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thursday…the good Shepherd

Today’s “40 Days” reading indicated that we need to be sure to take off our crowns when dealing with other people, or only conflict will finally result.  The author further asserted that only Christ is to be crowned.  This is a present truth that I am underscoring in my life again.  Some verses that are helping me…  

To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. (John 10:3 NASB)  When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. (John 10:4 NASB)I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9 NASB) 

 Christ is the shepherd referred to.  As I try to put reality to this theology, I am encouraged by several things.  And I am in a place where I certainly need the reality.  I am not interested in theory, at the moment.

1. As one of His sheep, I hear his voice.  Critical for me!  And I have to appropriate this truth by faith.  Listen and believe.
2. He calls His own by name.  This is personal.  He calls me, by my name.  I can pay attention and have a working relationship with Him, today.
3. He leads His sheep out.  In this confidence I can have faith to move forward, despite my own insecurities and weaknesses.  I’m OK if He is leading.  But I am always unsure on my own.
4. He is out front.  He is ahead of me, checking the way, clearing out trouble, preparing my work and my rest.
5. His sheep will go in and out, and find pasture.  Beyond the day of salvation, Jesus will lead me in and out.  On everyday life issues.  I’ll find pasture.  I will also accomplish the kingdom.

  We all desperately need a shepherd, the good Shepherd.  We can’t do life on our own, or ministry.  Making this a daily reality is key.  The crown must be squarely and practically on His head. May you be blessed as you follow Christ our Lord, today!Greg

What’s the real truth about the Christian walk?  To love, to do God’s will, to overcome evil?  It’s for the few.  

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. {14} For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NASB)    

Sounds different than we often hear it.  But Christ’s way is not for everyone.  Not just salvation, but also our daily walk with Him in this world.

The gate is small.  Most miss it.  Find it!  The other gate is wide.  Watch out for it.

The way is narrow.  Most take the broad way.  It’s easier.  Walk that narrow way.

Despite the lonely path, the narrow way does lead to life.  I challenge you to discover it.  The broad, easy way leads to destruction.

Few people enter by the small gate, and walk the narrow path.  Be one of them.  It’s easier to quit.  Just don’t.  

It’s good to be made aware from time to time that the Christian way is a narrow way, not one most will walk.  The gate to enter is small.  Most give up looking for it.One of the Proverbs expresses t well.  Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.  Prov.20:3

Christ’s way is not for fools.  It’s not for anyone who is just wandering around, or those with no real heart.  

I’m glad to be serving with others who have found that small gate, and who are walking that narrow way.

Greg

monday…be glad

As we continue to pursue loving as Jesus loved, consider being glad. 

But let all who take refuge in Thee be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and mayest Thou shelter them, that those who love Thy name may exult in Thee. (Psalm 5:11 NASB)   

Lots of choices come our way.  Today’s chapter in the book (14; at least that’s where I am) says we need to choose to accept, choose to sacrifice in our love.  We might do well to choose a couple of things to make that possible.  One would be to choose to call on Christ to accomplish the impossible instruction about accepting and sacrificing.  If we don’t somehow call on God to do this through us, it will not happen, at least not with any consistency or joy.  A second would be to choose to be glad.  A lot more can happen if we have a glad heart, and it is our union with Christ today that can get us there. 

So as you take refuge in Christ today, in His love and grace, I pray that you will be glad.  Even glad enough to sing for joy.  I pray with David that God would shelter you from all that would be damaging or discouraging.  May the result be that your heart would overflow with a deep kind of joy.  Even on a Monday!

Greg

thursday…He leads out the prisoners

Today’s reading in the “Relationships” book, as we continue our 40 Days of Love, instructs us to love God with all our souls.  Sometimes that can seem abstract.  At other times we see God in a light that does not seem to lead us to love Him.  But when we see Him for who He really is, love follows.  Consider this brief description of Him from Psalm 68. 

A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. {6} God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. (Psa 68:5-6 NASB)   

Who could not love this God?  Anywhere, anyway you feel unparented (is that a word?), God is there to fill in?  Let Him.  Anytime you feel put upon through injustice, taken advantage of in your weakness, call on His name.  Is anyone lonely?  No real friends?  No lover?  God is there.  He has a home for you with Him, now, ready.  Are you entrapped by lack of resources or time, or by your own inabilities?  God will lead you out into His prosperity in that very arena. 

Who would not love this God, our God?  No parched land for those who draw near to Him! 

Have a blessed day in union with your Creator and Savior.

Greg

tuesday…present yourselves to God

Not sure your reaction to the beginning of the 40 Days of Love.  When I was a young Christian I thought just loving was way too generic and wimpy.  Real Christians were out on the front lines witnessing or preaching, being prophetic and praying, reading His word and worshiping.  Love was just soft, and an excuse to sit back and not really do anything.  These days I find the challenge to not only love God with everything in me, but also to love my neighbor as myself, as too challenging.  How can I love all those people, all the time?  Why does the evidence of loving God have to be loving others?  Can’t I just privately worship, read His word and walk in a holy way kind of by myself?  Love all those others out there? 

Perhaps your struggles with the love commands are not as mine, whether now or before.  But we all face some kind of challenge in God’s teaching about the preeminence of love, and we have to find a way to be victorious.  So the question I most often ask is, “HOW do I make this happen?”  My answer is that I cannot succeed in this as I want, or even as I think God wants.  Very discouraging.  So I retreat to genuinely letting Him do it through me, my only hope.  What I read in Romans 6 this morning helped me. 

But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  (Rom 6:13 NASB) 

I can’t perform like I know I should, but I can humbly present myself to God and ask Him to do it through my life today.  I know He really will.  I can present myself to Him as alive from the dead, a recognition of the great salvation God has worked, and is working, in me.  I can present my members (my physical being, and more) to God to be used by Him to love through me, today.  When I do this, I have hope to succeed.  And when I do succeed, I can truly give glory to God.  I know any success is His work, even if others don’t.  Then I can live out the truth of the very next verse in Romans 6.  

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.  (Rom 6:14 NASB)   

May love master you and me today.  His grace is sufficient for the task!

Greg

thursday…he must follow Me

The lesson continues.  What do we do to fall into the earth and die, to hate our lives on this earth?  We must serve Christ.  And in serving Him, we must follow Him.  This seems a bit clearer than the earlier thoughts this week. 

 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. {25} He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. {26} If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him (John 12:24-26 NASB).   

Some of the difficulties of verses 24-25 clear up a little.  We must serve Christ.  To do so we must decide not to serve ourselves.  We can’t do both.  In this way we fall into the earth and die.  To be able to serve Christ, we must follow Him.  If two people are walking somewhere, one must be the decider of where they are going.  They can’t both be the leader.  We must let Christ lead, and follow Him.  This leads to the question, “How we follow someone who has been raised from the dead and no longer walks the earth?”  First know that faith is required.  Second, consider the need for a daily, personal pursuit of relationship with Christ.  Third, think on living in a first priority awareness of the leading of the Holy Spirit.Good thoughts as we move along in the first month of the year.

Greg

tuesday…he who loves his life

After talking about wheat, Jesus turns to applying to people the need to fall into the earth and die.  The mystery, the seeming contradiction continues.  Those who love their lives, lose them.  Sounds backwards.  Those who hate their lives in this world keep it.  How do this work? 

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. {25} He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. {26} If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him (John 12:24-26 NASB). 

Christ makes clear what our approach to life and living must be.  We can’t love our earthly lives and prosper.  Sounds so weird, but my own experience and observations has proven the truth of this over and over.  The world will betray us.  Even our own hearts will misdirect us.  Unless we “hate” our lives in this world.  There is no peace, no joy for those who love their lives in this world.  There can be no pervading sense of meaning or purpose while we love our lives.  Only regret and disappointment. Good thoughts for this first week of January.

Greg

monday…if it dies

Christ illustrated his own plans to die for the world by talking about a grain of wheat.  That grain of wheat must fall into the earth and “die.”  If not, it remains alone.  Then He said that if it dies, it bears much fruit!  How can this be? 

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. {25} He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. {26} If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him (John 12:24-26 NASB). 

It seems so contrary to our minds that if something dies it will bear much fruit.  It is dead and gone.  But the way seeds germinate and are “used up” giving way to a new plant testifies to the truth of the statement.  If the seed “lives” it doesn’t bear any fruit—it just remains alone.  Christ came not only to save, but to reveal to us the truth about what is happening on earth.  The kingdom message is contrary to the world system, even contrary to what things seem like in the world.  But we have to grasp these kingdom things and incorporate them into our thinking, make them determiners of our actions.  Only then can we bear fruit, God’s type, and become the people God always intended us to be. Consider how to fall into the earth and die, like the wheat.  It really does, under the right conditions, become a plant, which in maturity bears much fruit.  Good thought for a new year.

Greg

monday…an exercise

Psalm 136 is one of the most unique of the Psalms.  It is written in a kind of group response outline.  I can remember our doing this in church or as a home group.  There is something very powerful about declaring the things the Psalm says, and about repeating over and over the “chorus” of the Psalm.  Here are the first few verses (there are 26 in total).

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the God of gods,

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

To Him who alone does great wonders,

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

(Psa 136:1-4 NASB) 

After seeking the Lord this morning for the working of His presence, and after walking pretty far and reading some other verses, I came to this Psalm.  It was really therapeutic and energizing to express the thoughts of the Psalm to our Lord.  To give Him thanks repeatedly (my heart had not started there).  To declare His goodness.  To state that His lovingkindness toward me is everlasting.  I moved step by step through the Psalm, personally acknowledging and giving thanks to Him for the wide spectrum of things the Psalm covers.  For being Him alone who does wonders.  For spreading out the earth and making the great lights.  For smiting the Egyptians but saving Israel.  For leading His people through the wilderness.  For giving them land and a heritage.  For being the God who feeds all flesh.

I recommend this “exercise” to you.  Give it a try.  Whether you start in a great place with Him and this is an appropriate expression of what is going on inside you, or you are troubled and seeking help and some answers, giving thanks to God, declaring His goodness and acknowledging His lovingkindness cannot help but make your spirit rejoice.  May the Lord Himself bless you through it, and may you bless many others as you come to the other side of it.

Greg

thursday…sing as long as I live

When I interview a young couple who have asked me to perform their marriage, I always get to one question:  Are you entering this marriage for the rest of your life?  If the answer is “No,” so is my answer to being the one who will perform the wedding.  I do not believe in tentative marriage vows, or any vacillation in the intent of either party.  Come back when you can tell me with conviction that, “We are marrying, a marriage that we will make last all the rest of our lives.”  I think that God deserves from us the same kind of commitment, and even stronger.  In Psalm 104 the psalmist at one point, after declaring God’s glory through many verses, makes such a declaration.

Let the glory of the LORD endure forever; let the LORD be glad in His works; {32} He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke. {33} I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. {34} Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; as for me, I shall be glad in the LORD. {35} Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD! (Psa 104:31-35 NASB) 

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live!  Every one of us has made a similar kind of commitment to Christ.  But it is important to reaffirm that a commitment from time to time, and even speak it to Him.  Maybe in creative ways, like, “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live!”  Saying it to the Lord strengthens our resolve.  God knows the days are coming when we will need every bit of resolve we can muster up.  Speaking it out builds our relationship with Him, and makes the declaration kind of public, at least to all the heavenly forces both dark and light.

May the Lord bless you in your eternal union with Christ our Lord.  And I hope the intent to sing to him is included in your relationship, keeping it personal and passionate.

Greg