April 13, 2017

"Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified."  Matthew 17:4

I can relate to Peter. Perhaps you can too.

Just like him there is a part of me that wants to camp out a certain comfort level. When something good happens or especially when I experience a spiritual high, I want to linger there for awhile. I understand his desire to want to pitch a tent.

But God would have none of that. Before Peter could even finish his thoughts, he was interrupted by the voice of God. God doesn't let me get away with it either.

Why is that?

God loves us too much to allow us to level off. There too much growth that has to happen in you and in me to allow us to camp out in a comfort zone. There are too many other people to be reached to let us pitch a tent at a past event. God is too dynamic and has so much He wants to reveal to us about His nature and His will to allow us to live on yesterday's experience. God wants to stretch us and grow us so he can do greater things through us and show greater things to us!

Our relationship with God is often described as a walk or sometimes as a race or even as a journey - but never is it called a camp out! When we walk with God we must keep up with Him - stay in step with Him. The Bible urges us to "wait upon the Lord" but it doesn't say He should wait on us!

Some of the old hymns used to refer to the Christian walk as a march. Marchers move forward steadily and purposefully in step together with each other and with their leaders. You may remember this one:

Come, we that love the Lord,

And let our joys be known;

Join in a song with sweet accord,

Join in a song with sweet accord

And thus surround the throne,

And thus surround the throne

We’re marching to Zion,

Beautiful, beautiful Zion;

We’re marching upward to Zion,

The beautiful city of God.

Let those refuse to sing,

Who never knew our God;

But favorites of the heavenly King,

But favorites of the heavenly King

May speak their joys abroad,

May speak their joys abroad.

Notice the hymn-writer said we are "Marching" not camping! And we are marching forward as we march! And, we are marching upward!

So, following Jesus requires us to walk with, to stay in step with Him. As His disciples, what happens if you walk ahead of Him?  What might happen if you don't really keep up with Him? A distance can develop then, right?  And what happens if He wants to lead you to a higher place or share a newer revelation of His glory and you are still looking back?

As we head into this Holy Week finalizing preparations for a great celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, intentionally order your schedule and your stuff so you can enjoy this journey with the King of Kings. Revel in His presence and praise Him for keeping in step with the will of God for you. Chase the Risen Savior with all your heart and never pitch a tent! Never get too comfortable or casual so as to lose the blessing, the significance, the hope, or the presence, or the peace of following Jesus who rose from the dead to set us free!

Comfort is over rated. God designed and wired us for challenges, not for camp outs!

What comfort zone might you be caught in?

April 12, 2017

"Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”   Matthew 17:4

Who doesn't enjoy a mountain-top experience?

If I ask how many would like to have to see fresh inspiring personal vision of our Lord and the manifestation of His glory - everyone would sign up! I don't think there is any doubt about that.

Is it realistic to expect a mountain-top experience every Sunday? How about every day?

Why don't we see more of them?

Even the inner circle of disciples only had one of them in their three years of following Jesus?

So, what SHOULD we expect?

While that would be an interesting discussion to have, let me tell you one thing I know from this Biblical account - REVELATION BRINGS RESPONSIBILITY!

The disciples where so excited about what they beheld during Jesus' transfiguration that they wanted to build some shrines and camp out up there! Who can blame them?

But, God Himself, shut that idea down by interrupting Peter in mid-sentence. God is not nearly as interested in happy days on the mountain as is about what happens in human hearts! He wants your worship to reflect in your walk! If your worship doesn't reflect in your witness what good is it?

Old-timers who were dubious about charismatic worship used to say, "I don't care how high you jump but I care about how straight you walk when you hit the ground!" I think that fits in this event!

Let me offer this opinion for your consideration, "We will have more mountain-top experiences when our witness and our walk reflects the passion, power and presence of our worship." Make sense?

Revelation carries with it responsibility. If you want the joy, sign up for the job! If you want to see His glory, live out His story! You can't have the experience His glory if your are willing to be an example of His glory! Mountain-top experiences are not about a thrill up your leg, it is about a transformation of your life!

The reason we are talking about this is not primarily because of what happened on the mountain-top but because what happened after they came down! John, James and Peter took the responsibility of the revelation!

Do you want more thrills on the hills? 

Live in the power of His Presence in your daily walk and be a witness to His glory! If you want the revelation - take the responsibility!

"What Should I Expect From God?"

^"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."  Ephesians 3:20-21

Okay, can we just admit it and get it out there – you have been disappointed with God. Does it help to know that you are in good company?

Consider these surprising quotes from some well regarded people:

"I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes." - Billy Graham

"I am exhausted crying for help....waiting for my God to help me." - King David (Psalm 69)

"Where is God? Go to Him when your need is desperate and what do you find? A door slammed in your face." - C. S. Lewis

"I have had enough, Lord.....Take my life."  - Elijah

"In my soul, I can't tell you how dark it is....I feel like refusing God." - Mother Teresa

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" - Jesus

"God has no right to treat me like this -- it isn't fair!" - Job

I would take a guess that most, if not all of those people whose quotes were represented in that clip are enjoying Heaven right now and I guarantee you that they are not disappointed!

Let me ask you, “Have you ever disappointed God?” Again, let me ask you, “Have you disappointed God more often than He has disappointed you?”

“Did God quit on you when you disappointed Him?”     “Will you quit on Him?”

Okay, I will go first! I have been disappointed with God.

In order to resolve this faith crisis I had to face some hard options, "Was God insensitive to my need?" or "Was He unable to meet my need" or "Was He unwilling to do so?" or "Were my expectations unrealistic?"

Given those considerations I had to finally conclude that my expectations of God were unrealistic because I just couldn't come to the other conclusions. I know my God cares and I know He is able and I know He is willing.

So, this brings us back to the question, "What should I expect from God?"

That is a HUGE question that will take several weeks to answer. But in the meantime, I leave you with another quote to help keep you from being disappointed with God:

"When I can't trace His hand I can trust His heart." - Charles Spurgeon

April 10, 2017

I read an interesting story about an old miner who had lived the life of a hermit deep in the mountains of Colorado. When he died, some of his distant relatives came to collect his valuables.

They arrived to find a miner's shack with an outhouse behind it. Inside the shack, there was an old cooking pot, some mining equipment, and a cracked table with a three-legged chair that stood next to a tiny window. A well-used kerosene lamp stood as the centerpiece on the table.

As the relatives gathered up the miner's possessions, loaded them in a truck, and got ready to drive away, the miner's old friend came walking up. He called out to them, "Do y'all mind if I take what is left in that old shack?"

"Oh, no," they said. "Take it. We have all the valuable stuff. You can have whatever is there." The man thanked them, and off they went.

He walked over to his friend's shack, went in, and looked around for a little bit. Then he reached under the table and lifted up one of the floorboards. Little by little, he lifted out all of the gold his friend had discovered over the previous decades - millions of dollars' worth of gold.

Apparently, the old miner had died with only his true friend knowing his actual worth.

In the same way, our friend, Jesus Christ, wants to make Himself known to us, but we can be like a distant relative sometimes. Yet, if we would get to know Him better, we would discover the riches that He has for us.

And where are these riches? They are in His Word!

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discern-er of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12

The power of the Word is the power of the Trinity, it is the power of the truth AND it is the power of transformation!

What is the transforming power of the Word of God?

God's Word is the scalpel of the Holy Spirit that He uses to do soul surgery on you.

Only God's Word has the power to change your heart, soul, and spirit to become more like His.

As the Word takes up residence in your heart and mind it adds His value to you at the same time is removing your impurities!

His Word can make you good as gold but only if you dig deeply into it on a daily basis.

April 9, 2017

"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." John 17:16-17

God's Word is powerful because all the omnipotence of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are active through the Word! The Trinity gives power to the Word!

A second source of power from God's Word is His Truth!

What is the power of God's Truth?

Obviously, God's Truth is powerful because it is the expression of His character. It shows you Who He is.

Life is without meaning or substance until you fully know Who He is and surrender to Him in faith.

It is also powerful because it shows you who you are!

The truth of God's Word convicts you of your sin and points you to your Savior. There is no other reliable source of exposing your sinful nature apart from the Holy Word of God.

God's Word reveals the truth of what you can become in Christ!

In Christ, through obedience to His Word, you can be sanctified or "set apart" unto God and made holy. 

Studying and obeying the Word of God can keep you from being "of the world" while you are "in the world".

The Word is powerful because truth is powerful!

April 8, 2017

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made"  John 1:1-3

So, what is the power of the word?

First, the power of the Word is in the Trinity!

The Word of God is the word from - God - the Heavenly Father.

Featured in your Bible is the Way of God, His nature and His character. If you read the Word you will get to know Who God is in His core.

Also contained in your Bible is the Will of God! What is it that He wants to happen in this world and in the world to come? You will find those answers in the pages of His Word.

Along with the will of God and the way of God, the Bible reveals the Word of God. By reading and studying His Word you will learn God's instructions, interests and intentions for His people.

You cannot know God, your Father, apart from His Word.

But in addition to the Father, the Word of God has the power of the Son of God!

Jesus, is the Word and He became a flesh and blood man to demonstrate the love of God and illustrate the life of God. Through the Bible Jesus is revealed as the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. He often identified Himself as the Son of God and is recorded in the Word as "I am the Way,the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by me."

The power of the Word is the power of the Father and the power of His obedient Son!

However, the power of the Word is also the power of the Holy Spirit! 

Who was it that inspired the written Word of God?

It was the Holy Spirit!

Who was it that Jesus promised would guide believers in the truth of God's Word? It was the Holy Spirit!

So, all three members of the Godhead are resident in and active through the power of God's Word! God's Word is triple true and threefold powerful! When you interact with the Word you are becoming involved with all three members of the Trinity!

Think about it! Those are three REALLY good reasons for studying the Word of God!

Spiritual Weakness and Poverty

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Ephesians 3:16-17

This incredible prayer becomes even more impressive when you realize that the man who is praying to encourage the Ephesian Christians was imprisoned and chained to a guard. The very one who should have been seeking encouragement was sending this prayer to encourage them. As we saw yesterday, he was concerned that they would become discouraged because of his suffering. We conceded that suffering does get discouraging and prayer is supposed to be a resource for encouragement.

How is it that we discover prayer works?

By being prayed for and having that prayer answered.

Likewise, we discover God's glorious riches by declaring our poverty and we discover His strength by confessing our weakness. And we get both of those by receiving Christ.

How can you have His strength without having Him? You can't! He IS your strength! Until you have Him you are weak. No matter how strong you think you are you are weak until you receive Him.

And how do you receive Him?

By faith.

What does it mean to receive Him by faith?

It means you confess your sinfulness, your renounce your independence and rely totally upon His righteousness and grace for your spiritual well-being.

That is what the Apostle Paul did and it radically transformed his life! His radically transformed life changed the world. It has altered my world. But it only happened because I was honest about my own weakness and spiritual poverty.

It is precisely what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God."

Here is the kernel of truth that you can wrap your heart and mind around - you get as much of God as you desire!

Pain and poverty are terrible things. I have been to the inner city of Chicago and Los Angeles and been overwhelmed by the unimaginable pain and poverty there. I have been to cities and villages in Africa and seen the devastation of poverty there. When you look into the eyes of helpless, hopeless people you never get over it. But there is something about pain and poverty that clarifies the value of faith. The powerless quickly recognize their need for His power.

Paul's prayer for his beloved brothers and sisters in Ephesus was that they would realize just how spiritually weak and powerless they are so they would receive the rich and powerful measure of God's Spirit. He realized it through his suffering and prayed that they would, too.

How much of God do you desire? It depends on how much spiritual weakness and poverty you are willing to confess. How much of your impotence are you willing to exchange for His power? 

That is the only way you will receive it and receiving it is the only way you will know it.