Weight has always been an issue for me. Until recently, I joked about my five years of "body bliss" between the ages of 17-22. Then, relaxing into life, I became complacent about body stewardship and the numbers on the scale increased again. The last two years, God has been teaching me obedience and contentment as it relates to body care. And I have found that contentment is often unaddressed in the Christian environment--especially in America.
We eat the wrong food because we are discontent with the right foods. We amass more and more possessions because we are discontent with the ones we have. We fill the courts desiring more money, a different spouse, a sense of justice, discontent with the provision of God. If "the LORD is my portion," (Lamentations 3:24), why am I filling my bowl with so many other, useless things?
Even in the Church, our service is tainted by discontent. Some long to enlarge their boundaries, others desire a better gift. Some, in discontent and envy, refuse to serve at all. Yet "one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills" (1 Cor. 12:11). And should we wonder if Paul might have mistakenly attributed our specific giftings to God, he says later in the same passage, "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired" (1 Cor. 11:18).
What is your gift or mode of service? If God has given it to you, specifically, to meet the needs of His Body, why are you discontent? What is that bowl in your figurative hands full of?
"Therefore I have hope in Him." (Lamentations 3:24)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
"Cease striving and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10)
A life with God, a life of service, a life of Godliness is not a life of striving. In the church culture, there is a drive to strive. The 20% who do 80% of the work are exposing their families to a drug culture--where they are drug to church every time the doors are open. We meet, greet, teach, clean, sing, and serve 10-20 hours a week in our local churches. Our families, personal schedules, even our work schedules revolve around the priority of service to our local church. I am a part of that culture. And, yet, I am learning something new. The outside may appear the same, but the inward motivation and thinking are changing.
I have come to realize that a life of service is a life of rest. It is, simply, walk by by faith one day, one hour, at a time. It is depending on God not only to see what needs to be done, but with the confidence that He will empower and equip me for His work. The only work, then, is an exertion that is directed, empowered, and undergirded by God Himself. How hard can it be? It is impossible.
In all honesty, I like to strive. Striving may bring failure, but it also brings achievement, honor, recognition. To lay aside striving is to lay aside my personal means to recognition and achievement. To stop seeking self-gain and depend wholly on the Master is a God-sized task. Only God can replace my desire to strive. I cannot. It is too much a part of who I am.
To surrender my plans and desires requires a renewing of my mind. Jim Berg (Changed Into His Image) tells us it is spending time in God's Word to get a dose of reality. Jim's book explains from the Bible how to apply the principles of putting off my self, renewing my mind, and putting on Godliness.
Once the desire has been replaced (repeatedly, and only on a short-term basis, again and again), God's empowering and enabling is a constant process. I must continue to complete the tasks set before me in faith that God has custom-designed each task and set of circumstances. When I know the objective--the be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-31)--the task before me is simply a vehicle, not an outcome. The goal is to depend on God, by His Spirit, to respond in a way that is loving, kind, and joyful, maintaining peace, gentleness, and faithfulness even as my Savior did (and does).
Cease striving and God will show Himself. He is not glorified or magnified by my self effort. He alone is God. How can I serve, honor, and magnify Him? By resting, waiting, and depending on Him to accomplish His will. By being a conduit of His love and grace. By remaining transparent, invisible, so others will see the Creator in place of the image He created. Service is not striving, it is resting--knowing He is God.
A life with God, a life of service, a life of Godliness is not a life of striving. In the church culture, there is a drive to strive. The 20% who do 80% of the work are exposing their families to a drug culture--where they are drug to church every time the doors are open. We meet, greet, teach, clean, sing, and serve 10-20 hours a week in our local churches. Our families, personal schedules, even our work schedules revolve around the priority of service to our local church. I am a part of that culture. And, yet, I am learning something new. The outside may appear the same, but the inward motivation and thinking are changing.
I have come to realize that a life of service is a life of rest. It is, simply, walk by by faith one day, one hour, at a time. It is depending on God not only to see what needs to be done, but with the confidence that He will empower and equip me for His work. The only work, then, is an exertion that is directed, empowered, and undergirded by God Himself. How hard can it be? It is impossible.
In all honesty, I like to strive. Striving may bring failure, but it also brings achievement, honor, recognition. To lay aside striving is to lay aside my personal means to recognition and achievement. To stop seeking self-gain and depend wholly on the Master is a God-sized task. Only God can replace my desire to strive. I cannot. It is too much a part of who I am.
To surrender my plans and desires requires a renewing of my mind. Jim Berg (Changed Into His Image) tells us it is spending time in God's Word to get a dose of reality. Jim's book explains from the Bible how to apply the principles of putting off my self, renewing my mind, and putting on Godliness.
Once the desire has been replaced (repeatedly, and only on a short-term basis, again and again), God's empowering and enabling is a constant process. I must continue to complete the tasks set before me in faith that God has custom-designed each task and set of circumstances. When I know the objective--the be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-31)--the task before me is simply a vehicle, not an outcome. The goal is to depend on God, by His Spirit, to respond in a way that is loving, kind, and joyful, maintaining peace, gentleness, and faithfulness even as my Savior did (and does).
Cease striving and God will show Himself. He is not glorified or magnified by my self effort. He alone is God. How can I serve, honor, and magnify Him? By resting, waiting, and depending on Him to accomplish His will. By being a conduit of His love and grace. By remaining transparent, invisible, so others will see the Creator in place of the image He created. Service is not striving, it is resting--knowing He is God.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Walking
Today I escorted a large group of high school students to and from a nearby church. As we were arriving back at the high school, I began a silly conversation with a group of them. One student made a guffawing remark and I responded. Three sets into our guffaw match, she took the Lord's Name in vain. With a tactfully short remark, our guffawing ended and other students asked "Who needs God anyway?" "Doesn't Jesus need God?"
The conversation spun in a very serious, reflective arc. And what an opportunity to walk along the way speaking truth! There was no emotional charge, no breath-stopping clutching; simply a moment to share and drop. Draw a handful of seeds and discharge them in automatic pilot. How God has prepared the way with our own children as we cook, swim, walk, work, rest, travel! It has so become a part of life that the words are no different to young people who are not my own than from those who are. The sense of learning, of curiosity, of thinking and reflecting are powerful engines creatively designed in the heart and mind of each of us.
The sharing itself, the ease and comfort of it, brought great joy. To simply be used is a great blessing. "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." (1 Corinthians 9:16) Walking today provided the blessing of sharing Jesus Christ. How's your walk?
The conversation spun in a very serious, reflective arc. And what an opportunity to walk along the way speaking truth! There was no emotional charge, no breath-stopping clutching; simply a moment to share and drop. Draw a handful of seeds and discharge them in automatic pilot. How God has prepared the way with our own children as we cook, swim, walk, work, rest, travel! It has so become a part of life that the words are no different to young people who are not my own than from those who are. The sense of learning, of curiosity, of thinking and reflecting are powerful engines creatively designed in the heart and mind of each of us.
The sharing itself, the ease and comfort of it, brought great joy. To simply be used is a great blessing. "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel." (1 Corinthians 9:16) Walking today provided the blessing of sharing Jesus Christ. How's your walk?
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