How Much is Too Much?

I had a very serious conversation with a six-year-old yesterday. "I just don't think we can be friends anymore, " she confessed.
"What seems to be the problem? Why can't you be her friend?" I expected an answer along the lines of being influenced toward bad behavior, or a betrayal of some kind.
Instead she answered, "She always wants me to do what she wants to do and I don't want to keep doing her things."
What a great opportunity to share the principle of limits and love! God loves all of us, but the thing that separates us is our desire to do our own thing. The more I understand about Who God is, the more aware I become of the difference between His way and my way. Just like this little friend, I have an expectation that God will do what I want Him to. How very arrogant! God is separate, He is a being apart from all He has created--and yet He has reached down to me!
At the same time, God has limits and cannot, will not, overlook wrong. There is a way to approach Him, but not on my terms. The only way to approach God is on His terms: "Then Jesus said to Him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.'" (John 14:6).
It is only through humility, a confession of my sin, and dependence on His Son, Jesus (Who paid my sin-debt), that I can enter that relationship with God the Father.
Now we all know this little six-year-old does not stand in the place of God, nor should she express a sinful arrogance, but there is a time and place to lovingly serve and a time and place to lovingly confront. I don't know which path she chose--which path have you chosen? The one that leads toward God, or the one that lead away?

The Power of Service

Yesterday I visited with a young lady who claims to be "the only atheist" at her church. She was very open about her personal views. "And who is this Jesus anyway? I don't know even one person who really loves Him. They say 'God is love,' and 'Jesus loves everyone,' but what do they really mean?"

"Well, now you know one," I answered. "I love Him very much. I love Him enough to get up and spend time with Him early every morning. Loving Jesus is about listening to Him and talking to Him just like a real person; it's about living to please Him because I want to."

As we visited, I admitted that I cannot do what God wants me to do. Left to myself, I am selfish, proud, impatient, unkind. The only way I can serve others and put them ahead of myself is to ask Him to remove my will, my desires, my plans. "If I have put you ahead of myself in any way this last week, you can be sure it wasn't me, but God. When God uses me, I become anonymous--I am invisible." To remember the service and forget the person is an act of God. What a powerful opportunity to present God's grace through Jesus and His example of loving service on my behalf!

The power of our Invisible God is displayed in the life of a transparent person. How invisible are you?

The One Thing...

In reading through the book of 2 Kings, this phrase keeps recurring: "He did right in the sight of the Lord...only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places" (2 Kings 14:3-4). In other words, this particular king--and each king of Judah for whom this was written--made choices that pleased God, but he failed to do the one thing that would have pleased God most. What was that one thing? To replace man's worship with God's worship. The people of Judah chose to worship God in the places they chose, the high places rather than Jerusalem, before two golden calves. It became so routine that even Godly kings did not question the practice.

I was struck with how easy it is for me to justify a "lesser" worship because it is more convenient, it seems to meet God's basic requirements, because it is the way God's people around me worship, because, because, because.... And yet, what is that one thing that God desires of me? What is that practice that is more important to Him than any other thing I do, or give up, or change? In my life, in the practice of the American church at large, perhaps around the world, is it not that I worship at the altar of self, the altar of man, rather than the altar of God? I am more concerned about what other think of my apparel, of my personal sacrifice, of my singing voice (or lack thereof), of my possessions or influence than in coming broken, contrite, and empty before a holy, thundering, righteous God.

To my shame there are times God receives nothing at all from my worship, because the focus is nowhere near His throne--it is centered on a high place removed from His place of residence--offering sacrifices to a dumb, mute object of self-importance. Not only in corporate worship, but in personal worship, there must be a break from self, a break from others, and I must make the trek to His temple.

Making that trek means leaving things behind. It requires commitment. It takes time and effort. It may even be costly. But as God calls me to His throne, which is itself a breathtaking invitation, is any price too high? The journey is one borne out of dependence on a God who does not ask what He will not provide. And knowing that His Son, Jesus, is my means of entry, I make that trek, abandoning self. Then, as I enter His presence, I am reminded of His awesome comeliness, of His very Self that cannot be seen, of His Self-sustaining nature and there is room for nothing on my part but humility, awe, and poverty. I would trade a high place for this? Only then do I realize the inadequacy, the filth, of that one thing I treasured for so long. And it is then that I am filled, that worship is what is was always intended to be: the heart and will of an imperfect creature bent at the throne of the Almighty Creator Sustainer.