Principle #3, RESPECT HIS NAME
One thing we as Americans love to do is express ourselves. We do it in our choice of
clothing, restaurants and cars. We express our inward conclusions on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and to our friends. Some of us even vent to ourselves, now I know none of you talk to yourself, Ha!
And for most of us the common way we express what is on the inside is through our words. So to get our thoughts and points across we will use inflections, tones and even strong words. Frequently we will cuss and use words that shock people to get their attention.
The most common is a phrase used to blame God for the problems in our lives and in this world. So a tragic event will unfold and you will hear it. A surprise is unveiled and it spills out. A person is amazed at a fact and it rolls off the tongue. Actually, I am impressed how frequent the phrase is used in everyday expression. What is the phrase you might ask? Honestly I don’t think I need to type it because by the title of this note and how common it is you most likely already know.
What is most amazing is how many times I have heard it from Christians. People that say they are following God seem to be missing one of the most basic components of being a believer. Respect! Respect of God’s name and what it represents. I mean it was in that very name they were saved from hell and eternal damnation. But still they will throw His name around in awful ways. It’s on their texts, their social sites, and off their lips. I have even heard pastors say it while preaching a message making me wonder, "Is he worshiping or cussing?"
Deep down inside we know something is wrong with this flippant attitude toward God. Let’s face some facts today. We do this more than we want to admit, almost as if it’s a more acceptable form of colorful metaphors. We would never drop the bomb, the mother of all cuss words, but somehow we think that form of expression is far worse than using God’s name in vain. To be real, I would rather have you say that than ever take His name in vain again. Strange to think of it that way? Try it, status update "OMG" and then use the mother of cuss words and see what kind of reaction you receive. I bet more people will be offended at your use of the "bomb" than "OMG".
Pastor Paul, what’s the big deal? “I mean I really don’t mean it this way when I say it. And besides “God” is not His actual name, it’s a term we use and He has accepted to describe who He is, the eternal one.” True, “God” is not His actual name, as a matter of fact we don’t know what His actual name is (Rev. 19:12)
The truth is that what we say we mean, even if we don’t mean what we say. The issue here is not as much the semantics of His actual name but the matter of the heart. See, it’s not the name as much as it is what you are expressing when you use the phrase. The name just becomes the vessel that carries the condemnation to Heaven. The expression comes with an attitude, an opinion, a heart disposition. What you are saying is “God you are the problem with this situation, with the world”. “God you have no power over this situation”. “God I hate you!” What you do is align with the evil of this world and strengthen their claims against God.
(Revelation 13:5-6) “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.”
So which side will you be on? It starts with your words!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Image Is Everything
Principle number 2, WORSHIP GOD ONLY
(Colossians 2:20) “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules.”
The other day I was driving down the road and a phrase came to me, “The smaller the harder”. The smaller the idol is the harder it is to remove it from your life. It’s a bit funny cause I think that the big stuff, even though they might seem difficult or impossible to remove from your life, pales in comparison to the smaller, less noticeable idols. The small stuff seems to have a greater grip on a person’s life.
Now the world “idol” means little to us today unless it is referencing an infamous archeologist or a popular reality tv singing competition. But idols still exist and mean more to us than we often know or want to admit. We just have redefined them and call them things like hobbies, careers, habits and life-long dreams.
I just turned 40 a few weeks ago and for some reason I seem to be looking at what life has to offer with even more clarity than ever before. Thinking about what used to “jazz” me in the past no longer “jazzes” me and often I am looking at what something will cost me (I am not just talking about money) more in-depth up front. I am looking harder at my habits, my little idols in life. What is in my life that is pulling me away from God? Not just the obvious stuff, but the subtle oh so small stuff that spoil my life from the bottom up.
See I want to be excellent in my walk with Christ and to me nothing else matters. I want my habits to reflect that excellence. Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” So why do I see so many people that profess Christ still undress to the basic principles of this world? As the Apostle Paul stated above, WHY? Why do they still act and walk and talk and commit and make decisions in life as if they still belonged to this world? Why do we worship other gods?
God gave us in the second principal of life that we get to worship Him! We have access to commit, submit and belong to Him through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice! A life that never gets us stuck in a rut. A life we never have to look for an escape hatch or deal with regret. It’s that I want to be excellent in, it’s the 2nd commandment that I want to get right! I want to Worship God ONLY, not my car, not my life goals, not even my wife or kids!
Oh the little idols, the little foxes that spoil my vineyard planted by the Holy Spirit, save me Jesus! Save us oh God from ourselves! What subtle idol is in your life that is messing you up more than you want to admit?
(Colossians 2:20) “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules.”
The other day I was driving down the road and a phrase came to me, “The smaller the harder”. The smaller the idol is the harder it is to remove it from your life. It’s a bit funny cause I think that the big stuff, even though they might seem difficult or impossible to remove from your life, pales in comparison to the smaller, less noticeable idols. The small stuff seems to have a greater grip on a person’s life.
Now the world “idol” means little to us today unless it is referencing an infamous archeologist or a popular reality tv singing competition. But idols still exist and mean more to us than we often know or want to admit. We just have redefined them and call them things like hobbies, careers, habits and life-long dreams.
I just turned 40 a few weeks ago and for some reason I seem to be looking at what life has to offer with even more clarity than ever before. Thinking about what used to “jazz” me in the past no longer “jazzes” me and often I am looking at what something will cost me (I am not just talking about money) more in-depth up front. I am looking harder at my habits, my little idols in life. What is in my life that is pulling me away from God? Not just the obvious stuff, but the subtle oh so small stuff that spoil my life from the bottom up.
See I want to be excellent in my walk with Christ and to me nothing else matters. I want my habits to reflect that excellence. Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” So why do I see so many people that profess Christ still undress to the basic principles of this world? As the Apostle Paul stated above, WHY? Why do they still act and walk and talk and commit and make decisions in life as if they still belonged to this world? Why do we worship other gods?
God gave us in the second principal of life that we get to worship Him! We have access to commit, submit and belong to Him through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice! A life that never gets us stuck in a rut. A life we never have to look for an escape hatch or deal with regret. It’s that I want to be excellent in, it’s the 2nd commandment that I want to get right! I want to Worship God ONLY, not my car, not my life goals, not even my wife or kids!
Oh the little idols, the little foxes that spoil my vineyard planted by the Holy Spirit, save me Jesus! Save us oh God from ourselves! What subtle idol is in your life that is messing you up more than you want to admit?
Thursday, February 9, 2012
First Things First
Principle number 1, PUT GOD FIRST!
Ever felt that life is just a copy of the real thing? I mean that as hard as you try to be real, it’s often unreal. The new things we buy fade in their ability to please faster and faster these days. The way we use our money does not bring the returns we had hoped for. The people we had desired to have in our lives have failed us once again and our weeks get filled up with more and more to do.
It reminds me of a man in the Bible called King Solomon and in his assessment of life he called it “Meaningless”. You start something and finish it just to start something else….there has to be more than this.
See this type of living produces three things in our lives.
1. Emptiness
You see, all of us come into this world and because we don’t have that sense of belonging to something greater than this world it creates a sense of emptiness. There is a desire to have a sense of security, but because of an estranged relationship with God, there is a vacuum within our life.
You see, God created you and He created me to serve Him. He created us to have relationship with Him, to put Him first above all other things.
(Psalm 38:8-10) “I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes.”
No doubt we have all felt this way at sometime in our lives and I bet you would find that during that time you where struggling to keep God first in your life.
2. Needs
Each of us has needs regardless of how we are prioritizing our lives before almighty God. But often because of the emptiness in our life, we begin to sense the unfilled needs in our lives. They start to take precedence over God and His ability to meet all our needs. No doubt God will fill our needs, here is what Isaiah the prophet said about this.
(Isaiah 58:11) “The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Understand this; the source of my life will determine my course. When we tend to lose our source in God we start to replace Him with other sources, other ways to meet our needs. Instead of having our source in Him, we place our trust in the world and thus we are weakened.
Compounding on top of each other the emptiness and the unfilled needs of life start us worrying.
3. Worry
People worry because they fail to realize their significance and the significance of what they are going through. Instead of saying “WHAT” to God they start saying “WHY”. They add to it by stating things like, “Is this all there is to my life”, “My life is my job, I don’t want my life to be my job”,
“I just can’t seem to get past this”. What they don’t realize is worry is a warning mechanism that God put in us to wake us to the fact we are not putting Him first in our lives.
And Jesus comes on the scene in Matthew chapter 6 and address you and me, people under anxiety and who worry and who basically have a sense of insecurity.
(Matthew 6:25-30) “I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, and wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in Heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?” “Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all of his wealth was not as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the field, even though it is here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?” “Don’t worry and ask yourselves, ‘Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?’ Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in Heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what He wants. Then all the other things will be yours as well.”
Do you see what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying, “Only people who don’t have God first should have those kinds of insecurities.” Our Lord is laying the gauntlet down that people that are highly insecure and people who have high anxiety are people who have never yet focused in on God as the source of their life.
Jesus said that people that are highly anxiety ridden even think the birds in the air and the flowers of the ground are more significant than them.
And it just puzzled the Lord. He said, “Aren’t you worth more than birds?
Are you not more valuable than the flowers which will be burned tomorrow?” In other words, Jesus says, “When we really lack a sense of significance, it causes us to be insecure and worry and be anxiety ridden.”
Lets take the first step today and put first and put all our emptiness, unmet needs and our worries in His hands today. Pray with me.
“Jesus help me to live my life with You first and You always first, I ask forgiveness for not doing this and pray I would surrender my ways to Your ways. In Jesus name—Amen!”
Ever felt that life is just a copy of the real thing? I mean that as hard as you try to be real, it’s often unreal. The new things we buy fade in their ability to please faster and faster these days. The way we use our money does not bring the returns we had hoped for. The people we had desired to have in our lives have failed us once again and our weeks get filled up with more and more to do.
It reminds me of a man in the Bible called King Solomon and in his assessment of life he called it “Meaningless”. You start something and finish it just to start something else….there has to be more than this.
See this type of living produces three things in our lives.
1. Emptiness
You see, all of us come into this world and because we don’t have that sense of belonging to something greater than this world it creates a sense of emptiness. There is a desire to have a sense of security, but because of an estranged relationship with God, there is a vacuum within our life.
You see, God created you and He created me to serve Him. He created us to have relationship with Him, to put Him first above all other things.
(Psalm 38:8-10) “I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes.”
No doubt we have all felt this way at sometime in our lives and I bet you would find that during that time you where struggling to keep God first in your life.
2. Needs
Each of us has needs regardless of how we are prioritizing our lives before almighty God. But often because of the emptiness in our life, we begin to sense the unfilled needs in our lives. They start to take precedence over God and His ability to meet all our needs. No doubt God will fill our needs, here is what Isaiah the prophet said about this.
(Isaiah 58:11) “The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Understand this; the source of my life will determine my course. When we tend to lose our source in God we start to replace Him with other sources, other ways to meet our needs. Instead of having our source in Him, we place our trust in the world and thus we are weakened.
Compounding on top of each other the emptiness and the unfilled needs of life start us worrying.
3. Worry
People worry because they fail to realize their significance and the significance of what they are going through. Instead of saying “WHAT” to God they start saying “WHY”. They add to it by stating things like, “Is this all there is to my life”, “My life is my job, I don’t want my life to be my job”,
“I just can’t seem to get past this”. What they don’t realize is worry is a warning mechanism that God put in us to wake us to the fact we are not putting Him first in our lives.
And Jesus comes on the scene in Matthew chapter 6 and address you and me, people under anxiety and who worry and who basically have a sense of insecurity.
(Matthew 6:25-30) “I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, and wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in Heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?” “Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all of his wealth was not as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the field, even though it is here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?” “Don’t worry and ask yourselves, ‘Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?’ Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in Heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what He wants. Then all the other things will be yours as well.”
Do you see what Jesus is saying? Jesus is saying, “Only people who don’t have God first should have those kinds of insecurities.” Our Lord is laying the gauntlet down that people that are highly insecure and people who have high anxiety are people who have never yet focused in on God as the source of their life.
Jesus said that people that are highly anxiety ridden even think the birds in the air and the flowers of the ground are more significant than them.
And it just puzzled the Lord. He said, “Aren’t you worth more than birds?
Are you not more valuable than the flowers which will be burned tomorrow?” In other words, Jesus says, “When we really lack a sense of significance, it causes us to be insecure and worry and be anxiety ridden.”
Lets take the first step today and put first and put all our emptiness, unmet needs and our worries in His hands today. Pray with me.
“Jesus help me to live my life with You first and You always first, I ask forgiveness for not doing this and pray I would surrender my ways to Your ways. In Jesus name—Amen!”
Monday, February 6, 2012
In Your Corner
(Psalm 37:23-25) “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and he delights in His way. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong; because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. I have been young, and now I am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or His descendants begging bread.”
Growing up I watched a movie that still impacts me to this day. I still quote a line from the movie in the form of a single word. I was excited when I moved to Maryland and was able to travel and see the city and the steps in which one of the iconic scenes was filmed. What is the movie you ask, “ROCKY”
Yep I am sure you have seen it as well and you have probably quoted that same line ... “ADRIAN” Over and over again. For me it was that raspy voiced trainer, Mickey, that always yelled at Rocky that sticks with me. It was not His yelling, but that one thing Micky had that others did not. He believed in Rocky!
We talked about it for five weeks on how important it is to believe in someone. So my question is, who are you believing in? The reason you are reading this is somebody believed in you, bottom line. Somebody gave you a great gift. Not a new house or a new car, not winning the lottery; the greatest gift one human being gives to another is to believe in them. There is no gift that equals the gift to believe in somebody.
So, I want to give everyone an assignment right now. The assignment is, that within two hours of you reading this, you will tell at least three people the three most powerful words a human can hear. I believe in you!
In the next two hours tell three people, I believe you can do it. I believe you can change a life today, I believe that your life matters to not just yourself but to others.
Let's do that together; I believe in you.
Thank you, Lord for believing in us. When there was no reason to believe in us, you believed in us. When we could not believe in ourselves you believed in us. Then you sent people into our lives, who in a tangible way believed in us. So, even as we are reflecting back on our life and we begin to think about how we are going to send a Facebook message, or a twitter, or an email, or a text, or a phone call, or a card, or a letter; whatever shape or form it might be, as we reflect on our life, we want to stop by and say thank you. But as we look forward to our life, help us to discover, help us to develop and help us to deploy. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Growing up I watched a movie that still impacts me to this day. I still quote a line from the movie in the form of a single word. I was excited when I moved to Maryland and was able to travel and see the city and the steps in which one of the iconic scenes was filmed. What is the movie you ask, “ROCKY”
Yep I am sure you have seen it as well and you have probably quoted that same line ... “ADRIAN” Over and over again. For me it was that raspy voiced trainer, Mickey, that always yelled at Rocky that sticks with me. It was not His yelling, but that one thing Micky had that others did not. He believed in Rocky!
We talked about it for five weeks on how important it is to believe in someone. So my question is, who are you believing in? The reason you are reading this is somebody believed in you, bottom line. Somebody gave you a great gift. Not a new house or a new car, not winning the lottery; the greatest gift one human being gives to another is to believe in them. There is no gift that equals the gift to believe in somebody.
So, I want to give everyone an assignment right now. The assignment is, that within two hours of you reading this, you will tell at least three people the three most powerful words a human can hear. I believe in you!
In the next two hours tell three people, I believe you can do it. I believe you can change a life today, I believe that your life matters to not just yourself but to others.
Let's do that together; I believe in you.
Thank you, Lord for believing in us. When there was no reason to believe in us, you believed in us. When we could not believe in ourselves you believed in us. Then you sent people into our lives, who in a tangible way believed in us. So, even as we are reflecting back on our life and we begin to think about how we are going to send a Facebook message, or a twitter, or an email, or a text, or a phone call, or a card, or a letter; whatever shape or form it might be, as we reflect on our life, we want to stop by and say thank you. But as we look forward to our life, help us to discover, help us to develop and help us to deploy. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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