Following Jesus Son of God …

I have to admit that I really like iTunes.  I guess I originally downloaded it for my wife’s iPod Shuffle.  I don’t like proprietary software.  I want flexibility, so until I really understood what was going I disliked this Apple stuff.

But now the second time through. . .

I am now even considering buying a Mac for my next computer, now that I can use Boot Camp and still keep my MS programs.

Anyway, I use iTunes often.  You might want to give it a try.

One more thing.  Every CD I have burned with iTunes has been successful.  Better than anything I have used, and I have used several.  Have never had results like this.

We must live beyond the context of the obvious: what we see, hear, feel and experience in other ways.

The obvious is life before us, making a living, caring for our families, trying to have a life.

And the obvious overwhelms us, overruns us and overpowers us. That’s what life is good at sometimes, wearing us out with the daily, making us forget the forever. Drawing our complete attention to what is before us, causing us to forget what is beyond us.

So we only see what is seen. Our ability to look past Earth dims.

So we need to take heart and let God’s words give us perspective, speak to our hearts reality because reality is far greater than just our current circumstances and the obvious nature of the everyday.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 GW) That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. (17) Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. (18) We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.

So by faith we walk and continue our fight to see not just today but forever.

This is one of the books I want to write.

When I put together “Living by the Words of God,” I  studied the glory of God as far as moving past the abstract.  We often use the phrase “to the glory of God,” but what does that truly mean?

Ultimate honor, ultimate respect, living as if God is as real as we say (intellectually affirm) in the moments of our lives.

What does that mean to my world?  What does that mean to my spiritual growth and strength?

Perspective.  Perspective in everything I do.  All to the glory of God.  Cups of water, patience with my family.  Not taking offense at work and seeing a person’s pain instead of the possible pain he or she would have inflicted on me.

And rise above our circumstances, and see a little bit more of God, high and lifted up.

Alistair Begg on Truth for Life radio broadcast
He said it something like this:  “We need to answer the questions God is asking, but we want God to answer our questions.”

I believe this was on the Tuesday, July 17, 2007, broadcast.  Below is a link if you want to check it out.

Profound, isn’t it?  We are always talking about God answering our questions, or demanding that he do so.  But, wow, how about this.  We answer his questions.

I was reading this morning in Jeremiah 44 and Begg’s comment made me more thoughtful when God was asking his questions to the children of Israel.

Truth For Life:

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(Matthew 6:11 NIV)  Give us today our daily bread.

This is part of “when you pray say this” after the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.

But I want more than daily bread.  I don’t want to have to worry about tomorrow, meaning literally tomorrow and figuratively my future time on this earth.  I’m not really concerned with heaven.  I know everything will be great there.

I just need to survive the journey, and I would have a lot less to worry about if I had more than this day secured.

You know what I mean:  financial security, pensions, investments, a “piece of the rock,” not Jesus but an insurance company.  We want life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance, and we have so much stuff we often need to purchase riders to cover our special goodies.

Hmmm… I do need to call my agent and see if my music and recording gear is completely covered.

God has really been speaking to me on this.  Daily bread means I have to trust God.  All the other things means I don’t have to trust God as much.  I am not saying those things are wrong.  I am saying my over-dependence on the security they promise is wrong.  Anything that works against my faith is a challenge.

Paying the bills, food to eat, roof over my head.   Mmmm… I can smell something right now wafting out of the kitchen.  Have to check this out.

But when I do it – pray and trust God for my daily bread – the realization that the King of the universe, Creator and Redeemer, Provider and Sustainer, has his-own-self put it on my table, providing for me and my family.

That is peace of mind.

But then the process begins again tomorrow.  Give us today our daily bread.  Can you hear the growing pains?

Jesus quotes Isaiah:

(Matthew 15:7-9 NKJV) “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: (8) ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (9) And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'”

Isaiah spoke several hundred years earlier:

(Isaiah 29:13 GW) The Lord says, “These people worship me with their mouths and honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is based on rules made by humans.”

As I was reading this one day, it leaped off the page.

They were worshiping God. They were honoring God. Don’t miss that in the text. We jump right to the “hearts far from me” and “hypocrites” and all that. But God in his word tells us that they were worshiping him and they were honoring him.

As we try to get a true perspective of our lives before God, we must understand the complexity of the human heart: deceitful above all things, desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17.9).

We have to get past our mouths and our lips.

It seems we easily throw around the “H” word so I will be careful but Jesus, in addressing the “hypocrites” gave a tell-tell sign: They did worship and honor God, but they let their mouths and their lips deceive them.

I believe I know what some of you are thinking: They weren’t really worshiping and honoring God because their hearts were at a distance from God, far away from God in fact.

BUT THEY DID NOT KNOW THAT. Their deceitful hearts used possibly the most powerful, moving act a human can accomplish – worship of God – to fool them into believing they were right before God.

Let’s stand this out by itself so we don’t miss it. They deceived themselves by their lives of worship and honor.

Do I have a witness?

Is there an echo in here? Can you hear Jeremiah? “Deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Desperately wicked.”

We gather to worship. We sing, praise, preach and pray with our mouths and lips. We are on the side of morality. And, gracious, do we like to study our Bibles. Whooo-weee! Surely we must be doing what pleases God.

Except…
Except everything on our list can be done with a heart far from God. It doesn’t matter what is on your list, Girl. What matters is the location of your heart.

So check your heart, Dude! Get past your outward service. Get past your church attendance. Get past your position. Get past your mouth and your lips. It doesn’t matter how many Bible studies you attend. Bow low, way on down there now, before God and let God speak to your heart.

Allow God to give you the data that matches reality: near to him or far from him.

Matthew 6:1-6 ESV “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (2) “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (3) But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, (4) so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (5) “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (6) But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The secret place is the presence of God. Don’t do our religious stuff “before other people.” In other words, don’t do the good things described here — giving, praying, fasting, right acts in general — to be seen by people, in the presence of people.

We don’t play to the audience of people. We step away from the spotlight to a secret place — the presence of God.

I hope you see this. Do you want a greater awareness of God? His presence in your life and in this world.

Here is a portal revealed to us in God’s holy book. Do your right acts where God is. Be rewarded by God, which to me the greatest reward is his presence.

Isn’t it? What is greater than a total awareness of God, his love, his care, his kingship, his everything.

Not in our religious formulas or performance.

But in the secret place.

Sometimes when we do something, we do much more than we realize. Sometimes we do things that would surprise us. It could be compared to sitting at a control panel pushing buttons and twisting knobs without a good understanding of what we are actually doing.

Often Scripture teaches us: “If you do this, then this is what happens underneath, below the surface, of your actions. ”

We do structural damage to our spirituality, and we don’t have a clue.

Yo, Amos boy, what the heck you talkin’ about dude? Are we going to be getting to a point anytime soon?

An example I just read this morning:

(James 1:26 ESV) If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

Not bridling or controlling your tongue deceives your heart. Loose tongue, deceived heart.

This is why we need daily cleansing and instruction from the words of God. If we are allowing God’s words to wash over us — picture waves crashing the shore, washing over rocks or hot water from a shower running over us cleaning off the day’s grime or rinsing food off the Sunday dinner dishes — we will “discover again for the first time” many of these truths.

How relevant is this?

I remember one man specifically, but I have heard the expression several times, often ironically from older “wiser” people: “I am older now, and I just say what I want to say.” And this man did. And he was very cruel and manipulative with his tongue. But he also wanted to give the impression that he was a very compassionate and sensitive person, and he perceived himself that way.

Whoops!
He didn’t understand the structural damage he was doing with his wrecking ball of a tongue.

“If anyone thinks he is religious. . .”: the outward structure a person is trying to build

“. . .and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart”: damage to the infrastructure

“this person’s religion is worthless”: structure is useless

From TechEncyclopedia: infrastructure
(1) The fundamental structure of a system or organization. The basic, fundamental architecture of any system (electronic, mechanical, social, political, etc.) determines how it functions and how flexible it is to meet future requirements.

How often I observed this as a pastor!

I am going to be a spiritual person. And this is how I am going to accomplish it.

Or I am a spiritual person. And this is why.

But these people are legends in their own minds. What they have built is worthless because they pushed buttons and turned knobs and didn’t allow the words of God to direct them.

Okay, everything I said in the previous post is true but not the whole story.

Has been a very anguishing week, difficult stuff, family pain, etc.

And as it seems my life consists of much joy woven through the anguish and stress; it seems so much of my life and my wife’s is like that — joy and sadness, both cups full at the same time

So many good things happen and so much disappointment at the same time.

Only our God; only our God is constant; and I don’t know what I would do, can’t imagine what I would do without a relationship with my Savior and without hope past this Earth.

Sorry I haven’t done anything this week; very busy and tired. One problem is I keep forgetting my “primers” — notes I take during the day to remind me of my “inspiring thoughts”; sometimes that window opens and closes so quickly that if I don’t write it down it is gone.

Still very impressed with Chris Rice music; excellent musician and song writer: Untitled Hymn, Sometimes Love, Thirsty

You can check him out on eMusic; get 24 free downloads for trying, then 9.99/mo after.

Is worth it just to download all his albums.