Through Christ, who strengthens me

I get to take an eleven-hundred pound spa up four flights of stairs today. And it's taking place down in Malibu. I will have a good strong helper going with me, and the contractor for the customer will provide four or five strong men to give us a hand.

The most important thing, however, is that we will also have a crane on hand. Unfortunately, the crane cannot reach the final landing on the stairs, so we will have him set the tub as far back as he can safely reach, and then we will go up the last part with manpower.

I can think of all sorts of reasons that this is like our spiritual life - but I'll let you run your mind on this one.

My source of strength

If the world can get me to take my eyes off of God, then it has me right where it wants me.

Brand-name logo on God's child?

3 John 1: 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."

I have seen too many young people imitating what is evil - and unfortunately, some of those observations began decades ago, so those people are really no longer young. What am I saying? There are powerful forces at work in the world to draw us away from purity, righteousness, honesty, grace and the humility that honors God. And those powers are nothing new, so people around me of all ages tend to display this amazing power to be like the rich, powerful, famous or even just the popular. And according to the verse we just read, that is not good.

I'm going to think about this one as I hit the ground running today - join me?

This is love

2 John 1: "4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."

SO - if we walk in obedience to His commands, we exhibit love. Seems to me that is going to weld together a strong church, a strong body of believers. So why, then, do we have so many divisions and factions?

Good question.

Weeper

I preached at our church yesterday. It didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I think I was obedient. That's not code for "I did the best I could," at least not in this case, because I really felt that I was supposed to do several things differently than we normally do them, and I did exactly what I felt I was supposed to do.

It just made things, well, different.

First off, I got the message that I was to tell the church that God loved them. Sounds so easy, right? I mean here, let me do it right now:"God loves you."

How hard was that? But from the moment I stood up to walk over to the pulpit, I was overwhelmed with God's love for the church - yes, your church, and this local church and this motley crew of individuals whom God wants to weld together into a powerful tool against the darkness which reigns in our communities. I got just a sliver, a tiny sliver at that, and it almost felt like a physical impact. I should have seen it coming: it happened first at around three in the morning when I was first hit by the idea to add that to the opening of my sermon. Sounded so easy - "be sure to tell them

THIS"

And a four-ton container of solid love-tronium landed on my chest.

So - the church was treated to a very different opening for their Sunday sermon: the speaker stood there and wept for a few minutes. I'm going to go get the digital recording later today - and most likely burn it - but I'll time it. It seemed like it took me about two weeks to actually get my first coherent word out... we'll see.

Other than that - I enjoyed the experience. What do I mean? I mean that I am one of those preachers who has to be hit by a message or I won't preach a message. If it doesn't move me first, I 'm not going to bother bringing it. So - I enjoyed hearing that, even though the enemy lies to us, we not only have the tools to know the truth, we have a powerful advocate who stands before the Father, interceding for us.

That, my friends, is cool.
Very cool.

Sacrifice

Ezekiel 45:18 “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In the first month on the first day you are to take a young bull without defect and purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the upper ledge of the altar and on the gateposts of the inner court."

Sacrifice. We have a different understanding of the word today than the Jews did in the times of the Old Testament. Back then, it meant to give something to God. And not just anything - they had to be sure that whatever they were sacrificing to God was perfect. Even if it was grain, it had to be from the first harvest. But it had to cost them something - David once said he would not sacrifice that which cost him nothing (1 Chronicles 21:24).

Nowadays, it is a word which indicates something that costs us more than we are willing to pay, or a price that is lower than we are willing to take for an item: "all cars will be sold at sacrifice prices," or "I will do this for you, but understand it is a real sacrifice for me..."

So where, along the way, did a standard of everyday behavior become such an exception to the rule? I guess about the same time we began to think of God as owing us. But if there is any doubt about who owes whom, think of the one sacrifice which ended all other sacrifices: Jesus' death on the cross. Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

One sacrifice which forever changed the world, the Kingdom of God, and our lives. I'll take that. And thanks for it, Father.

Wholesome thinking

2 Peter 3:1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. "

This little tidbit of truth from the opening remarks of the book of 2 Peter could so easily be overlooked - but it is truth, and truth has the power to change. I was thinking about the passage in Revelation where John records the words of Jesus as He warns the church that they had left their "first love." (Revelation 2:4 - the church of Ephesus)

So - if we had to form a graph somehow, showing the level of wholesome thinking in our life - would the trend be up, down, or flat?

Hmm. OK God - I get it.