Sink or Swim?

Recently, I took the opportunity to get away to spend some alone time with the Lord, to hopefully listen and hear what I needed to hear from Him.  I try to do this from time to time, as there is just so much noise in my life and other distractions.  This particular time, I chose to combine my time with God with my favorite pastime, fishing.

So, for a few hours I was on a lake fishing, or I should say pretending to fish as I only caught one small crappie the whole time.  I really would have liked to catch something, but I was actually annoyed; because, it was actually a distraction from being able to focus on why I was actually there.  The wind was a bit brisk and kept taking me towards the shore and I found myself worrying about getting caught up in the weeds, or the fallen trees, or being run ashore.  So, finally, I just took myself out to the middle of the lake, where I knew I could go for a long time without worrying about those things.

I was better able to focus and my mind went to the story of Jesus walking on water found in Matt. 14.  At first, I was wondering if God wanted me to step out on the water, but I thought better of it.  Instead, I felt led to ask some questions about this narrative.  You have to admit, it is a little bit Hollywood-ish for Jesus.  What was His point?  It made sense to me to look at the context.

Jesus had just heard of the beheading of John the Baptist, His cousin.  His initial response was to withdraw “to a desolate place by Himself;” but, the crowds showed up and Jesus “had compassion on them.”  He began to heal them and then, He fed them.  Finally, at some point, Jesus sent the crowds away and “made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side.”

The disciples were already a bit troubled by the news that John had been beheaded and, no doubt, wondered if theirs might be forthcoming.  Then, to top it off, they were hit by a storm, one that appeared to be pretty fierce, even for a seasoned fisherman.  And then, they see Jesus walking towards them…on the water!  Why?

In the events that follow, we see impetuous Peter inviting himself out to do what Jesus was doing.  All goes well for a while, but he soon begins to sink and Jesus has to rescue him.  Then, the storm was over, and the disciples “worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

So many lessons are contained in this passage of Scripture.  You could easily find 5 or 6 life lessons or principles.  I don’t know that any one is more important than the other, but I would like to list a few.

1.  If you keep your eyes on Jesus, you won’t sink.

2.  f you take your eyes off of Jesus and are distracted by the storms in your life, just call out and He will rescue you.  No problem.

3.  Most of us are not ready to walk on water for any length of time, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking the risk.

4.  No matter what the storm, Jesus is always there to give us confidence.  Even when He had His own personal grief to contend with, He took the time out to meet the needs of the crowd, and He gave the disciples reason to believe, to trust, and to continue to follow Him. 

If there are storms in your life, whether they be personal need, life-threatening circumstances, or other fears, Jesus is there for you; and He invites you to come out and walk on the water with Him.  Just keep your eyes on Him.

Godspeed, Phil

 

How would you like your criticism?

Seems like a stupid question.  No one likes criticism, do they?  But, then again, why does it bother us so much?  A couple months ago, I asked a small group of men that I met with weekly, if they would criticize me.  Actually, I asked them for feedback.  I told them I thought they knew me well enough that they should be able to tell me what they didn’t like about me, or at least, what areas of my life they thought I should be working on to be a better follower of Christ.

They found it very difficult to think of anything; not because I was such a great guy, but because they weren’t prepared for the question.  The truth is we choose to spend our time with people that appear to enjoy being around us, people that we assume like us.  One way we continue to be able to spend time with these people is that we continue to focus on those things that we have in common, or that we value or like in each other.  We don’t typically look for the things that we don’t like, or if there are such things, we don’t dwell on them.

It’s true in most of the relationships we are in.  We form our relationships, in the first place, around places where we can easily connect.  Ask yourself, have you ever deliberately decided to spend more time hanging out with people you don’t like?  Why would you do that?  It would make you miserable.  If there are differences, we tend to overlook those; if there are enough commonalities; we don’t want to risk losing the relationship.

Yet in Scripture, we are encouraged not to ignore these differences, especially if these are areas of sin in our brother’s life (Gal. 6:1-2; etc.).  We are told there is benefit to doing this.  In Prov. 9:7-12, Solomon suggests that reproof taken well will lead to wisdom and further learning.

So, why do we despise criticism?  Because it isn’t always constructive.  We allow it to affect our self-esteem, our sense of worth, to impact our initiative and our motivation.  I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”  Criticism is not the culprit, it is what we do with it, how we handle it.

In Oswald Sanders’ book, “Spiritual Leadership,” he warns against defending ourselves.  He cites the response of Samuel Brengle to his critics, “I thank you for your criticism of my life.  It set me to self-examination and heart-searching and prayer, which always leads me into a deeper sense of my utter dependence on Jesus for holiness of heart, and into sweeter fellowship with Him.”  Sanders’ encouragement is to turn a “curse into a blessing, a liability into an asset.”

We can also look at Paul and his handling of criticism.  To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court…It is the Lord who judges me (I Cor. 4:3-4).”  As Sanders notes, “Independence from human opinion can be a valuable asset to the person whose life goal is the glory of God.”

How would you like your criticism…rare or well done?

 

Godspeed, Phil

Works of the Heart

Throughout the letter to the Romans, Paul is arguing against the works of the flesh as the means of salvation.  He writes, “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy (Rom. 9:16).”  Even God’s chosen, the people of Israel were unable to obtain a state of righteousness by their works (v. 32).  It simply was not obtainable by that means.

And yet, even today, we continue to be performance-oriented in our attempts to please God.  Let’s get this straight, our works cannot save us.  How then can we be saved?  Paul cites an Old Testament passage, “The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart (Deut. 30:14).”  In other words, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 9:10).”  Enough said.

But, then why do we have to serve God, do good, and all that?  You don’t.  Not unless you want to that is.  First of all, if you sought out the salvation that Christ came to offer, you probably appreciate it.  So, it may be that out of gratitude, you want to give something back to Him.  Second, you were most likely wanting to leave a certain lifestyle behind because it wasn’t fulfilling.  Christ has set you free from the bondage and the consequences of the life you previously lived.  However, we are not to use that freedom to continue to live in that way, and that is pretty easy to do if you don’t adopt a different way of life; and that life is only available by being obedient to what he calls you to do.

So, let’s say I choose to do make the right decision and be a good person.  Is that enough?  Keep in mind, we are incapable of being good on our own.  We are still of the flesh.  If we want to be good, Christ alone can make you good.  We are, in fact, made holy by the sacrifice of His blood on the cross.  So, if we are made holy, we might want to choose to live our lives in such a manner as we are called to do.  So, we are back to works, right?  Yes and no; keep in mind that our reason for doing good is not to earn our salvation, or because of some mandate to do so, but out of our recognition that we have been saved, we have been made holy and righteous before God, and continuing in that state seems preferable to the old way of life.

God, the Supreme Being, Creator of the Universe, Lord of all, has saved us, when we could not save ourselves; given us grace when we could never deserve it; made us holy by the sacrifice of His very own Son.  He expects nothing in return.  He just wants you to know He loves you, and He hopes you want to know Him better.  He has much more He wants to give you, many more blessings He wants to pour out into your life.  But, these come when we do good, when we serve others, when we share the Gospel with the lost, feed the hungry, care for the “least of these,” and let them know that He loves them too.

It isn’t like the Boy Scouts where you get a badge for every good deed you do.  What you get by being obedient, trusting and serving God, is a closer relationship with Him, and the joy of knowing that you are using the gifts He has given you, helping others with the issues in their lives.  Works, right?  Yeah, works…of the heart.

 Godspeed, Phil

Condemned!

I’ve done it.  I’m sure you have as well.  Condemned yourself for not doing more, not doing better, for not being good enough.  It seems like an epidemic.  I hear people saying all the time, “I am my own worst critic.”  They probably figure, I had better fault myself before someone else does.  It isn’t just new Christians that do this.  Even pastors are guilty of these negative attributions.

In the past, I have consoled people (and myself) with Paul’s words in Rom. 7, that we all struggle with doing what we want to do, with keeping ourselves from doing what we don’t want to do.  There is some consolation in those words.  At least I’m not the only one.  But, that didn’t make me feel as good as I would like to have felt.  I wanted to feel better, and I thought the only way that was possible was if I eventually got it all right, or at least if I kept getting better.  But, I didn’t always get better.  So, I continued to feel bad, to feel inadequate.  Until I read further.

Rom. 8:1, Paul goes on to say, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  That’s what I had been doing.  I was condemning myself.  It was as though I felt the need to feel bad for a while, or that there needed to be some type of consequence, some form of punishment, before I could move on.  There is a distinction between feeling convicted and feeling condemned.  The Holy Spirit is there to convict, but not to condemn.

Now, I’m not suggesting we just gloss over it and act as though it doesn’t matter that we stepped outside of God’s will.  When my kids were younger, they would quickly apologize as though that made it all good.  They couldn’t understand why I still felt as though there might need to be some type of consequence for their behavior.  At the same time, I’m not suggesting we need a consequence every time we slip and make a wrong decision.  Somewhere in there is a need for genuine repentance.  But, we don’t need to wallow in it.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).”

There is no condemnation.  There is only grace and forgiveness.  "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him (John 3:17)."  You see, we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, one who was tempted in the same way we are (Heb. 4:15).  He understands.  And He forgives.  Get up and get back to what you were doing when you fell.  It’s over.  It’s done.  It is finished.

"The Lord redeems His servants; no one who takes refuge in Him will be condemned (Ps. 34:22)."

 

Godspeed, Phil

 

If...

In this time of graduations, many of you will have recited for you the poem “If,” by Rudyard Kipling, by some young person who believes they have unearthed a rare and precious jewel that has never before seen the sun.  And many will be impressed and think it is full of great wisdom and promise.  But, an even wiser man wrote even greater wisdom, long before Kipling, that I think holds even greater promise for those who would tend to it.

Solomon wrote Prov. 2 to his son and started off with the same word, “If…”  Both, Solomon and Kipling encouraged their sons to accept their words, offered some useful guidelines, offered some principles to live by (although I would differ with some of those by Kipling), and suggested there would be rewards; especially if they listened to their words, even when the rest of the world seemed to be going in different directions.

However, Solomon’s writing to his son differed in two respects.  One, he placed greater emphasis on his son’s pursuit of wisdom on his own.  Wisdom from our fathers can only take us so far, and then we must find it on our own.  Most graduates forget 80% of what they learned while they were in school.  Solomon encourages his son, “Turn you ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding…call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding…look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure.”  Solomon’s admonition to his son was to make it a lifelong pursuit, to put everything he had into it.

A second distinction and one of great significance is what Solomon describes as the benefit of this pursuit of wisdom.  Kipling’s poem ends with the words, “”Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it; and—which is more—you’ll be a man, my son!”  Solomon held out to his son a much greater reward.  Although he assured his son he would benefit by having victory/success, protection from his enemies, help him have a successful marriage, and have good friends; there was an even greater treasure in store, and one that is still available to the graduates of today.  Solomon wrote, “Then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.”

Consider the challenge before us.  Do we want our young people to pursue the earth and everything in it, or to know God?

Godspeed, Phil

“…nor sits in the seat of scoffers (Ps. 1:1).”

Scoff: verb 1. Speak to someone or about something in a scornfully derisive or mocking way; an expression of contempt (synonyms: mock, deride, ridicule, taunt, dismiss, or belittle)

My son just returned home from playing with another boy in the neighborhood.  As he has on many occasion after playing with this particular boy, Jacob came in with frustration, and was a little bit angry.  This time, the other boy had mocked Jacob for wanting to return a ball that Jacob knew didn’t belong to his friend.  While Jacob knew this was the right thing to do, the other boy didn’t want to do it.  He began to tease Jacob and say hurtful things to him.  He was scoffing at Jacob for wanting to do what was right.

David continues to describe the downward progression that we began talking about a few blogs ago.  In the Keil and Delitzsch commentary on Psalms, the authors offer this rendering of the verse, “Blessed is he who does not walk in the state of mind which the ungodly cherish, much less that he should associate with the vicious life of sinners, or even delight in the company of those who scoff at religion.”  We might think this is a lesson only for the young; but, how easy it is for a lot of us to get sucked into the lifestyle of the ungodly, especially when our reputations are at stake.

 We don’t want to be seen as “pushing our religion down their throats,” or as “holier-than-thou,” or, heaven forbid, judging others.  While all of that may be true, there is nothing in the Scripture that suggests we should hide our faith, or pretend as though it isn’t important to us, and join these others in their sin.  It is preferable to take a firm stand for what we believe is right, than to succumb to the temptation that results from not wanting to offend someone.

 This brings up a related issue.  Why do we feel the need to always be on the defensive when it comes to our faith?  From childhood, we learned we were not supposed to “hide it (our faith) under a bushel.”  We are called to be salt and light, and we are reminded of the words spoken by Paul to Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (II Tim. 1:7).”

We have effectively been intimidated into not sharing our faith, even while others are apparently free to openly discuss their lifestyles, their values, and their behaviors.  We worry about being ostracized, isolated, judged ourselves, and even ridiculed.  I have been so as well; but, I found there are many opportunities where I can share what I believe, and that it sometimes makes a difference to those around me.  Sometimes, we are the ones who can effectively turn the conversations around to what is more appropriate and productive.  Sometimes, choosing to act upon what we believe can make a difference in terms of the outcome of a project, or the outcome of a major decision.

 A couple years ago, I and others in my office were in a very difficult situation, which could have resulted in a loss of business, and a scarring of our reputation, even though we had done nothing wrong.  I was encouraged in my time with God to express confidence that we were going to come out of our situation unscathed.  I especially felt compelled to share this with one of my supervisors, a marginal Christian, who never openly spoke of his faith.  I not only spoke to him on a regular basis; but, I also would text him Scripture to give him encouragement.  We did come out of it as I had hoped, and his faith grew exponentially, I believe as a result of my sharing with him.  I also spoke to one of my other supervisors, who was not a Christian.  I continue to trust God used that time to influence him.

At times, it is best we not associate with those who only scoff at our beliefs.  But, there are other times, we need to take a stand for what we do believe, and not back down.

Godspeed, Phil

 

Don't stand in the way

A second lesson that comes to us from Ps. 1 is that we are not to “stand in the way of sinners.”  It is a natural progression that, if we entertain the counsel of the wicked, instead of seeking the counsel of the godly in our lives, we will, inevitably find ourselves staying too long and being influenced by them.  We need to examine what has influenced us along the way and what may even now be influencing our walk with the Lord.

Recall how God told Joshua not to turn to the right or to the left, but to be careful to “obey all the law” Moses had handed down to him (Joshua 1).  Joshua was further instructed to meditate on the Word day and night, so that he would be “careful to do everything written in it.”  Our focus must be very similar.  We must not even slightly be distracted by wrong counsel or wrong influence.  Our conscience should become alarmed when we are so deterred.  After a while our life begins to take on a different direction and we will become like them.

I worked with an attorney who worked with prosecuting criminals day in and day out.  He came to me concerned because his wife had noticed a change in his demeanor, that he was becoming more grim and negative, even at home with his children.  Even our outward appearance can take on the features of the work we do.  I know, for example, my mouth turns downward into a frown if I focus on my work too much and allow it to influence my attitude.  Just look at the President after he’s been in office for a couple years.  An amazingly young looking man can all of a sudden appear to be years older.  How much more are our hearts affected by the continual influence of others?

The Hebrew tense of the verbs used in this verse suggest this a man who has never done this.  Unfortunately, for many of us, that horse has already left the stable.  The difficult, then, becomes extricating ourselves from where we have been walking, sittiing, and standing.  It isn’t easy to remove ourselves from relationships that are especially long-standing.  However, Jesus told His disciples, “No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).”  Once we have started down this road, there is no turning back.

If we are to become more like Christ, we must obey all the law, not turn to those on the right or left, stay focused upon the Lord and His Word, and let go of wrong influences, and the ways we have been influenced by them.

Godspeed, Phil

 

My new book, "Here's My Heart, Lord," is now available on Amazon.com.  it speaks of the problems of our hearts that get in the way of complete devotion to our Lord.