I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD (How God commands us in worship)
God saves. Only God saves. And God is not only an answer to “Help me”, He is the answer. It is the answer to a cry to defeat those who would beat me down. When times are tough. (2 Chronicles 20:6-27). When I like Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33:13, 19 face the Hagarites, and I destroy all idols that might distract me from what God intends for me to be pure worship, God will save me. He is waiting to do so. But it will only work if I give Him my devotion, and I do destroy the idols. God brings me from captivity of my sins as he returned Ezra and His people to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:21-23; Ezra 4:12-15). As long as I rebuild His temple in my heart (I Cor 3:16), He will help me for He knows, as any good parent understands, I am ready to use what He gives me. And once I build His temple in my heart, I am ready to speak to Him and pray to Him and confess my sins, as Daniel. (Daniel 9:20-23) He will show me the way through the darkness. But I must be willing to use the flashlight He gives me. And I must come to know that He is the only being I must worship, and nothing else, not even if I think it looks like Him. (Rev 22:9)
Don’t misunderstand me; God is always and ever present. He will never be separated from me. But He knows that I will misuse and am really not listening to Him when He tells me what to do, not really, and so basically He gives me what I want once and for all for His purpose. Why? So that I learn humility. Because in the long run, what I want is not what I need, whether I want to admit that or not. What I think is a strong desire to do, what I believe is a yearning need, is really something else to build a protective wall around. It just an onion skin because I would rather hide than actually be honest with God and say to Him, “OK, God. This is what You get.” What I don’t realize is that unless I truly talk to Him, how will I expect to come before Him honestly? How can I say that I really care and love Him? Until I am honest with Him and do come before Him, it doesn’t matter to me what He thinks, even if He has told me over and over and over again. He through Jesus beckons me, in Mark 1:40-43 and in Luke 5:12.13. He simply beckons with “Come”. When I was twenty-three, and still in college, I dreamed of many things, but most startling, was a dream of Jesus knocking at a wooden door and simply saying, “Come”. About 6 months later I “obeyed the gospel” but more importantly, I obeyed God, what God said about Jesus, when He told Him “This is my son in whom I am well pleased” upon His baptism. When I was an infant, I was baptized as a Catholic, being from New Orleans among a very Catholic city. As I grew up there was always something missing, and I had to find it. Regardless of the ridicule I would face by not being true to the family religion. And so that dream I had stuck in me, as it does now, and my search was on. And I found Him, at first in the dusty pages of a rather unused version of my mother and father’s bible. But then I found Him in my own bible. The baptism I had to go through was something that I had to decide upon, not to have someone else decide for me. I had to decide to follow God and only God and to be called a Christian and only a Christian. To have no other name that was carved by man but to have His Name, a follower of His Son. Christ decided for himself, all those in the bible decided for themselves. I had to make that decision as well. I fell at His feet like the one grateful leper that knew and lived as though He knew the Lord. And I hungered and thirsted for His word and learning of Him. But you see there is much much more to learning Who He is than reading. And that is where prayer and worship come in. I was and I am ready for Him to rule me. He could make me follow Him, but His power and strength is echoed in my choice. My choice determines God’s best use of me. (I Kings 3:1-13) The thing that is frightful is that He could make the choice for me, but there is that free will and He wants me to make up my mind that He is King, Lord, and God.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Barnabas
XXI. THANK YOU
The scripture for this text is I Thessalonians 5:18.
My parents always taught me to say “please” and “thank you” when I was a child. They always taught me the best way to proceed under any circumstances was with manners. As I grew older I must have gotten slammed in the head a few times because it seems that I am less and less courteous and have fewer and fewer manners. God loves me still, regardless of whether I say “please”. But it says over and over to give thanks in everything, and being grateful and thankful is part of a Christian’s prayer life and part of our obedience to Him that saves and serves.
I’ve had so much to be grateful for in my life. A good job that allows me to contribute to helping fulfill the needs of those orphans and students in Haiti, of students in World Bible School, and countless other research organizations dedicated to learning more about and controlling diseases such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis. I have good neighbors that always help me, even when I don’t ask them too. I’ve had a roof over my head, and when I have needed repairing or painting done, people from the church are always there to help. I have a good family at church, one constantly interested in improving itself and growing, as well as being the loving family that God intended us to be. I have a close circle of friends that are my brothers and sisters in Christ, like Gary and Jane Hixson, Rodney and Kristi Pinkston, Russ and Debbie Wilkerson, Linda Hill, Irene Miller, Ken Dellinger, Jeff and Mary Alice Trotter, Mike and Glenda Collins, Brett and Kris Hinson, Ron Wilson, Tracy Murphree and there are many, many more that I have left out. I am so grateful to have each and everyone of these people because without them I would sink. They laugh with me during joyous times and sustain me during my times of tears. I am thankful that they forgive my shortcomings so easily, when I shed my cloak of Christ and demonstrate just how human I am without God. I am grateful to have had a father who for 35 years of his troubled life supported me, sometimes financially, always emotionally, and who loved me and all three of his children even when we were most unlovable. Finally, I am grateful to the Heavenly Father who demonstrated to me that His love was greater than any love ever shown because He gave His son for me, that I might be able to enjoy the parental relationship. Too. How sweet the realization of an eternal, loving, forgiving Daddy, in whose arms I rest when I am crying with no one around, or who laughs with me when I chuckle to myself, or who sees what I do (good or bad) when I think no one notices.
I want to thank the Heavenly Father for one gift in particular. It is by far the best gift, and the most challenging gift He has ever given me. My friend Leslie. We used to be best friends; and at one time my sanity would be nonexistent without her, nor would my insanity have been nearly as fun. We did a lot together, went a lot of places together, did a lot of fun neat things together, and uplifted many people along the way. I seen and done things I thought I never would. A lot of people, including her mom, told me that she changed a lot because of me. I’m here to tell that was not me but her eyes were opened to God and I was just an instrument. I have learned a lot from her. She was always there for me. When I got the telephone call about my father’s death, when I underwent my heart operation, whenever I am down and need a lift up or a hug, she was always there to listen and exhort when needed. Even though I had that relationship for a short time it was really special and shall remain so. The fact that it is not now in existence is a testament to the humanness of God’s children. And how more importance is put on that humanness than what God actually wants of us.
Everyone needs a Leslie, someone who understands, nurtures, guides and someone not afraid to tell you the truth when needed. While it would have been nice to retain that relationship forever, what Leslie was confidence in myself that I could do what ever I set my heart to and that that indeed was OK. For both the good and bad times, everyone needs a Leslie, a pal, a confidante, someone to walk with you through the hardships, and skip with you when the days are beautiful. Someone who sees you through the eyes of Christ, even for a little while.
My prayer for everyone is that they find their Leslie, but that relationship is continuous and everlasting, not like this earth that will some day pass away but more like what God has in mind for eternity.
The scripture for this text is I Thessalonians 5:18.
My parents always taught me to say “please” and “thank you” when I was a child. They always taught me the best way to proceed under any circumstances was with manners. As I grew older I must have gotten slammed in the head a few times because it seems that I am less and less courteous and have fewer and fewer manners. God loves me still, regardless of whether I say “please”. But it says over and over to give thanks in everything, and being grateful and thankful is part of a Christian’s prayer life and part of our obedience to Him that saves and serves.
I’ve had so much to be grateful for in my life. A good job that allows me to contribute to helping fulfill the needs of those orphans and students in Haiti, of students in World Bible School, and countless other research organizations dedicated to learning more about and controlling diseases such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis. I have good neighbors that always help me, even when I don’t ask them too. I’ve had a roof over my head, and when I have needed repairing or painting done, people from the church are always there to help. I have a good family at church, one constantly interested in improving itself and growing, as well as being the loving family that God intended us to be. I have a close circle of friends that are my brothers and sisters in Christ, like Gary and Jane Hixson, Rodney and Kristi Pinkston, Russ and Debbie Wilkerson, Linda Hill, Irene Miller, Ken Dellinger, Jeff and Mary Alice Trotter, Mike and Glenda Collins, Brett and Kris Hinson, Ron Wilson, Tracy Murphree and there are many, many more that I have left out. I am so grateful to have each and everyone of these people because without them I would sink. They laugh with me during joyous times and sustain me during my times of tears. I am thankful that they forgive my shortcomings so easily, when I shed my cloak of Christ and demonstrate just how human I am without God. I am grateful to have had a father who for 35 years of his troubled life supported me, sometimes financially, always emotionally, and who loved me and all three of his children even when we were most unlovable. Finally, I am grateful to the Heavenly Father who demonstrated to me that His love was greater than any love ever shown because He gave His son for me, that I might be able to enjoy the parental relationship. Too. How sweet the realization of an eternal, loving, forgiving Daddy, in whose arms I rest when I am crying with no one around, or who laughs with me when I chuckle to myself, or who sees what I do (good or bad) when I think no one notices.
I want to thank the Heavenly Father for one gift in particular. It is by far the best gift, and the most challenging gift He has ever given me. My friend Leslie. We used to be best friends; and at one time my sanity would be nonexistent without her, nor would my insanity have been nearly as fun. We did a lot together, went a lot of places together, did a lot of fun neat things together, and uplifted many people along the way. I seen and done things I thought I never would. A lot of people, including her mom, told me that she changed a lot because of me. I’m here to tell that was not me but her eyes were opened to God and I was just an instrument. I have learned a lot from her. She was always there for me. When I got the telephone call about my father’s death, when I underwent my heart operation, whenever I am down and need a lift up or a hug, she was always there to listen and exhort when needed. Even though I had that relationship for a short time it was really special and shall remain so. The fact that it is not now in existence is a testament to the humanness of God’s children. And how more importance is put on that humanness than what God actually wants of us.
Everyone needs a Leslie, someone who understands, nurtures, guides and someone not afraid to tell you the truth when needed. While it would have been nice to retain that relationship forever, what Leslie was confidence in myself that I could do what ever I set my heart to and that that indeed was OK. For both the good and bad times, everyone needs a Leslie, a pal, a confidante, someone to walk with you through the hardships, and skip with you when the days are beautiful. Someone who sees you through the eyes of Christ, even for a little while.
My prayer for everyone is that they find their Leslie, but that relationship is continuous and everlasting, not like this earth that will some day pass away but more like what God has in mind for eternity.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Barnabas
VII. PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
This text is based on the scripture Matthew 13:26.
In New Orleans, as in any port city, there is a large oyster industry. People shuck, boil, fry, and eat oysters by the tons. If you know anything about oysters, you know their outer shell is rough, and the edges have ridges and there is a tough structure keeping it closed shut so that it takes a rather sturdy implement to pry the ends open. I myself have opened clams and similar mollusks with a dull steel implement that resembles a toy shovel. Once getting it open, you realize that there is really nothing to an oyster other than some primitive internal structures and one rather large, soft, pliable muscle, which is the part that everyone eats. Sometimes, if you look closely, you find a pearl.
Some people raise oysters for pearls, and I really think they treat oysters, that were actually created by God, the way that God does with people. God realizes that pearls need to be sewn and at the same time protected. Hence the rough exterior. And those that raise pearls realize this about pearls and do not mind the rough exterior. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade those people for all the money in the world. They are precious because they realize that oysters are precious. As God realizes that we are special and precious commodities. Those people that raise oysters sacrifice so much so that the pearls of God are not destroyed, not by man, not by satan. They are true warriors, those who say “No!” when it counts, “Yes” when they can and can make out the road signs in the fog that so often cloud everyone’s existence.
These are patient people. They often go unheralded; yet continue to work even if unheralded. The ones who go through life, realizing it’s a struggle and do it anyway because they know that growing pearls for God is important and doesn’t matter how long God needs them, just that He does. These are the people who are willing to wait until the point where no human can handle it anymore. They’ll plug and plug and plug and get tired and keep going and rest for a bit, up and up that mountain toward perfection that awaits all in Christ. Because they are human they may reach a crag or a ravine and trip or even fall several hundred feet until they cry out, “Help me, God!!! I can not make it anymore!” and poof! God scoops them up and tells them, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) And gives us the strength to endure or opens an escape hatch for us to run through into His waiting arms until the next time we have such a crisis.
These people we should be grateful for. Because they realize not to give up on us. Because they know the rest of us are simply fools that need direction and wisdom to make it through. We are all diamonds in the rough, but nevertheless still diamonds. When you least expect it, after all that time in a crusty chalky shell, out comes the pearl.
This text is based on the scripture Matthew 13:26.
In New Orleans, as in any port city, there is a large oyster industry. People shuck, boil, fry, and eat oysters by the tons. If you know anything about oysters, you know their outer shell is rough, and the edges have ridges and there is a tough structure keeping it closed shut so that it takes a rather sturdy implement to pry the ends open. I myself have opened clams and similar mollusks with a dull steel implement that resembles a toy shovel. Once getting it open, you realize that there is really nothing to an oyster other than some primitive internal structures and one rather large, soft, pliable muscle, which is the part that everyone eats. Sometimes, if you look closely, you find a pearl.
Some people raise oysters for pearls, and I really think they treat oysters, that were actually created by God, the way that God does with people. God realizes that pearls need to be sewn and at the same time protected. Hence the rough exterior. And those that raise pearls realize this about pearls and do not mind the rough exterior. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade those people for all the money in the world. They are precious because they realize that oysters are precious. As God realizes that we are special and precious commodities. Those people that raise oysters sacrifice so much so that the pearls of God are not destroyed, not by man, not by satan. They are true warriors, those who say “No!” when it counts, “Yes” when they can and can make out the road signs in the fog that so often cloud everyone’s existence.
These are patient people. They often go unheralded; yet continue to work even if unheralded. The ones who go through life, realizing it’s a struggle and do it anyway because they know that growing pearls for God is important and doesn’t matter how long God needs them, just that He does. These are the people who are willing to wait until the point where no human can handle it anymore. They’ll plug and plug and plug and get tired and keep going and rest for a bit, up and up that mountain toward perfection that awaits all in Christ. Because they are human they may reach a crag or a ravine and trip or even fall several hundred feet until they cry out, “Help me, God!!! I can not make it anymore!” and poof! God scoops them up and tells them, “My grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) And gives us the strength to endure or opens an escape hatch for us to run through into His waiting arms until the next time we have such a crisis.
These people we should be grateful for. Because they realize not to give up on us. Because they know the rest of us are simply fools that need direction and wisdom to make it through. We are all diamonds in the rough, but nevertheless still diamonds. When you least expect it, after all that time in a crusty chalky shell, out comes the pearl.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Barnabas
VII. WHEN WE LEAVE GOD
The text is taken from the Book of Hosea.
There was a man married to a harlot. Much like Hosea of the Old Testament, his wife continuously and constantly left him to lead a life full of sin, to return to a dark existence having once tasted what it was like to be loved unconditionally. I can imagine the conversation. I think she was totally open with him about leaving. There were times I am sure she left his be without so much as a “I’ll see you later”. But on one particular night, I can see them picking at their dinner because the tension is so thick it could be cut with a knife. I suspect our friend, being human, got fed up with her and confronted her, saying, “I can’t go on like this. Choose me or…” I can see his eyes tearing up, as he turns away. Then she promises and promises and smiles at him, lifting up his chin saying, “Let’s try again”. And so they do. For a while things appear to be resolving, and maybe this time, maybe this time, she’ll be faithful because she knows there is none better than her husband. Maybe this time, she’ll look to God and say, “I really want to do this. Help me so that I can change. I cannot change myself. You made me. You can change me. I really want to serve you…” Maybe she is faithful for a while, realizing there is none better, and that God indeed will help her and can change her.
But then, she leaves, again. It seems as though there is a new guy in town. And how handsome she thinks he is! And charming too! She gives in to his flirtations with her, because she reverts to her old ways of not believing that God can truly change her. She in fact believes that God does not want her to change, that she was made to continually lust and seek a sinful life.
And her husband weeps.
And God weeps too just like that, every time we leave. Because we have chosen to believe there is a God who obviously doesn’t think highly enough of us to stop us, or take the thorn from our side. Who put the thorn there to begin with, and who allowed satan to rule the earth? Who made satan? If God was that great of a God, why doesn’t He swoop down and save us? If He is that great of a God, why is there suffering and pain? Why are we the way we are, if in fact we are created in His image?
Sound familiar? Some of the same questions people mockingly asked of Jesus on the cross, or the Pharisees asked of Jesus, or, in fact, satan asked of Jesus during his 40 days in the desert. The temptation to not believe God was tremendous and at time it was hard to focus, if Jesus, and we as His followers, had not known, the Father and His promises, which were, and are still today, true. It is the same temptation we go through when we are His followers. After all, when there are a million bits of information hitting us from friends, from the world, and from satan, it is hard not to stay confused. We want to do the right thing, we want to be fair, we want to demonstrate love, but it is difficult at best to endure all the background noise of “ME”, or “I can’t help who I am”, or “God must not understand my problems”. It is a struggle not to act like a spoiled child, especially in this day and age, especially in the country in which we live. We’ve been blessed more than we think, and then when we have to endure trial, we search our lives to see if there is something we’ve done wrong. Not finding anything obvious or that we think is obvious, we blame God for putting us into whatever we are in, whether it is a bad situation that truly is not our fault, or it is a sin that for some reason we have rationalized is really not all that bad, but nevertheless makes us feel ashamed deep down for what we’ve done to the Father. We blame God all the more for the guilty feelings to which we are subjected. It is so easy then to rely on our intellect and snowball the whole situation into massive confusion to where we are really running in place and getting nowhere because we’ve forgotten Jesus. We may indeed know Jesus, having been saved from our sins by His blood. We certainly say we love Jesus. But do we really? If we really loved Him, wouldn’t we believe what He says about God? Wouldn’t we believe the promises of God are true? It is indeed a step in faith and no amount of our reasoning will give us belief. After all, without Him, He says, there is no hope for anyone. Do we believe that? Truly?
When we leave God, we are really trying to convince ourselves that all this Christianity business is not what it is cracked up to be, that there is something better in the immediate environment. That is the saddest notion of all. We’ve given up, on ourselves and our capacity in God to withstand temptation (for He doesn’t give us anything we cannot handle and always provides us a way out, as Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:13). We’ve given up on our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are convinced that they will leave us because of the way we look at things. The truth is our family in Christ loves us, because they are committed to do so by Christ’s love. Our family in Christ realizes that they are no different from us and are subject to the sins we are and so there is no judgment.
Finally, we’ve given up on God, who, through the eternal and immortal instrument of the resurrection of His Son, does indeed save all of us, does reach His hand to all of us, no matter what the sin, even if we are like Jeffrey Dahmer. But God never gives up on us. And His hands are always extended. We just have to have the will and self-control to follow Him. And pray to Him to help us in our unbelief (Mark 9:24). And believe that what He says is true.
Praise God for His great mercy. And may we never forget it.
The text is taken from the Book of Hosea.
There was a man married to a harlot. Much like Hosea of the Old Testament, his wife continuously and constantly left him to lead a life full of sin, to return to a dark existence having once tasted what it was like to be loved unconditionally. I can imagine the conversation. I think she was totally open with him about leaving. There were times I am sure she left his be without so much as a “I’ll see you later”. But on one particular night, I can see them picking at their dinner because the tension is so thick it could be cut with a knife. I suspect our friend, being human, got fed up with her and confronted her, saying, “I can’t go on like this. Choose me or…” I can see his eyes tearing up, as he turns away. Then she promises and promises and smiles at him, lifting up his chin saying, “Let’s try again”. And so they do. For a while things appear to be resolving, and maybe this time, maybe this time, she’ll be faithful because she knows there is none better than her husband. Maybe this time, she’ll look to God and say, “I really want to do this. Help me so that I can change. I cannot change myself. You made me. You can change me. I really want to serve you…” Maybe she is faithful for a while, realizing there is none better, and that God indeed will help her and can change her.
But then, she leaves, again. It seems as though there is a new guy in town. And how handsome she thinks he is! And charming too! She gives in to his flirtations with her, because she reverts to her old ways of not believing that God can truly change her. She in fact believes that God does not want her to change, that she was made to continually lust and seek a sinful life.
And her husband weeps.
And God weeps too just like that, every time we leave. Because we have chosen to believe there is a God who obviously doesn’t think highly enough of us to stop us, or take the thorn from our side. Who put the thorn there to begin with, and who allowed satan to rule the earth? Who made satan? If God was that great of a God, why doesn’t He swoop down and save us? If He is that great of a God, why is there suffering and pain? Why are we the way we are, if in fact we are created in His image?
Sound familiar? Some of the same questions people mockingly asked of Jesus on the cross, or the Pharisees asked of Jesus, or, in fact, satan asked of Jesus during his 40 days in the desert. The temptation to not believe God was tremendous and at time it was hard to focus, if Jesus, and we as His followers, had not known, the Father and His promises, which were, and are still today, true. It is the same temptation we go through when we are His followers. After all, when there are a million bits of information hitting us from friends, from the world, and from satan, it is hard not to stay confused. We want to do the right thing, we want to be fair, we want to demonstrate love, but it is difficult at best to endure all the background noise of “ME”, or “I can’t help who I am”, or “God must not understand my problems”. It is a struggle not to act like a spoiled child, especially in this day and age, especially in the country in which we live. We’ve been blessed more than we think, and then when we have to endure trial, we search our lives to see if there is something we’ve done wrong. Not finding anything obvious or that we think is obvious, we blame God for putting us into whatever we are in, whether it is a bad situation that truly is not our fault, or it is a sin that for some reason we have rationalized is really not all that bad, but nevertheless makes us feel ashamed deep down for what we’ve done to the Father. We blame God all the more for the guilty feelings to which we are subjected. It is so easy then to rely on our intellect and snowball the whole situation into massive confusion to where we are really running in place and getting nowhere because we’ve forgotten Jesus. We may indeed know Jesus, having been saved from our sins by His blood. We certainly say we love Jesus. But do we really? If we really loved Him, wouldn’t we believe what He says about God? Wouldn’t we believe the promises of God are true? It is indeed a step in faith and no amount of our reasoning will give us belief. After all, without Him, He says, there is no hope for anyone. Do we believe that? Truly?
When we leave God, we are really trying to convince ourselves that all this Christianity business is not what it is cracked up to be, that there is something better in the immediate environment. That is the saddest notion of all. We’ve given up, on ourselves and our capacity in God to withstand temptation (for He doesn’t give us anything we cannot handle and always provides us a way out, as Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:13). We’ve given up on our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are convinced that they will leave us because of the way we look at things. The truth is our family in Christ loves us, because they are committed to do so by Christ’s love. Our family in Christ realizes that they are no different from us and are subject to the sins we are and so there is no judgment.
Finally, we’ve given up on God, who, through the eternal and immortal instrument of the resurrection of His Son, does indeed save all of us, does reach His hand to all of us, no matter what the sin, even if we are like Jeffrey Dahmer. But God never gives up on us. And His hands are always extended. We just have to have the will and self-control to follow Him. And pray to Him to help us in our unbelief (Mark 9:24). And believe that what He says is true.
Praise God for His great mercy. And may we never forget it.
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