The Most Important Things

Spiritually dull is becoming the norm in the western church. We seem to have placed an inordinate amount of focus on the temporal. We are always thinking about how to improve our lives on earth or how we can become more successful. Of course, we have created elaborate justifications for it all. We say things like: I want to be rich to bless others. Or, we are just trying to reach more people by becoming more diplomatic in our gospel presentation.(note: I am not against generosity and/or gospel preaching) Instead of preaching in–depth messages and bringing more believers to maturity we end up creating a fickle, temporal christianity. A kind of christianity that gets offended and hurt at basic gospel truths. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.” OUCH! Imagine how immature those believers had to have been for them to say that! What’s even more shocking is that the writer is talking to jewish converts. Jews were required to memorize the first 5 books of the “bible.” As opposed to our 1–minute bible christianity.

Anyway, the argument gets worse as he continues, “you have been believers so long now that you OUGHT to be teaching others.” OUCH again! How many christians are held back or are afraid to teach others? Part of that is their own fault, part is the fault of the american church which has done a poor job of properly maturing believers. There are countless christians who really should be discipling/ teaching others but are not because they are content to sit and “listen” to the word. This ought not be so!

Finally, the writer gets to this part, “Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.(also good and evil)” It’s on that verse that I want to focus. A definition of immaturity can be this: the inability to discern the difference between right and wrong. That seems overly simplistic, doesn’t it? Yet, how many christians do you know who cannot do that? They cannot discern that listening to music with overtly sexual and/or perverted themes is evil. They cannot discern that watching horror movies is wrong. They cannot discern that rebellion and pride are still sin in God’s eyes. All the while they continue to do their own will rather than submit to God. If you desire to be mature in your faith, you must begin to understand the difference between good and evil and right and wrong. The only way to do this is to know the Word of God and to know the God of the Word.

Notice also, how it says “who through training have the skill?” There is no shortage of training offered christians in America. We have bible colleges, internships and every church has a litany of training courses for believers. Yet, the problem is that no one has the skill to recognize the difference. Why is that?! (I say it’s the training, but that’s for another post.)

God’s desire that everyone of us become mature believers. Here’s a way I look at it: if you have ever been in a relationship, then you know that the more time goes on the greater you understand the other person and their nuances.You really begin to understand what they like and don’t like. This same idea can be applied to God, the one who created relationship. If you want to know what God loves and hates – SPEND TIME WITH HIM AND HIS WORD! It really is that simple. The more you know Him and become like Him, the more mature you will become. Our goal is to become like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever you obsess about, you will be possessed about. This is a simple way that the devil works in our life. He will work overtime to get us obsessed with something. We get obsessed with money. Or we get obsessed with having material items. Or we get obsessed about a negative thought. The more you obsess on something the deeper it will get into your mind. Then, the deeper it gets into your mind it begins to saturate into your spirit. That obsession opens a door to the demonic and allows for oppression (and possession if it goes too far) which has no place in a Believer’s life!

Perhaps, you have been obsessing about past failures. Or maybe you have been obsessing about something bad that happened in your life. No matter what you are obsessing about, STOP! Obsession will lead to possession. That’s why the Bible tells us to forgive, it tells us to focus on heaven, it tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, etc. The Bible is filled with all kinds of exhortations to stop obsessing about our ourselves and this earth!

One of our greatest obsessions, right now in America, is with the temporal. We are obsessed with clothes, homes, cars, church buildings and the list goes on. Yet, we give no thought to the the eternal. A great benefit of the Bible is it’s timeless message. It applies to all mankind past, present, and future! It will never grow old or old-fashioned. But how much of our stress and tension is related to our temporal mindset? All of it! If you are madly in love with Jesus, you’re serving Him faithfully, and pleasing Him; what is there to be stressed about? Some would say, “I am stressed about making more money.” Well if you are content with what God has given you (and if you live in the USA you are in the top 10% of the richest people in the world) there’s no reason to stress, God will provide. What about my job? If you’re pleasing God, you will definitely be pleasing your employers and walking in God’s perfect will.

Too many Christians stumble over sins that continue to haunt them all their life. Why? Obsession. They are obsessed with trying to “conquer” their flesh. When, in reality, they should be obsessed with Jesus. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up…” Then he answers our question of “how?” He says, “we do this by KEEPING OUR EYES on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

The answer to your obsession with sin and how to get over it, is to be obsessed with the One who defeated sin! Be obsessed with the eternal. Be obsessed with Jesus!

good vs evil

David was a giant killer. He took down Goliath, the Philistines great warrior, by the Spirit of the Lord, a sling and 5 smooth stones. He also raised up a generation of giant killers. In the last verses of 2 Samuel 21, there is a list of the 4 giants that David’s mighty men conquered. One had a spearhead that weighed more than 7 pounds, another was a man named Sath (literally, “tall”), one man with a spear handle as thick as a weavers beam and finally a “huge man” with 24 fingers and toes! All of these descriptions deal with one thing: fear. The sheer size of these giants led to giant features; spearheads, fingers and toes, etc. Yet, when you have been around someone who has conquered giants you know what to do. You know how to think, because your leader has been there. You know what to do because your leader has conquered a giant before.

It’s the law of mentorship and wisdom. You receive the benefits of wisdom from your mentor. Rather than having to re-invent the wheel, you gain the knowledge much easier than learning it yourself. There’s no need to fear because David has already slain one giant. And being around David, well, he exudes the confidence and leadership that allow you to go into battle full of faith and confidence in the Lord.

Who’s your mentor? What giants have they fought? What wisdom and impartation are you receiving that will help you overcome your giants?

“In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25.

I am no scholar, but any time the bible lists something more than once I take notice. Here, the bible records 4 different times where “Israel had no king” and “the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” What’s so important about this? This is the definition of religious anarchy. Basically, you have a god-aware people who have a form of godliness but are denying the relationship. They are all living as individualistic towns under their tribe (Judah, Benjamin, Manasseh, et al.) and doing whatever seems right to them. It is only when they are under extreme duress and trouble that they cry out to God.

Is this beginning to sound familiar? Whenever you have a god-aware people, who have no relationship with God, you have spiritual apathy. Whenever there is no king and people do whatever is right in their own eyes, you have anarchy. Whenever you only talk to God is when things go horribly wrong, you have no relationship. To be in a kingdom means that you submit to a king, belong to a king and are a part of the king’s domain. The religious anarchy mindset is one that pervades our current Christian culture in America. We are all a part of our tribes (this church or that denomination). We are pretty much doing whatever seems right to us – see the different examples of how the “gospel” is preached. (Note: the fact that we have “gospels” that are specific i.e. prosperity, full, baptist, etc. is a sign that we do not have a common king, because in a Kingdom there are no opposing factions). We are aware that God is there, but few actually have real relationship with Him. Then, when our nation begins to crumble, we cry out and ask God why He is punishing us?

The solution to this problem? Seek first the kingdom of God AND His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Get into the kingdom, submit WHOLLY to the King and join the King’s army. It’s really that simple. Total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer. We should be doing whatever is right in HIS EYES. There is righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom of God. So, are you going to surrender to the King?

This is an excerpt from A.W. Tozer, he passed away in 1963. This makes this insight that much more valuable. It’s at least 40 years old and yet speaks to us today. (emphasis mine)

“Unannounced and largely detected, there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross; but while likenesses are superficial, the differences are fundamental.

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique – a new type of meeting and new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content and emphasis differ.

The old cross would have not truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh, it meant the end of the journey and carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai.

The new cross, in contrast, is not opposed to our flesh. It is a friendly pal, the source of oceans of good, clean and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged – he still lives for his own pleasure. But now he takes delight in singing worship choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a high plane morally, if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelical approach. The evangelist does not demand a surrendering of the old life before the new life can be received. He preaches similarities rather than contrasts. He seeks to create more interest in the gospel by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands. His brand of Christianity offers the same things the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospels offers – only the religious version is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner; it redirects him. It steers him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, ‘Come and assert yourself for Christ.’ To the egotist it says, ‘Come and do your boasting in the Lord.’ To the thrill seeker it says, ‘Come and enjoy the thrills of success through Christ.’”

A.W. Tozer

We must die to ourselves and cling to the old, rugged cross. It is only then that new life can be granted.

In John 4:34, Jesus says that “His nourishment comes from doing the will of God and from finishing His work.” Later on, on the cross, He shouts “it is finished.” The writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as “the author and finisher of our faith.” Paul, in his last epistle, says “I have fought the fight, I have finished the race.” Catching the theme here? It’s finishing the work of God. In our modern day of “next level” theology, have we missed a major concept in the bible? The concept of finishing what God began in us.

Allow me to elaborate. Many people claim to ascend to the next level, when they haven’t even finished the previous “level.” Jesus had one goal in mind, going to the cross. After He got to the cross, He didn’t proclaim I am going to the next level. Nor did He ever proclaim to be at the “next level” (or that He had accomplished His work) before He was on the cross. Think about this for a moment. Imagine if Jesus, while being beaten and scourged, proclaimed “I am going to the next level!” How weird (for starters) and how ludicrous that would’ve been. He was in the middle of His work, it wasn’t done yet. The accomplishment of Jesus culminated on the cross, not before or after. Once He “finished” His work (all 3 days of work including resurrection), He sat down at the right hand of the Father. His “sitting down at the right hand of the Father” was evidence of completion.

That’s a major contrast to our next-level, “ever-expanding vision” theology. We seemingly will never finish our “grandiose work.” Even though God, in His infinite wisdom, has given each of us a task to complete. Take the example found in the parable of the talents, the faithful workers who completed the first job are then rewarded with another job…and that’s it. There was no endless level climbing. The way I see it, is that we rarely finish our first job and we would rather move on to the “next level” because we are bored with the unfinished one. That’s immaturity. Ed Cole said this, “maturity is accepting responsibility for your self. Jesus was the most mature person on earth, ever. He accepted maturity for Himself and for the sins of the world.” Or, He finished the work He was assigned and the work we were assigned. He accepted the responsibility of His work and saw it to completion. A mark of maturity (similar to having a child clean their room and do nothing else until it’s clean.)

So, what is your God-given task? How do you intend to finish it? Do you intend to finish it, or has another “level” drawn your attention away from it? Let your nourishment, your sufficiency or strength, come from doing the will of God AND from finishing that work.

On every website, on every cell phone, on every computer and just about everything we encounter nowadays there is a subtle hidden feature. It’s the “my preferences” feature. On your laptop you can adjust everything from icons to screen saver to background image. The same goes for your cell phones as well. The same also applies to your favorite homepage on the internet. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, nothing really. Except that it does cause a reinforcement of one thing: self-centeredness. It’s subtle. You are always being asked, how do YOU want it? Whether “IT” is a cheeseburger or a computer or a ringtone. What is your preference?

The more things we prefer, the more we have to have it our way. The more things we have our way, the more self centered life becomes. Self-centeredness is the essence of sin. Jesus was constantly emptying Himself of His privileges (Phil. 2). Jesus gave up many rights that we, in our modern times, have no (or very little) concept of. For example, here are some rights Jesus gave up.

He gave up the right to:

eat (Mt. 4:1,2; 6:25),
sleep (Luke 6:12, 22:40-46; Mt. 14:13)
have privacy (Mark 8:2, Jn. 19:23)
have a home (Mt. 8:20, Jn. 14:1-8)
have an honorable reputation (according to the world) (Phil. 2:7, Gal. 3:13, Is. 53:3)
live (Phil. 2:8, Mt. 27:50, Is. 53:7,8)

Those are all “god-given” rights we have as Americans. Yet, in direct contrast, Jesus gave up ALL of those rights so that he could rescue our souls from eternal damnation. I think as Christians we need to start laying down our sense of entitlement. NOBODY OWES YOU ANYTHING. We all know what we really deserve, save for divine Grace. The next time you are demanding a “right”, think twice. It’s really time we stopped looking like the world, who demands entitlement, and it is time we began to trust in God to take care of our needs.

“After all these things, the gentiles seek. But you. You seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things will be added to you.” (paraphrase of Matt. 6;32,33) My preferences are your preferences, Lord. Let your preferences come on earth as they are in heaven. AKA nevertheless, not my will (or preference) but your will be done.

It’s hard to truly fathom heaven and eternity. In fact, in hebrew, the definition of eternity is time outside of the mind. So, having said that how can finite beings truly comprehend the infinite? Only through the mind of the Spirit (the mind of Christ).

It’s very easy to get caught up in earthly thinking. You have bills to pay, circumstances to overcome, trials to walk through and offenses to forgive. Those are things that happen everyday, there’s no avoiding them. Yet, in the midst of this God has called us to not think like that. He has called us to “set our minds on things above and not on this earth” (col.3:2). He has told us that we should constantly be allowing the mind of Christ to invade our natural mind. Paul says in Phil. 3:19, “…their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they THINK ONLY ABOUT THIS LIFE HERE ON EARTH”(NLT).

What an excellent verse! It points out the current state of many christians! We think only about life here on earth. What are going to eat, what are we going to wear, where are we going to live; these are all valid questions yet Jesus has specifically instructed us to seek His kingdom first. Those are all finite, earthly things. Jesus’ kingdom is infinite and heavenly. It will last forever. That’s where our mind should be. That’s where we should be looking.

So why don’t we? I believe it boils down to one truth that has not been spoken on enough in recent years. The second coming of Jesus. Yea. For real. Because we don’t hear this doctrine being preached at all (in reality) a mindset has settled in. It is, “Jesus won’t come back in my lifetime”. No one on Earth can even make that claim. The bible most definitely contradicts claims like that. (See Phil. 4:5, James 4:13-17 for some of my favs) Because of a lack of teaching on this doctrine there is an enormous amount apathy in churches across the globe. Why should I witness? Jesus isn’t coming back for a long time. I can witness later. WRONG. Nobody, except the Father, knows the time. Therefore we should be witnesses. (Acts 1:8)

Take this as a healthy reminder, Jesus is coming back. We do not know how many days are left. Therefore set your mind on eternal things – salvation, discipleship, righteousness, etc. Not on things on the earth, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (earthly things) it is righteousness, peace and joy (eternal things, that can be experienced on earth) in the Holy Ghost! Let a sense of urgency flow into your spirit right now.

The battle rages on in the kingdom: to drink or not to drink. Many denominations have relaxed their stance on ministers drinking alcohol. Many mainline preachers have given themselves over to social drinking (and the occasional curse word) and decried it as “relevant” and “I am not perfect”. These comments are of course ludicrous and obvious for a number of reasons, here’s one: relevance has nothing to do with you being friends with the world. (The book of James can instruct you in that basic premise, specifically James 4:4.) As a result of the rise Christians accepting lower standards, we continue down the broad path of compromise. All the while asking ourselves, “why don’t we see the miracles of the New Testament?”

I was reading in my daily reading plan and came across this verse, Isaiah 5:22:

I laughed. I found it amusing and scary. When ministers talk casually about substance abuse or misuse, I think we all need to do some soul searching and bible reading. We are not in a good place. When the world’s pleasures (or wines of the world) become our primary focus over the harvest and discipleship… renewing of the mind must occur.

I know what the “heroes” will say, Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine. Jesus was CALLED a wine bibber, His first miracle was turning water into wine, etc. Well, you are not the Son of God (who is God), neither do you walk in Paul’s apostolic authority/miracles/writing 2/3rds of the NT/ anointing. Not a good enough reasoning? How about we go back to Genesis and read that we are to have dominion over ALL the earth? Including (but not limited to) hops, grapes, animals, satan and spiders. So, are you being dominated by hops and grapes? Or are you having dominion?

It’s time we stopped having a fetish for the world’s pleasures and gave ourselves over to the New Wine of the Holy Ghost – righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom, not eating and drinking.

Here’s a link to a blog I read every now and again. It deals with a classic question, for the church, or workplace or wherever. The question is: which is better, attitude or execution? If you go with attitude only, the extreme position is that you have like-minded people with little or no skill. If you go with execution, then the extreme position is to have hired-hands who get the job done but have no true DNA.

This question comes up time and again, it’s can be a major source of contention and strife. When you lean to execution, in your business or non-profit or church, you bump up against people who minor on details that can be endless. You also run the risk of disloyalty and rebellion. The hired-hand comes to a place where they deem that they can do it better and leave, often taking many people with them. If you stick with attitude only a lot of times you run into the problem that they know nothing different. There can be mental barriers to achieving new levels. There can also be a lack of initiative within the attitude only camp. Only being able to respond to orders rather than creating new ideas or taking initiative.

So, what’s best? The blog I referenced above put a very useful and insightful hierarchy together. It looks like this:

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

This is only an opinion but I think it’s a valid one. Placing an emphasis on attitude first will help the execution-ists remember their “why”. And using a hierarchy of approach, goals, etc helps the attitud-ers focus and advance their “hows”. I have found when people love their job their workflow increases and the result is a better product. (Be it a disciple, a widget or a program)