With the holidays fast approaching I can’t help but be extremely grateful for time off - from my “other” job that is. As I sit here in my house where dust bunnies abound, dishes grow by scores and laundry is never finished, I relish the time at home. Time to be the taxi service, time to cook lavish breakfasts and time to stay in my pajamas until Noon (even as the taxi driver - don’t judge - you know you’ve worn pajama pants to the store and tried to pass them off as a new fashion statement!) I also know that going back to work after many days at home will be difficult because my heart is here, at home.
I can’t help but think there are many Mommies who feel the same way. I can’t be the only one. As I look back over the last 14 years since I was gifted to be a Mom I have experienced it all: full-time, part-time, stay-at-home and even single Mom for a year while Kraig worked in another state Monday-Friday. No, I have no idea what it is to be a complete single Mom but that little bit of time makes me have mad respect for single mothers. Regardless of the specifics of each situation, let’s face it, being a Mom is hard work! Being a working Mom is a different kind of hard work.
I know there are some Moms who enjoy working. I also know a whole lot of Moms who don’t. I often think it isn’t because they hate their jobs as much as they hate leaving their children. A working Mom is constantly challenged to perform a precise balancing act between loyalty to her employer and loyalty to her family. Often times we fail and fail miserably. As a result, we despise ourselves or we begin to despise our jobs. It is easy to look at our jobs as the enemy - the thing that takes us away from where we really want to be.
I have struggled with this on and off over the last 14 years. I have spent many days crying and begging the Lord to bring me home. I have lashed out in anger and despair when year after year I have an unfulfilled longing to be home. Eventually, the Lord brought me to the point where I had to make peace with where I was in order to keep from presuming on God’s goodness and abounding in sin. I hope this will speak to you in some way today if you struggle with being a working Mommy.
1) Be grateful for your job. God has ordained work as the means by which He blesses His people. A job well-done brings glory to the Lord and blessing to you. God has provided this job as a means of providing for your family. It is a blessing. It is likely an answer to prayer. Be grateful! (Colossians 3:15-17)
2) Practice contentment. Often times God does not remove us from a situation or difficult circumstance in order to teach us contentment. Removing the obstacle changes things but it doesn’t change us. Contentment is cultivated in the midst of difficult circumstances not apart from them. (Philippians 4:11-13)
3) Remember you are firmly planted. You are working and you are working where you are working on purpose. As long as it is not illegal or immoral, God has ordained your employment. He has firmly planted you specifically among people who need the Light of Christ. But, God is never one-dimensional. He is also using those people in your life to sanctify you. Your employment and your co-workers are not an accident. God has purpose for you right where you are. (Acts 17:25-26)
4) Be where you are. Often times the hardest thing for us as mothers is leaving work at work and home at home. We drive to work with home on our minds and we drive home with work on our minds. But, work isn’t paying you to be Mom. When you are at work, put in an honest and excellent day’s work. This brings honor to the Lord and sheds light on the gospel to those around you. Will that be hard some days? Yes! Will you have family crisis that distract you? Yes! In those times, ask the Lord to help you take care of the task at hand. The Lord is caring for your family even when you aren’t there.
On the other hand, when you aren’t at work, BE at home. What I mean is this: it is easy to come home after a long day and veg out! You walk in from work only to be faced with, “what’s for dinner?” and “Mom, I need this for school tomorrow” etc. The inclination is to turn on the television, pick up the cell phone or open the laptop and retreat. It’s the dichotomy of wanting to be home but when you get home there’s nothing left! Remember, this is the time you’ve likely been waiting for all day so use it wisely. Don’t waste the time you do have. Make the most out of your time at home and be there, not just physically but mentally as well. Your kids will thank you for it! (Ephesians 5:15-16)
5) Work is about fulfilling the 2nd greatest commandment. The second greatest commandment is loving your neighbor as yourself. I am always quick to say that our husbands and children are our closest neighbors but they aren’t our only neighbors. The truth is, everyone is our neighbor! If they live and breath and come in contact with us then they are our neighbor! What better way to love your neighbor then working outside the home! It just gives us more people to love ;) (Matthew 22:35-40)
6) To everything there is a season. I don’t know why you are working. Maybe you want to. Maybe you have to. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you don’t. I do know that life is not static. Life is dynamic and we serve a God that is sovereign over it all! Who knows if tomorrow you may have the opportunity to do something different? Who knows if next year you will still be where you are? The point is, you can always count on the fact that things will eventually change. But for now, as Jesus told Peter, “as for you, you follow me” (John 21:22). (Ecclesiastes 3:1-13)
Ladies, I know that God has called us to a mighty task as Mothers. He has called us to an honorable,excellent, exhausting task as Mothers. We don’t stop being Mom when we start punching the time clock, we shouldn’t stop honoring the Lord either. Scripture says that has called us and equipped us to honor Him in all that we do (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 13:20-21). Over the holidays, enjoy the time with your children. Enjoy the dishes and the laundry and the pajama pants and then enjoy the job that God has given as a good gift to you. Praise Him for His goodness at work and at home. Glorify Him in all He has given you to do! He gives nothing but good gifts!
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Bullying our Sisters in Christ
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates her sister, she is a liar; for the one who does not love her sister whom she has seen, cannot love God whom she has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love her sister also.” 1John 4:20-21
In true female style, most of us will begin to read this with another person in mind. We will be thinking about ourselves or our children as the victim of bullying but I implore you to let this blog post read you. What I mean is, let’s be honest with ourselves and be brave enough to tell ourselves the truth! Are you a bully? Are you raising a bully?
When you think of the word “bully” what comes to mind? For most of us we envision a neighborhood kid, usually a boy, that is overgrown in size, walking around with a scowl on his face while constantly punching his fist into his opposite hand looking for a fight. We conjure up visions of physical abuse that leave someone maimed, lying in a corner without milk money. Yes, bullying can be physical however, I want to challenge you to look past the stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit more to bullying than meets the eye.
Bullying can be defined as a means of manipulating and controlling someone else through negative reinforcement. If we allow ourselves the liberty to broaden the definition to include emotional and mental abuse then we reveal a whole new category of behaviors that can now be included in the definition.
As we venture into this hot-button topic we will constantly realign ourselves with the truth of scripture. If we claim the name of Christ, we are to remember that we “are not our own, that we were bought with a price, therefore, we are to glorify the Lord with our bodies” (I Cor. 6:19b-20). This isn’t just about glorifying the Lord through our physical bodies but also with the immaterial parts of our bodies like our hearts and our minds. So, what we DO, how we FEEL and how we THINK ought to glorify the Lord!
First, I want to challenge us to realize that girls and grown women can and do bully. We have had our first experience with bullying and it wasn’t like I imagined. It wasn’t a threat or a fight. In fact, it wasn’t physical at all. This situation was born out of jealousy and anger. And although there were no physical threats there was plenty of manipulation in order to gain control. I don’t know if there are any two words that creep into sinful female behavior more than manipulation and control! These words by definition connote wrong thinking and wrong living.
Before you quickly write off this post as being meant for “someone else” let me give a few examples: [the term “girl” and “woman” are used interchangeably]
Have you ever attempted to ostracize or exclude other girls from the “group”?
Have you manipulated the way other people think of another girl by speaking negatively or even telling lies about her?
Have you ignored another girl or given the cold shoulder in an attempt to hurt her feelings?
Finally, have you said or done things toward another girl in an attempt to hurt her or make her look bad?
If we are honest, it would probably be the majority of us who would be able to raise our hands. I will be the first to admit that as a child, as a teenager and even as a grown woman that I have done one or more of these things in order to hurt another woman. Yes, I am ashamed to admit, I have been a bully and... I was WRONG! Praise the Lord for His grace that covers all of my sin. I have had to have some extremely humbling conversations, even embarassing conversations but the Lord is faithful when we do what is right! Oh how I challenge you to do what is right!
And yes, this happens in the church among those who claim the name of Christ! Girls, as James says, “This ought not be so! With [our mouths] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing” (James 3:9-10) Yet, we lie against the Holy Spirit within us when we attempt to bully other girls in the church from grade school through to the choir. I use the word “church” here not just speaking of your local church but also of the corporate church; all of our sisters in Christ.
Who is your sister in Christ? Any other girl that is a blood-bought, redeemed sinner like yourself! You see, the cross is level ground for everyone. Scripture is clear that not one of us stands innocent before the Lord, there is none righteous, no not ONE. It doesn’t matter what your sister has done or what you have perceived she has done. You have no leg to stand on..not one! Let me make this very, very clear: there is no room for hatred in the body of Christ! If this girl is a classmate, a co-worker, a biological member of your family, a friend (or previous friend), a fellow athlete, a fellow church member or your neighbor across the street; no matter the relationship or what she has done you have no grounds to hate her, mistreat her, ostracize her or turn others against her.
On the contrary, you are to love her. Need proof?
"The one who says she is in the Light and yet hates her sister is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves her sister abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in her. 11 But the one who hates her sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where she is going because the darkness has blinded her eyes." 1 John 2:9-11
"By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love her sister. 11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." 1 John 3:10-11
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." 1 John 4:7-13
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." 1 John 5:1-4
Bullying is ugly but bullying in the body of Christ is downright heinous! The church is for the building up of one another - not the other way around. Ultimately, when you hurt another member of the body of Christ you are hurting yourself! It is time that we call it out for what it is and stop it!
Second, I want to dispel the myth that there is ever a reason to bully. Often times we think that we are justified. Sometimes because of a perceived hurt and other times because of real hurt. The following are some examples of potential reasons we may be driven to bully a sister in Christ:
She “took”: a friend, a boy, a job, a promotion, a spot on the committee, a spot on the athletic team, a position you had worked for, something or maybe someone you wanted
She “hurt”: you, a friend, a child, a family member
She “has”: a bigger house, a nicer car, a boyfriend, a husband, a godly husband, a better-looking husband, more talent, more skill, more money, more opportunities, a better education, a better figure, more friends and overall, more of what you don’t!
This list of course, is not exhaustive, but you get the idea. And don’t get me wrong - I am not attempting to minimize genuine hurt but I am attempting to correct our thinking. The church is becoming increasingly secularized. In short, we are looking more and more like the world rather than like the body of Christ. We are living by what the world says is okay versus what the WORD says. The world says that retaliation for your hurt is natural. The word says, “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20). The world says that revenge is sweet. The word says, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has also forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). Scripture gives no amount of wiggle room in the matter!
Sisters, we cannot love the Lord and hate each other. It doesn’t matter how old you are! It doesn’t matter how young you are (I’ll talk about that a little later). It doesn’t even matter what YOU think is a legitimate reason. If there was ever one who would have been justified in hatred it would have been the sinless Son of God who was innocently murdered for our sin and yet He cried out in His agony, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
Third, I want to talk about our examples and responsibilities as mothers to our daughters in stemming the tide of bullying. If I have said it once, I have thought it a thousand times, “you are the example that your daughter is following!” She is not listening to what you say. She is watching what you do! If you are downing other women in your speech or in your actions she will see it! I am always amazed at how we assume that we can “fool” our children when in reality they are far more perceptive than we give them credit for and from a VERY young age.
Don’t think because you have a preschooler or grade schooler that you can let your guard down. They are sponges! And they will emulate what they see! Do you doubt what I’m saying? Go into a preschool class and watch how little girls interact with one another. It is uncanny that given a few years, some makeup and a pair of high heels how much they can resemble us! The greatest teaching you can give your daughter is to be who you are instructing her to be. Be genuine, love the Lord, admit mistakes and give her grace!
Lastly, are you raising a bully? Could it be that you are enabling your daughter to be a bully? At first glance these are hard words but they beg for an honest answer. Are you allowing her to act out of how she feels toward another girl without any intervention? If so, let me boldly and humbly say, “You are wrong.” Mothers, I am very aware of the protective instinct that God placed in us toward our children. This is a good thing when our children are in dangerous or potentially life threatening situations. BUT! It is not a good thing when we allow them to act upon every whim of emotion that captures their hearts.
Let’s face it, life is hard, hurt is real and no one is exempt from hurt whether perceived or real, but at some point, we have to draw the line. My daughter has come to me with hurts, annoyances and downright anger towards other girls. I have allowed her the opportunity to vent. I have acknowledged her feelings and then I have taken her to scripture. This is what she is accountable to, not me. If she learns at a young age that the instruction that comes from me is sourced directly from scripture then she will know first, I don’t speak out of my own opinions and second, she will know where to look when I am not there to guide her.
Some of these situations I have FELT (and I want to emphasize felt) that she was justified in her hurt, her anger and her annoyance however, I did not allow her to shun, mistreat or act out toward another girl based on her feelings. You see, it is easy for us to say, “Well, she’s young. She is having a hard time. Her hurt is real and she’s just a kid. You can’t expect kids to act like adults.” We let our girls off the hook because we’ve bought into the world’s view instead of the Word’s view. We let them off the hook because of hormones, or age or heartbreak...and then, we choose to turn a blind eye to the bullying that ensues because then again, we are hurt for her!
Moms, this is sin! I cannot sugarcoat it. You are responsible for instructing her in the paths of godliness and doing all that is within your power to make sure it happens. Let me leave you with two sayings that we use in our family. We didn’t come up with them but they are a concise guide to navigating the emotional ups and downs of life.
“You can’t always act how you feel.” Toddlers are a great example of acting how you feel. What does a toddler do when another toddler has something they want? They take it! Then, toddler number one hits toddler number two and lots of crying ensues! Unfortunately, we are sometimes still allowing our children to act like toddlers. If we are honest, sometimes we still act like toddlers! So, what does scripture say? “To the one who KNOWS what is right and does not do it; to her it is sin” (James 4:17) Pretty plain and simple.
“Make the right decision with your head and allow your heart to catch up.” There is a question as to whether or not we “fake” it and act like a “hypocrite” when in our hearts we really don’t like the person. Love is not based on the object being loveable. Love is based on a commandment. Jesus said, “and the second ‘commandment’ is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39) However, I know the God that we serve and I know he would not ask us to do anything that He would not equip us to live out: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD works, which God prepared BEFOREHAND so that we would walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. I can say, based on the truth of scripture that if you do what is right then, the Lord will bless it and move in your heart to seal it.
This is a good and godly thing for us to learn. We can have victory over our feelings and truly learn to love our sisters in Christ when we exercise faith and allow the Spirit of God to work in our hearts. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith!” 1 John 5:4. Girls, “be killing sin or it will be killing you!”
In true female style, most of us will begin to read this with another person in mind. We will be thinking about ourselves or our children as the victim of bullying but I implore you to let this blog post read you. What I mean is, let’s be honest with ourselves and be brave enough to tell ourselves the truth! Are you a bully? Are you raising a bully?
When you think of the word “bully” what comes to mind? For most of us we envision a neighborhood kid, usually a boy, that is overgrown in size, walking around with a scowl on his face while constantly punching his fist into his opposite hand looking for a fight. We conjure up visions of physical abuse that leave someone maimed, lying in a corner without milk money. Yes, bullying can be physical however, I want to challenge you to look past the stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit more to bullying than meets the eye.
Bullying can be defined as a means of manipulating and controlling someone else through negative reinforcement. If we allow ourselves the liberty to broaden the definition to include emotional and mental abuse then we reveal a whole new category of behaviors that can now be included in the definition.
As we venture into this hot-button topic we will constantly realign ourselves with the truth of scripture. If we claim the name of Christ, we are to remember that we “are not our own, that we were bought with a price, therefore, we are to glorify the Lord with our bodies” (I Cor. 6:19b-20). This isn’t just about glorifying the Lord through our physical bodies but also with the immaterial parts of our bodies like our hearts and our minds. So, what we DO, how we FEEL and how we THINK ought to glorify the Lord!
First, I want to challenge us to realize that girls and grown women can and do bully. We have had our first experience with bullying and it wasn’t like I imagined. It wasn’t a threat or a fight. In fact, it wasn’t physical at all. This situation was born out of jealousy and anger. And although there were no physical threats there was plenty of manipulation in order to gain control. I don’t know if there are any two words that creep into sinful female behavior more than manipulation and control! These words by definition connote wrong thinking and wrong living.
Before you quickly write off this post as being meant for “someone else” let me give a few examples: [the term “girl” and “woman” are used interchangeably]
Have you ever attempted to ostracize or exclude other girls from the “group”?
Have you manipulated the way other people think of another girl by speaking negatively or even telling lies about her?
Have you ignored another girl or given the cold shoulder in an attempt to hurt her feelings?
Finally, have you said or done things toward another girl in an attempt to hurt her or make her look bad?
If we are honest, it would probably be the majority of us who would be able to raise our hands. I will be the first to admit that as a child, as a teenager and even as a grown woman that I have done one or more of these things in order to hurt another woman. Yes, I am ashamed to admit, I have been a bully and... I was WRONG! Praise the Lord for His grace that covers all of my sin. I have had to have some extremely humbling conversations, even embarassing conversations but the Lord is faithful when we do what is right! Oh how I challenge you to do what is right!
And yes, this happens in the church among those who claim the name of Christ! Girls, as James says, “This ought not be so! With [our mouths] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing” (James 3:9-10) Yet, we lie against the Holy Spirit within us when we attempt to bully other girls in the church from grade school through to the choir. I use the word “church” here not just speaking of your local church but also of the corporate church; all of our sisters in Christ.
Who is your sister in Christ? Any other girl that is a blood-bought, redeemed sinner like yourself! You see, the cross is level ground for everyone. Scripture is clear that not one of us stands innocent before the Lord, there is none righteous, no not ONE. It doesn’t matter what your sister has done or what you have perceived she has done. You have no leg to stand on..not one! Let me make this very, very clear: there is no room for hatred in the body of Christ! If this girl is a classmate, a co-worker, a biological member of your family, a friend (or previous friend), a fellow athlete, a fellow church member or your neighbor across the street; no matter the relationship or what she has done you have no grounds to hate her, mistreat her, ostracize her or turn others against her.
On the contrary, you are to love her. Need proof?
"The one who says she is in the Light and yet hates her sister is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves her sister abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in her. 11 But the one who hates her sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where she is going because the darkness has blinded her eyes." 1 John 2:9-11
"By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love her sister. 11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." 1 John 3:10-11
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." 1 John 4:7-13
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." 1 John 5:1-4
Bullying is ugly but bullying in the body of Christ is downright heinous! The church is for the building up of one another - not the other way around. Ultimately, when you hurt another member of the body of Christ you are hurting yourself! It is time that we call it out for what it is and stop it!
Second, I want to dispel the myth that there is ever a reason to bully. Often times we think that we are justified. Sometimes because of a perceived hurt and other times because of real hurt. The following are some examples of potential reasons we may be driven to bully a sister in Christ:
She “took”: a friend, a boy, a job, a promotion, a spot on the committee, a spot on the athletic team, a position you had worked for, something or maybe someone you wanted
She “hurt”: you, a friend, a child, a family member
She “has”: a bigger house, a nicer car, a boyfriend, a husband, a godly husband, a better-looking husband, more talent, more skill, more money, more opportunities, a better education, a better figure, more friends and overall, more of what you don’t!
This list of course, is not exhaustive, but you get the idea. And don’t get me wrong - I am not attempting to minimize genuine hurt but I am attempting to correct our thinking. The church is becoming increasingly secularized. In short, we are looking more and more like the world rather than like the body of Christ. We are living by what the world says is okay versus what the WORD says. The world says that retaliation for your hurt is natural. The word says, “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20). The world says that revenge is sweet. The word says, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has also forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). Scripture gives no amount of wiggle room in the matter!
Sisters, we cannot love the Lord and hate each other. It doesn’t matter how old you are! It doesn’t matter how young you are (I’ll talk about that a little later). It doesn’t even matter what YOU think is a legitimate reason. If there was ever one who would have been justified in hatred it would have been the sinless Son of God who was innocently murdered for our sin and yet He cried out in His agony, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
Third, I want to talk about our examples and responsibilities as mothers to our daughters in stemming the tide of bullying. If I have said it once, I have thought it a thousand times, “you are the example that your daughter is following!” She is not listening to what you say. She is watching what you do! If you are downing other women in your speech or in your actions she will see it! I am always amazed at how we assume that we can “fool” our children when in reality they are far more perceptive than we give them credit for and from a VERY young age.
Don’t think because you have a preschooler or grade schooler that you can let your guard down. They are sponges! And they will emulate what they see! Do you doubt what I’m saying? Go into a preschool class and watch how little girls interact with one another. It is uncanny that given a few years, some makeup and a pair of high heels how much they can resemble us! The greatest teaching you can give your daughter is to be who you are instructing her to be. Be genuine, love the Lord, admit mistakes and give her grace!
Lastly, are you raising a bully? Could it be that you are enabling your daughter to be a bully? At first glance these are hard words but they beg for an honest answer. Are you allowing her to act out of how she feels toward another girl without any intervention? If so, let me boldly and humbly say, “You are wrong.” Mothers, I am very aware of the protective instinct that God placed in us toward our children. This is a good thing when our children are in dangerous or potentially life threatening situations. BUT! It is not a good thing when we allow them to act upon every whim of emotion that captures their hearts.
Let’s face it, life is hard, hurt is real and no one is exempt from hurt whether perceived or real, but at some point, we have to draw the line. My daughter has come to me with hurts, annoyances and downright anger towards other girls. I have allowed her the opportunity to vent. I have acknowledged her feelings and then I have taken her to scripture. This is what she is accountable to, not me. If she learns at a young age that the instruction that comes from me is sourced directly from scripture then she will know first, I don’t speak out of my own opinions and second, she will know where to look when I am not there to guide her.
Some of these situations I have FELT (and I want to emphasize felt) that she was justified in her hurt, her anger and her annoyance however, I did not allow her to shun, mistreat or act out toward another girl based on her feelings. You see, it is easy for us to say, “Well, she’s young. She is having a hard time. Her hurt is real and she’s just a kid. You can’t expect kids to act like adults.” We let our girls off the hook because we’ve bought into the world’s view instead of the Word’s view. We let them off the hook because of hormones, or age or heartbreak...and then, we choose to turn a blind eye to the bullying that ensues because then again, we are hurt for her!
Moms, this is sin! I cannot sugarcoat it. You are responsible for instructing her in the paths of godliness and doing all that is within your power to make sure it happens. Let me leave you with two sayings that we use in our family. We didn’t come up with them but they are a concise guide to navigating the emotional ups and downs of life.
“You can’t always act how you feel.” Toddlers are a great example of acting how you feel. What does a toddler do when another toddler has something they want? They take it! Then, toddler number one hits toddler number two and lots of crying ensues! Unfortunately, we are sometimes still allowing our children to act like toddlers. If we are honest, sometimes we still act like toddlers! So, what does scripture say? “To the one who KNOWS what is right and does not do it; to her it is sin” (James 4:17) Pretty plain and simple.
“Make the right decision with your head and allow your heart to catch up.” There is a question as to whether or not we “fake” it and act like a “hypocrite” when in our hearts we really don’t like the person. Love is not based on the object being loveable. Love is based on a commandment. Jesus said, “and the second ‘commandment’ is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39) However, I know the God that we serve and I know he would not ask us to do anything that He would not equip us to live out: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD works, which God prepared BEFOREHAND so that we would walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. I can say, based on the truth of scripture that if you do what is right then, the Lord will bless it and move in your heart to seal it.
This is a good and godly thing for us to learn. We can have victory over our feelings and truly learn to love our sisters in Christ when we exercise faith and allow the Spirit of God to work in our hearts. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith!” 1 John 5:4. Girls, “be killing sin or it will be killing you!”
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Our Journey's End...and Grasshopper Pie
This is it! Can you believe it? Can you believe we have spent three weeks together studying idolatry and we are down to the very last day? I hope this study has been purposeful in your life. It surely has been in mine. I don’t want to waste any time, we have ground to take back from the enemy and idols to uproot so let’s get started!
Spring is just around the corner, hopefully, and with spring comes gardening. If you know me at all, you know my lament over having a black thumb! I want desperately to have a thriving, gorgeous, plentiful garden but alas, the soil is too rocky and I have no time to cultivate it the way it needs to be cultivated. However, there is one thing I know that I can grow, in fact, I can’t even kill it - mint. What started as one small plant has turned into an entire garden all on it’s own. It has taken over every other herb, plant and weed that grows behind our house. It has grown up under our deck and continues to spread.
Last summer I made the mistake of tilling the ground hoping it would cut the root and kill it once and for all. Big mistake! I came to find out later that this only serves to spread the mint because it is easily adaptable and can take root just about anywhere. On top of that, it is a “runner” meaning it doesn’t grow up it grows out, like a vine. Now, we can have grasshopper pie for days, months even!
No matter! I was determined to figure out how to rid our garden of mint once and for all. However, what I found out is that mint has to be uprooted. It cannot simply be cut off at the ground and left to die on its own. Yep, that doesn’t work, at all!
Idols are of the same temperament. They cannot simply be cut off they have to be uprooted and once uprooted, they have to be replaced! But how? How do we practically go about replacing idols. We’ve done the work of identifying our idols. We’ve looked at the lie in our right hand and God has graciously opened our eyes to see that it is a lie. Now, we sacrifice them.
First, we sacrifice them by sacrificing self. Let me explain. Do you remember learning that idolatry is really a means of exalting self above God? Well, if idolatry is about exaltation of self, and it is, then replacing idols requires dying to self. Idolatry is about self-preservation, self-protection, self-exaltation, self-image but being a disciple is about self-mortification or as David Platt puts it, “Slaying yourself.” In order to sacrifice self, whether a believer or an unbeliever, we must come face to face with the gospel, daily. Daily, we need to be reminded of our great sin, the greater Savior and the greatest gift of grace that is always free and always, by its very nature, undeserved! “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)
Jesus’ message has always been about dying to self. Until we die to self and find our life in Christ alone we will continue to erect idols over and over and over again. Just like mint, there will always be an idol, albeit hidden, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for us to bow down. Ladies, we cannot continue to rely on our own selves for anything! When we rely on our own righteousness (self-righteousness), our own works or our attempts to please the Lord with “good behavior” we are taking the power of the shed blood of Jesus and diluting it, we make it of no effect. We are turning blood into Kool-aid.
Instead of justification AND sanctification being by grace alone we begin to add in a little self.
We add in things like: daily study of the word, we add in church attendance or church participation, we add in generational faith or we attempt to please God with how good we’ve been. Then we put a little sugar on it to get it just the way we like it. We get rid of the bitterness and the parts that taste sour and we add in plenty of what makes us comfortable and in doing so the blood of Christ is unrecognizable.
But let’s face it, works is easier than faith. Works gives us a chart where we can measure out by gold stars how we are doing...more gold stars indicates how good we are. When works is taken out of the equation there is no way to determine how WE are doing - which is precisely the point. WE aren’t doing anything...this is grace...all Christ, all the time..Christ alone.
Our salvation is through grace alone so why would our sanctification be any different? It is all grace! When we grasp grace alone through Christ alone then we leave no reason to boast in self. We begin to die to self and die in our attempts to earn God’s favor. And almost without realizing it we begin replacing our idols with worship...worship of the One True God!
Second, we sacrifice idols by letting go of our self made delight and pursuing delight in the gospel, in Jesus and in grace. Psalm 37:4 states, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That sounds like a great verse doesn’t it? You mean I can have what I want? Well, if we have just learned that sacrificing idols is about dying to self then the focus of the verse is not us! The blessing in the second part of the verse hinges on the directive in the first part of the verse. We are commanded to delight in the Lord! And, let’s face it, sometimes delighting is hard.
Let me give you an example. I love my children. I know that I should delight in them and most of the time I do however, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when my children test my delight. Selah, mothers, selah. There are also times when others things in my life test my delight in my children. Stress, exhaustion, illness and trials are all times when I can find it hard to delight. In those times I have to make a conscious effort to delight in my children but I am to do it nonetheless.
The point is, as we pursue delight in the Lord and make that our focus we begin to have desires that line up with His. The more I love the Lord, the more I want what He wants and when He gets what He wants then amazingly, I do too! The tendency is to be selfish. The tendency is to hold our desires as ultimate and best for us. The tendency is to pursue God based on what He can do for me and not for who He is. Scripture teaches the exact opposite. Just as dying to self is contrary to our self-preservation. Delight in the Lord and wanting His desires are contrary to our self-interest. Thankfully, the gospel is about making me into someone I am NOT! Daily, I am being made into the person I am NOT and if you are a believer, you can testify...so are you! Yes, beloved, so are you!
In this study, you may have identified more idols in your life than you realized or you may have focused in on one particular idol. Regardless the Spirit is moving. You and I are here because the Lord has brought us to this place, at this time, for this message. He is speaking and when He speaks His mercy is on display. God is not obligated to open the eyes of our hearts or convict us one more day. Today, ladies, today is our day of repentance!
Won’t you respond now? Won’t you consciously visualize opening your fist and laying down the idols that have had sway in your life and grasp Jesus with both hands! The Lord has brought us out of slavery in order to give us freedom! Freedom in serving Him alone by grace alone. Let’s leave the idols in Egypt and sojourn to the Promised Land. Let’s live with clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord and never look back!
It’s time to throw the idol in the fire, wipe the ashes off your mouth and go in search of water. I know you must be thirsty, I am too. My soul is parched and languishing. There it is! It’s over there, by the well, Living Water is what He’s called. If you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. NEVER...THIRST...AGAIN!
Spring is just around the corner, hopefully, and with spring comes gardening. If you know me at all, you know my lament over having a black thumb! I want desperately to have a thriving, gorgeous, plentiful garden but alas, the soil is too rocky and I have no time to cultivate it the way it needs to be cultivated. However, there is one thing I know that I can grow, in fact, I can’t even kill it - mint. What started as one small plant has turned into an entire garden all on it’s own. It has taken over every other herb, plant and weed that grows behind our house. It has grown up under our deck and continues to spread.
Last summer I made the mistake of tilling the ground hoping it would cut the root and kill it once and for all. Big mistake! I came to find out later that this only serves to spread the mint because it is easily adaptable and can take root just about anywhere. On top of that, it is a “runner” meaning it doesn’t grow up it grows out, like a vine. Now, we can have grasshopper pie for days, months even!
No matter! I was determined to figure out how to rid our garden of mint once and for all. However, what I found out is that mint has to be uprooted. It cannot simply be cut off at the ground and left to die on its own. Yep, that doesn’t work, at all!
Idols are of the same temperament. They cannot simply be cut off they have to be uprooted and once uprooted, they have to be replaced! But how? How do we practically go about replacing idols. We’ve done the work of identifying our idols. We’ve looked at the lie in our right hand and God has graciously opened our eyes to see that it is a lie. Now, we sacrifice them.
First, we sacrifice them by sacrificing self. Let me explain. Do you remember learning that idolatry is really a means of exalting self above God? Well, if idolatry is about exaltation of self, and it is, then replacing idols requires dying to self. Idolatry is about self-preservation, self-protection, self-exaltation, self-image but being a disciple is about self-mortification or as David Platt puts it, “Slaying yourself.” In order to sacrifice self, whether a believer or an unbeliever, we must come face to face with the gospel, daily. Daily, we need to be reminded of our great sin, the greater Savior and the greatest gift of grace that is always free and always, by its very nature, undeserved! “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)
Jesus’ message has always been about dying to self. Until we die to self and find our life in Christ alone we will continue to erect idols over and over and over again. Just like mint, there will always be an idol, albeit hidden, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for us to bow down. Ladies, we cannot continue to rely on our own selves for anything! When we rely on our own righteousness (self-righteousness), our own works or our attempts to please the Lord with “good behavior” we are taking the power of the shed blood of Jesus and diluting it, we make it of no effect. We are turning blood into Kool-aid.
Instead of justification AND sanctification being by grace alone we begin to add in a little self.
We add in things like: daily study of the word, we add in church attendance or church participation, we add in generational faith or we attempt to please God with how good we’ve been. Then we put a little sugar on it to get it just the way we like it. We get rid of the bitterness and the parts that taste sour and we add in plenty of what makes us comfortable and in doing so the blood of Christ is unrecognizable.
But let’s face it, works is easier than faith. Works gives us a chart where we can measure out by gold stars how we are doing...more gold stars indicates how good we are. When works is taken out of the equation there is no way to determine how WE are doing - which is precisely the point. WE aren’t doing anything...this is grace...all Christ, all the time..Christ alone.
Our salvation is through grace alone so why would our sanctification be any different? It is all grace! When we grasp grace alone through Christ alone then we leave no reason to boast in self. We begin to die to self and die in our attempts to earn God’s favor. And almost without realizing it we begin replacing our idols with worship...worship of the One True God!
Second, we sacrifice idols by letting go of our self made delight and pursuing delight in the gospel, in Jesus and in grace. Psalm 37:4 states, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That sounds like a great verse doesn’t it? You mean I can have what I want? Well, if we have just learned that sacrificing idols is about dying to self then the focus of the verse is not us! The blessing in the second part of the verse hinges on the directive in the first part of the verse. We are commanded to delight in the Lord! And, let’s face it, sometimes delighting is hard.
Let me give you an example. I love my children. I know that I should delight in them and most of the time I do however, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when my children test my delight. Selah, mothers, selah. There are also times when others things in my life test my delight in my children. Stress, exhaustion, illness and trials are all times when I can find it hard to delight. In those times I have to make a conscious effort to delight in my children but I am to do it nonetheless.
The point is, as we pursue delight in the Lord and make that our focus we begin to have desires that line up with His. The more I love the Lord, the more I want what He wants and when He gets what He wants then amazingly, I do too! The tendency is to be selfish. The tendency is to hold our desires as ultimate and best for us. The tendency is to pursue God based on what He can do for me and not for who He is. Scripture teaches the exact opposite. Just as dying to self is contrary to our self-preservation. Delight in the Lord and wanting His desires are contrary to our self-interest. Thankfully, the gospel is about making me into someone I am NOT! Daily, I am being made into the person I am NOT and if you are a believer, you can testify...so are you! Yes, beloved, so are you!
In this study, you may have identified more idols in your life than you realized or you may have focused in on one particular idol. Regardless the Spirit is moving. You and I are here because the Lord has brought us to this place, at this time, for this message. He is speaking and when He speaks His mercy is on display. God is not obligated to open the eyes of our hearts or convict us one more day. Today, ladies, today is our day of repentance!
Won’t you respond now? Won’t you consciously visualize opening your fist and laying down the idols that have had sway in your life and grasp Jesus with both hands! The Lord has brought us out of slavery in order to give us freedom! Freedom in serving Him alone by grace alone. Let’s leave the idols in Egypt and sojourn to the Promised Land. Let’s live with clean hands and a pure heart before the Lord and never look back!
It’s time to throw the idol in the fire, wipe the ashes off your mouth and go in search of water. I know you must be thirsty, I am too. My soul is parched and languishing. There it is! It’s over there, by the well, Living Water is what He’s called. If you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. NEVER...THIRST...AGAIN!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Thirsty?
I don’t know about you but I enjoyed yesterday’s lesson so much! I love to extol the greatness and grace of our God! It brings me such joy to know that God has intervened for you and for me in the person of Jesus Christ, His work on the cross and the magnificent hope of His resurrection! We don’t have to go to God because He has come to us. What a God!
Today, we are going to focus our attention on the woman at the well. I want you to see a few things that are important here, especially for us as women. First, this woman was coming to the well in the middle of the day likely because she was a social outcast. Most women came to the well in groups early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. This would have been their time at the well. The fact that this woman was coming at Noon, in the heat of the day, coupled with what we find out later of her serial marriages could lead us to assume she was an outcast.
Second, she was a Samaritan. Samaritan’s were hated by the Jews and they were considered half-breeds. Heritage and being “pure-blooded” was important to maintaining purity in Jewish culture. The woman is so keenly aware of who she is that she states it, “I am a Samaritan woman...in case you haven’t noticed.”
Jesus never addresses her statement. He never focuses in on her “labels”, her gender, her nationality, he goes straight to the point. “My child, if you knew the depth of your thirst and who it is that says to you, “give me a drink”, you would have asked Him for water, living water.
We can see by the interaction that she is looking outside of herself for the answer. She doesn’t see a pitcher. She didn’t understand His words.
Again, Jesus bypasses her question. He says, Look, the water from this well is not the water I have to give. This water is temporal. It is outside of you. I have water that will be a well INSIDE of you, springing up to ETERNAL life. Again, the woman misses the point..”Sir, give me this water so that I can fill my temporal thirst and save me the trip here everyday...”
Many of us would be satisfied with temporal water, plain water, well-water. There have been so many times in my life where the Lord is teaching me, offering me fullness in Himself and I am focused on well-water. I WANT the well water. I don’t want the fullness of Christ. I am thirsty and content to have a temporary fix for my thirst. Eventually, it always leads me back to the well, thirsty again. Why is it we will look for the answer everywhere else except for Jesus first? Why is it that we are willing to try anything temporal before we look to the eternal?
In a word, rebellion. Our hearts are not naturally tuned to desire the things of God. Even as believers we still fight the sin nature that plagues our flesh. I have a tendency to give this woman a hard time but I am just like her! I want to look for every excuse in the world other than just doing what it is that I know I’m supposed to do. The answer is obvious but that’s not the answer I want. I don’t want Living Water, I want well-water because well-water will make me happy and satisfied for a time; because well-water will make my life easier for a time; because well-water is convenient.
Thankfully, as a believer, God gives us a new spirit and a new Spirit! We don’t have to be enslaved to the flesh and sin no longer has dominion over us! The process of growing in the Lord, also known as sanctification, gives us new tastes. Over time, the well-water doesn’t taste as good, it doesn’t satisfy as long and it becomes a burden to keep coming back to the well. Our palette becomes parched and we begin to see that Living Water is the only thing that completely satisfies!
Praise God for His patient pursuit of us! Let’s turn back to the woman. This time Jesus goes straight to the heart of this woman. He knows this will be the thing that grabs her attention. He is not only going to reveal His omniscience but He is about to confront her idol. Read v. 16-18.
Now, what does the woman do? She totally changes the subject! She is confronted with her sin and it hurts. She thinks talking “religion” with Him will get Him deterred but it doesn’t. Again, she begins to talk about things on the outside and Jesus abruptly and pointedly states, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” In other words, true worshipers will worship within themselves not by outward conformity to religious rituals. It’s not about a place..it is about your heart..what is on the inside!
And then I love how this ends: She is starting to get it and Jesus plainly states it for her, “I Who speak to you Am He! This brings tears to my eyes! A woman, of ill-repute, a social outcast is the one reason that Jesus had to go through Samaria (v.4) and the one to whom He plainly reveals Himself. In all of scripture it seems that Jesus is talking in parables and riddles and in phraseology that is at times over our heads but to this woman He comes out with it plain and clear, “I Who speak to you Am He.”
Ladies, the One Who speaks to us is He! The Living Water. This is the same fountain of living water that Jeremiah spoke of in Jeremiah 2! We must come to the fountain of living waters and find rest for our weary souls and complete satisfaction for our soul thirst!
What is this that satisfies? Living water. Water that comes from within, not from without. The Holy Spirit is a wellspring of life that bubbles up with effervescent, soul-satisfying water that quenches all of the hollow, thirsty longing of a dry, deadness resulting from sin. Tim Keller says, “you don’t need water splashed on your face; you need water that comes from even deeper down inside you than the thirst itself. “ Indeed! And Jesus supplies that...for those who will worship Him in spirit (from within) and truth (by the revealed word of God).
Replacing idols is about redirecting our worship. True worship fills us to the point that there is no room for worship of anything else. When we worship the one true God, His fullness is so complete that we don’t have room for anything else. Living water keeps us so full and satisfied that we never have a thirst for anything else.
When we worship in spirit, we worship from within, from our hearts. When we worship in truth, we worship through the truth of the revealed word of God. We must expose ourselves consistently to the worship of Him through the Word! God has provided us with living water and invited us to drink freely from what satisfies completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Drink up!
Today, we are going to focus our attention on the woman at the well. I want you to see a few things that are important here, especially for us as women. First, this woman was coming to the well in the middle of the day likely because she was a social outcast. Most women came to the well in groups early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. This would have been their time at the well. The fact that this woman was coming at Noon, in the heat of the day, coupled with what we find out later of her serial marriages could lead us to assume she was an outcast.
Second, she was a Samaritan. Samaritan’s were hated by the Jews and they were considered half-breeds. Heritage and being “pure-blooded” was important to maintaining purity in Jewish culture. The woman is so keenly aware of who she is that she states it, “I am a Samaritan woman...in case you haven’t noticed.”
Jesus never addresses her statement. He never focuses in on her “labels”, her gender, her nationality, he goes straight to the point. “My child, if you knew the depth of your thirst and who it is that says to you, “give me a drink”, you would have asked Him for water, living water.
We can see by the interaction that she is looking outside of herself for the answer. She doesn’t see a pitcher. She didn’t understand His words.
Again, Jesus bypasses her question. He says, Look, the water from this well is not the water I have to give. This water is temporal. It is outside of you. I have water that will be a well INSIDE of you, springing up to ETERNAL life. Again, the woman misses the point..”Sir, give me this water so that I can fill my temporal thirst and save me the trip here everyday...”
Many of us would be satisfied with temporal water, plain water, well-water. There have been so many times in my life where the Lord is teaching me, offering me fullness in Himself and I am focused on well-water. I WANT the well water. I don’t want the fullness of Christ. I am thirsty and content to have a temporary fix for my thirst. Eventually, it always leads me back to the well, thirsty again. Why is it we will look for the answer everywhere else except for Jesus first? Why is it that we are willing to try anything temporal before we look to the eternal?
In a word, rebellion. Our hearts are not naturally tuned to desire the things of God. Even as believers we still fight the sin nature that plagues our flesh. I have a tendency to give this woman a hard time but I am just like her! I want to look for every excuse in the world other than just doing what it is that I know I’m supposed to do. The answer is obvious but that’s not the answer I want. I don’t want Living Water, I want well-water because well-water will make me happy and satisfied for a time; because well-water will make my life easier for a time; because well-water is convenient.
Thankfully, as a believer, God gives us a new spirit and a new Spirit! We don’t have to be enslaved to the flesh and sin no longer has dominion over us! The process of growing in the Lord, also known as sanctification, gives us new tastes. Over time, the well-water doesn’t taste as good, it doesn’t satisfy as long and it becomes a burden to keep coming back to the well. Our palette becomes parched and we begin to see that Living Water is the only thing that completely satisfies!
Praise God for His patient pursuit of us! Let’s turn back to the woman. This time Jesus goes straight to the heart of this woman. He knows this will be the thing that grabs her attention. He is not only going to reveal His omniscience but He is about to confront her idol. Read v. 16-18.
Now, what does the woman do? She totally changes the subject! She is confronted with her sin and it hurts. She thinks talking “religion” with Him will get Him deterred but it doesn’t. Again, she begins to talk about things on the outside and Jesus abruptly and pointedly states, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” In other words, true worshipers will worship within themselves not by outward conformity to religious rituals. It’s not about a place..it is about your heart..what is on the inside!
And then I love how this ends: She is starting to get it and Jesus plainly states it for her, “I Who speak to you Am He! This brings tears to my eyes! A woman, of ill-repute, a social outcast is the one reason that Jesus had to go through Samaria (v.4) and the one to whom He plainly reveals Himself. In all of scripture it seems that Jesus is talking in parables and riddles and in phraseology that is at times over our heads but to this woman He comes out with it plain and clear, “I Who speak to you Am He.”
Ladies, the One Who speaks to us is He! The Living Water. This is the same fountain of living water that Jeremiah spoke of in Jeremiah 2! We must come to the fountain of living waters and find rest for our weary souls and complete satisfaction for our soul thirst!
What is this that satisfies? Living water. Water that comes from within, not from without. The Holy Spirit is a wellspring of life that bubbles up with effervescent, soul-satisfying water that quenches all of the hollow, thirsty longing of a dry, deadness resulting from sin. Tim Keller says, “you don’t need water splashed on your face; you need water that comes from even deeper down inside you than the thirst itself. “ Indeed! And Jesus supplies that...for those who will worship Him in spirit (from within) and truth (by the revealed word of God).
Replacing idols is about redirecting our worship. True worship fills us to the point that there is no room for worship of anything else. When we worship the one true God, His fullness is so complete that we don’t have room for anything else. Living water keeps us so full and satisfied that we never have a thirst for anything else.
When we worship in spirit, we worship from within, from our hearts. When we worship in truth, we worship through the truth of the revealed word of God. We must expose ourselves consistently to the worship of Him through the Word! God has provided us with living water and invited us to drink freely from what satisfies completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Drink up!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
God Intervenes
Yesterday, we got a vivid and accurate picture of what we look like when we attempt to make temporal things fill the eternal “soul hole” that is within us. You might have heard it referred to as a “God-shaped” hole and although I don’t think that we are running around with little holes in our bodies shaped like God, the analogy is sufficient. We were made to be eternal. Believers and unbelievers alike will live forever. The difference comes down to where we will spend eternity and who secures that for us.
For the unbeliever, eternity is secured all by ourselves. We don’t need an Advocate, a Savior, a Redeemer or a Substitute. Hell is already ours and to earn it all we have to do is draw breath. This is the pinnacle of self-reliance. When we fully rely on ourselves to secure our eternity we are fully able to do so. But it is an eternity based on our own merit and not the holy perfection that is required to enter God’s heaven. Our own merit is always flawed, always lacking, always missing the mark because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Hell is about me feeling sufficient in my own ability to secure eternity and doing it my way.
On the other hand, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” So, clearly Jesus Christ is the only One who can secure heavenly eternity for us. Heaven belongs to God and He has graciously provided a way for us to abide with Him there but it is the way of His choosing. Amazingly, the way is free. It isn’t without sacrifice, but it is free. Furthermore, God is so good not to conceal the way to get there. He isn’t unclear or mysterious about how to gain heaven. Lastly, what grace that we would even be given an option! Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that WE would have the ability to be called children of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf! All that is required of us to believe! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in Him should not perish but have eternal LIFE” (John 3:16). Praise God!
Today, we will encounter a woman who has clearly been doing things her way. She is flawed, lacking, missing the mark and completely self-reliant. Her life is filled with the idols of relationship, emotion, control and image. On one seemingly random day, God intervenes...
Read John 4:7-26
When Jesus meets the woman at the well she has done a poor, although consistent job of trying to find satisfaction from outside of herself. She has tried relationship after relationship. She has most likely at some point elevated control and emotions to a level of idolatry in her life and now she is thirsty and she just wants a drink of water.
I can only imagine that this woman looks haggard. The years of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations show on her face. The area around the well is quiet as she approaches and seeing a man sitting there she probably kept her distance. Suddenly the man speaks to her and God intervenes.
Tomorrow we will take a closer look at this scene as it unravels but for now I want to draw your attention to Jesus. Jesus’ presence in this woman’s life is not random. Jesus left Judea headed to Galilee but one statement, often overlooked, in v.4 shows His deliberate pursuit of this one woman. Verse four states, “He HAD TO pass through Samaria.” In Jewish culture, the Samaritans were so hated by the Jews that Jews took the long way around in order to avoid passing through Samaria. But Jesus, had to go. He had to go because before the foundation of the world He had an appointment with this woman at the well. What seemed random to her, was divinely appointed by God. This day, God would intervene in this woman’s eternal destiny.
The same is true of the cross. What seemed a random death to the onlookers that day at Golgotha was divinely appointed by God. A plan that was set in motion when the first day of creation began and a plan that continues on until the final return of Christ. That plan converged on Calvary’s Hill. Calvary is the crux, the apex of history. It was not some random event sprinkled in history. Ladies, that plan is what history is all about. God intervenes.
What circumstance in your life, seemingly random, is God using to intervene? Where is God intervening in order to draw you to the Way, the Truth and the Life? What idols are being revealed that keep you sitting by the fire? To the unbeliever, confess your sin today and BELIEVE in God’s intervention into your eternity through Jesus!
To the believer, the cross is where God first intervened into your eternity and it is where you are continually reminded that God still intervenes for you today. Our hope lies in the cross alone. Jesus HAD TO go to the cross for you and for me. It is the place that we HAVE TO go to to revive our hearts, rekindle our passion and refocus our worship. Won’t you go there today?
For the unbeliever, eternity is secured all by ourselves. We don’t need an Advocate, a Savior, a Redeemer or a Substitute. Hell is already ours and to earn it all we have to do is draw breath. This is the pinnacle of self-reliance. When we fully rely on ourselves to secure our eternity we are fully able to do so. But it is an eternity based on our own merit and not the holy perfection that is required to enter God’s heaven. Our own merit is always flawed, always lacking, always missing the mark because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Hell is about me feeling sufficient in my own ability to secure eternity and doing it my way.
On the other hand, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” So, clearly Jesus Christ is the only One who can secure heavenly eternity for us. Heaven belongs to God and He has graciously provided a way for us to abide with Him there but it is the way of His choosing. Amazingly, the way is free. It isn’t without sacrifice, but it is free. Furthermore, God is so good not to conceal the way to get there. He isn’t unclear or mysterious about how to gain heaven. Lastly, what grace that we would even be given an option! Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that WE would have the ability to be called children of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf! All that is required of us to believe! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in Him should not perish but have eternal LIFE” (John 3:16). Praise God!
Today, we will encounter a woman who has clearly been doing things her way. She is flawed, lacking, missing the mark and completely self-reliant. Her life is filled with the idols of relationship, emotion, control and image. On one seemingly random day, God intervenes...
Read John 4:7-26
When Jesus meets the woman at the well she has done a poor, although consistent job of trying to find satisfaction from outside of herself. She has tried relationship after relationship. She has most likely at some point elevated control and emotions to a level of idolatry in her life and now she is thirsty and she just wants a drink of water.
I can only imagine that this woman looks haggard. The years of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations show on her face. The area around the well is quiet as she approaches and seeing a man sitting there she probably kept her distance. Suddenly the man speaks to her and God intervenes.
Tomorrow we will take a closer look at this scene as it unravels but for now I want to draw your attention to Jesus. Jesus’ presence in this woman’s life is not random. Jesus left Judea headed to Galilee but one statement, often overlooked, in v.4 shows His deliberate pursuit of this one woman. Verse four states, “He HAD TO pass through Samaria.” In Jewish culture, the Samaritans were so hated by the Jews that Jews took the long way around in order to avoid passing through Samaria. But Jesus, had to go. He had to go because before the foundation of the world He had an appointment with this woman at the well. What seemed random to her, was divinely appointed by God. This day, God would intervene in this woman’s eternal destiny.
The same is true of the cross. What seemed a random death to the onlookers that day at Golgotha was divinely appointed by God. A plan that was set in motion when the first day of creation began and a plan that continues on until the final return of Christ. That plan converged on Calvary’s Hill. Calvary is the crux, the apex of history. It was not some random event sprinkled in history. Ladies, that plan is what history is all about. God intervenes.
What circumstance in your life, seemingly random, is God using to intervene? Where is God intervening in order to draw you to the Way, the Truth and the Life? What idols are being revealed that keep you sitting by the fire? To the unbeliever, confess your sin today and BELIEVE in God’s intervention into your eternity through Jesus!
To the believer, the cross is where God first intervened into your eternity and it is where you are continually reminded that God still intervenes for you today. Our hope lies in the cross alone. Jesus HAD TO go to the cross for you and for me. It is the place that we HAVE TO go to to revive our hearts, rekindle our passion and refocus our worship. Won’t you go there today?
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Filling the "Soul Hole"
“As long as you think there is a pretty good chance that you will achieve some of your dreams, as long as you think you have a shot at success, you experience your inner emptiness as ‘drive’ and your anxiety as ‘hope.’ And so you can remain almost completely oblivious to how deep your thirst actually is. Most of us keep telling ourselves that the reason we remain unfulfilled is because we simply haven’t been able to achieve our goals. And so we can live almost our entire lives without admitting to ourselves the depth of our spiritual thirst.” ~ Tim Keller
I hope that each of you had a wonderful week leading up to Easter. What a glorious time in our lives as believers to celebrate the hope we have in Christ! Now it’s time to get down to business and close the book on our study of idolatry. Just to recap: We spent the first week doing a great deal of background work on idolatry. We learned about the importance of confessing and forsaking our sin. We also studied God’s love through His rightful rule in our lives. Then, in week two, we looked at four different idols that we are prone to as women. The idols of relationship, emotion, control and image are always lurking around the corner. Thankfully, this week, we are going to learn what it means to uproot and replace our idols with the fullness that God has provided us in Christ!
Ladies, it has been a long journey over the last two weeks. It has been a painful journey as we have allowed our hearts to be searched by the Holy Spirit and no doubt, many idols have been revealed. I don’t know about you but as I uncover idols in my own life I am ashamed, embarrassed and overwhelmed by my blindness. I want us to get a good look at the picture scripture paints of us when idols take hold of our lives.
Turn to Is. 44:9-20
This passage continues to run over and over in my mind when I think about how deceived we become in our own lusts and sin. Why do we feast on ashes? Because a deceived heart turns us aside! Isn’t this the very first thing we studied at the beginning of week two as we began to identify idols? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Idolatry has a way of skewing our feelings, our actions and our thoughts. When it’s something so important to us we become irrational, it becomes magnified and more important than it should be. In “Lord of the Rings” connotation, it becomes our “Precious”. We can’t see the truth - we can’t back up to focus. We can’t see that the thing in our right hand is a lie!
When I look back at my biggest trials I can see that the Lord was merciful in opening my hand. But, the prying open of my hand hurt!! It hurt to realize that I had been feeding on ashes and happy about it! I can just see us sitting around the fire with black soot around our mouths from the ashes we have been eating, tightly gripping our idols, unable to see that the things we are holding onto are lies!
Lies that a relationship will make us whole. Lies that we can control everything in our lives and those around us. Lies that our emotions are paramount. Lies that image is everything.
This is no way for the children of God to live yet, we cannot deliver ourselves. Our will power will only suffice for a time and the enemy never tries anything new. Eventually, we will find ourselves right back in front of the fire...worshipping.
Simply put, idolatry is misguided worship. Misguided worship takes temporal things and elevates them to the eternal position. In the passage we just read in Isaiah 44 we see the absurdity of making an idol out of a tree, using that same tree for firewood that cooks food and makes heat then bowing down to the same tree. This is the example of how foolish it is for us to make temporal things our god.
God told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
This is us! We have forsaken Jesus, the fountain of living waters and we have hewn broken cisterns for ourselves that can hold no water. The first, forsaking the Lord, has enabled us to do the second, carving our own broken cisterns. We must come back to the fountain of living waters and replace our idols with worship that occurs in spirit and in truth.
Just as drinking a cup of water will only satisfy our thirst temporarily, our soul remains thirsty until it is quenched by an eternal, living water. There is nothing temporal that can quench an eternal thirst.
Jesus preached this very thing in the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.” These are not fleshly appetites and they are not satisfied with fleshly things. The thing that the eternal part of us longs for can only be filled by something eternal. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of spirit is spirit and that which is born of flesh is flesh (John 3:6). In other words, this isn’t another law for you to follow. This isn’t another thing for you to try and cram into the “soul” hole. This satisfies, completely because it is soul satisfaction.
As in Tim Keller’s quote at the start of this lesson, we often believe that satisfaction and happiness in life is dependent upon something outside of us. If I were to ask you, “What would make you happy?” Most likely you would look outside of yourself for the answer to that question. You would look to relationships, control, emotions and image. Ultimately, you would look to your circumstances right? But what if you could have satisfaction that is not based on something outside of you? Something not based on your circumstances?
I hope that each of you had a wonderful week leading up to Easter. What a glorious time in our lives as believers to celebrate the hope we have in Christ! Now it’s time to get down to business and close the book on our study of idolatry. Just to recap: We spent the first week doing a great deal of background work on idolatry. We learned about the importance of confessing and forsaking our sin. We also studied God’s love through His rightful rule in our lives. Then, in week two, we looked at four different idols that we are prone to as women. The idols of relationship, emotion, control and image are always lurking around the corner. Thankfully, this week, we are going to learn what it means to uproot and replace our idols with the fullness that God has provided us in Christ!
Ladies, it has been a long journey over the last two weeks. It has been a painful journey as we have allowed our hearts to be searched by the Holy Spirit and no doubt, many idols have been revealed. I don’t know about you but as I uncover idols in my own life I am ashamed, embarrassed and overwhelmed by my blindness. I want us to get a good look at the picture scripture paints of us when idols take hold of our lives.
Turn to Is. 44:9-20
This passage continues to run over and over in my mind when I think about how deceived we become in our own lusts and sin. Why do we feast on ashes? Because a deceived heart turns us aside! Isn’t this the very first thing we studied at the beginning of week two as we began to identify idols? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Idolatry has a way of skewing our feelings, our actions and our thoughts. When it’s something so important to us we become irrational, it becomes magnified and more important than it should be. In “Lord of the Rings” connotation, it becomes our “Precious”. We can’t see the truth - we can’t back up to focus. We can’t see that the thing in our right hand is a lie!
When I look back at my biggest trials I can see that the Lord was merciful in opening my hand. But, the prying open of my hand hurt!! It hurt to realize that I had been feeding on ashes and happy about it! I can just see us sitting around the fire with black soot around our mouths from the ashes we have been eating, tightly gripping our idols, unable to see that the things we are holding onto are lies!
Lies that a relationship will make us whole. Lies that we can control everything in our lives and those around us. Lies that our emotions are paramount. Lies that image is everything.
This is no way for the children of God to live yet, we cannot deliver ourselves. Our will power will only suffice for a time and the enemy never tries anything new. Eventually, we will find ourselves right back in front of the fire...worshipping.
Simply put, idolatry is misguided worship. Misguided worship takes temporal things and elevates them to the eternal position. In the passage we just read in Isaiah 44 we see the absurdity of making an idol out of a tree, using that same tree for firewood that cooks food and makes heat then bowing down to the same tree. This is the example of how foolish it is for us to make temporal things our god.
God told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13
This is us! We have forsaken Jesus, the fountain of living waters and we have hewn broken cisterns for ourselves that can hold no water. The first, forsaking the Lord, has enabled us to do the second, carving our own broken cisterns. We must come back to the fountain of living waters and replace our idols with worship that occurs in spirit and in truth.
Just as drinking a cup of water will only satisfy our thirst temporarily, our soul remains thirsty until it is quenched by an eternal, living water. There is nothing temporal that can quench an eternal thirst.
Jesus preached this very thing in the Beatitudes. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says, “those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.” These are not fleshly appetites and they are not satisfied with fleshly things. The thing that the eternal part of us longs for can only be filled by something eternal. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of spirit is spirit and that which is born of flesh is flesh (John 3:6). In other words, this isn’t another law for you to follow. This isn’t another thing for you to try and cram into the “soul” hole. This satisfies, completely because it is soul satisfaction.
As in Tim Keller’s quote at the start of this lesson, we often believe that satisfaction and happiness in life is dependent upon something outside of us. If I were to ask you, “What would make you happy?” Most likely you would look outside of yourself for the answer to that question. You would look to relationships, control, emotions and image. Ultimately, you would look to your circumstances right? But what if you could have satisfaction that is not based on something outside of you? Something not based on your circumstances?
Monday, March 25, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Idol #4: Image
Last day girls! Here we go! The last idol that we are prone to is the idol of image. Examples of this would be appearance, keeping up with the Joneses, health, youth, exercise, weight, material things, homes, cars, vacations, status, money.
Well, if you have lived in Western culture longer than five minutes you might have gotten caught up in at least one of these categories! We are laden down with images of what we should be everywhere we turn! Marketers have made a fortune recognizing the gap of satisfaction we are always trying to fill and they work to help us “stuff” something into it that will temporarily fix the problem.
No, it’s not eye cream, it’s dark circle corrector, no it’s not for bags it’s for thinning skin, no it’s not like a moisturizing cream, it’s like an exfoliant...etc; Who can keep up with it?
I recently watched an interview with Apple’s new CEO and he said their employee marketing slogan is: “Creating things you never knew you wanted but after getting them realizing you can’t live without them!” And that is the nature of marketing in our country on every front. Ladies, we have to be wise enough to identify the subtle deceit and realize that these temporary things will never satisfy the eternal longing within us. Eternal people need more than temporal things to satisfy..that is why the eternal God is the only thing that fits the eternal longing within us!
If you are chasing things whether it be image, health (for the baby-boomer - no price is too high for vitamins, premium food, healthcare etc;), youth (the surge in botox, juvederm parties etc;), money and things you will find satisfaction for a time. Let’s face it: there are some high watermarks in our lives when these things satisfy: the new car, the new house, the new dress, the goal on the scale, the goal at the gym, the promotion, the bonus, the vacation etc; But if you have lived any time at all you realize that the longing will creep up before the ink is dry on the promotion and the luggage is put away from vacation. This, in and of itself, should be enough to keep us from idolizing image...but it doesn’t!
Another way we idolize image is being obsessed with what others think of us. Putting up fronts, pretending to be something we aren’t or a lack of transparency are all ways that we guard our images. Social media has created a whole world around “cyber” images. People can morph and shape themselves into who they really want to be by carefully crafting posts, displaying only favorable pictures of themselves and overall “marketing” themselves in a “half-the-story” kind of way. This consistently perpetuates the idol of image among us.
Turn to 2 Samuel 6:13-16; 20-23
Michal was Saul’s daughter and David’s first wife. In this passage David is caught up in pure worship before the Lord. The ark has been absent from Jerusalem for some time and it is finally being brought back to its rightful place. God’s presence was back among His people and David was ecstatic, grateful and caught up in worship.
However, Michal, more concerned with image than anything else, including worship. She despised David in her heart and then she dressed him down with her words. Essentially she was saying, “You’re the king! Why are you acting like an undignified commoner, dancing around in the street wearing clothes like that?”
Michal was more concerned with image than she was worship. I know someone else who was more concerned with image than worship - Martha. We won’t turn there but Martha was more concerned with making sure she was seen as a good hostess rather than worshipping Jesus. Ladies, this is dangerous territory. When we become so concerned with image that we fail to worship we usurp the Lord’s blessing and invite His discipline!
How many times have we felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and failed to act on it at the end of a service because of image? How many times have we been motivated to give to missions or an effort in the church but failed to give because we wanted that money for our own comfort? How many times have we been moved to speak up or step up to a greater level of holiness in our lives but concern over what people thought has held us back? There are times when we want to raise our hands in worship but we don’t because of image. God help us when we become like the Pharisees and we are more concerned with the praise of men instead of the praise of God!
Thankfully, there is one woman in scripture who cared nothing about her image. Turn to Luke 7:36-39;
This woman is also known as the woman with the alabaster flask. Scripture is clear that in contrast to the Pharisees she was a “sinner”. The literal translation is “immoral woman” and it is likely she was a prostitute. It’s interesting that this would be her description considering that whether you are moral or immoral you are still a sinner. The difference was she was a sinner that knew it! And her need for a Savior, her need to worship the Savior superseded any worry over image.
You see, first, she was a woman. There would have been no women invited to this meal. Women were not among the invited guests. Second, she was a prostitute which made her presence even more scandalous. Thirdly, she would have “made a scene” with her weeping. She was crying so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipe the tears with her hair. I don’t picture her silently crying. I almost picture uncontrollable weeping where the tears just won’t stop. Lastly, you would have smelled her presence. Taking a costly vial of perfume, she poured out the expense on the feet of her Savior. Her worship could not be ignored!
In light of all of the idols we have studied today, here is one woman, who remains nameless that goes down in the scriptures for her worship. She had no care for relationship, she had no care for control, she had no care for emotion and she had no care for image. She only cared about worship..at any cost.
When we come encounter the Savior all idols fall at His feet. We become consumed with worship of the One True God, at all costs. True worship is costly. It costs our pride, our relationships, our control, our emotions and our image; it costs our very lives. We lay ourselves at the feet of Jesus and surrender ourselves over as a sweet smelling sacrifice. Ladies, what are you holding onto that is worth more to you than Jesus? Lay it down today!
Well, if you have lived in Western culture longer than five minutes you might have gotten caught up in at least one of these categories! We are laden down with images of what we should be everywhere we turn! Marketers have made a fortune recognizing the gap of satisfaction we are always trying to fill and they work to help us “stuff” something into it that will temporarily fix the problem.
No, it’s not eye cream, it’s dark circle corrector, no it’s not for bags it’s for thinning skin, no it’s not like a moisturizing cream, it’s like an exfoliant...etc; Who can keep up with it?
I recently watched an interview with Apple’s new CEO and he said their employee marketing slogan is: “Creating things you never knew you wanted but after getting them realizing you can’t live without them!” And that is the nature of marketing in our country on every front. Ladies, we have to be wise enough to identify the subtle deceit and realize that these temporary things will never satisfy the eternal longing within us. Eternal people need more than temporal things to satisfy..that is why the eternal God is the only thing that fits the eternal longing within us!
If you are chasing things whether it be image, health (for the baby-boomer - no price is too high for vitamins, premium food, healthcare etc;), youth (the surge in botox, juvederm parties etc;), money and things you will find satisfaction for a time. Let’s face it: there are some high watermarks in our lives when these things satisfy: the new car, the new house, the new dress, the goal on the scale, the goal at the gym, the promotion, the bonus, the vacation etc; But if you have lived any time at all you realize that the longing will creep up before the ink is dry on the promotion and the luggage is put away from vacation. This, in and of itself, should be enough to keep us from idolizing image...but it doesn’t!
Another way we idolize image is being obsessed with what others think of us. Putting up fronts, pretending to be something we aren’t or a lack of transparency are all ways that we guard our images. Social media has created a whole world around “cyber” images. People can morph and shape themselves into who they really want to be by carefully crafting posts, displaying only favorable pictures of themselves and overall “marketing” themselves in a “half-the-story” kind of way. This consistently perpetuates the idol of image among us.
Turn to 2 Samuel 6:13-16; 20-23
Michal was Saul’s daughter and David’s first wife. In this passage David is caught up in pure worship before the Lord. The ark has been absent from Jerusalem for some time and it is finally being brought back to its rightful place. God’s presence was back among His people and David was ecstatic, grateful and caught up in worship.
However, Michal, more concerned with image than anything else, including worship. She despised David in her heart and then she dressed him down with her words. Essentially she was saying, “You’re the king! Why are you acting like an undignified commoner, dancing around in the street wearing clothes like that?”
Michal was more concerned with image than she was worship. I know someone else who was more concerned with image than worship - Martha. We won’t turn there but Martha was more concerned with making sure she was seen as a good hostess rather than worshipping Jesus. Ladies, this is dangerous territory. When we become so concerned with image that we fail to worship we usurp the Lord’s blessing and invite His discipline!
How many times have we felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and failed to act on it at the end of a service because of image? How many times have we been motivated to give to missions or an effort in the church but failed to give because we wanted that money for our own comfort? How many times have we been moved to speak up or step up to a greater level of holiness in our lives but concern over what people thought has held us back? There are times when we want to raise our hands in worship but we don’t because of image. God help us when we become like the Pharisees and we are more concerned with the praise of men instead of the praise of God!
Thankfully, there is one woman in scripture who cared nothing about her image. Turn to Luke 7:36-39;
This woman is also known as the woman with the alabaster flask. Scripture is clear that in contrast to the Pharisees she was a “sinner”. The literal translation is “immoral woman” and it is likely she was a prostitute. It’s interesting that this would be her description considering that whether you are moral or immoral you are still a sinner. The difference was she was a sinner that knew it! And her need for a Savior, her need to worship the Savior superseded any worry over image.
You see, first, she was a woman. There would have been no women invited to this meal. Women were not among the invited guests. Second, she was a prostitute which made her presence even more scandalous. Thirdly, she would have “made a scene” with her weeping. She was crying so much that she was able to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipe the tears with her hair. I don’t picture her silently crying. I almost picture uncontrollable weeping where the tears just won’t stop. Lastly, you would have smelled her presence. Taking a costly vial of perfume, she poured out the expense on the feet of her Savior. Her worship could not be ignored!
In light of all of the idols we have studied today, here is one woman, who remains nameless that goes down in the scriptures for her worship. She had no care for relationship, she had no care for control, she had no care for emotion and she had no care for image. She only cared about worship..at any cost.
When we come encounter the Savior all idols fall at His feet. We become consumed with worship of the One True God, at all costs. True worship is costly. It costs our pride, our relationships, our control, our emotions and our image; it costs our very lives. We lay ourselves at the feet of Jesus and surrender ourselves over as a sweet smelling sacrifice. Ladies, what are you holding onto that is worth more to you than Jesus? Lay it down today!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Idol #3: Emotions
Okay, girls, almost there! Today we will study the third idol we are prone to as women: the idol of emotion. This manifests itself when an emotion becomes the driving force behind our lives. Examples would be: loneliness, anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, envy, hatred, sorrow, happiness, euphoria, comfort, nostalgia.
Let me elaborate on this definition. Do you remember the question from the very first day’s Q&A: “Analyze your most uncontrollable emotions, especially those that are most painful. Do they drive you to do things you know are wrong?” Often times we have a tendency to allow our emotions to become idols. When emotions go unconfessed they can fester into emotional idols. Emotions like anger when unconfessed can fester into revenge or bitterness can eventually lead to hatred. Emotions like envy when unconfessed can lead to covetousness and so on.
Have you ever come across someone who is angry? You may not even have anything to do with the real reason behind their anger but you just happen to be the target for the moment. When we allow emotions to become idols they eat away at us and eventually take over our lives.
Last year about this time there was a blog series that dealt with forgiveness and the sin of holding onto a past hurt. This is an example of idolizing emotions. When we take things that have happened to us in the past and continue to use them as excuses for the future then we can be sure we are taken up with an idol. We have allowed that circumstance to keep us from future blessing and obedience and ladies, this is sin!
Remember when we talked about flourishing or thriving? What was the verse? Proverbs 28:13, “She who conceals sin will not prosper (flourish or thrive). This is exactly what this verse is talking about! Hidden and unconfessed sin will keep us from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing.
So we have established that negative emotions like sorrow, loneliness, jealousy, envy and resentment, if not confessed will be our idol. There are certain things that serve as good indicators of emotional idolatry. The first indicator is if you are always telling yourself, “No one understands how I feel, they just don’t understand - they don’t know what it’s like to be me!” A second indicator is a desire or actually going so far as to only identify with other people who share the same emotional idol! Be very wary when you get to this point because likely you have isolated yourself and made your emotion, whatever it is, your God.
Does the name Wanda Webb Holloway mean anything to you? Probably not. Until I say, “The Texas cheerleader Mom”. Wanda Holloway’s daughter, Shanna, didn’t make the JUNIOR HIGH cheerleading squad. Wanda was so angry over her daughter’s loss that she hired a hitman to murder the mother of cheerleading rival in hopes that the girl would be so distraught that she would quit the squad thereby giving Shanna an opportunity.
Wow! In reading the details the story sounds so extreme. However, I would chance to say that Wanda Holloway was a normal mother who, prior to the incident with her daughter, would have said that this story was extreme as well. This is a prime example of how emotions when unconfessed can cause us to act out in ways that are out of character and often evil.
So, I think we understand how anger can spiral out of control but what about other emotions. I want to give one other example before we move on. My father-in-law passed away in February of 2012. My mother-in-law immediately found herself thrust into a life alone after fifty three years of marriage. Her response out of her grief could have caused her to turn inward, isolate herself and fall into despair. She could had chosen to exclude herself from anyone that couldn’t identify with her loss. Instead, she allowed the Lord to walk with her through the water, holding tight to His promises. I am consistently amazed at how well she is doing because she has relied completely on the Lord in her grief.
But what about emotions like happiness, comfort, euphoria or nostalgia? How could these seemingly good emotions become idols? When they lead us to unrealistic expectations or we are constantly searching for the high of these emotions then they have become idols. Unmet expectations, expectations that are unattainable and cycles of disappointment are indications that you may be harboring one of these “positive” emotions as an idol.
Now, I get to tell on myself. Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love everything surrounding the season from over decorating, overeating and over giving. As far as I’m concerned, one cannot have enough lights, tinsel, cookies, fireside chats, church activities, wrapping, carols etc; I usually start as soon as Thanksgiving is over and begin the planning of menus, festivities and all around merriment that lasts through December 31st.
The holidays represent the best of Jesus, family, food, memories and rest. But this year, Christmas didn’t come to the McBride house...just the flu. On the 23rd, Landon came down with the flu. On Christmas Eve, Kraig hit the deck and needless to say, our home was full of halle’flu’jah instead of hallelujah. I spent my day cleaning and trying very hard not to be angry over the fact that I had completely missed Christmas! And, just to continue the fun, Kraig went back to the doctor on New Year’s Eve with double pnuemonia!! I really felt like this was some kind of cruel joke set off by Ebenezer Scrooge!
In that time, I laid my heart bare before the Lord and asked Him to reveal to me why I was ready to jump off a cliff over one day on the calendar! Of course the Lord is always teaching lessons to me before I pass them on to you! I had been working on my lessons so I didn’t have to look very far to see clearly the idol in my heart. I had idolized the emotional high surrounding the holidays. I had worked so hard to get everything perfect so that I could relish the euphoria rather than the Savior. My focus had become the season not the reason for it.
The truth is, December 25th is just another day on the calendar. Christmas, the way the world celebrates, is so far off the mark that sometimes it is good to be reminded why we have Christ-mas. The date is not the point. But Christ coming to seek and to save begins with a baby in a manager and that makes everyday on the calendar Christmas! It was good for me to have my heart emptied, my idol confessed and my priorities re-oriented on Jesus as my greatest gift.
Now let’s look at our biblical examples. They come out of the same passage of scripture however, one shunned and one clung.
Turn to Ruth 1:1-21
Our example of someone who let her emotions become her idol is Naomi. You can almost see the decline of her emotional grief into an idol in this chapter. She begins in verse 11 and by verse 13 she is in total despair. Once she reaches Bethlehem in verse 20 she is scornful toward those who are welcoming to her. You can almost hear the scorn in her voice as she speaks.
On the contrary, look at Ruth’s response. Ruth has suffered great loss as well but has chosen to trust the Lord with her hurt. The entire book focuses in on the godly character of Ruth, her complete dependence on the Lord and her eventual place in the lineage of Christ! I love it! I love the fact that God is so faithful to His people when we allow Him rightful rule in our lives! What emotion are you allowing ultimate place in your life? What emotion is driving you? If it’s not gratitude motivated by the grace that covers your sin then chances are, it is an idol that needs to be uprooted. Grab your shovel, hit your knees and get to work!
Let me elaborate on this definition. Do you remember the question from the very first day’s Q&A: “Analyze your most uncontrollable emotions, especially those that are most painful. Do they drive you to do things you know are wrong?” Often times we have a tendency to allow our emotions to become idols. When emotions go unconfessed they can fester into emotional idols. Emotions like anger when unconfessed can fester into revenge or bitterness can eventually lead to hatred. Emotions like envy when unconfessed can lead to covetousness and so on.
Have you ever come across someone who is angry? You may not even have anything to do with the real reason behind their anger but you just happen to be the target for the moment. When we allow emotions to become idols they eat away at us and eventually take over our lives.
Last year about this time there was a blog series that dealt with forgiveness and the sin of holding onto a past hurt. This is an example of idolizing emotions. When we take things that have happened to us in the past and continue to use them as excuses for the future then we can be sure we are taken up with an idol. We have allowed that circumstance to keep us from future blessing and obedience and ladies, this is sin!
Remember when we talked about flourishing or thriving? What was the verse? Proverbs 28:13, “She who conceals sin will not prosper (flourish or thrive). This is exactly what this verse is talking about! Hidden and unconfessed sin will keep us from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing.
So we have established that negative emotions like sorrow, loneliness, jealousy, envy and resentment, if not confessed will be our idol. There are certain things that serve as good indicators of emotional idolatry. The first indicator is if you are always telling yourself, “No one understands how I feel, they just don’t understand - they don’t know what it’s like to be me!” A second indicator is a desire or actually going so far as to only identify with other people who share the same emotional idol! Be very wary when you get to this point because likely you have isolated yourself and made your emotion, whatever it is, your God.
Does the name Wanda Webb Holloway mean anything to you? Probably not. Until I say, “The Texas cheerleader Mom”. Wanda Holloway’s daughter, Shanna, didn’t make the JUNIOR HIGH cheerleading squad. Wanda was so angry over her daughter’s loss that she hired a hitman to murder the mother of cheerleading rival in hopes that the girl would be so distraught that she would quit the squad thereby giving Shanna an opportunity.
Wow! In reading the details the story sounds so extreme. However, I would chance to say that Wanda Holloway was a normal mother who, prior to the incident with her daughter, would have said that this story was extreme as well. This is a prime example of how emotions when unconfessed can cause us to act out in ways that are out of character and often evil.
So, I think we understand how anger can spiral out of control but what about other emotions. I want to give one other example before we move on. My father-in-law passed away in February of 2012. My mother-in-law immediately found herself thrust into a life alone after fifty three years of marriage. Her response out of her grief could have caused her to turn inward, isolate herself and fall into despair. She could had chosen to exclude herself from anyone that couldn’t identify with her loss. Instead, she allowed the Lord to walk with her through the water, holding tight to His promises. I am consistently amazed at how well she is doing because she has relied completely on the Lord in her grief.
But what about emotions like happiness, comfort, euphoria or nostalgia? How could these seemingly good emotions become idols? When they lead us to unrealistic expectations or we are constantly searching for the high of these emotions then they have become idols. Unmet expectations, expectations that are unattainable and cycles of disappointment are indications that you may be harboring one of these “positive” emotions as an idol.
Now, I get to tell on myself. Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love everything surrounding the season from over decorating, overeating and over giving. As far as I’m concerned, one cannot have enough lights, tinsel, cookies, fireside chats, church activities, wrapping, carols etc; I usually start as soon as Thanksgiving is over and begin the planning of menus, festivities and all around merriment that lasts through December 31st.
The holidays represent the best of Jesus, family, food, memories and rest. But this year, Christmas didn’t come to the McBride house...just the flu. On the 23rd, Landon came down with the flu. On Christmas Eve, Kraig hit the deck and needless to say, our home was full of halle’flu’jah instead of hallelujah. I spent my day cleaning and trying very hard not to be angry over the fact that I had completely missed Christmas! And, just to continue the fun, Kraig went back to the doctor on New Year’s Eve with double pnuemonia!! I really felt like this was some kind of cruel joke set off by Ebenezer Scrooge!
In that time, I laid my heart bare before the Lord and asked Him to reveal to me why I was ready to jump off a cliff over one day on the calendar! Of course the Lord is always teaching lessons to me before I pass them on to you! I had been working on my lessons so I didn’t have to look very far to see clearly the idol in my heart. I had idolized the emotional high surrounding the holidays. I had worked so hard to get everything perfect so that I could relish the euphoria rather than the Savior. My focus had become the season not the reason for it.
The truth is, December 25th is just another day on the calendar. Christmas, the way the world celebrates, is so far off the mark that sometimes it is good to be reminded why we have Christ-mas. The date is not the point. But Christ coming to seek and to save begins with a baby in a manager and that makes everyday on the calendar Christmas! It was good for me to have my heart emptied, my idol confessed and my priorities re-oriented on Jesus as my greatest gift.
Now let’s look at our biblical examples. They come out of the same passage of scripture however, one shunned and one clung.
Turn to Ruth 1:1-21
Our example of someone who let her emotions become her idol is Naomi. You can almost see the decline of her emotional grief into an idol in this chapter. She begins in verse 11 and by verse 13 she is in total despair. Once she reaches Bethlehem in verse 20 she is scornful toward those who are welcoming to her. You can almost hear the scorn in her voice as she speaks.
On the contrary, look at Ruth’s response. Ruth has suffered great loss as well but has chosen to trust the Lord with her hurt. The entire book focuses in on the godly character of Ruth, her complete dependence on the Lord and her eventual place in the lineage of Christ! I love it! I love the fact that God is so faithful to His people when we allow Him rightful rule in our lives! What emotion are you allowing ultimate place in your life? What emotion is driving you? If it’s not gratitude motivated by the grace that covers your sin then chances are, it is an idol that needs to be uprooted. Grab your shovel, hit your knees and get to work!
Idol #2: Control
“I was in misery, and misery is the state of every soul overcome by friendship with mortal things and lacerated when they are lost. Then the soul becomes aware of the misery which is its actual condition even before it loses them.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
The second category we are prone to as women is the idolatry of control. This can reveal itself through manipulation of others (crying, complaining, nagging, the silent treatment, sulking, pouting), being a perfectionist, being bossy or trying to make everyone happy. More precisely, using emotional power plays to get others to do what we want or dragging people on our emotional roller coaster.
Now, I am pretty sure that none of us has ever used any of these tactics to get our way in relationships, right? You have never tried to use manipulation to persuade others. I know that all of us, at one time or another have attempted to manipulate and control a situation through emotional power plays.
We attempt to make others feel bad if they have hurt our feelings or push them to apologize. We sulk so that people will ask if everything is okay? We tell people what to do or we exhaust ourselves trying to make everyone happy with themselves and with us. Or, we attempt to be perfect, make our kids perfect, make our husbands perfect and in the process drive everyone crazy!
The truth is, each of these things is a means of trying to control others. Ultimately, we want someone else to respond in the way that makes us most happy. If we go back to our definition of idolatry - the exaltation of self - isn’t that what control really is? It is an attempt to make everyone bow to our desire, our happiness and our wants.
We have to be especially sensitive to this as women because some of it is ingrained within us..deeply ingrained. From little, little girls we learn that pouting, crying or “acting mad” can get us a lot of attention and often times get us what we want. This is dangerous territory because eventually someone will call our bluff and when they do, it can drive us again, to extreme measures.
Let’s look at another one of the “Matriarchs”. Although these women are heralded for their place in Israel’s history God certainly doesn’t clean them up in any way! I don’t know about you, but I find it totally comforting that these women were not spiritual giants before God used them. In fact, they got it wrong more often than they got it right! And God, in His goodness, displays all of their warts, in living color, on the pages of scripture...for all to read. Can you imagine some of your biggest mistakes and sins being recorded in the best selling book of all time? It makes living in obscurity a welcome blessing! I digress..
Turn to Genesis 25: 27-28; 27:1-17
The key to understanding chapter 27 lies within those 2 verses in chapter 25: “Rebekah loved Jacob.” Right away we can identify one of Rebekah’s idols: her relationship idol in Jacob her son.
Before we move on, it is important to point out that even though we are to have One God that we serve, He can be replaced with many idols. Every single one of these idols that we will study this week I have had in my life at any one time and sometimes all four at once! Just as sin is likened to yeast that grows and multiplies, so idolatry begets idolatry.
So Rebekah is again taking it upon herself to fulfill God’s will instead of allowing God to have it His way. Do we see a pattern here? I mean, let’s learn a lesson from these women, off the page instead of taking the field trip! So, what happens? Yes, Jacob gets the blessing but a family feud of epic proportions ensues! Jacob flees in fear of his life and Rebekah, because she has idolized control, has caused her children to hate one another...although her relationship idol of Jacob was a simmering pot that didn’t need much help to boil!
Now turn to the book of Esther. Esther 4:15-17; 7:1-6
In sharp contrast to the blatant deceit and manipulation in Rebekah, Esther sought the Lord through fasting and prayer. She patiently waited on the Lord for His timing. This is so very important in our lives. More often than not, we rush into things because we attempt to submit our plan for God’s stamp of approval rather than submitting our lives to His sovereign will!
Ladies, when we are at a point when we have determined what we want and we are not willing to take “no” for an answer, when we have tunnel vision and are praying for one particular thing rather than God’s will, when we are looking for anything or anyone who will affirm our plan then we have made control an idol.
When we are in this state of mind we will shut ourselves off from anyone or anything that might talk contrary to what we want. Scripture is clear that it is completely foolish to eschew WISE COUNSEL! Don’t be stiff-necked! Although we may attempt to manipulate and control God by manipulating and controlling people, scripture is crystal clear that God’s plans cannot be thwarted! (Job 42:2)
As we close today, I admit that this idol is very near and dear to me. It seems to be the one that I cling to most closely. I lay it down for a while but then it doesn’t take long for me to pick it up again. I find myself constantly confessing what ultimately boils down to a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty in my life. In my heart, I am deceived into believing that I know not only what is best for me but also what is best for every other person on the face of the earth. It is in those times I am sweetly reminded by the Holy Spirit to “humble myself under the mighty hand of God: (1 Pet. 5:6)
Beloved, any control we think we might have is completely an illusion. We have control over our own attitudes, our obedience in response to the Holy Spirit through the Word and...well, that’s about it! Everything else falls into the hands of a mighty God. I was recently asked how we can really know that God is good. My response to her is my encouragement to you: “If God is not really good then why Jesus and why the cross? Look at the cross sweet one...look at the cross.
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
The second category we are prone to as women is the idolatry of control. This can reveal itself through manipulation of others (crying, complaining, nagging, the silent treatment, sulking, pouting), being a perfectionist, being bossy or trying to make everyone happy. More precisely, using emotional power plays to get others to do what we want or dragging people on our emotional roller coaster.
Now, I am pretty sure that none of us has ever used any of these tactics to get our way in relationships, right? You have never tried to use manipulation to persuade others. I know that all of us, at one time or another have attempted to manipulate and control a situation through emotional power plays.
We attempt to make others feel bad if they have hurt our feelings or push them to apologize. We sulk so that people will ask if everything is okay? We tell people what to do or we exhaust ourselves trying to make everyone happy with themselves and with us. Or, we attempt to be perfect, make our kids perfect, make our husbands perfect and in the process drive everyone crazy!
The truth is, each of these things is a means of trying to control others. Ultimately, we want someone else to respond in the way that makes us most happy. If we go back to our definition of idolatry - the exaltation of self - isn’t that what control really is? It is an attempt to make everyone bow to our desire, our happiness and our wants.
We have to be especially sensitive to this as women because some of it is ingrained within us..deeply ingrained. From little, little girls we learn that pouting, crying or “acting mad” can get us a lot of attention and often times get us what we want. This is dangerous territory because eventually someone will call our bluff and when they do, it can drive us again, to extreme measures.
Let’s look at another one of the “Matriarchs”. Although these women are heralded for their place in Israel’s history God certainly doesn’t clean them up in any way! I don’t know about you, but I find it totally comforting that these women were not spiritual giants before God used them. In fact, they got it wrong more often than they got it right! And God, in His goodness, displays all of their warts, in living color, on the pages of scripture...for all to read. Can you imagine some of your biggest mistakes and sins being recorded in the best selling book of all time? It makes living in obscurity a welcome blessing! I digress..
Turn to Genesis 25: 27-28; 27:1-17
The key to understanding chapter 27 lies within those 2 verses in chapter 25: “Rebekah loved Jacob.” Right away we can identify one of Rebekah’s idols: her relationship idol in Jacob her son.
Before we move on, it is important to point out that even though we are to have One God that we serve, He can be replaced with many idols. Every single one of these idols that we will study this week I have had in my life at any one time and sometimes all four at once! Just as sin is likened to yeast that grows and multiplies, so idolatry begets idolatry.
So Rebekah is again taking it upon herself to fulfill God’s will instead of allowing God to have it His way. Do we see a pattern here? I mean, let’s learn a lesson from these women, off the page instead of taking the field trip! So, what happens? Yes, Jacob gets the blessing but a family feud of epic proportions ensues! Jacob flees in fear of his life and Rebekah, because she has idolized control, has caused her children to hate one another...although her relationship idol of Jacob was a simmering pot that didn’t need much help to boil!
Now turn to the book of Esther. Esther 4:15-17; 7:1-6
In sharp contrast to the blatant deceit and manipulation in Rebekah, Esther sought the Lord through fasting and prayer. She patiently waited on the Lord for His timing. This is so very important in our lives. More often than not, we rush into things because we attempt to submit our plan for God’s stamp of approval rather than submitting our lives to His sovereign will!
Ladies, when we are at a point when we have determined what we want and we are not willing to take “no” for an answer, when we have tunnel vision and are praying for one particular thing rather than God’s will, when we are looking for anything or anyone who will affirm our plan then we have made control an idol.
When we are in this state of mind we will shut ourselves off from anyone or anything that might talk contrary to what we want. Scripture is clear that it is completely foolish to eschew WISE COUNSEL! Don’t be stiff-necked! Although we may attempt to manipulate and control God by manipulating and controlling people, scripture is crystal clear that God’s plans cannot be thwarted! (Job 42:2)
As we close today, I admit that this idol is very near and dear to me. It seems to be the one that I cling to most closely. I lay it down for a while but then it doesn’t take long for me to pick it up again. I find myself constantly confessing what ultimately boils down to a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty in my life. In my heart, I am deceived into believing that I know not only what is best for me but also what is best for every other person on the face of the earth. It is in those times I am sweetly reminded by the Holy Spirit to “humble myself under the mighty hand of God: (1 Pet. 5:6)
Beloved, any control we think we might have is completely an illusion. We have control over our own attitudes, our obedience in response to the Holy Spirit through the Word and...well, that’s about it! Everything else falls into the hands of a mighty God. I was recently asked how we can really know that God is good. My response to her is my encouragement to you: “If God is not really good then why Jesus and why the cross? Look at the cross sweet one...look at the cross.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Idol #1: Relationships
Well, let's not hesitate, let's jump right in! The first category of idolatry that we are prone to as women is the idol of relationships. Some examples of this would be: co-dependent friendships, romantic relationships,marriage, children or a lack of any of these relationships.
How do we idolize relationships? First, women are relational beings. God created us to be more relationship oriented than men so naturally it is easy for us to elevate relationships above the Lord as women. But that doesn’t mean it is right. When we place the importance of having a relationship or even placing a relationship we are already in as an ultimate thing in our lives we are in trouble!
I see this all the time and it begins at a very young age in girls so Mom’s of daughters listen up! Girls become keenly aware of where they rank among their female peers. They will work for relationships that they deem important and often do things that they know are wrong or are completely out of character in order to get or keep a relationship with another girl. Chances are they are either idolizing the other girl or the status that that relationship brings to them. Their “worship” is misguided and it is up to us to teach them otherwise.
Very soon into adolescence girls begin the same pattern with young men. They will work for attention from men. Once they have achieved that attention they will go to great lengths to keep it. Again, othen doing things that are sinful or out of character in order to keep him.
Unfortunately, these patterns don’t often go away with age. How many of us as adult women can identify with the need for acceptance or attention in relationships with other women? Even though we think we are past that, often times, if we look at our hearts, we really aren’t.
We find ourselves doing things in our friendships, dating relationships and in our marriages that aren’t healthy in order to keep their attention.
Then we have children and our children become our idols. We work for them to have and get ahead, we shield them from hurt or obsess over their happiness. We stress perfection in their grades, in their friendships, in their appearance. How much sleep do we lose as mothers over our children? Even our adult children?
The question that were asked as part of the first day of this study now come into play. If you haven’t had opportunity to answer them then stop here and do so before you continue on in the lesson. Question number one asked, “What do your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention? Another way to put it, what do you enjoy daydreaming about? If this is consistently a person, a relationship or lack of a relationship then it could be your idol.
Let’s look at 2 examples of women who were faced with idolizing a relationship. One honored God, the other did not.
Turn to Genesis 16: 1-9;15-16;
The story of Sarah. Throughout the generations of the Patriarchs, barrenness was prevalent. Sarah, Rachel and Rebecca were all barren. And having a male heir back then was not just about wanting a child it was what their society held up as success for a family. If you have ever seen the movie “Fiddler On the Roof” it is about a Jewish man who had all daughters. He loved his daughters but he lamented never having a son.
The eldest son was the pride of the family and his accomplishments were paramount to how the family was viewed in society. So for Sarah, the pressure of this promise resting on her, year after year, not being able to conceive turned her need for a child into an idol.
It is interesting that the very family that God had chosen for His people had trouble conceiving and even becoming a people. But, without this suffering the glory of the Lord as mighty, faithful and sovereign would have been diminished. How awesome is a God who allows a 99 year old woman to conceive?
Let me go off on a tangent for a second: ladies, don’t waste your suffering. God is using this time to refine you and to strip away everything that is idolatrous in your life. Every major trial, even every little trial, the Lord - IF I WILL LET HIM - reveals things that are idols to me. And usually, what makes the trial difficult is the fact that I am about to lose an idol! Does that speak to anyone?
The things we fear, the things that cause us immense hurt are often idols - why? Because if it weren’t important to us - it wouldn’t hurt! Suffering is God’s chisel, the instrument in His hands to shape us into Christ! Don’t despise the loving hand of the Potter. Trust Him for what you can’t see and know in the end, you will be GORGEOUS! I just keep that in mind when I feel beaten down - this too shall end in my GORGEOUSNESS!!
Back to Sarah. So, Sarah, in her idolatry, gave Hagar to Abram as his wife - can you say mistake number one! Then, Hagar conceives! Can you even imagine the level of insult to injury? So, scripture says that Hagar despised Sarah. Everything we could say would be speculation - maybe she despised her because she didn’t have any choice in her marriage to Abram. Maybe she despised her for pinning her hopes all on her! Who knows! Regardless, Sarah quickly realized that Hagar despised her and then she did what?? She shifted the blame!
Sarah blamed Abram and demanded that he fix it! Oh my word! If this is not a woman! “I have done this but it is your fault so you fix it!” Abram, wise man that he was, determined to give Sarah the authority to handle Hagar but she, in her idolatry, treated Hagar harshly and Hagar fled. What a mess! The domino of relationship idolatry in Sarah’s life had caused one sin right after the next.
Sarah had placed her own feelings, her own wants, desires and needs above the Lord and made an idol out of having a baby. She had taken it upon herself to fulfill God’s will for her life instead of allowing God to have His way. Mmmm, did anyone pick up on that? Did anyone pick up on that last statement?? Let me say it again: Sarah had taken it upon herself to fulfill God’s will for her life instead of allowing God to have His way. How many of us reading this today are doing the very same thing, for different reasons, in different areas? How many of us are taking it upon ourselves to not only choose God’s will but attempt to fulfill God’s will for our lives instead of letting Him have His way?
Dangerous ground girls, dangerous ground! God will not have it! He will not compete with you for rightful rule in your life - He doesn’t have to - it belongs to Him already but you can make a mess of things until YOU figure it out. Sarah surely did! She took her own desires and tried to forge her own path and it got her a WHOLE lot of thorns - permanent thorns! Ismael was a reality and he was never far from her sight or far from her mind.
Now turn to 1 Samuel 1:1-5; 12-19; 24-28. In stark contrast to Sarah’s story here is Hannah. Hannah waited on the Lord and when the Lord answered her prayer she was faithful to give him back to the Lord. Can you imagine? Hannah has finally gotten what she wants and then she gives him back? What a woman of faith! I know of another woman who gave her Son up as well..to the atrocities of a cruel cross..what a foreshadowing in the person of Hannah!
As we conclude for today, as you hear the Lord speaking, if you are captivated by a relationship idol then do not wait. Acknowledge, confess and forsake it while it is still today. This is hard but good work that the Lord is doing in our lives! This is one less thing to keep us enslaved and one more step towards freedom!
How do we idolize relationships? First, women are relational beings. God created us to be more relationship oriented than men so naturally it is easy for us to elevate relationships above the Lord as women. But that doesn’t mean it is right. When we place the importance of having a relationship or even placing a relationship we are already in as an ultimate thing in our lives we are in trouble!
I see this all the time and it begins at a very young age in girls so Mom’s of daughters listen up! Girls become keenly aware of where they rank among their female peers. They will work for relationships that they deem important and often do things that they know are wrong or are completely out of character in order to get or keep a relationship with another girl. Chances are they are either idolizing the other girl or the status that that relationship brings to them. Their “worship” is misguided and it is up to us to teach them otherwise.
Very soon into adolescence girls begin the same pattern with young men. They will work for attention from men. Once they have achieved that attention they will go to great lengths to keep it. Again, othen doing things that are sinful or out of character in order to keep him.
Unfortunately, these patterns don’t often go away with age. How many of us as adult women can identify with the need for acceptance or attention in relationships with other women? Even though we think we are past that, often times, if we look at our hearts, we really aren’t.
We find ourselves doing things in our friendships, dating relationships and in our marriages that aren’t healthy in order to keep their attention.
Then we have children and our children become our idols. We work for them to have and get ahead, we shield them from hurt or obsess over their happiness. We stress perfection in their grades, in their friendships, in their appearance. How much sleep do we lose as mothers over our children? Even our adult children?
The question that were asked as part of the first day of this study now come into play. If you haven’t had opportunity to answer them then stop here and do so before you continue on in the lesson. Question number one asked, “What do your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention? Another way to put it, what do you enjoy daydreaming about? If this is consistently a person, a relationship or lack of a relationship then it could be your idol.
Let’s look at 2 examples of women who were faced with idolizing a relationship. One honored God, the other did not.
Turn to Genesis 16: 1-9;15-16;
The story of Sarah. Throughout the generations of the Patriarchs, barrenness was prevalent. Sarah, Rachel and Rebecca were all barren. And having a male heir back then was not just about wanting a child it was what their society held up as success for a family. If you have ever seen the movie “Fiddler On the Roof” it is about a Jewish man who had all daughters. He loved his daughters but he lamented never having a son.
The eldest son was the pride of the family and his accomplishments were paramount to how the family was viewed in society. So for Sarah, the pressure of this promise resting on her, year after year, not being able to conceive turned her need for a child into an idol.
It is interesting that the very family that God had chosen for His people had trouble conceiving and even becoming a people. But, without this suffering the glory of the Lord as mighty, faithful and sovereign would have been diminished. How awesome is a God who allows a 99 year old woman to conceive?
Let me go off on a tangent for a second: ladies, don’t waste your suffering. God is using this time to refine you and to strip away everything that is idolatrous in your life. Every major trial, even every little trial, the Lord - IF I WILL LET HIM - reveals things that are idols to me. And usually, what makes the trial difficult is the fact that I am about to lose an idol! Does that speak to anyone?
The things we fear, the things that cause us immense hurt are often idols - why? Because if it weren’t important to us - it wouldn’t hurt! Suffering is God’s chisel, the instrument in His hands to shape us into Christ! Don’t despise the loving hand of the Potter. Trust Him for what you can’t see and know in the end, you will be GORGEOUS! I just keep that in mind when I feel beaten down - this too shall end in my GORGEOUSNESS!!
Back to Sarah. So, Sarah, in her idolatry, gave Hagar to Abram as his wife - can you say mistake number one! Then, Hagar conceives! Can you even imagine the level of insult to injury? So, scripture says that Hagar despised Sarah. Everything we could say would be speculation - maybe she despised her because she didn’t have any choice in her marriage to Abram. Maybe she despised her for pinning her hopes all on her! Who knows! Regardless, Sarah quickly realized that Hagar despised her and then she did what?? She shifted the blame!
Sarah blamed Abram and demanded that he fix it! Oh my word! If this is not a woman! “I have done this but it is your fault so you fix it!” Abram, wise man that he was, determined to give Sarah the authority to handle Hagar but she, in her idolatry, treated Hagar harshly and Hagar fled. What a mess! The domino of relationship idolatry in Sarah’s life had caused one sin right after the next.
Sarah had placed her own feelings, her own wants, desires and needs above the Lord and made an idol out of having a baby. She had taken it upon herself to fulfill God’s will for her life instead of allowing God to have His way. Mmmm, did anyone pick up on that? Did anyone pick up on that last statement?? Let me say it again: Sarah had taken it upon herself to fulfill God’s will for her life instead of allowing God to have His way. How many of us reading this today are doing the very same thing, for different reasons, in different areas? How many of us are taking it upon ourselves to not only choose God’s will but attempt to fulfill God’s will for our lives instead of letting Him have His way?
Dangerous ground girls, dangerous ground! God will not have it! He will not compete with you for rightful rule in your life - He doesn’t have to - it belongs to Him already but you can make a mess of things until YOU figure it out. Sarah surely did! She took her own desires and tried to forge her own path and it got her a WHOLE lot of thorns - permanent thorns! Ismael was a reality and he was never far from her sight or far from her mind.
Now turn to 1 Samuel 1:1-5; 12-19; 24-28. In stark contrast to Sarah’s story here is Hannah. Hannah waited on the Lord and when the Lord answered her prayer she was faithful to give him back to the Lord. Can you imagine? Hannah has finally gotten what she wants and then she gives him back? What a woman of faith! I know of another woman who gave her Son up as well..to the atrocities of a cruel cross..what a foreshadowing in the person of Hannah!
As we conclude for today, as you hear the Lord speaking, if you are captivated by a relationship idol then do not wait. Acknowledge, confess and forsake it while it is still today. This is hard but good work that the Lord is doing in our lives! This is one less thing to keep us enslaved and one more step towards freedom!
Monday, March 18, 2013
The Heart of the Matter
“The heart wants, what the heart wants - or else it does not care.” ~ Emily Dickinson
This famous quote by Emily Dickinson has been used in more than a dozen movies and quoted in many circles as a means of expressing the unwavering, steadfast desires of the heart. In fact, this quote is very true. The heart does want, what the heart wants. All of us have been in circumstances or situations when our hearts were set on a person or a thing. In that moment, all that mattered was what the heart wanted “or else, it did not care.”
Turn to Jeremiah 17: 9-10
However much this resonates with us: the heart wants, what the heart wants, when held up to the truth of scripture we find that: “The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) Ultimately, the heart is an unreliable, fickle, wicked thing that has its character rooted in deceit. To put it plainly - the heart is filled with sin.
The heart of the problem: If this is the case, then all sin is a heart problem. From our viewpoint in the 21st century it would seem that idolatry has its roots in pagan religions. But idolatry really has its roots in the human heart of every person that has ever lived. It has been said that “the heart is an ‘idol factory’” and scripture agrees on every front. Idolatry is a heart problem.
Let’s unravel this a little farther. So, we have established the wickedness and deceit of the heart. We have established that the heart is full of sin. We have established that idolatry is a heart problem. At this point, things don’t look good for our hearts!
Then to seal the deal, if you weren’t convinced already, because of the wickedness of our hearts, we do not have an accurate gauge for directing our own paths. In fact, Proverbs 3:5-6, which should be very familiar, states, “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.” To put it plainly, our hearts are miserable compasses in determining God’s will and directing our paths. Scripture even states that our own understanding isn’t reliable.
Idolatry isn’t something new. It is written all over history and all over the pages of scripture! From the very beginning, no less than 3 chapters into the Bible, the heart begins to “want what it wants.” Eve put her heart’s desire above God and she sinned. Then in Genesis 6 this verse encapsulates the pervasiveness of sin: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” From there, the Lord determined to destroy all the inhabitants of the earth, save 8, through the Great Flood - SIX chapters in and only THREE chapters after the Fall.
From the very first sin, woven through the books of the Old and New Testament, idolatry is there. All sin is ultimately rooted in idolatry deep down in the soil of our darkened hearts.
This leaves us in very bad shape! But thankfully, we have a God who is very concerned with our hearts. He died for our hearts and it is that immaterial part of us that will live on. Yes, we can discipline our bodies to live moral lives but if our hearts are never filled with light, if we are never given hearts of flesh, if idols are never pulled up by their roots in our hearts then we are hopelessly lost!
But in the midst of all this dismal talk, in the very next verse, Jeremiah 17:10, after the question is asked, “who can know the heart?” The Lord answers, “I, the Lord, search the heart!” This week, God is personally searching our hearts. He is searching to uproot idols, to tear them down, burn them and replace them with true worship!
Toby Mac released a great song a few albums ago called, “Made To Love”. The beginning of the chorus goes like this:
I was made to love you
I was made to find you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
And be loved by you
The lyrics paint a simple picture of a greater reality; we were made for worship. It doesn’t take long to see that as people we will worship anything! An easier way to identify what we worship is to look at what we cherish or celebrate: sports, fashion, health, fitness, wealth, success, fame, love, relationships, acceptance, power, education, politics, religion, family or feelings: happiness, comfort, an experience, euphoria or nostalgia.
Let me give you an example: Christmas. It used to be that we got through Halloween and Thanksgiving and around December 1st we began to see Christmas trees and decorations show up in Department Stores. We got the Best Products catalogue or Sears or JC Penneys. And then you started to get excited for Christmas about the first or second week in December. Now when do we see Christmas decorations?
We have skipped right over Thanksgiving and gone straight to “gimme”! On top of that, look at what a major event every holiday has become! Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo (and last I checked, we aren’t Mexican!), Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day and then straight to Halloween. Have you ever seen anything so out of control as Halloween? Even adults are having full on Halloween parties complete with costumes, games and candy! Why? Because we will celebrate anything! We will worship anything!
Just look at the wedding industry: I can’t believe the level that the wedding industry has risen to in just 15 years! And now, engagement parties, wedding showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, bridal showers, bridal luncheons and let’s not even get into the baby showers!!
Yes, we were made for worship, that is evident but our worship is broken, misdirected and tainted. We will spend the rest of this week identifying idols that are prevalent in the lives of women, most specifically. After identifying and defining each idol, we will study women in scripture who got it wrong..and women who got it right. We have a long but good road ahead. Hang on for the ride!
This famous quote by Emily Dickinson has been used in more than a dozen movies and quoted in many circles as a means of expressing the unwavering, steadfast desires of the heart. In fact, this quote is very true. The heart does want, what the heart wants. All of us have been in circumstances or situations when our hearts were set on a person or a thing. In that moment, all that mattered was what the heart wanted “or else, it did not care.”
Turn to Jeremiah 17: 9-10
However much this resonates with us: the heart wants, what the heart wants, when held up to the truth of scripture we find that: “The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) Ultimately, the heart is an unreliable, fickle, wicked thing that has its character rooted in deceit. To put it plainly - the heart is filled with sin.
The heart of the problem: If this is the case, then all sin is a heart problem. From our viewpoint in the 21st century it would seem that idolatry has its roots in pagan religions. But idolatry really has its roots in the human heart of every person that has ever lived. It has been said that “the heart is an ‘idol factory’” and scripture agrees on every front. Idolatry is a heart problem.
Let’s unravel this a little farther. So, we have established the wickedness and deceit of the heart. We have established that the heart is full of sin. We have established that idolatry is a heart problem. At this point, things don’t look good for our hearts!
Then to seal the deal, if you weren’t convinced already, because of the wickedness of our hearts, we do not have an accurate gauge for directing our own paths. In fact, Proverbs 3:5-6, which should be very familiar, states, “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.” To put it plainly, our hearts are miserable compasses in determining God’s will and directing our paths. Scripture even states that our own understanding isn’t reliable.
Idolatry isn’t something new. It is written all over history and all over the pages of scripture! From the very beginning, no less than 3 chapters into the Bible, the heart begins to “want what it wants.” Eve put her heart’s desire above God and she sinned. Then in Genesis 6 this verse encapsulates the pervasiveness of sin: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” From there, the Lord determined to destroy all the inhabitants of the earth, save 8, through the Great Flood - SIX chapters in and only THREE chapters after the Fall.
From the very first sin, woven through the books of the Old and New Testament, idolatry is there. All sin is ultimately rooted in idolatry deep down in the soil of our darkened hearts.
This leaves us in very bad shape! But thankfully, we have a God who is very concerned with our hearts. He died for our hearts and it is that immaterial part of us that will live on. Yes, we can discipline our bodies to live moral lives but if our hearts are never filled with light, if we are never given hearts of flesh, if idols are never pulled up by their roots in our hearts then we are hopelessly lost!
But in the midst of all this dismal talk, in the very next verse, Jeremiah 17:10, after the question is asked, “who can know the heart?” The Lord answers, “I, the Lord, search the heart!” This week, God is personally searching our hearts. He is searching to uproot idols, to tear them down, burn them and replace them with true worship!
Toby Mac released a great song a few albums ago called, “Made To Love”. The beginning of the chorus goes like this:
I was made to love you
I was made to find you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
And be loved by you
The lyrics paint a simple picture of a greater reality; we were made for worship. It doesn’t take long to see that as people we will worship anything! An easier way to identify what we worship is to look at what we cherish or celebrate: sports, fashion, health, fitness, wealth, success, fame, love, relationships, acceptance, power, education, politics, religion, family or feelings: happiness, comfort, an experience, euphoria or nostalgia.
Let me give you an example: Christmas. It used to be that we got through Halloween and Thanksgiving and around December 1st we began to see Christmas trees and decorations show up in Department Stores. We got the Best Products catalogue or Sears or JC Penneys. And then you started to get excited for Christmas about the first or second week in December. Now when do we see Christmas decorations?
We have skipped right over Thanksgiving and gone straight to “gimme”! On top of that, look at what a major event every holiday has become! Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo (and last I checked, we aren’t Mexican!), Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day and then straight to Halloween. Have you ever seen anything so out of control as Halloween? Even adults are having full on Halloween parties complete with costumes, games and candy! Why? Because we will celebrate anything! We will worship anything!
Just look at the wedding industry: I can’t believe the level that the wedding industry has risen to in just 15 years! And now, engagement parties, wedding showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, bridal showers, bridal luncheons and let’s not even get into the baby showers!!
Yes, we were made for worship, that is evident but our worship is broken, misdirected and tainted. We will spend the rest of this week identifying idols that are prevalent in the lives of women, most specifically. After identifying and defining each idol, we will study women in scripture who got it wrong..and women who got it right. We have a long but good road ahead. Hang on for the ride!
Saturday, March 16, 2013
The four-letter word in the Bible...
O-B-E-Y. Obey. Even the sound of the word evokes rebellion within us. The thought of someone or something having dominion over us or telling us what to do smacks of centuries gone by. The new order is one of entitlement, self-discovery and freedom right? The problem is, scripture is full of commands and full of instruction to us to obey those commands.
There are usually two camps on either side of this issue. The first would be the camp of legalism. Legalism says, “follow the law and God will be pleased with you”. The second camp would be the camp of antinomianism. This is a big word that simply means “against (anti) “the law” (nomian). Antinomianism says, “follow love and God will be pleased with you.” So it would seem that these two are on opposite ends of the spectrum. But are they really?
Stick with me here. First, let me point out that God is only pleased with His Son. We don’t follow the law or love to the point of pleasing God. Paul even stated that if the law was able to save there would have been no need for Jesus (Gal. 2:21). Likewise, if “love is all you need” but truth says, “God is love” then without God we would not know love. So we are stuck between two seemingly opposing viewpoints.
Granted, these are both very extreme ends of the spectrum and generally, the truth lies somewhere in between. In this case, it does. Paul says that the Law is a tutor that drives us to see our need for a Savior (Gal. 3:24). So, if the Law drives us to the gospel then why would it ever be bad? On the contrary, scripture says that the Law is good (Rom 6:16b).
Love is also good. I don’t think I need to argue this point because I don’t know of anyone who would disagree. If we had to choose between the two camps likely we would choose the camp of “love” as a safer bet. But, scripture is also full of love talk. The thing is, love is a LAW. Yes, love is commanded. “Love your neighbor as yourself”(Lv.19:18; Matt. 22:39), “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”(Luke 6:31), “as God so loved us, we ought also to love one another: (1 Jn 4:11). So, if we disregard the law then we disregard love.
Furthermore, Jesus also said “if you love Me keep My commandments”(Jn.14:15) and “if you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (Jn.15:10). In Jesus’ mind - which would be the mind of God- the two cannot be separated. For those of us wanting to choose a side, we are left straddling the proverbial fence. But, it is so important for us to realize the importance of loving God by keeping His commandments. This will be foundational to our study but also foundational to our lives as believers.
Ladies, obedience without love is legalism. Love without obedience is license (antinomianism). Both are hypocrisy. If we are simply following God’s “rules” but we don’t love the Lord then we are only living an outwardly moral life but inwardly we are “full of dead men’s bones.” This is hypocrisy. God is not snowed or pleased by outward morality. On the contrary, He hates it. Outward morality with a heart that is far from God is simply another form of idolatry.
Likewise, love without obedience is hypocrisy. Jesus had scathing criticism for hypocrisy. He said to the Pharisees, “why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not what I say?” The truth is, we cannot claim a genuine love for the Lord and then willfully choose disobedience to the commands of scripture. This too is idolatry. We have once again placed ourselves and our selfish desires above the Lord in our hearts.
Hebrews 10:22 states, “let us draw near with a sincere heart.” The term “drawing near” is a term of endearment. When we draw near to someone we are moving close to them in love. I almost picture a child snuggling up to a Daddy. Ladies, we can be obedient to the Lord, we can follow His right and rule and never draw near to Him in love with a sincere heart.
The Shema, based out of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, is the most important prayer for the Jew. They recite this when they wake in the morning and when they go to bed every night. The focal verse begins, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and strength. In the gospels Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment. What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment? The Shema. He reiterated it and then He added this phrase, “and the second is LIKE it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then he adds, “all of the law and the prophets hang on these” (Matt. 22:36-40).
Love for others grows out of a love for the Lord. Love for the Lord has to be a singular-focused love that encompasses every part of who we are: heart, soul, mind and strength. Therefore, we are to have no other gods before the One True God, including self. Jesus is completely satisfying, completely filling and when we encounter Him through this study we will realize that He alone can rescue, complete and redeem us! Jesus alone provides eternal soul satisfaction.
Next week we are going to identify and examine idols in our lives. Then we will sacrifice those idols and replace them with worship of the one true God. As we study we want to be fully aware of God’s rightful rule in our lives as He LOVINGLY exposes our idols to bring us out of bondage, out of the house of slavery!
There are usually two camps on either side of this issue. The first would be the camp of legalism. Legalism says, “follow the law and God will be pleased with you”. The second camp would be the camp of antinomianism. This is a big word that simply means “against (anti) “the law” (nomian). Antinomianism says, “follow love and God will be pleased with you.” So it would seem that these two are on opposite ends of the spectrum. But are they really?
Stick with me here. First, let me point out that God is only pleased with His Son. We don’t follow the law or love to the point of pleasing God. Paul even stated that if the law was able to save there would have been no need for Jesus (Gal. 2:21). Likewise, if “love is all you need” but truth says, “God is love” then without God we would not know love. So we are stuck between two seemingly opposing viewpoints.
Granted, these are both very extreme ends of the spectrum and generally, the truth lies somewhere in between. In this case, it does. Paul says that the Law is a tutor that drives us to see our need for a Savior (Gal. 3:24). So, if the Law drives us to the gospel then why would it ever be bad? On the contrary, scripture says that the Law is good (Rom 6:16b).
Love is also good. I don’t think I need to argue this point because I don’t know of anyone who would disagree. If we had to choose between the two camps likely we would choose the camp of “love” as a safer bet. But, scripture is also full of love talk. The thing is, love is a LAW. Yes, love is commanded. “Love your neighbor as yourself”(Lv.19:18; Matt. 22:39), “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”(Luke 6:31), “as God so loved us, we ought also to love one another: (1 Jn 4:11). So, if we disregard the law then we disregard love.
Furthermore, Jesus also said “if you love Me keep My commandments”(Jn.14:15) and “if you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (Jn.15:10). In Jesus’ mind - which would be the mind of God- the two cannot be separated. For those of us wanting to choose a side, we are left straddling the proverbial fence. But, it is so important for us to realize the importance of loving God by keeping His commandments. This will be foundational to our study but also foundational to our lives as believers.
Ladies, obedience without love is legalism. Love without obedience is license (antinomianism). Both are hypocrisy. If we are simply following God’s “rules” but we don’t love the Lord then we are only living an outwardly moral life but inwardly we are “full of dead men’s bones.” This is hypocrisy. God is not snowed or pleased by outward morality. On the contrary, He hates it. Outward morality with a heart that is far from God is simply another form of idolatry.
Likewise, love without obedience is hypocrisy. Jesus had scathing criticism for hypocrisy. He said to the Pharisees, “why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not what I say?” The truth is, we cannot claim a genuine love for the Lord and then willfully choose disobedience to the commands of scripture. This too is idolatry. We have once again placed ourselves and our selfish desires above the Lord in our hearts.
Hebrews 10:22 states, “let us draw near with a sincere heart.” The term “drawing near” is a term of endearment. When we draw near to someone we are moving close to them in love. I almost picture a child snuggling up to a Daddy. Ladies, we can be obedient to the Lord, we can follow His right and rule and never draw near to Him in love with a sincere heart.
The Shema, based out of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, is the most important prayer for the Jew. They recite this when they wake in the morning and when they go to bed every night. The focal verse begins, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and strength. In the gospels Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment. What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment? The Shema. He reiterated it and then He added this phrase, “and the second is LIKE it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then he adds, “all of the law and the prophets hang on these” (Matt. 22:36-40).
Love for others grows out of a love for the Lord. Love for the Lord has to be a singular-focused love that encompasses every part of who we are: heart, soul, mind and strength. Therefore, we are to have no other gods before the One True God, including self. Jesus is completely satisfying, completely filling and when we encounter Him through this study we will realize that He alone can rescue, complete and redeem us! Jesus alone provides eternal soul satisfaction.
Next week we are going to identify and examine idols in our lives. Then we will sacrifice those idols and replace them with worship of the one true God. As we study we want to be fully aware of God’s rightful rule in our lives as He LOVINGLY exposes our idols to bring us out of bondage, out of the house of slavery!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
I AM and there is NONE besides ME: Part 2
Four days in and we have already learned so much! Yesterday we studied the ten commandments as a whole and looked briefly at how each one is linked to idolatry. We finished up by saying a few things about authority and that is where we will pick up today. However, now that we have laid a foundation, let’s back up and take a specific look at the first commandment.
In order to best understand the purpose of the ten commandments we need to make sure we grasp the context which includes the original audience. Moses was addressing the Israelites after the exodus from Egypt but before their entrance into the Promised Land. Israel had been in slavery for 400 years in Egypt so several generations had passed. No doubt traditions, morals and values that were specific to them as God’s chosen nation had faded as they fell deeper into captivity.
As slaves, they would not have been given the freedom to worship God but they would have been repeatedly exposed to Egypt’s system of worship which included many gods. The journey into the wilderness served many purposes but one specific purpose was preparation. God was taking that time to prepare His people to serve Him and make His name great among the nations. But first, He had some housekeeping He had to do.
To recap, the first commandment is “thou shall have no other god’s before Me” but rather than just starting there God gives a brief introduction that is very important. Look at Exodus 20:2.
God’s rightful rule in our lives:
God establishes His right: What does He say? “I am the Lord, your God..” God is naming Himself and giving Himself personally to the the Israelites. First He names Himself exclusively, THE LORD, not a Lord, but the Lord, the One and Only. This is all caps LORD - which means Yahweh, the covenant God. Israel would have recognized this as the strongest name for the the one, true God. This sets up God’s right to give the 10 commandments.
God establishes His rule: Then, after calling Himself by His strong, authoritative, powerful, sovereign name, He commits Himself to them personally as YOUR God. This sets up God’s rule in their lives. Let me give you an example. I have one Dad. My Dad has right or authority in my life because of who he is - he’s Dad, that gives him authority!! He also has the ownership to tell me what to do because he is MY Dad. I don’t answer to other Dads like I answer to my own. They don’t have right or rule over me.
It is the same with God. God has authority or “the right” because of who He is - He is God. But God also has “rule” over us because we are His creation and His children. Does that make sense?
God establishes His love: But He doesn’t stop there, He then recounts to them what has just happened to them and who is responsible. He says, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery?” This is showing God’s loving protection and care for His own. This is where God shifts the focus from Himself as Father, to Abba, to Daddy. I think somebody needs to hear that. It is going to get confrontational and the road will get rocky before it smooths out again. We need to be reminded not only that God is rightfully our Father but that He is our Daddy and He loves us and when He tells us there are to be no other gods before Him, He is doing so not out of a power trip but out of our best interest.
God loves His people so much that He brings them out of bondage, out of slavery, to make them sons and give them their own land with Himself as King. However, before all of that can happen He has to set up a few rules in order to live in His kingdom and He begins by saying, “You shall have no other gods (little “g”) besides me.”
Ladies, if you and I are to live as part of God’s kingdom and not live out the fate of Israel in our lives, we must begin by having “no other gods.” First, because there are no other gods. God is gracious to His people in educating them - by establishing He is their rightful Lord who loves them. There are no others. Second, He is gracious in His warning because scripture says, “He knows what is in a woman’s heart” (1 Chr. 28:9; 2 Chr. 6:30). The Lord ultimately knows that every one of us is prone to idolatry so He is reminding us for our own good.
We must learn to be obedient to God’s right and rule but also to recognize and respond to His love. This is how we begin to tear down the idols in our lives. Tomorrow, as we close out week one we will look at the importance of obedience in love to God’s commands. We are establishing a firm foundation which will allow us to identify, uproot and replace all of the idols in our lives. Stay tuned...
In order to best understand the purpose of the ten commandments we need to make sure we grasp the context which includes the original audience. Moses was addressing the Israelites after the exodus from Egypt but before their entrance into the Promised Land. Israel had been in slavery for 400 years in Egypt so several generations had passed. No doubt traditions, morals and values that were specific to them as God’s chosen nation had faded as they fell deeper into captivity.
As slaves, they would not have been given the freedom to worship God but they would have been repeatedly exposed to Egypt’s system of worship which included many gods. The journey into the wilderness served many purposes but one specific purpose was preparation. God was taking that time to prepare His people to serve Him and make His name great among the nations. But first, He had some housekeeping He had to do.
To recap, the first commandment is “thou shall have no other god’s before Me” but rather than just starting there God gives a brief introduction that is very important. Look at Exodus 20:2.
God’s rightful rule in our lives:
God establishes His right: What does He say? “I am the Lord, your God..” God is naming Himself and giving Himself personally to the the Israelites. First He names Himself exclusively, THE LORD, not a Lord, but the Lord, the One and Only. This is all caps LORD - which means Yahweh, the covenant God. Israel would have recognized this as the strongest name for the the one, true God. This sets up God’s right to give the 10 commandments.
God establishes His rule: Then, after calling Himself by His strong, authoritative, powerful, sovereign name, He commits Himself to them personally as YOUR God. This sets up God’s rule in their lives. Let me give you an example. I have one Dad. My Dad has right or authority in my life because of who he is - he’s Dad, that gives him authority!! He also has the ownership to tell me what to do because he is MY Dad. I don’t answer to other Dads like I answer to my own. They don’t have right or rule over me.
It is the same with God. God has authority or “the right” because of who He is - He is God. But God also has “rule” over us because we are His creation and His children. Does that make sense?
God establishes His love: But He doesn’t stop there, He then recounts to them what has just happened to them and who is responsible. He says, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery?” This is showing God’s loving protection and care for His own. This is where God shifts the focus from Himself as Father, to Abba, to Daddy. I think somebody needs to hear that. It is going to get confrontational and the road will get rocky before it smooths out again. We need to be reminded not only that God is rightfully our Father but that He is our Daddy and He loves us and when He tells us there are to be no other gods before Him, He is doing so not out of a power trip but out of our best interest.
God loves His people so much that He brings them out of bondage, out of slavery, to make them sons and give them their own land with Himself as King. However, before all of that can happen He has to set up a few rules in order to live in His kingdom and He begins by saying, “You shall have no other gods (little “g”) besides me.”
Ladies, if you and I are to live as part of God’s kingdom and not live out the fate of Israel in our lives, we must begin by having “no other gods.” First, because there are no other gods. God is gracious to His people in educating them - by establishing He is their rightful Lord who loves them. There are no others. Second, He is gracious in His warning because scripture says, “He knows what is in a woman’s heart” (1 Chr. 28:9; 2 Chr. 6:30). The Lord ultimately knows that every one of us is prone to idolatry so He is reminding us for our own good.
We must learn to be obedient to God’s right and rule but also to recognize and respond to His love. This is how we begin to tear down the idols in our lives. Tomorrow, as we close out week one we will look at the importance of obedience in love to God’s commands. We are establishing a firm foundation which will allow us to identify, uproot and replace all of the idols in our lives. Stay tuned...
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Idolatry Day Three: I AM and there is NONE besides ME
“When the mind is most taken up with an object and the heart and affections most set upon it, this is soul worship; and this is the honor due only to the Lord, to have the first, the highest place, both in our hearts and minds and endeavors.” ~ David Clarkson
Idolatry is defined in many ways by many different people. I suppose the reason that idolatry is defined in so many different ways is because idolatry has so many different faces. It manifests itself in so many different and subtle ways that by the end of this study you may be faced with a whole treasure trove of idols you didn’t even know you had! That’s exactly what happened to me! In studying I would repeatedly find myself faced with one idol after another - some good things and some sinful things - but all had become ultimate things.
However, the definition of idolatry is not merely worship or elevation of things or people above the Lord. Idolatry is ultimately an elevation of self above the Lord. You may have heard that at the root of all sin is pride and pride is an elevation of self which is idolatry. So, even though idolatry has many different faces, some of which we will explore next week, idolatry is ultimately about self-exaltation.
I want us to begin our study looking at the Ten Commandments, so turn to Exodus 20. There are idols mentioned in scripture prior to Exodus 20 but this is God’s direct treatment of the subject to His people. I think what we find here will be interesting.
Read Exodus 20: 1-17.
So, this scripture shouldn’t be anything that is new to us. Most of us have heard the ten commandments multiple times before and other than the first two commandments dealing directly with idolatry it seems that God then moves on to address other subjects. However, that is not the case. The ten commandments, all of them, are based on idolatry. Why? Because they all address sins that are connected with putting self above God. God made no mistake in the way He ordered the ten commandments. He placed the one on which all of the other nine would hinge, first.
The first four commandments deal with our relationship to God. The last six deal with our relationship to one another. Let me clarify however, our relationship to one another is still wrapped up in our relationship to God. Scripture is clear, you don’t love God and hate your neighbor or love your neighbor and hate God (Matt. 25:36-40; 1 John 3:11;4:20-21). They are inextricably linked. Jesus named our love of the Lord and our love of others as the summary of the Law - that is basically what is being said here in greater detail! (Matt. 22:36-40)
The second commandment clarifies the first. Just in case you were wondering what could be an idol, here’s the list and oh, by the way, that’s anything! You can make anything an idol! The 3rd commandment addresses something we learned about in studying the Lord’s prayer - not “hallowing” the Lord’s name. Not worshipping the Lord properly. And then the 4th commandment goes with that - honoring the Sabbath. So, when we don’t exalt God or the Lord’s Day, then we are placing what we want above the Lord...self-exaltation..idolatry.
Moving on to five through ten: each of these deals with a specific sin toward another person. Murder, adultery, stealing etc; are all about what we want ABOVE God. If we murder, if we commit adultery, if we steal what we have said is, “God, I know that I am not supposed to commit adultery but I don’t really care, it’s what I want and I am my own god”. Again, self-exaltation is idolatry.
Before we close today I want to say one thing about obedience. Yes, the dreaded word, obedience. One thing I learn more and more each day is that if I fail to be obedient to the earthly authority that God has placed over me (government, employers, church elders, parents, teachers etc;) then I will never be obedient to God’s authority over me. God has set up and appointed all earthly rule (Romans 13:1-6). When we are rebellious toward earthly rule we are automatically rebellious toward God. It is a lesser to greater mentality.
Moms, this is also a serious lesson for you personally but also parentally. If you have a rebellious spirit toward authority - even if you THINK your children are fooled - they are not! How do you respond when your child talks about their teachers? Do you affirm them or remind them to respect authority? Do you talk about your boss, the elders at your church and others in authority over you in a negative light? Do you remain silent but rebel in with your actions? Facial expressions?
My encouragement for you today is to begin to self-observe your HEART attitude toward authority. One thing we will come back to again and again is the heart. God is always concerned with the heart first. If the heart is clean (the inside of the dish) then behavior will reflect it (the outside of the dish). We cannot claim complete obedience to the Lord and have a stiff-necked, rebellious spirit towards earthly authority. Ask the Lord to grant you grace and change your heart. Ultimately, our obedience toward earthly authority is obedience toward the Lord. You can’t have one without the other.
Idolatry is defined in many ways by many different people. I suppose the reason that idolatry is defined in so many different ways is because idolatry has so many different faces. It manifests itself in so many different and subtle ways that by the end of this study you may be faced with a whole treasure trove of idols you didn’t even know you had! That’s exactly what happened to me! In studying I would repeatedly find myself faced with one idol after another - some good things and some sinful things - but all had become ultimate things.
However, the definition of idolatry is not merely worship or elevation of things or people above the Lord. Idolatry is ultimately an elevation of self above the Lord. You may have heard that at the root of all sin is pride and pride is an elevation of self which is idolatry. So, even though idolatry has many different faces, some of which we will explore next week, idolatry is ultimately about self-exaltation.
I want us to begin our study looking at the Ten Commandments, so turn to Exodus 20. There are idols mentioned in scripture prior to Exodus 20 but this is God’s direct treatment of the subject to His people. I think what we find here will be interesting.
Read Exodus 20: 1-17.
So, this scripture shouldn’t be anything that is new to us. Most of us have heard the ten commandments multiple times before and other than the first two commandments dealing directly with idolatry it seems that God then moves on to address other subjects. However, that is not the case. The ten commandments, all of them, are based on idolatry. Why? Because they all address sins that are connected with putting self above God. God made no mistake in the way He ordered the ten commandments. He placed the one on which all of the other nine would hinge, first.
The first four commandments deal with our relationship to God. The last six deal with our relationship to one another. Let me clarify however, our relationship to one another is still wrapped up in our relationship to God. Scripture is clear, you don’t love God and hate your neighbor or love your neighbor and hate God (Matt. 25:36-40; 1 John 3:11;4:20-21). They are inextricably linked. Jesus named our love of the Lord and our love of others as the summary of the Law - that is basically what is being said here in greater detail! (Matt. 22:36-40)
The second commandment clarifies the first. Just in case you were wondering what could be an idol, here’s the list and oh, by the way, that’s anything! You can make anything an idol! The 3rd commandment addresses something we learned about in studying the Lord’s prayer - not “hallowing” the Lord’s name. Not worshipping the Lord properly. And then the 4th commandment goes with that - honoring the Sabbath. So, when we don’t exalt God or the Lord’s Day, then we are placing what we want above the Lord...self-exaltation..idolatry.
Moving on to five through ten: each of these deals with a specific sin toward another person. Murder, adultery, stealing etc; are all about what we want ABOVE God. If we murder, if we commit adultery, if we steal what we have said is, “God, I know that I am not supposed to commit adultery but I don’t really care, it’s what I want and I am my own god”. Again, self-exaltation is idolatry.
Before we close today I want to say one thing about obedience. Yes, the dreaded word, obedience. One thing I learn more and more each day is that if I fail to be obedient to the earthly authority that God has placed over me (government, employers, church elders, parents, teachers etc;) then I will never be obedient to God’s authority over me. God has set up and appointed all earthly rule (Romans 13:1-6). When we are rebellious toward earthly rule we are automatically rebellious toward God. It is a lesser to greater mentality.
Moms, this is also a serious lesson for you personally but also parentally. If you have a rebellious spirit toward authority - even if you THINK your children are fooled - they are not! How do you respond when your child talks about their teachers? Do you affirm them or remind them to respect authority? Do you talk about your boss, the elders at your church and others in authority over you in a negative light? Do you remain silent but rebel in with your actions? Facial expressions?
My encouragement for you today is to begin to self-observe your HEART attitude toward authority. One thing we will come back to again and again is the heart. God is always concerned with the heart first. If the heart is clean (the inside of the dish) then behavior will reflect it (the outside of the dish). We cannot claim complete obedience to the Lord and have a stiff-necked, rebellious spirit towards earthly authority. Ask the Lord to grant you grace and change your heart. Ultimately, our obedience toward earthly authority is obedience toward the Lord. You can’t have one without the other.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
American Idols: Introduction Cont'd
Today will complete the introduction to our study. I hope that you took the time to answer the questions from yesterday. This is an extremely important step in identifying idols in your life. Scripture says, “The one who covers her sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)
There are only a few things I want you to really take away from the introduction to this study and the first is this: God’s revelation of our sin to us is ALWAYS a good and merciful thing. God never reveals our sin to condemn us. On the contrary, He reveals our sin that we might confess and become clean. Condemnation is not of the Lord. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
The condemnation comes when:
The enemy goads us with guilt even after sin is confessed.
OR
We choose to ignore our sin, make friends with it or blame someone else for our shortcomings.
I don’t want any of us to fall into either one of these categories. I want us to see ourselves through the eyes of scripture, also called “scripture reading us”, and then repent, so that we might be vessels that are clean! Conviction never FEELS good but scripture says it is necessary that times of refreshing might come.
This concept of scripture reading us is best described as taking scripture and like a mirror, holding it up and gazing at our lives through it. This is not a means of using scripture to say what you want it to say but allowing scripture to search us and reveal our shortcomings in light of truth. James says that when we fail to do this we are like women who look at ourselves in the mirror, walk away and forget what we have seen (James 1:23-25). In other words, we must be hearers of the word and doers of the word as well.
So, my exhortation to you as we begin is to be honest and open allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work. But often times we stop half way. We feel the conviction but we never confess. Or if we confess then we fail to forsake. Repentance is confessing and forsaking..just as the verse in Proverbs just said. If we pray for the Lord to do a work in our lives and He reveals something to us it is complete and utter sin to ignore it and those who do WILL NOT PROSPER.
Do you feel like you aren’t prospering? I’m not talking about prosperity. I’m talking about prospering. Another word for this would be flourishing. To flourish is defined “to grow luxuriantly, or thrive in growth, as a plant.” In Psalm 1 the Lord talks about the righteous being like trees planted by rivers of water that bring forth fruit in due season, whose leaves do not wither or fade and...whatever they do shall prosper!
We want to be like firmly planted, flourishing trees but as scripture teaches - that is up to us! If we CHOOSE to conceal our sin then we will not prosper. Ladies, let’s be diligent to go the distance in confessing and forsaking our sin so that we might find mercy! Let’s be a forest of gorgeous, strong, thriving trees that clap our hands, raise our branches and reflect the majesty of our Savior, Jesus Christ!
There are only a few things I want you to really take away from the introduction to this study and the first is this: God’s revelation of our sin to us is ALWAYS a good and merciful thing. God never reveals our sin to condemn us. On the contrary, He reveals our sin that we might confess and become clean. Condemnation is not of the Lord. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
The condemnation comes when:
The enemy goads us with guilt even after sin is confessed.
OR
We choose to ignore our sin, make friends with it or blame someone else for our shortcomings.
I don’t want any of us to fall into either one of these categories. I want us to see ourselves through the eyes of scripture, also called “scripture reading us”, and then repent, so that we might be vessels that are clean! Conviction never FEELS good but scripture says it is necessary that times of refreshing might come.
This concept of scripture reading us is best described as taking scripture and like a mirror, holding it up and gazing at our lives through it. This is not a means of using scripture to say what you want it to say but allowing scripture to search us and reveal our shortcomings in light of truth. James says that when we fail to do this we are like women who look at ourselves in the mirror, walk away and forget what we have seen (James 1:23-25). In other words, we must be hearers of the word and doers of the word as well.
So, my exhortation to you as we begin is to be honest and open allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work. But often times we stop half way. We feel the conviction but we never confess. Or if we confess then we fail to forsake. Repentance is confessing and forsaking..just as the verse in Proverbs just said. If we pray for the Lord to do a work in our lives and He reveals something to us it is complete and utter sin to ignore it and those who do WILL NOT PROSPER.
Do you feel like you aren’t prospering? I’m not talking about prosperity. I’m talking about prospering. Another word for this would be flourishing. To flourish is defined “to grow luxuriantly, or thrive in growth, as a plant.” In Psalm 1 the Lord talks about the righteous being like trees planted by rivers of water that bring forth fruit in due season, whose leaves do not wither or fade and...whatever they do shall prosper!
We want to be like firmly planted, flourishing trees but as scripture teaches - that is up to us! If we CHOOSE to conceal our sin then we will not prosper. Ladies, let’s be diligent to go the distance in confessing and forsaking our sin so that we might find mercy! Let’s be a forest of gorgeous, strong, thriving trees that clap our hands, raise our branches and reflect the majesty of our Savior, Jesus Christ!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)