Humble Yourself

The letter of James is a perfect example of the perversion of Scripture I recently heard, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there will be differences."  The rich and the poor, hearers and doers, those who show partiality, those who emphasize faith and those who stress that works are important, are among just a few of the differences that exist between believers, and are addressed in this letter.

As I shared in my previous blog, some would rather avoid conflict as they tend to believe it is nothing other than destructive.  But, I contend conflict is inevitable in any relationship, especially in the church; and that is has the potential to be constructive.  Why this other attitude?  James gets right at the heart of what results in our differences becoming a problem.  It is a lack of humility.

Humility, James says, causes us to judge our brothers and sisters in Christ and to speak evil of them (4:11).  The lack of humility grows on us as we experience success, prosperity, acquire possessions, status, and reputation.  These are of the world and not the reward of a faithful servant of God.  After awhile, we develop a "friendship with the world," we become attached to these things, and they result in a sense of pride as though they are due to our own efforts, rather than the outcome of our obedience and service.

Our pride then puts us in conflict with others in the church.  We begin to see ourselves as different, perhaps even more blessed than our brothers and sisters, more spiritually mature than they.

James writes, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (v. 6).”  There is nothing wrong with assuming the honor, but the glory belongs to God.  We are to live our lives in submission to Him, to resist the temptations of the enemy, to humble ourselves to the One who is mighty to save.

God's favor is intended to bless others not to make them feel inferior or lesser than us.

O God, who resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble: grant us the virtue of true humility, where of Your Only-begotten son showed in Himself a pattern for Your faithful; that we may never by our pride provoke Your anger, but rather by our meekness receive the riches of Your grace.

Godspeed, Phil

Loving Conflict

A general theme I have been dealing with in the last few weeks, within myself and with others, has been the theme of conflict.  In general, the problem is that some believe conflict can be avoided and, or conflict is destructive.  Neither have to be true.

This past week, I met with a few men and one of the men confessed he sometimes lied to his wife to avoid the conflict.  Every man there admitted he often failed to share certain things with his spouse for that very same reason.  It prompted me to go home immediately after the meeting to talk to my wife about some things I had been avoiding myself.

I continued to observe this theme in several sessions of marital counseling the rest of the week.  By and large, many feel this way about conflict.  When did we become this way and why is it wrong?

Once again, I had to look at myself and examine my own heart.  I realized that my experience of conflict growing up was that it was destructive.  It was frightening and often led to unwanted results.  I recognized that I have a tendency to avoid conflict and to be overly careful with the use of confrontation, even as a counselor or spiritual director.

A friend of mine once told me how he had become aware of a flaw in his own character and confessed it to some friends in a small group setting.  One of the members of the group stated he knew it was a problem and was glad my friend had come to realize it.  Rather than hearing what he probably expected, my friend asked him, “How long were you going to allow me to remain in my sin before you said something?”

In Scripture we are told we will be held accountable, not only for our actions, but for our careless words (Matt. 12:36-37), and for what we didn’t do that should have been done.  James writes (4:17), “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”  Jesus tells us the right thing to do is to rebuke a brother who sins (Luke17:3), “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault (Matt. 18:15).”

“Confrontation is a loving and appropriate challenge.  It’s not pointing a finger at sin.  It’s pointing to the truth that sets us free (HopefortheHeart.org).”  We cannot leave our brothers and sisters in Christ in their sin, and hopefully they won’t leave us in ours.  In my next blog, I will provide some tips on how to handle confrontation in the manner Jesus intended.  But for now, notice how you tend to avoid conflict and why that may be true for you.

Godspeed, Phil

Do you understand? Do you need to?

As I reflect back on the past year, there are events that I have yet to figure out as to how they fit into God’s plan and His purpose.  I don’t always understand God’s ways; but I heard someone say once, “You can have God or you can have understanding.  You can’t have both.”  Is that true?

Solomon writes in a verse very familiar to most of us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”  With all your heart goes beyond what most of us are willing to do.  As I noted in a previous blog, we “know” we should trust God, but to trust God with all our heart implies we will go beyond our own knowing, our own understanding, to a deeper level of acceptance and trust, or as one author puts it, to a “deep reliance on the Lord, a settled confidence in His care and faithfulness.”

In a book I often like to quote, “The Shack,” the main character is confronted not for his lack of understanding, but his lack of acceptance of God’s methods.  He is accused of judging God.  He is encouraged to, “Give up being His judge and know Papa (the nickname for God) for who He is.  Then you will be able to embrace His love in the midst of your pain, instead of pushing him away with your self-centered perception of how you think the universe should be.”  Ouch!

Maybe it isn’t so much that we need to give up trying to understand God and His methods.  That understanding is often available to us and what God desires for us.  However, we are reminded, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is. 55:9).”  What is truly needed is for us to learn to trust God’s ways.

“For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare (shalom, peace and plenty) and not for evil (calamity), to give you a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11).”

Have a blessed New Year!  Godspeed, Phil

God is "with us"

Enjoying Isaiah 9:6 this morning, it reads: 

“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”

Matthew thought it so significant that he quotes this verse at the beginning of his gospel, and tells us the meaning of the word, “Immanuel.”  It means, “God with us (Matt. 1:23).”

I am reminded of a similar verse in Isaiah 31:8.  Moses is commissioning Joshua to succeed him as the leader of the people of Israel.  In front of all the people, he encourages him to be strong and courageous for, “It is the Lord Himself who goes before you.  He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Isn’t it awesome that we have a God who goes before us, past Christmas and into the New Year.  It is so reassuring to know He has already been there, He knows what our year will be and all that we will need, and He will be with us.  He will not leave us or forsake us.  We have nothing to fear.

I hope that you have had a great year, but if anything has happened that has led to feeling discouraged or frustrated or afraid.  Jesus also made a similar statement to these others, and Matthew closes his gospel with what Jesus had to say:

“Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).”

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Godspeed, Phil

From the Head to the Heart

“I know that I can trust God, but…”  I have heard others say it and I say it myself, at the same time realizing that I am much like my children when I tell them I want them to do something (e.g., take the trash out).  Their immediate response is, “I knowww (exaggerated response here with tone of disgust),” and then it doesn’t get done.  I wonder if it annoys God as much as it does me.

I know I can trust God, but I get stuck when I am confronted with trusting God beyond what I am able to see.  Alice Fryling speaks of “moving from the head down to the heart.”  It doesn’t mean I leave my mind out of the picture and trust only in my feelings.  It does mean, as Fryling states, “moving from theoretical knowledge to actual experience (“Seeking God Together”).”

I understand that God has given me a rational mind to use, the ability to predict, plan, and process information as needed.  Paul writes in I Cor. 2, after exposing the futility of the world’s knowledge, that we have received “the Spirit that is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God…spiritual truths.”  These are things that can only be spiritually discerned, according to Paul, for “we have the mind of Christ.”

However, we would be amiss if we fail to nurture our heart relationship with God. Several times in Scripture we are told to “love the Lord your God with all your heart (heart is always first), mind, strength and soul.”  As Robert Mulholland suggests, we need to respond to what we read in Scripture with our heart and spirit rather than only with our “rational, cognitive, intellectual faculties (“Shaped by the Word”).”  In my book (“Here’s My Heart, Lord”) I argue that while God initiates, we are called to respond to God’s heart with our own.

Tohoyiko Kagawa writes, “Love alone introduces God to me.  Love is my sanctuary…I have my sanctuary everywhere I go in the universe.  Where Love is, there God is…Love is the ultimate religion.  Classify me not by creed: I belong to nothing but Love.”

We need to be able to take our faith beyond being able to know that we can trust God.  Blaise Pascal said, “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.  It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason.  This, then, is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason (“Pennes”).”

 

Godspeed, Phil

 

Raisin Cakes

Today is a day of feasting.  I heard on the radio, most of us will consume a day’s worth of calories at one seating.  Some will partake of as many as 5000 calories, more than 2 days’ worth for some.  It depends on the day, but I am certain that these are conservative estimates of what I hope to accomplish.  This is one day of the year, I do not intend to fast or feel guilt over what I eat.

I have, however, been attempting to fast in a sense over the last 40 days.  I have been trying to say “no” more often to achieve my “greater yes,” which is to turn to God more often.

I love comfort and food is a form of comfort to me.  Inadvertently, I was studying what it meant to truly comfort someone, according to Scripture; and I found there is a Greek word for comfort (as a noun) that bothers me somewhat.  The Greek word is anesis, from which we get our word “anesthesiology.”

Why should this bother me?  Ask me later after your Thanksgiving feast.  How do you feel after consuming all of that incredible food?  I would imagine, like me you will feel somewhat anesthetized.

One day a year is not what I would consider a problem, but it is the fact that day after day I may be taking this anesthesia to deal with the pain or discomfort or stress of the day, rather than turning to the true Comforter for what I need.  And it isn’t just food, there are other things or activities that I may be turning to instead of the Holy Spirit that is available to me.

What does this have to do with raisin cakes?  In Hosea 3:1, God condemns Israel for their worship of other gods and their love for raisin cakes.  Raisin cakes were regarded as luxuries and used as delicacies.  The attraction of idol worship was that it involved a form of sensuality that was appealing to the people of Israel.  Raisin cakes were a part of that particular practice.  God was condemning their turning to other gods and, in particular to those that involved something so sensuous.  I can only imagine how many calories were consumed at one of their worship services.

Today, take a pass.  Tomorrow, or maybe after the leftovers are all consumed, consider…”How do I anesthetize (comfort) myself?”  Jesus left us the Comforter, the paraklete to comfort us and strengthen us for the work He has given us to do.  Let’s take advantage of this.

 

Godspeed, Happy Thanksgiving

Phil

Niche-picking

We all have at one time or another sought to obtain an advantage, an edge if you will.  Maybe you camped out all night to buy the first of the new iPhones, or to buy tickets to a concert.  Perhaps you are one who loves the after-Thanksgiving sales and staying up all night to get the best bargains.  I have worked with young people who stay up all night to be able to spend $150 or more on a new pair of gym shoes with a particular person’s name attached to them.

 

It isn’t just something we do as college students or adults.  Most likely, we did something like this when we were younger. Maybe it was in sports where we learned that to win, we had to find the weakness of our opponent, an area of vulnerability in order to defeat him/her.  I played chess.  The strategy of chess involves placing your opponent at a particularly disadvantageous position referred to as checkmate. 

 

A similar thing occurs in the business world referred to as niche-picking.  It is a term having to do with strategically placing oneself in a “potentially advantageous position,” e.g., for advancement, promotion, a raise or bonus, or to make a sale, for example.  In the marketplace, we attempt to place ourselves or our product before our audience in such a way so as to convince them to purchase our merchandise over that of our competition.

 

Each of the above situations involves our making an effort to be in a “potentially advantageous position” over someone else, usually for our own benefit.  However, we are given a completely different set of instructions in the Scriptures.  Beginning with the words of Jesus, we are told, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave (Matt. 19:26-27).”  Paul writes, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others (Phil. 2:3-4).”

 

This theme is rampant throughout Scripture.  Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Walk worthy of the calling to which you were called (4:1).”  What is he referring to?  What is the nature of this walk?  In 5:2, he states, “Walk in love.”  In 5:15, Paul encourages us to, “Be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.”  Mulholland offers this for our consideration.  “Wisdom is the ordering of life according to God’s will and purpose (not our own).  Wisdom is bringing all the dynamics of your being into harmony with the word God is speaking you forth to be in the world (“Shaped by the Word”).”

 

Paul adds to what he has been saying, “making the best use of time.”  Here, he uses the Greek word “kairos” for the word time.  Kairos refers to a special time, an almost sacred time.  The idea is that we are to be mindful of a particular time when all that God is doing comes to fruition.  We are to be mindful of that time and be prepared to respond, not for our own sake, but for the benefit of others.

 

For the Christian, in whatever context, putting ourselves in a “potentially advantageous position” has to do with placing ourselves in the hands of the Father to be used to accomplish His purpose through us.

 

Godspeed, Phil