staying clean

Imagine a 10- or 11-year-old boy who does his best to stay clean. To that end, even though it's summer break he decides that he won't play outside or do anything that will cause him to get sweaty or dirty. He's very diligent about this, and for a week and a half he sticks to the plan, not venturing into the yard at all, but staying in the house without doing anything physically taxing.

But during that week and a half, he doesn't take a bath or a shower because he's been doing his best to stay dirtless and assumes that there's really no need.

How do you suppose he's going to look and smell? No matter how unsullied he's attempted to keep himself, he's still going to have accumulated some not-so-good odors, his hair will probably be greasy, and though his attempt was valiant and long-lasting, he will have been unsuccessful.

Just as the avoidance of doing dirt-collecting things isn't enough to keep a kid from stinking, the simple avoidance of wrongdoing by a Christ-follower isn't enough to live in obedience to Christ. "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it." (James 4:17, NLT)

Paul wrote, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21, NASB) An integral part of not being overcome by sin is to overcome evil by doing good.

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joy in pressure and stress

I've been going through Psalm 119 in the mornings, and it's become one of my favorite Psalms. It presents such a unique relationship between man and his Creator. The psalmist (most likely Ezra or David) pours out his love for God in verse and says repeatedly, "I love you so much that I am willingly subservient to Your commands; they are life to me." (that's my paraphrase of the whole chapter)

I find this verse to give a particularly fresh perspective in today's fast-paced, worry-filled culture:

As pressure and stress bear down on me,
I find joy in your commands.
Psalm 119:143 (NLT)

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The Difference Between a Hearer and a Doer

Gotta love these short daily studies from InterVarsity Press. Today's was called "Deaf to God". You'll need to read the entire chapter of 1 Kings 22. Here's the opening paragraph of today's study:

WE EACH HAVE our own methods of tuning out God. For example, singing an entire hymn without a single word registering in the mind; meticulously compiling a things-to-do list during the sermon; accidentally leaving a Bible at church and not missing it for days; feeling no compunction about a pattern of daily prayer long since abandoned and hardly remembered. There are many paths by which we can become deaf to God. Ahab's life (and death) warns us against such a route.

The Scripture tells the story of Ahab's death; how he wants to go to war with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to reclaim land that was once theirs. They consult Ahab's stable of prophets, who all promise victory. Jehoshaphat then saya, "Hey, why don't we get a prophet of the Lord in here?" Ahab doesn't even want to bother hearing what this lone prophet of God, Micaiah, will say because he knows it will be bad news.

They call him anyhow, and on the way the messenger advises Micaiah to be a team player; to agree with what the rest of the king's prophets have said. Happy to be the non-conformist, Micaiah replies that he's only going to say what the Lord tells him to say.

Micaiah is funny. He's over the top in his nerve, obviously because he knows God has his back, and even if not, he's willing to risk imprisonment or death to say what God wants him to say. He sarcastically delivers his lines to the king of Israel, "Go for it! You're a winner!" Ahab, apparently having some clue to the truth, tells him, "How many times do I have to tell you to shoot straight with me?!"

In the end Micaiah tells Ahab to do it at his own peril, because the Lord says he'll die in the process.

Ahab heard it, knew it was coming from God, and did his own thing anyhow, leaving us an extreme example of being a hearer of the Word but not a doer. One of the wrap-up questions of the daily study is, "During the course of his life, Ahab had many opportunities for hearing truths from God. In view of this, what do you see as the difference between hearing and receiving God's Word?"

The two main things I get from this:

1. Sometimes being a team player isn't all it's cracked up to be.
2. Apparently God takes this "obey Me" thing seriously.

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Barefoot 'n' Naked

"The Lord told Isaiah son of Amoz, 'Take off the burlap you have been wearing, and remove your sandals.' Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, 'My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign—a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.'" (Isaiah 20:2-3, NLT)

You know, as much as it pains me to say it, and as much as I believe I'm completely sold out to God, I'm not totally sure I'd be willing to do this. How about you? And all of this -- three years of running around naked -- just so that Isaiah could be an object lesson.

Matter of fact, it would be difficult for me to be convinced that God was telling me to do something so obviously crazy (or something similar, adjusted for current laws regarding indecent exposure).

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Found in a Trunk

Yesterday I was cleaning a closet in the house and came across a black storage chest. I lifted the lid to find a wealth of things that are valuable only to me (possibly my parents and my brother, too): the red Snoopy banner I received for Christmas so long ago (and posted about in October of 2007), a chess program for my old Timex Sinclair 1000 -- on cassette tape, some photos, old Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and sketch pads where I'd doodled potential band names in my later teen years (such awesome names as "Mad Dog," " ").

When I pulled this '57 Chevy out early on in the process, my mind went into "happy memory" mode. It was one of my favorite cars. My friend two houses down and I used to play with cars for hours and hours each day. It's not in good condition because we'd grind our cars into the dirt, throw them through the air as if taking it off sweet jumps, etc.

I reflected that, as an adult, if I saw a kid treating a toy this way, I'm likely to say something like, "Be more careful with that. You'll get it dirty/bend the axle/whatever." But I realized yesterday that the reason my mind went into "happy memory" mode was that I played with those toys like crazy, and I loved them and that's the very reason I played with them in the dirt, threw them in the air, and those sorts of things.

I can't help thinking that these sorts of childlike traits are the ones Jesus was thinking about here:

"Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:16-17, NLT)

How would a child do things concerning the Kingdom of God differently from the way an adult might? By taking on tasks he loves with abandon, by not caring if something is dangerous or might get him (or his toy) dirty, by listening to the Word and doing it without church politics even entering his mind, by being blissfully ignorant of the fact that other people aren't doing it the same way he's doing it. And on and on.

My defense mechanisms as an adult have grown to mammoth proportions, I'm afraid. I don't want to do things that will offend people or that might hurt me. Pushing against these learned behaviors is something I'm working at on a daily basis.

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Fasting to Please Ourselves?

Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
    Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
    Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
    and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
    that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
    pretending they want to be near me.
"We have fasted before you!" they say.
    "Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
    and you don’t even notice it!"

"I will tell you why!" I respond.
    "It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

"No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
    Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
    Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
    Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
    Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

"Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    'Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply..."
- Isaiah 58:1-9 (NLT)

Fasting to please ourselves... It strikes me that this is communicated in the statement that was made to me by a friend recently (posted about it here originally): "I think [Christians are sometimes] trying to convince the other person that they are also a Christian."

How far does our club mentality go? Sometimes Christ-followers seem so scared of being absorbed by what's been called the "social gospel" that they intentionally don't engage in it. The call of the Scriptures is not to place everything into that type of mentality, but that it should be an integral part of who we are.

God hasn't just been faithful to His people in America. He's been ridiculously gracious to us -- blessing us like we don't even begin to deserve. Jesus told His followers to give as freely as they have received (Matthew 10:8), and He wasn't talking about money. He also said, "And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return." (Luke 6:33-34, NLT) -- we should give without expecting anything in return.

Here comes today's controversial blog post zinger. I don't know if it's something that I have a big problem with, but it honestly bothers me. I wonder if it typifies a wrong type of mentality. When we give money to our local church fellowship (which I recommend, support, and participate in), why is it that we keep a record of it so that we'll be sure to get credit for charitable giving on our taxes at the end of the year? I've been told that it's naïve to suggest that we shouldn't do that, but I take joy in retaining some of my naïveté and child-like faith.

What do you think?

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Tap Water Coffee

In an effort to save money yet maintain our addiction to coffee, my wife and I recently purchased a regular coffee maker. The pods for our single-cup maker wind up being expensive. Also, we recently removed the water purifier from our kitchen faucet for the sake of looks, and replaced it with a pitcher which filters water.

This morning I poured the last of the purified water into the coffee maker and, as a result of impatience, filled the coffee maker the rest of the way (about 7 cups' worth) with tap water. An eternity of minutes later (a drawback of a coffee maker), the morning haze was broken not by the taste of good, strong coffee, but of a nasty metallic sort of taste that came from the tap water.

The ingredients apparently make a difference.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks of the fact that seemingly bad ingredients can actually result in good. You all probably know about this. For example, "God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth." (Matthew 5:5, NLT)

But shortly after that, He says, "But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Matthew 5:20, NLT)

All the good works (strong coffee grounds) in the whole world will not make up for selfish or grudging motivation (tap water).

I seem to always get back to obedience and surrender. This is not partial stuff we're to do. There are no shortcuts. "Lord, I freely surrender some of these bits and pieces of my life to You. As I hang onto these others for the time being, please be glorified in my life." Betcha that won't work.

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