July 8, 2018

"You have said, Seek My face. My heart says to You, Your face, Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require." Psalm 27:8

What are the necessities of your life? What do you absolutely have to have? Can you even name those essentials that you could not be without?

I'll bet if you took the time to figure it out you would find it is a short list.

David, the Psalmist King knew! The one indispensible thing for him was God's presence! He could not - or more accurately - would allow himself to be denied the presence of God.

To "seek God's face" means to come into His presence. The great John Piper frames it this way:

"This happens through “seeking.” Continual seeking. But what does that mean practically? Both the Old and New Testaments say it is a “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.

“Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God.” (1 Chronicles 22:19)

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1–2)

This setting of the mind is the opposite of mental coasting. It is a conscious choice to direct the heart toward God. This is what Paul prays for the church:

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

It is a conscious effort on our part. But that effort to seek God is a gift from God.

We do not make this mental and emotional effort to seek God because he is lost. That’s why we would seek a coin or a sheep. But God is not lost. Nevertheless, there is always something through which or around which we must go to meet him consciously. This going through or around is what seeking is. He is often hidden. Veiled. We must go through mediators and around obstacles."

Herein is the merging of discipline and desire. The desire to seek God motivates the discipline to schedule time and screen distractions and study the Word until you hear from God and experience His presence.

Understand that there is a sense in which you are never out of the presence of God in terms of His protection and care. But communing with Him and connecting with Him in that intimate spiritual fellowship that your soul craves requires you full focus.

If you have not sought the face of God for awhile, why is that? Is it because of a lack of desire? Has your heart grown cold? Has sin crept into your life? Have you fallen in love with the world?

Or have you become distracted or diverted or discouraged due to the commotion around you? Has your lack of discipline allow the world to smother your schedule and clutter your mind?

Seek His face today!

July 7, 2018

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

The earnest admonition "do not conform to the pattern of this world" should really say, "don't settle for being conformed to the pattern of this world" because that is what it really means!

It's a fact, a sad reality that unless you have done something to change it, you ARE conformed to the pattern of this world! You were born that way. It is your nature. It is your default condition.

While it is not your fault your were born in this condition it is your responsibility to make sure you won't die in this condition.

The condition I am referring to and Paul has in mind is being conformed to the "schemes" of this world. What are the "schemes"? The mindset and thought patterns of the world are part of the schemes. The value systems of the world are part of the schemes. Selfish thoughts and desires are part of the schemes of this world.

Not one part of these worldly "schemes" is pleasing to God. None! They won't lead you God and will, in fact, draw you away from Him!

You can't tweak them into pleasing God.

You can't reform yourself into a new scheme.

The only solution for being conformed to the world is being TRANSFORMED through the renewing of your mind! 

To put it in computer terms, you can't download an app or a virus protection software. It will require an entirely new operating system.

God, through the blood of Christ will cleanse your old operating system (sinful nature) and download His Holy Spirit into your heart. That is how He renews your mind! It is a complete and fundamental transformation!

Nothing less will do!

Spiritual Tweaking

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

I was a pretty good baseball player. I was good enough to crack the starting lineup at one of the larger high schools in Indiana and later become a regular starter on a college baseball team. My mastery of the fundamentals and my understanding of the game elevated my level of play beyond my natural physical ability.

Honestly, I was only an average athlete and my physical stature was also on the average side of the scale. I lacked the speed and size to play at a higher level.

My dream of being a professional baseball player was limited by those physical factors. Gaining an inch in height or an extra step of speed wouldn't have been enough to make up the difference.

In other words, a minor tweak or two would not have made enough difference in my ability to have a chance in the pros. It would have taken a complete and miraculous physical transformation to get me where I wanted to be!

I share that not just to reminisce but to make this point. There are no minor tweaks we can make in our fallen spiritual nature that will make us into what God requires us to be. We can't reform ourselves into salvation.

And yet it seems many religious people believe they can make some minor tweaks or adjustments and make themselves acceptable to God. It goes something like this, "If I just spent more time in prayer" or "If I just read the Bible regularly" or "if I just get baptized" then I would be spiritual enough.

But as Paul clearly informs the Christians in Rome, they don't need a spiritual tweak they need a spiritual transformation!

You can't conform yourself into spirituality or salvation.

Neither can you reform yourself into salvation.

Only the transforming power of Jesus and His shed blood can pull you out of conformity and beyond mere religious practices!

You need a fundamental change in your spiritual nature! The Greek word Paul used is "metamopho" which is the root word for our English word "metamorphosis".

A metamorphosis is what happens when an ugly caterpillar changes into an elegant butterfly. It is a complete transformation of your nature!

Only Jesus can do that in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Have you been transformed by Jesus?

Conformed To This World

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

If giving yourself to God as a living sacrifice is the "reasonable" thing to do why don't more people do it?

And if offering yourself to God as a living sacrifice allows Him to transform you by the renewing of your mind, why aren't more people offering themselves to Him? 

At least part of the answer, and I suspect a big part, is that it is easier to conform or to try to reform rather than surrendering to be transformed by a holy God.

But rather than surrender to transforming power some choose to revert to their default setting and allow their thinking, their values, their decision-making and their behavior be shaped by their sinful nature. 

Paul would call that "being conformed to the world".

You are born as a sinner because your nature has been shaped by the sinfulness of Adam. Unless you choose to do something about that condition you will remain as Paul describes "conformed to the world" . And if you die that way you have no hope of making Heaven.

Since the mind that is "conformed to the world" is controlled by the sinful nature it will not recognize it's need to change and merely do what comes naturally - sin. Sin will keep you from God and it will keep you out of Heaven.

So, denying that you are really that bad of a person is a "conformed to the world" thing.

Deciding to just fit in with the ways of the world is a "conformed to the world" thing.

Choosing to "go along just to get along" is another is a 'conformed to the world" thing.

No wonder Paul emphatically states, "But do not conform to the pattern of this world".

If you were a passenger on a sinking ship at sea, would you be concerned about fitting in and being like all the other passengers? 

Of course you wouldn't!

No, you would make every effort to do the reasonable thing - find a way to get off the ship and survive!

Apart from Christ, your life is a sinking ship!

July 4, 2018

“remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,”  Ephesians 2:12-14

Today as we celebrate the blessings of freedom for the 242nd time, we are soberly and humbly grateful for those who have shed their life-blood on battlefields world-wise to earn and protect our freedom. Since the Revolutionary War, 1.2 millions of our finest young men and women have been lost in wars. Freedom is one of the few things worth dying for because it adds so much to living. The Bible says, “The life is in the blood” and certainly, our lives are blessed because they bled away their life’s blood for us. Be mindful of that at your picnics and fireworks and other festivities.

For those of us who are believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we are doubly blessed! We have benefited from the blood of brave patriots but even more so from the blood of Jesus! His torturous death on the cross won us spiritual freedom. We are free to enjoy the good life and the better life while looking forward to eternal life!

All because of the blood that was shed! Be very mindful of that today as you celebrate. In the words of the great Andre Crouch song:

The blood that Jesus shed for me,

way back on Calvary;

the blood that gives me strength

from day to day,

it will never lose its power.

It reaches to the highest mountain,

it flows to the lowest valley;

the blood that gives me strength

from day to day,

It will never lose its power.

It soothes my doubts and calms my fears,

and it dries all my tears;

the blood that gives me strength

from day to day,

it will never lose its power.

Freedom isn’t free.

Celebrate it accordingly today.

July 3, 2018

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2

Someone has said. "The biggest room in the world is the room for change."

It's hard to argue with this unless you happen to be perfect. If you think you are perfect check with your spouse.

Change is, in fact, inevitable. You will change for the better or you will change for the worse. 

So, the operative questions become, "Will I take charge of my change?" and "How will change happen?"

Change generally happens in one of three ways; by conforming, by reforming or by transforming.

In the above text the great Apostle urges a spiritual transformation. Transformation denotes a fundamental change in essence of your nature. When He wrote this phrase, Paul chose the Greek word "metamorpho". Does that sound familiar? It should! We get our English word "metamorphosis" from this root.

Metamorphosis describes the process that changes a lowly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Obviously, it is a radical change in nature!

So, what do you need to do in order to have your nature fundamentally transformed? Look back to the previous verse, "...offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...".

You do the offering and He will do the transforming!

How do you know if you have been transformed?

You will have a renewed mind! A mind that thinks like Jesus and values like Jesus and makes wise decisions like Jesus and loves truth.

Are you conforming and going with the flow? Are you just going along to get along and being shaped by the culture around you?

Are you reforming by trying to somehow improve yourself?

Or, are you willing to surrender yourself to the transforming power of God?

July 2, 2018

^"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21

The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a citizen of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own citizenship laws based on its own policy. Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. citizen parents may be both a U.S. citizen and a citizen of the country of birth. 

A U.S. citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, or a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth.U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another. Also, a person who is automatically granted another citizenship does not risk losing U.S. citizenship.

Followers of Jesus Christ possess dual citizenship. They belong to the nation of their birth and they are citizens of Heaven. While we live as citizens of this world we are to be preparing for the next. At the same time the Scriptures tell us, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7

Ironically, our citizenship in Heaven was made possible by One Who, as a citizen of that world, came to take up citizenship in this world to die for our sins.

This Citizen Who made our citizenship possible, came from a righteous place and was born in a righteous way to qualify Him to become a sacrifice for our sins. But between His righteous birth and His sacrificial death was a lifetime of righteous living. He was righteous when He left Heaven, He was righteous when He arrived in the manger in Bethlehem, and He was still righteous as He was being nailed to the cross. But, He became unrighteous as He took our transgressions upon Himself on that cross. Because of His righteous obedience to the will of His Father in making righteousness available to you and me, He regained His righteousness!

Are you thankful to be a citizen of the great USA?

As you celebrate your freedom as an American over this long Fourth of July week, will you also celebrate your citizenship in Heaven?