long as I get somewhere.
Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that if you walk long enough.

If all you want to do is get somewhere, eventually you will. But we aren’t aiming for somewhere! The opposite of that is true too. If you don’t know where you’re going, then you’re sure to never get there. You have to keep the destination in front of you at all times.

Conflict

Conflict arises when our aim gets skewed in our ultimate purpose. Many times we find ourselves out of position in our particular plans because of this gross error in defining our ultimate purpose:

We make it about our glory – not God’s.

That’s why many people feel so disconnected and why I have the same conversation again and again. We want to substitute our glory for God’s…and that’s not a fair exchange…not even close!

I can’t begin to give an opinion on what your specific plan is in God’s economy. That’s why it’s so important to walk in community with other believers who can affirm the specific gifts evident in your life. Everyone needs encouragement!

We need help in another area also. A community of peers can also caution you from attempting something God never wired you for. The idea that you can do anything you want to do is a huge myth! Just look at some of the people who audition on American Idol.

You can’t do everything. But you can do something. Set your ultimate sights on glorifying God. He’ll clarify the details.

It’s a great place to start.

“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” – Gal 1:10

Every day, most of us face a multitude of choices. What time do I need to get up? What will I wear? Do I take a shower (hopefully an easy decision)? Breakfast bar or cereal? Interstate or backroads? All this before we even make it to our first destination!

Some of these are pretty trivial. Do I take the elevator or stairs? Some choices are much weightier. Can I forgive this person? What will they think if I attempt to share my faith? This is a risky decision, what if I fail?

The lynchpin of this decision making process rests with this question: what’s your aim?

Desire vs. Motive

Discovering the nature of our aim really gets down to a question of desire vs. motive. Desire is fleeting. Selfish. It changes with circumstance. Motive is much deeper. It’s the driving force behind our desires. Motive influences and shapes our desires. Our desires will ultimately determine our actions.

What we want to do in any given moment is deeply dependent on what we treasure most. It is what we treasure that determines the decisions we make. Jesus said our heart follows our treasure (Matt 6:21).

In this passage, Paul is talking specifically about the desire to seek the approval of man or the approval of God. Are we more concerned with what people think or what God thinks? With what he wants or what I want?

Progression

The more intimate our relationship with God, the more our  motives are conformed to his image, thus influencing our desires, which leads to action. It looks like this:

God -> Motive -> Desire -> Action

It won’t work the other way (which is normally what we try). We try behavioral modification. Jeremiah said our hearts are deceitful and wicked (Jer 17:9) and we must deal with that if we have any hope of change.

We make futile attempts to change our actions without dealing with the underlying heart issue. That’s like trying to fix a piston in my car’s engine by putting Armor All on the tires!

New Desires

Thankfully, God is in the business of heart change! One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is:

“Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.“
Psalm 37:4

This is amazing stuff! As I become more satisfied in him, he shapes the desires of my heart. But, this verse gets misapplied often. We want it to say, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you what you want“. That misses the point completely!

God does much more than giving us WHAT we desire…he gives us NEW desires! And that really is so much better.

How’s your aim? Maybe it’s time for a heart check.

“Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” – Gal 1:1

Qualification
Paul had a unique qualifier that we don’t have today (at least not in the exact sense he was speaking). He was an Apostle – with a capital “A”.  Paul listed himself as the last Apostle in 1 Cor 15:7-9. Apostles in this sense can be compared to the Old Testament office of Prophet and they had the ability, responsibility, and calling to write Scripture. To be considered an Apostle, general orthodoxy through the ages contends that the individual must have seen the risen Christ with his own eyes and be commissioned specifically by Jesus as an Apostle (literally meaning ‘sent one’).

Authority
The basic authority of the office of Apostle is rooted in the power of the resurrection. Paul demonstrates this and it was the single biggest emphasis of his preaching. Repeatedly, he was received well by the Jews in a town – until he brought up the resurrection. The resurrection still stirs up visceral emotions today! People are fine with you talking about the moral teachings of Jesus (even in other religions), but the resurrection forces us to contend with the divinity of Christ.

Mission
Paul was a man on a mission. He purposed in this letter to his friends in Galatia to deal with the issue of legalism. With the risen Christ in full view, how can some claim justification by religious ritual or demand that others observe ceremonial tradition? Simply put…they can’t! This is the thrust of this short letter and Paul begins with his credentials – not his earthly accomplishments or his vast knowledge of the Scriptures, but with his calling as an Apostle. This is equivalent to Paul saying, “Thus saith the Lord…“

Have you ever felt like you just don’t measure up? No matter how hard you try you just don’t cut it? Yes, I love Jesus and do my best to follow him, but the truth is, I mess up all the time! I spend a good portion of my life as a Christian feeling like a failure and have just realized I’ll never be as good as some of the ‘super-Christians’ I look up to in my life.

Sound familiar?

The letter Paul wrote to the Galatians between his 1st and 2nd missionary journeys is a fascinating and valuable read for any follower of Christ. And it deals directly with this kind of attitude. It was his earliest letter, but it dealt with an issue that plagued the church early and still exists today: legalism.

Does God love me more because of the ‘things’ I do for him? Is his love diminished when I stumble and fall? The answer to both is a resounding “NO“!

FREEDOM is the battle cry that leaps off the pages of Galatians!

An excellent commentary on the subject says:

Throughout the history of the church the message of Galatians has been needed to free men from chains of false doctrine. When the early Judaizers tried to bind men to the old commandments from Sinai, Galatians set them free. When the apostate church of the Dark Ages tried to bind men to a papal system of salvation by penance and works, Galatians set them free. When modern legalists try to bind us to a joyless religion of superior “rightness,” Galatians sets us free.^[1]

My nephew had been over and he had this really, really, really cool Lego model of an X-Wing fighter from Star Wars.

I made a big deal out of it with my nephew, and Gracie couldn’t wait to show me what she could do with the toys she got from her Zaxby’s kids meal. She didn’t have the same tools to work with as my nephew, so she couldn’t duplicate his creation.

What she ended up with was several objects randomly clipped together (that were originally intended to build a bicycle) in an effort to form this spaceship with lasers that would shoot in every direction at the same time, with sensors to pick up any enemy ships approaching.

It was AWESOME! As her dad, I was proud of her effort. As an intergalactic spacecraft inspector…well…it left a little to be desired.

I was so proud of her efforts and made a big show of it. She beamed…and then…I showed her how to use the materials she had to build what they were intended to be. She was able to make a bicycle AND a person to ride it. They looked natural and all the pieces fit together – like they were meant to. She lit up when she saw the pieces fit together as they were designed to do.

That’s when it hit me.

God brought this verse to my mind from Eph 2:10 “For we are his workmanship (masterpiece in NLT), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.“

We spend so much time as believers, trying to build or create our own masterpieces, all the while overlooking the fact that we are already his masterpiece! We waste resources and gifts in an effort to duplicate someone else’s work or mimic an individual we admire, rather than realizing God has declared YOU his handiwork (NIV).

Is he finished yet? I hope not. But if we are his, then we are his to build.

He planned you and what you would become beforehand and just like my daughter learned, when we try to be something other than we were designed to be, we end up looking awkward and out of place.

As our Father, God may smile at our efforts, but I’m certain the desire of his heart is that we embrace who he created us to be – and walk in that!

Who has God created you to be?

I’m reading through Jeremiah in my personal study time and God is stirring some thoughts in me. I read this verse in context this morning and I was struck by this thought.

God spoke these words through Jeremiah to a people who were already in Babylonian exile because of their repeated disobedience.

Every time I hear this verse used, it is one of those “feel good” verses. What’s interesting is that God gives Jeremiah this message to counter the feel good message that some false prophets are giving the people. They are promising a short exile…but God says ‘No, you are in exile because you disobeyed. Go ahead and build houses and plan to stay a long time. I told you this was coming, BUT don’t give up hope. You’ll be here 70 years. You won’t even be alive when I fulfill this promise, but I will fulfill it in your children – not because you are good, but because I am good’ (my words).

There are consequences for our actions. Some are major and others are less overt. But there are always consequences. Remember that the Lord is using you and me for the exclusive purpose of bringing Him glory. He always has a plan for a future and a hope, to bring good not disaster…but first there may be a season of preparing, or perhaps even discipline.

But we can be thankful that his faithfulness is based on God’s character and not our own.

“So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” – Jeremiah 18:3-4 (ESV)

I am so often tempted to resist.

My default nature is to reject, often violently, character development and changes to my basic nature.

It’s natural I suppose. As natural as sin at least.

Jeremiah has what most today would consider a miserable ministry. His was a ministry defined by harsh condemnation of Israel’s actions followed by a swift and thorough rejection of whatever it was he was selling that day. He was beaten and jailed for his actions. Yet, he cried to the Lord and said that he couldn’t keep silent. The message was like a fire shut up inside his bones!

This message in Jeremiah 18 is the most powerful section of Jeremiah’s ministry. Here, Jeremiah is telling Israel what God is trying to do.

Why are they so tempted to resist?

Why do they default to rejecting, often violently, the changes God is trying to orchestrate in them?

It comes natural for them. As natural as sin anyway.

Maybe we’re not all that different. Maybe God is trying to work something beautiful in me and in you and we keep spoiling ourselves in the potter’s hand.

God is always all-good all the time. He is reworking us ‘as it seemed good to the potter to do‘.

Why are you fighting that?

While my training has been getting more intense, so has my appetite! I may be the only person who can actually gain weight while working out as much as I am.

I am ready to compete in the event today, BUT I would do so with some unneeded baggage weighing me down. On May 13, I stepped on a set of scales and I had reached 245 lbs! YIKES!

I had this very startling revelation that day. Why am I carrying extra weight that only makes my task more difficult and will hurt my performance? So I decided to do something about it! I have adjusted my caloric intake and along with training as of yesterday (June 9) I am down to 220 lbs. My goal is to hit 200 by race day.

This reminds me of an even more important spiritual principle. The writer of Hebrews said it best: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (ESV). Anther translation says the sin “that so easily entangles“.

We all face challenges in life. Some are excruciatingly difficult and we can’t do anything about them!

Others are merely distractions. They are things that don’t have to be there – but are. They are things we can control. These things are distractions. They are the “weight” this passage is talking about.

You can drop the weight.

Eliminate the distractions that take your eyes of following Jesus.

There is another more deadly enemy for the believer though. This passage also talk about sin that clings so closely and so easily entangles.

This can be deadly. These are not mere distractions. They are the things that have no business in the life of a believer. These can kill your spiritual life.

To extend the metaphor, it would be like me swimming with my hands and feet bound, or biking while carrying a baby grand piano, or running with a can of nitro glycerin! All of these are deadly!

So is sin.

It robs you of your joy. Kills your spiritual senses making you dead to hearing from the Holy Spirit. And it will destroy your testimony and effectiveness for the gospel.

Jesus said ‘the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy but I came that you might have life more abundantly‘ (paraphrase).

So drop the weight. It’s killing you.

Besides, what Jesus offers is so much better!

I tweeted this the other day: “I’m excited about the future. But I’m excited about today too. Don’t miss the journey!”

I began thinking about Abraham and this encounter he had with God when the world was only 11 chapters old:

Genesis 12:1-2

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Here’s two quick thoughts.

#1 - God absolutely kept his promise to Abraham. He delivered on his end in a BIG way! Ultimately, we have Jesus coming through this lineage God promised Abraham.

#2 – Abraham never arrived at the destination God promised…for him, it was all about the journey. He caught glimpses like birthing a child in his old age, but his was a walk of faith planting seeds that would not germinate for years – and some for centuries – to come.

It is so easy to focus on where we are going that we miss the beautiful nuances contained within the journey. Conversely, we can be so bogged down in the temporary pain or difficulty of the moment that we forget God always keeps his promises. He has promised to ultimately work all things out for good for his children.

This is one of those posts that has many applications. I hope it gives you some encouragement today!

To Revolution Church, I just want to remind us all that while there is always more to come…I am honored to serve with you and to make the most of every moment we have on this journey together.

“He said, Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” – 2 Kings 6:16-17 (ESV)

If we only knew the power that is really behind us, there is no limit to the things we would attempt to do for God!

So often, we are like the young man with Elisha that can only see with our natural eyes and refuse to exercise our spiritual eyesight to see beyond the physical limitations that cause us to quiver and keep us from conquering.

This man couldn’t understand how a prophet and his band of supporters could withstand the thrashing that the King of Syria was about to unleash on them. If they were an army with weapons…maybe – but this was just a preacher with some loyal followers! All they had were some scrolls and maybe a donkey or two. But when the Lord opened his eyes, he could see that God had dispatched a massive and powerful force to protect Elisha and his mission!

When God is behind a work, there is no force, on earth or otherwise, that will keep it from accomplishing what God has purposed!

That’s good news for the Church today!

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Eph 3:20-21 (ESV)

That’s good news for you too! What is it God is asking you to do for him? Look around you. You have an ARMY to go into battle with you.

• On one occasion, God told Moses to strike the rock…another he was to speak to the rock.
• God moved the Israelites out of harms way with a protective covering over the doorposts…days later he moved an ocean to escape harm!
• Paul and Silas praised & worshipped and God opened the prison doors…Stephen worshipped through obediently sharing God’s message and God opened the windows of Heaven to welcome Stephen home.

Here’s the common theme: God received glory in each and every circumstance!

Just because God did it one way in the past doesn’t mean that’s how He will do it today. The key is to stay in perfect step with God’s heartbeat and trust in the Maker NOT the method. Sometimes He will lead us away from difficult circumstances, while others He will place us in them. One thing is certain…God will ordain the situation to see that He receives the most glory. The rest is just part of the narrative God uses to accomplish his purpose.

Are you tuned to His divine prerogative?

Jesus knew the pains of a fickle audience well.  The week he was murdered is probably the best example of that, but that was not his only experience with a moody bunch.

Luke 4 illustrates this.

Jesus was in his home town of Nazareth when he read from Isaiah during a temple meeting. In 6 verses he witnessed a swing of emotion that is common with the “crowd” mentality.

In verse 22 “everyone spoke well of him“. By verse 28 they were “furious“.  They even “intended to push him over the cliff“.

When we allow the opinions of others to determine our state of mind, we miss the abiding peace that comes from total obedience to Jesus.

The question is not, what do people think about me?  We play to a sold out audience of one. The only question with true grit is whether or not Jesus is pleased with our steps and motives.

When the substance of our affirmation is based on the fickleness of popular opinion, the highs of public praise will be soon followed by the dreary lows of public scorn.

What’s the source of your affirmation?

“Question…… Do you need to fire yourself from the job of trying to make EVERYONE else happy? It’s not our job!”

That got me thinking and I asked myself a question that I know ask you. How often do I spend time or resources trying to please or accommodate others?

I’m not talking about the gospel-focused core calling of every believer to represent the abundant life Jesus offers to all humankind. I’m talking about those little moments where we compromise the seemingly innocuous and benign elements and “go along to get along”.

These verses here, here, and here speak to the fact that other followers of Christ have faced the issue of critics and spoke plainly about it.  Our aim is to please HIM not THEM!

Without elaborating on gory details, some people will always have a problem with the way you are doing things. It is interesting that in the “church world” it’s the “church people” who seem to poke holes and hurl accusations.

We all have a choice to make in our relationship with Jesus: we can seek to please him or we can seek to please others – rarely will we accomplish both. In fact, if you aren’t receiving criticism that might be a good check to see if you are really smoking what you’re selling.

No one can follow God’s plan for your life but you.

Pursue it mightily and without compromise!

Ignore the critics.

We play for an audience of ONE.

Even when the tank is empty, we all have that singular driving force that will command and compel us to dig deeper.

To move beyond the realm of what is and pursue the reality of what can be. These guys all had one thing:

• For Jacob, his one thing was Rachel. “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:” – Gen 30:31
• The Psalmist had his one request. “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life” – Psalm 27:4
• Jesus identified the one thing standing between a certain man’s surrender. “When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” – Luke 18:22
• This guy told everybody about the one thing he was sure about. “He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” – John 9:25
• Paul focused on this one thing. “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” – Phil 3:13

What’s your one thing?

“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”
– Psalm 130:3-4 (ESV)

We keep a record of our sins. God doesn’t.

Others remember our shortcomings. Not God.

Speaking as one who has allowed my past to paralyze, there is no progress when shame and guilt dominate the life of a believer.

Shame and guilt are emotions stemming from the heart of man. Godly sorrow produces repentance!

So go ahead.  Walk in the freedom that comes from knowing that God knows all about your miserable failures and says “I want you” anyway!  Live in the power that comes with that kind of freedom – the freedom of forgiveness.

…but if it were, we would all be on equal footing! Nobody deserves the love God has shown us.

“Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” – Psalm 53:3

Why is it some people act as if they somehow earn the respect and affection of a holy God?  Perhaps it is simply human nature that drives us to compare ourselves with those around us and say things like: ”I’m not as bad as…” or ”I am more committed than…“.

Thank God that’s where Grace comes in. Grace so amazing that it will blow your mind and turn logic on its head.  Grace that confounds the senses and delivers the impossible!  Best of all…IT’S FREE!

Grace that is earned ceases to be grace.  I’m going to type that again to be sure you read it right: Grace that is earned ceases to be grace.  But therein lies the beauty – it can’t be earned but it is offered freely to anyone who will receive it!  That’s some pretty Amazing Grace!

I hope that encourages you today.  I hope you know the security and peace brought only through experiencing the grace of God!

Remembrance should always lead to pursuit.

Psalm 44:1

We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.

When we look behind us to see great things God did yesterday, it should drive us forward in pursuit of His calling today. Looking back is good…as long as it pushes us ahead.

Pausing to remember great things God did on our behalf yesterday is helpful and should cause us to trust His working on our behalf today.

It should not cause us to get stuck.

When a church, organization, family, or individual believes their best times to be behind rather than ahead – well…that’s when death begins.

I’m looking forward!

Close isn’t close enough when it comes to obedience. What if Moses had settled for “close“?  What if he had accepted that this was “almost” what God had in mind?

God let Israel wander for 40 years and would not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land because of a little disobedience along the way.  The results from this kind of blasse compromise could have been catastrophic!

Moses stuck to the plan God laid out and refused to settle for almost. So should we.

It’s a unique form of worship known as the lament.

The most common examples of this particular mode of worship is found in the Psalms.  Psalm 13 is a great example of David worshiping in lament before the Lord.

In the first 4 verses of this Psalm, David cried out to God and basically asked “Where are you God? And why are you letting all this nonsense go on in my life?“

Have you ever done that?  Do you ever feel like crying out to God in anguish because you don’t see Him in your present circumstance?

David knew that God didn’t need His pretense.  The Father already knew the pains of the son.  David knew God required his honesty not some cheap suck up…or even worse – hiding from what surrounded him.  David got real when he questioned what was going on around him.

We can relate.  In the midst of a particularly difficult situation, we can identify with what David was feeling here.  We can even manage to scrape together the occasional whimper toward God.

The difference is in what happens next.  David turns it from whining to worship in verses 5-6.  For 4 verses he bares his soul and questions the whereabouts of God, but then David turns on a dime and demonstrates the beauty of the lament.

“But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”

David trusts God because he’s been there before!  He has seen  what God can do.  Sure, maybe he doesn’t understand what’s going on right now, but he knows what his Daddy’s capable of!  He watched while the God of the Universe showed off before and he offers Him the only conceivable offering worthy of the character of God…WORSHIP!

Why not give that a try?  The next time your circumstances cause your heart to ache before the Lord, try this:

1. Bare your soul.
2. Be honest.
3. Worship the Lord for who He is!

I hope you will find the lament to be a vital addition to your private worship!