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03
Dec
2015

Enjoying God

Father, My own heart is too often distracted from You and wants to find its pleasure in Earth. 

Forgive me, as I know You do, and grant me a heart that will find its greatest satisfaction and joy in You alone. 

     

There was once a king who sent a message to his servants graciously inviting them to dine with him in his inner chamber.  Some servants thought, “I cannot go until I have finished this urgent matter of the king’s business,” for they feared to face their king with their work undone.  Others said, “Surely the king would never send such an invitation as this,” and they stayed away, thinking themselves clever to have avoided a big joke.  Others, in the midst of life, simply forgot.  Still others came with selfish motives, wishing to gain a special favor for themselves.  But a few servants said to themselves, “I will go and get to love my master. God calls us to be those few servants.

    God means us to enjoy Him.  Somewhere in our culture, this fact got lost.  We enjoy our food and our entertainment, our friends and our family, but we do not enjoy God.  We have it backwards. 

“Delight yourself in the Lord,” the Scripture says.  “Love the Lord your God,” it commands.  “Rejoice in the Lord, always.”  Some Christians want to follow God without ever enjoying Him.  They miss the point.  God doesn’t want our work.  He wants us.  Jesus wants us as a groom desires his bride.  And we are to desire Him with that same passion.   

It is true that we are to serve Christ as a bride serves her husband, but the bride who best serves her husband is the one who most loves and enjoys him. 

It is true that we are to obey Christ as a soldier obeys his commander, but the soldier who best obeys is the one who most loves. 

It is true that we are to work for a kingdom, but the one who works with the most passion is the one who has the greatest passion for the king.

True religion does involve following and obeying Jesus, but first it involves adoring and enjoying Him. 

Some within Christian churches want the work without the worship.  Not only is their work of little effect, but their lives are empty.  Work never fulfills.  Even Christian work never fulfills.  Only God satisfies. 

Some people have heard that God satisfies, but they have not experienced it.  It is like the difference between hearing the Hallelujah Chorus performed live or hearing someone talk about it.  God wants us to enjoy Him live and not just hear about it.  Many people in many churches have heard glorious truths about God without ever experiencing God Himself. They can quote chapter and verse about holiness, but they have never personally seen the beauty of it.  They can tell you all about the Cross without ever taking up their own.  They can pretend to be satisfied because they have heard about such a thing.  They can muster up pleasant feelings because they have heard some truth about God, but they do not enjoy Him.  They are like people who see and read about an actor and fall in love with him without ever meeting him.  They love their poster on the wall, but they know nothing about the real thing. 

God calls us to Himself.  David writes, “Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.” (Ps 4:3)    And when we know God, we can say with David, “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.” (Ps 4:7)

In my own life, the biggest obstacle to enjoying God seems to be enjoying Earth.  I find that my own self gets in the way.  I would rather listen to music or watch a football game or see a movie than enjoy God.  Of course, all of those activities can be legitimate in and of themselves.  Certainly I can enjoy God and do those things.  It’s not that they are bad.  It’s that they get in the way. 

I live in an entertainment culture.  I find that my culture appeals to my flesh and calls me away, but that God appeals to my spirit and likewise calls me away.  I find that enjoying God takes time and requires me to intentionally say “no” to things that are otherwise legitimate.  God is jealous of my time.  He doesn’t want the TV or a book to replace Him in my schedule.  He doesn’t want me to be so busy at work that I have no time for Him.  He calls me to Him and says, “Enjoy me.” If I want to spend my time enjoying Earth, He’ll let me, but I’ve made a bad trade.  Sometimes legitimate things turn into idols.  Sometimes they are hindrances, but I am to “set aside every hindrance … and run the race.” 

I find that when I make God the priority, I actually enjoy work or wholesome entertainment much more.  The enjoyment of God enhances the enjoyment of Earth.  But the pursuit of Earth robs me from enjoying God, which in turn robs me from enjoying Earth.  It’s strange.  When I pursue God, I gain Earth as well.  When I pursue Earth, I lose it.

No one will enjoy God who will not spend time with Him.  We live in the era of the quick everything.  Quick information, quick banking, quick travel, and, yes, quick devotions.  We snatch our few minutes reading the Bible and perhaps shooting up a prayer and then get on with the business of the day. This practice is not conducive to enjoying anything.  When we enjoy, we want to linger.  God wants us to bathe ourselves in His presence and not just wash our hands at His sink.

It’s not that our devotion is measured in minutes.  We can spend three hours a day reading the Bible and still have a dry, cold heart.  It’s that our devotion reflects our priorities.  “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  If we enjoy God, if we treasure him, we want to be with Him.  But often we treasure other things instead.  We allow Earth to call us away.  We listen to the Siren’s song of work and pleasure and never quite disentangle ourselves from it. It destroys us, not with its evil, but with its beauty, and we spend our days on a desert island instead of by the fires of home.  We have no time for God.  Consequently, we do not enjoy Him as He would like. 

Posted by mdemchsak, 0 comments
03
Dec
2015

Matters of the Heart

The head and the heart had a conversation.

“I am more important than you,” boasted the head to the heart.  “I can discern truth without your help, but you can’t feel anything without the information I provide.”

“Oh really?” asked the heart.  “Tell me, what do you know about loving Madeleine?”

The head thought about it a minute, then replied.  “I know it’s morally correct.”

“I see,” said the heart.  “And tell me, what do you know about pain?”

“I know it’s quite inconvenient.”

“I see,” said the heart.  “And tell me, what do you know of fear, arrogance, lust or greed that you did not learn from me?”

The head was silent, so the heart continued.  “And tell me, what do you know of joy, courage, or contentment that I have not helped you see?” 

Again the head was silent.

“You boast against me,” said the heart.  “But where do you think your boasting came from?”

 

Jesus calls us to follow Him, but no one will ever follow Him in merely an intellectual way.  We are, after all, human beings.  If we want to understand the Christian faith, we must begin with the issue of our own hearts.  Jesus calls us to humility, repentance, and faith, and those issues are precisely heart issues.  No one understands them without first having a certain kind of heart.  This may seem overly simple, but it touches us where it hurts most.  It gets at our dreams and our sorrows, our pleasures and our pains, our freedom and our bondage.  The heart touches us where we live in a way the head cannot. 

Our hearts determine how we look at the world, at ourselves, and at God.  Two women ask the same question:  “Why did my baby die?”  Both are in pain, both may be angry, neither understands, but behind the same question lie two different attitudes.  One asks with humility; the other to attack.  One openly and honestly expresses her grief and anger to God.  The other bitterly accuses.  The difference between the two women has nothing to do with the content of their question and everything to do with the state of their hearts. 

Our hearts determine who we really are.  “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” the proverb says.  “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no god.’”  Whatever we believe about God, we believe because our hearts have helped us believe it.  We have become largely what our hearts have allowed us to become.   

The heart is the soil in which the words of God must grow.  Hard soil or shallow soil will not let the words grow.  The shallow “Christianity” we see so abundant around us is a result of shallow hearts.  Many people in the average church content themselves with outward things.  They come on Sunday, maybe they read the Bible and give some money, but God wants more than that.  Too often we are outwardly busy but inwardly bankrupt.  We give God rituals but will not yield our hearts.  Spiritually speaking, we are like a hamster on the wheel, running, running, running, but never going anywhere.  For in the spiritual realm, we never get anywhere with God until we give Him the heart.

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03
Dec
2015

Beware of Counterfeits

     When I was in the army, I deployed to South Korea for joint exercises with the Korean army.  At the time, Korea was famous for selling certain items cheap. One could buy a pair of Levis for five dollars or a Polo shirt for three. Those prices were too good for some to pass by, and soldiers often loaded up and bought gifts for the entire family. The problem, however, was that the gifts were often fakes. American demand for certain products gave rise to an entire market for counterfeit name brands, so that not every pair of Nike shoes was really a pair of Nike shoes. I recall looking once at a pair of jeans in a store. They had the Levis look and logo with that same leather patch on the back and the writing in red ink. There was just one problem. It was a pair of Levees.
       Not all fakes were that easy to identify, but the pair of Levees was a reminder that one could buy phony merchandise almost as easily as legitimate merchandise. The good stuff and the fake stuff were intermingled in the same market. That is a picture of the church. Followers of Jesus and counterfeits exist side by side within the visible church. Sometimes one can spot the counterfeits fairly easily, as I spotted the pair of Levees; but often, they are more difficult to discern. 
       Now I understand that talk about counterfeit Christianity can come across to some as a bit judgmental. You know. Who does he think he is to say that so-and-so is phony? Forgive me if I sound judgmental. I don’t mean to judge anyone. I am simply saying something the Bible says quite frequently. Jesus talked about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Mt 7:15). He said that some people will say, “Lord, didn’t we prophecy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?” But Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from me” (Mt 7:22-3). He questioned people who call Him “Lord, Lord,” but who do not do what He says (Lk 6:46). In the parable of the sheep and the goats, all the goats thought they were following Him (Mt 25:31ff). He said that the gate to life is narrow and the path that leads there is hard, and few people actually walk it, but that the gate is wide and the path easy that leads to destruction, and many people walk it (Mt 7:13-14). He talked about different kinds of soils that represent different kinds of hearts (Mt 13:1-23). Many of those soils yield plants that at certain stages all look the same. In other words, you can’t tell the difference between the good and the bad just by looking at the plant. He spoke of good seed and weeds all growing up together side by side (Mt 13:24-30). No one can mistake the fact that Jesus explicitly taught that not everyone who claimed to be His follower was really His follower. 
       And He is not the only one. Peter, Paul, Jude, and John all wrote against false teachers who had infiltrated the church. Sometimes they name them by name. Sometimes they show the specific teaching. Sometimes they give general warnings against false teachers. In all cases, however, these false teachers seem to be insiders. 
       Let’s not be naïve. Not everyone who claims to follow Jesus really follows Jesus. Scripture could not be clearer. In the western world today, the vast majority of people identify as Christians, but Jesus says that it is really only few who truly walk His path. Who is right? The woman who says, “but I went to church. Didn’t I give to the food pantry?” Or Jesus who says, “I never knew you”? 
       So I am not judging any particular person when I talk this way. I am merely pointing out the general and obvious fact that the outward church consists of many people who are counterfeits. Biblically this teaching is plain. Practically speaking, it is obvious. Even secular people see it. One of the biggest criticisms the secular world has of the church is that it is full of hypocrites. All I am saying is that their criticism is correct and that Jesus said all along it would be so. He never considered the hypocrites, however, to be His followers. 
       So what does all this mean? It means, first of all, that we cannot discern what following Jesus is like simply by looking at everybody who claims to do so. We cannot judge true disciples by looking at the behavior of hypocrites. This seems obvious, but people do it all the time. They reject Jesus because of the attitudes or behavior of people who do not actually follow Him. They judge faith by the behavior of the faithless. You’ve seen this sort of thing. Some study or other may claim that X% of those who call themselves evangelical will divorce within a certain number of years. This may suggest something about evangelical culture broadly, but it says nothing about genuine faith specifically. 
       Second, faith is richer and fuller than most people think. Different people have different criteria for what constitutes faith. To some, love is the distinguishing mark of true faith. I certainly will not quibble with the importance of love, but love does not always mean what people say it means. I may love my daughter and discipline her because I love her. I may love an alcoholic friend and refuse to give him money because I love him. Sometimes love gets defined in ways that mean nothing more than “let’s all be comfortable.” This sort of love is no love at all, and sometimes it becomes a trump card for other legitimate expressions of faith, like doctrine or purity. 
       Others sometimes make Christian doctrine the shibboleth of real faith. Again, I will not argue with the importance of right belief, but James did say that the demons believed and trembled (Jas 2:19). Apparently one can have correct belief in the head and not be a part of the kingdom of God. 
       Still others sometimes emphasize external behavior as the mark of real faith. Again, I cannot quarrel with the importance of someone’s lifestyle, but it is quite possible for people to look good on the outside and be whitewashed tombs on the inside. They may keep the rules, but Christianity is not about the business of keeping the rules. They may give to the poor, they may work to preserve the environment, they may fight sex trafficking- and all these things are good-but faith is much more than all of this. 
       Often our problem is that we want to compartmentalize faith. Some reduce it to love. Others reduce it to correct belief. Others to social justice or morality. None of these traits is bad or wrong, but each is incomplete. That is the problem. People have an incomplete picture of faith, and different people have a different picture. They want to think of faith in a shallow one-dimensional way. They make it a puddle when it is really an ocean. This is partly why Jesus says that many will think they know Him when they do not. It is easy to counterfeit a puddle. An ocean is another story. 
        I want to talk about a more realistic way of looking at faith. When I deployed to Korea, the markets may have contained counterfeit goods, but those goods were made to look like the real deal. The fake Nikes would have the Nike look and label. But a label or a look does not make something real. That is true of shoes, and that is true of people. Thus, with people we must look beyond labels. Faith is multidimensional, and if we are to discern it from its counterfeits, we must look at the whole person. Therefore, if we want to understand real faith … 
       Look at the heart. I know that we cannot see everything in the heart of another person. Gracious. We cannot see everything in our own hearts. But that doesn’t mean that we can see nothing. Take note of a person’s attitudes. Observe inward things. Does he have peace? Is she full of joy? And are these things more than just personality? A real faith flows from a real heart for God, and a genuine life comes from a genuine heart. 
       Look at the mind. This means beliefs, theology, doctrine. I know that people can have correct beliefs without ever following Jesus. Faith is so much more than doctrine, but it does include doctrine. In fact, a right heart wants right doctrine. People who follow Jesus actually believe what He says. People who claim to believe Jesus but who disbelieve what He said or did or who disbelieve rather plain teachings of the Bible are displaying more than an intellectual opinion. They are showing a faithless heart.
       Look at the life. I know that people can go through the motions of Christian behavior without having any real faith, but one cannot have real faith without changing how he or she lives. Is the person willing to deny his desires? Does she show integrity with her money? Is he truthful? How does she treat her husband and children? People who claim to follow Jesus but who never change the way they live are fooling themselves. 
       Finally, look across time. It is much easier to counterfeit faith for one week than for sixty years. People can hold up a beautiful façade for a short time, but sooner or later the real person comes out. One of the best ways to tell whether someone is good soil or rocky soil is to wait. Jesus said that many people hear the word and immediately receive it with joy, but they have no root and do not last. Time may be the greatest test of real faith, for faith endures. 
       Look at all of these things together-the heart, the head, the life, and time. A genuine follower of Jesus is transformed across time in all of these areas. If you look at only one area, you are more likely to be deceived, for each is like a check on the others. You want to see all of them line up if you truly want to see someone who follows God. Faith is holistic and consistent. It involves heart, mind, soul, and strength. And it endures to the end. Counterfeits tend to be simplistic. They involve usually one piece of faith, and they are often short-lived. 
Posted by mdemchsak, 0 comments
03
Dec
2015

Looking Behind the Camera

     “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy on us.” Ps 123:2
 God’s people look to a different help from the rest of the world. History books always talk about kings and rulers, wars and battles. Newspapers, Internet blogs, TV hosts, and talk radio all focus on presidential elections, legislation from Congress, court decisions, military movements, or affairs of the state. Where the world points the camera tells you what the world thinks is important.


As Christians, we are to look beyond the camera. We understand that the kingdom of God does not come through Congress. As Christians, we know that our real help lies outside the political arena. Armies move, but God protects or destroys.

The people of this world cannot see God, so they will not look to Him. Our temptation is to look where everyone else is looking, like the woman who looks into the sky just because everyone else is looking into the sky.
But God calls us to be different. He says that He, and not Congress, is our help; that He, and not the stock market, is our help; that He, and not the medical system, is our help. Until we see the power of God behind everything, we will constantly be looking to the wrong sources for our deliverance and joy.

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