knock, knock

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

What kind of God do you think is waiting on the other side of that door?  Is it a God who is too busy and preoccupied to be bothered?  Is it a God who is distant and disinterested in answering for someone like you?  Is it a God who gets irritated and frustrated when someone knocks?  Or is it a God who takes his sweet time answering, if he answers at all?

But what if God is different from all those pictures.  What if he’s a God who has actually been excitedly waiting for you to come and knock.  What if he’s a God who really wants to see you, to talk to you, and to welcome you.  What if he’s a God whose heart is so full of love and affection for you that he can’t wait to open the door and sweep you up into his great arms of love.

When my two grandsons come over to our house, they run from the car to the front door.  They can’t wait to knock because they know the heart that’s waiting on the other side of the door.  They know what kind of reception they will get.  So they rush to the door and press their noses against the glass on either side of it with big smiles and full hearts.  And as they knock, they jump up and down in anticipation of the welcome that’s to follow.

But what’s going on in their hearts pales in comparison with what’s going on in mine.  I’m so full of love and affection these two little guys that I can’t get the door open fast enough.  And when I open it, they leap into my arms and wrap me up in their embrace.  Needless to say, when this happens my heart is so full of love that I’m about to burst.  And God never fails to remind me: “You know that’s how I feel about you, right?  So, come.  Run.  Knock.  I can’t wait to open my door, my arms, and my heart to you.”

Heavenly Father, help me to get a clear picture of exactly who it is on the other side of that door, because the picture I have of you will impact everything else in my life, particularly how I ask, seek, and knock.  Help me to know you as the good and loving Father that you truly are.

thy will be done

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

Has prayer become a tactic?  Has it become something we use simply to try and further our own plans and agendas?  Has it become a way of trying to get God to fall in line with our will, rather than a place where we seek his?

Prayer is about submission, not manipulation or coercion.  It is a place where we surrender our schemes, plans, desires, and agendas in order that we may follow his.  It is about aligning ourselves with God’s will, rather than seeking our own.  Thus, it has a lot more to do with listening than it does with speaking.

walking in humility

“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28) Our world is so full of demandingness and entitlement that we would never expect an answer so beautiful and humble from the lips of one who was in such a desperate situation.  In fact, we would have expected her to storm in, shouting protests, and demanding something be done.  But not this woman.  She knew exactly what Jesus was saying and wasn’t offended by it at all.  Maybe it was because of the smile on his face or the tenderness in his voice.  Or maybe it was simply because this woman knew exactly who Jesus was, knew exactly who she was, and was responding out of reverence, respect, submission, and humility.  There was no demand in her voice and no entitlement in her heart.  Jesus knew that and he wanted everyone else to see it as well.

But didn’t Jesus just call her a dog?  How could he do something like that?  How dare he!  Jesus and the disciples had just come from a conversation with the Pharisees about what is clean and what is unclean.  And the very next thing you know, he was approached by a woman who was considered unclean by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  In fact, they would have called her a dog, so Jesus was just using their own terminology to teach them something about the heart of God and the heart of man.  So, tongue planted firmly in cheek, he employed the power of metaphor to invite a “Gentile dog” into a beautiful and healing conversation with God in the flesh.

And in the midst of this short conversation, it was her heart and her attitude that put the Pharisees and teachers of the law to shame.  She was not offended.  She was not demanding.  She did not turn hostile.  She went with the picture.  She was like: “You are one hundred percent correct; I am a dog.  I deserve absolutely nothing.  I’m not asking to take food out of the mouths of the children of Israel, but can I at least have the crumbs that fall under the table, even if I don’t deserve them?”  And as Jesus healed her daughter, I wonder if anyone in the crowd thought to themselves, “I need to be more like her, because her spirit and her attitude brought joy to the heart of God. 

So, what does it look like to walk with God in humility?  It looks just like this woman.  It means fully recognizing who he is and fully recognizing who we are.  It means ridding ourselves of all entitlement and protest and demandingness.  It means living lives of reverence, respect, submission, and surrender to his will and his ways.

Lord Jesus, forgive us when we get too full of ourselves.  Forgive us when we get too big for our britches and start demanding that you behave the way we want you to behave and do what we want you to do.  Forgive us for our entitlement and demandingness.  Help us to know what it means to walk in humility rather than arrogance.

stewardship of the soul

“God formed man out of the dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.  The man came alive—a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7, The Message)

What exactly is the soul?  How was it created?  What is its purpose?  And how do we nurture and take care of it?  On top of that, what does it look like to be a good steward of our soul? 

The soul is where the life of God resides.  It is the place where God breathes his divine life and breath into us and then breathes it out of us into his world.  That’s how ministry is designed to take place; it involves both an inhale and an exhale.  Unfortunately, all too often, we live our lives in a constant state of exhale and make no room to inhale his life and his presence and his love.  Which leaves us with nothing of value, power, or substance to breath into the lives of those God has given us to care for. 

To be a good steward of our soul, then, is to recognize where the soul came from in the first place; it is a gift from God.  Thus, we have a responsibility to take care of it.  We are always asking how to be good stewards of our time, our gifts, our abilities, our money, and our resources, but what about our soul?  How often do we consider what it looks like to be good stewards of our soul?

Simply stated, it means to make time and space for God to breathe his divine life into us.  It means to stop, look, and listen.  It means to be still and sit quietly before him.  It means to be fully present and fully attentive to him.  It means to stop talking and start listening.  It means to stop running and spinning and toiling and start praying.  Only then will we be living a life of depth and quality and power that’s actually worth passing along to others.  

lent starts february 18

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an undivided life

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) Wise words.  But what, exactly, does it look like to live a divided life?  Because, according to Jesus, that is an endeavor that is destined for failure.  Which means we better pay careful attention to the ways we are compartmentalizing our lives in an effort to keep our “worlds” apart. 

Does our life of faith affect and rule over all the other areas of our lives or is it just a nice little compartment that we pull out when it is most useful and convenient?  Is it something we try our best to keep separated from all the other areas of our life?  Or is our faith, perhaps, our highest priority, but there are certain areas of our lives that we keep away from our life of faith because they are not congruent with it?

I guess the main question is: Am I the same person in every area of my life, or am I a different version of myself depending on who I am around and what I am doing?  For a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Eventually one side or the other must take priority and precedence.

“Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” (Psalm 86:11-13)

he restores my soul

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” (Psalm 23:2-3) To understand this verse, we must start with the question: What exactly is a soul, anyway?  The Hebrew word for soul is nep̄eš.  It comes from the word for breath (nāp̄aš).  So, in essence, a soul is that which is breathed into by God.  Or, as some of the saints of old have said, “The soul is that part of us that receives the in-breathing of the divine.”  And it is that breath that brings us to life.  Thus, when we inhale that divine breath, we are filled with the life and hope and love of the God who breathed us into being.  Which makes us, his people, “the breathed upon.”

The problem is that many of us live our lives in a constant exhale.  And living life in a constant exhale is neither healthy, nor sustainable.  We must make time and space to inhale.  We must give God room to renew and restore that divine breath within us, especially if we ever want to have any hope of him breathing that breath through us to others.  That’s where being made to lie down in green pastures and being led beside still waters come in.  Those are the places and the spaces where God breathes his breath into us.  They are essential for the life and health of our soul.  Neglect them and we do so at our own expense.  Neglect them and we end up in a dark and dangerous place.  Thus, our lives and our ministries depend on us making space and time for God to breathe his divine breath in us.

leaving and following

“Immediately they left their nets and followed him. . .. And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:20, 22) It seems like there’s always a “leaving behind” that’s necessary in order to truly follow Jesus.  For Peter and Andrew, it was their nets, their business, and their livelihood.  And for James and John it also included their boat and their father, Zebedee.  Apparently, we can’t follow Jesus and drag a whole lot of things behind us, just ask the would-be disciples of Jesus in Luke 9:57-62.  There can be no conditions or additions.  There can be no “buts” and no “but firsts.”  There is no room for negotiation.  We leave and we follow.  It’s as simple as that.

What do you need to leave behind in order to truly follow Jesus?  Is it an old habit or a dysfunctional pattern or a self-sufficient way of being?  Is it an unhealthy relationship or an unhealed memory or an unwillingness to forgive?  Is it your own busyness, plans, and agendas?  Is it ambition, success, and achievement?  Or is it a heart of fear and insecurity and anxiety?

Whatever the case, the call of Jesus demands that we leave those things behind so that we can truly follow him.  Sometimes that means leaving behind what I am holding onto and sometimes it means leaving behind what has a hold of me.  He wants us to move at his pace, in pursuit of his purposes, and all of those other things will just drag us down.      

follow me

Walking with God is about one thing—following Jesus.  He is the one who sets the pace, the tone, and the agenda for our lives, not us.  From beginning to end, the constant call of the gospels is simply to “Follow me.”  Thus, it is not a collaboration or a partnership, it is about submission and surrender.  He’s asking for conversion, not cooperation. 

Following Jesus is about paying attention and then being obedient.  Which is key, because “follow me” means different things at different times and in different seasons of our lives.  The “follow me” to a bunch of fishermen cleaning out their nets was a bit different from the “follow me” as the approached Jerusalem and the cross.  And even a little different still from the “follow me” Jesus uttered to Simon Peter on the shore after the resurrection.

Each time Jesus says, “follow me,” he is asking for a deeper life and a deeper commitment and a deeper conversion into the life and love and kingdom of God.  Which begs the question: What does “follow me” look like in your life these days?  What deeper conversion is God calling into.  How is he asking you to come deeper into his heart and his life and his mission in the world?

conversion

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17) Jesus is not merely looking for cooperation; he’s looking for conversion.  He wants all of us, not just a part.  Thus, conversion is not just something that happens once in our lives, but something that happens over and over again. Each conversion moving us deeper and deeper into the heart and life of God. 

There are all kinds of conversions.  There is the initial conversion from being lost to being found, but that conversion is followed by numerous others as we surrender our lives and our hearts more fully to Jesus.  There is the conversion from fear to love, from competition to compassion, from independence to dependence, from performing to grace, from clenched fists to open hands, and from bondage to freedom, just to name a few.

Conversion happens when we encounter God in an intimate and powerful way.  A threshold is crossed in which we realize that our lives will never be the same.  There is no going back to the way things were before.

That’s what Jesus was inviting Simon and Andrew and James and John into, and there would be plenty more to follow.  And it is what Jesus is inviting us into as well.  What kind of conversion is Jesus inviting you into these days?  What does it look like?  What does it demand of you?  What is it offering you?  What must you leave behind in order to follow him?

Lord Jesus, you are not asking for my cooperation, but for my conversion.  It is not a question but a calling, and I need to hear it as such.  Help me to encounter you in such a deep and intimate way that it changes everything about me.  Then I cannot not follow you.