First Delight

Psalm 37:4

What do you delight in? Your answer is a good indicator of where your love and loyalties reside. Most of us know that the first of the Ten Commandments is to "have no other gods before [Him]." An idol in the biblical sense is anything that breaks this command. Examples of idols range from wood carvings and people to abstract concepts like pleasure and power. But the command to not place anything before our relationships with God is put in a more beautiful light in Psalm 37:4. It says,

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Quite a promise! If we obey the commandment to delight first in the LORD (see also Matthew 6:33) then there will come transforming blessing. What I mean by this is best explained by clarifying the meaning of the promise. God does not promise to give us all the toys we really want if we go to church and read our Bibles. It means when we delight in the LORD the influence he will have on our desires will be transformational. When we walk with the LORD our delights become his delights and at least in my case that's a big improvement!

A Busy Thanksgiving

Psalm 46:10

I thought of something as I bumped around the kitchen on autopilot this morning. I was making the kids lunches (which they didn't need due to the half day) and sipping my wake-me-up cup of coffee. Anna came down dressed in a Pilgrim costume with perfectly braided hair. Suddenly a rush of memories flooded my mind. The coffee in my hand became the orange spice tea my mother makes. The sounds of family laughing came from the other room and the smells of Thanksgiving meals made me breath in deep. Surely this is the most wonderful time of the year.

What made me write about it is the realization that I am just now having those nostalgic thoughts. Usually they come earlier, but the busyness this year has clouded my holiday sense. Thankfully, I don't think it's too late to get on track.

I envy children at this time of year. I remember when being caught in the wonder of this season lasted for a whole month. At some point we adults get too busy making the moment happen to live in the moment or reflect on the past. I am determined to find a way through the whirlwind of activity to get my head straight.

I read yesterday that the Chinese have an ancient custom during holidays where they will invite others to come share an hour or so gazing out of their picture windows. Once they sit down nobody talks, they just sit and reflect. I know plenty of people who would go crazy doing such an activity. In our culture we don't sit and contemplate unless we're forced to do so.

Thinking about these things brings two verses come to mind:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever (Psalm 107:1).

Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10);

This may be radical idealism, but what would happen if we all decided to turn off the football game for an hour tomorrow and decided to be still before the Lord? Not total silence necessarily; profitable conversation is still possible in America. Our conversation could begin popcorn style where everyone randomly expresses thankfulness to God for something. Or, we could start at one end of the room and work our way around till everyone had a chance to say something. We could have the children sit on the floor and tell them stories of God's faithfulness (Hebrews 10:23). 

My family carries on a tradition that has become increasingly meaningful to me. After the big meal we pass around a pottery bowl containing popcorn kernels. Each person takes five or so and once the bowl gets all the way around we start putting the kernels back in--one at a time. Each kernel represents something the holder is thankful for. Vocalizing our thanks helps us remember the blessings of the past year.

So plan some reflection time and have a happy Thanksgiving!


Note to the reader: This is the last post this week.

Faith that Pleases God (part 2): Tangible Reassurances

Hebrews 11:6,8

Faith that pleases God is characterized by a firm belief that God is who he says he is (part 1). It also steps into the unknown, believing obedience is worth the risk.
Psychologists tell us that young people tend to be impulsive because their brains have not fully developed the means to see the long view. As we grow we learn to count the cost of actions before we take them. The painful consequences from youthful risk tend to work against us as we grow older. The question enters, are we willing to trust God without tangible reassurances?
Andrew (my 7 year old) and I were in the back yard the other day and he asked me to help him up into a tree. I placed him on a branch and watched him cautiously move up to a fork between three branches. He enjoyed the view for a while explaining to me the virtues of tree-house building and why it was essential for us to begin as soon as possible. After finishing his discourse he prepared to dismount. With wide eyes he jumped into my outstretched arms shouting "wow!" as I caught him.
I thought for a while about that scene later in the day. I asked myself how a typical adult would have handled the situation. Adults would have been much more reluctant to jump without first asking the person on the ground to gather up six or seven other people from the neighborhood and have them jump from the branch first. If most of them landed safely then they would consider jumping based on the logic of the numbers.
But friends, God does not work that way. A prime example is Abraham (vs. 8),

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

 The reason he did not know where he was going was because God did not tell him. The point in these two verses is that if we have to know the outcome before we act we are not people of faith. We are promised rewards for faithfulness, but we cannot see them. We are promised that God will supply all our needs, so we need not worry (Phil. 4:19). Do you trust God?
John Piper says that the power to risk is in the promise of God. Do you believe his promises? You can say you believe all you want, but unless you jump off the branch you are only fooling yourself.

Faith that Pleases God (part 1)

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly see him.

 I used to think that the mere fact I wasn't an atheist qualified as pleasing to God. But an enormous amount of light opened my eyes when I placed emphasis this way: anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists.

There are many concepts of God in the world today. There are big differences between the way Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans and others portray God. But God is not pleased with false portraits. He is pleased only when we believe he exists the way he has revealed himself to us through the Scriptures.

I was a huge Michael Jordan fan in High School. If I were in a conversation with two people and one of them did not know who he is I would need to describe him to help his understanding. What if I described him as 5'11'' with curly hair, white skin, funny, a regular on Saturday Night Live, star of a couple of movies, etc? It stands to reason that the third person in our conversation would object to my description and say I was describing Will Farrel, the comedian actor. He would think I didn't know who MJ was at all.

The point is that if we want to make up our own idea of God then we cannot please God because God does not put up with false representations. Now, it is at this point we Christians can straighten up and say, yes, we have the proper understanding! But, many times I question the validity of that statement.

The Bible reveals a God who is present everywhere at the same time (Psalm 139). If we believe this how is it that we swear around some people, but not around pastors? Or when we watch certain movies with some people and not with others? Is not God present with us no matter whom we are with? For untold numbers of Christians, God lives at the church building and never comes out.

We say we believe in a God who is all wise (Romans 11:33). But do we consult that wisdom when we make decisions? Or, do we make decisions and then ask him to bless them after the fact?
God is pleased when we come to know him as he is, not as we want him to be. Let us pursue that understanding!

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.                                 -Paul, Missionary and Apostle, Philippians 3:8