"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that is may give grace to those who hear" Ephesians 4:29.
AHH (that was a yell). Have you ever been talking to someone and slowly gotten very sick of hearing yourself speak? That was yesterday for me. In trying to communicate about a friend's situation to another friend I found myself being very critical and casting hues of gray with my opinion over the situation instead of simply conveying facts and allowing the friend to know and be able to help. There was nothing wrong in itself for telling the story, no confidence broken, no allegiance cut but I do not know why we are so anxious to be critical of other's decisions and lifestyles when it does not build them up and we would not want someone doing it to us.
Ugh. We fill the air with all kinds of words that have no shining quality to even be spoken. I laughed with my friend yesterday when we talked about why girls always have to comment about people right after they leave. It doesn't matter if it's a good or bad comment, but some comment will be made when someone leaves. It's habit- but it's usually a terrible one.
Do my words "give grace" to those who hear? Do my words "build up" my friends and work towards making them better, more consistent and joyful people? Do I justify talking about people because I'm conveying a message to another friend or because 'I need to vent'? We think we have this great right and authority to vent but where does that need come from? Where did it start? Our motive behind venting is to make ourselves feel better, to relieve ourselves from unwanted tension and discontent because things didn't go like we wanted. Things didn't go according to our perfect life plan- that person didn't adore and magnify me like I wanted them to so now I'm mad. I mask it by pointing out their pride, their stubborn nature, their selfishness but those things are masks to the higher problem of my world revolving around me.
We've got to turn ourselves back to Jesus, back to His great sacrifice, back to His mercy so that we can "let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from [us], along with malice [so that we can] be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave [us]" (4:31-32).
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Great Commandment
"Jesus answered, 'The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, The Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength''...And the scribe said to him,'...to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength...is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices'" Mark 12:29-33.
The great commandment. How often do I actually follow it? Sure, I think about it, I pray silently in situations that are hard, I listen to Christian music in my car, I read my Bible. But I also consistently let things slide that do not honor God. I often think about how to be a Christian in a non-Christian setting to people who are far from Christ. I often think about when to stick up for God, when to let things go, when to be clear, when to silently pray, when to be righteously angry, when to be understanding, when to do almost everything at all most all times. Maybe one day I'll learn how to truly let Christ be all but for now I'm still trying pretty hard to be perfect like He is.
One of the things that rubs me most wrong is the dozens of times I hear the Lord's name taken in vain daily. I ask myself, 'is this something I should stop a conversation for and ask the person to not say it? Is it worth making things awkward? Would it actually build the kingdom or would it make the doer think I'm an extremist? Am I validating not saying anything because I'm trying to 'accept them for who they are'?' I ask myself these questions all the time. But here's my answer: am I at all times adhering to the greatest commandment to LOVE the Lord with ALL my HEART, MIND and STRENGTH? Am I doing everything possible to love God at all costs?
The greatest commandment is not evangelize, it's not lend a helping hand, it's not make someone feel better about themselves. The 'most important' commandment is to love God with everything we've got, regardless of the consequences. I wonder what our world would look like if Christians loved God at all costs, at all peril to themselves, with all staked on His victory and great plan?
There's no clear cut right answer for every situation. There's no cookie-cutter Christian pat-answer. But what we have is a God that knows what we're going to face and if we only spend time with Him we too will be called conquerors, blameless, victors over a life destined for death. To live life without putting God first is to only half-live. But that decision needs to be made every day, every moment so that God truly would be preeminent.
The great commandment. How often do I actually follow it? Sure, I think about it, I pray silently in situations that are hard, I listen to Christian music in my car, I read my Bible. But I also consistently let things slide that do not honor God. I often think about how to be a Christian in a non-Christian setting to people who are far from Christ. I often think about when to stick up for God, when to let things go, when to be clear, when to silently pray, when to be righteously angry, when to be understanding, when to do almost everything at all most all times. Maybe one day I'll learn how to truly let Christ be all but for now I'm still trying pretty hard to be perfect like He is.
One of the things that rubs me most wrong is the dozens of times I hear the Lord's name taken in vain daily. I ask myself, 'is this something I should stop a conversation for and ask the person to not say it? Is it worth making things awkward? Would it actually build the kingdom or would it make the doer think I'm an extremist? Am I validating not saying anything because I'm trying to 'accept them for who they are'?' I ask myself these questions all the time. But here's my answer: am I at all times adhering to the greatest commandment to LOVE the Lord with ALL my HEART, MIND and STRENGTH? Am I doing everything possible to love God at all costs?
The greatest commandment is not evangelize, it's not lend a helping hand, it's not make someone feel better about themselves. The 'most important' commandment is to love God with everything we've got, regardless of the consequences. I wonder what our world would look like if Christians loved God at all costs, at all peril to themselves, with all staked on His victory and great plan?
There's no clear cut right answer for every situation. There's no cookie-cutter Christian pat-answer. But what we have is a God that knows what we're going to face and if we only spend time with Him we too will be called conquerors, blameless, victors over a life destined for death. To live life without putting God first is to only half-live. But that decision needs to be made every day, every moment so that God truly would be preeminent.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ugly
From one of my favorite books comes the quote, "God don't like ugly." I love that quote. I love it every time I think of the harsh reality of my sin. Every time I think of my great depravity. God does not like ugly. He doesn't like it, He doesn't appreciate it. He doesn't tolerate it.
"And He called the people to Him again and said to them, 'Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.' And when he had entered the house and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. And he said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?' And He said, 'What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person'" Mark 7:14-22.
Man, I wish I would have known this passage growing up when I was arguing with my parents about going to see a PG-13 or R rated movie. I could have had some really solid convincing material.. Do we realize the significance of this passage? It struck me yesterday when I read it. We almost always blame exterior circumstances for our sin- we blame bad influences, bad movies, bad situations and bad people. We blame everything else but ourselves when we mess up. While those things spur us on no doubt, do we realize the evil lies within us? Yuck, that's ugly.
I think the passage says many things. One, it says we control how things affect us- do they go straight to our hearts and feed our sinful desire to do a certain thing- are we envious at our core and seeing those people makes us explode? Do I crave compliments to feed my pride? "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Do we realize the sins, the emotions, the problems originate in our ugly hearts?
It never occurred to me, no one ever told me I don't think, that the hardest battle I will fight as a Christian is against myself. By nature I'm inclined towards evil. I like doing bad things, I like getting a little ahead in life by telling a mistruth and stepping over someone for my gain. I think I'm pretty special and I have my life very well put-together, thank you. If I just stay away from certain bad influences and people that are terrible anyway, I'll have it made. I can fool people into thinking I'm great.
Wait, step back. That's not what the Christian life is about? Really? Our world sure thinks it is. How sad we as Christians often fight harder to be the people our world dictates as Christian and we don't actually fight to be 'Christ-like'. I'm reading through the Gospels right now and Jesus is very different than our world thinks. He's not quite as nice as I've always pictured Him. He says something interesting earlier in Mark 7, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
God don't like ugly. He doesn't like evil, envy, pride or anything else on that list either. Did you see foolishness on there? I think wasting time doing unimportant things falls into that category. ouch, I know. We spend so much time on the things of man, when will we learn? As Americans we work so hard on character, appearances, self-image- when will we work on God-image and stop working on building up ourselves?
Do we realize all those times when we think God is working against us to make our lives miserable and we resent Him for it it's because He is working against us? That's right. He's working against our nature, our very being trying to make us more like Him. If we're trying to be gold, we must let the refiner work the process- and the process hurts, I'll testify.
Knock me down Jesus and build me back up like you.
"And He called the people to Him again and said to them, 'Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.' And when he had entered the house and left the people, His disciples asked Him about the parable. And he said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?' And He said, 'What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person'" Mark 7:14-22.
Man, I wish I would have known this passage growing up when I was arguing with my parents about going to see a PG-13 or R rated movie. I could have had some really solid convincing material.
I think the passage says many things. One, it says we control how things affect us- do they go straight to our hearts and feed our sinful desire to do a certain thing- are we envious at our core and seeing those people makes us explode? Do I crave compliments to feed my pride? "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." Do we realize the sins, the emotions, the problems originate in our ugly hearts?
It never occurred to me, no one ever told me I don't think, that the hardest battle I will fight as a Christian is against myself. By nature I'm inclined towards evil. I like doing bad things, I like getting a little ahead in life by telling a mistruth and stepping over someone for my gain. I think I'm pretty special and I have my life very well put-together, thank you. If I just stay away from certain bad influences and people that are terrible anyway, I'll have it made. I can fool people into thinking I'm great.
Wait, step back. That's not what the Christian life is about? Really? Our world sure thinks it is. How sad we as Christians often fight harder to be the people our world dictates as Christian and we don't actually fight to be 'Christ-like'. I'm reading through the Gospels right now and Jesus is very different than our world thinks. He's not quite as nice as I've always pictured Him. He says something interesting earlier in Mark 7, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
God don't like ugly. He doesn't like evil, envy, pride or anything else on that list either. Did you see foolishness on there? I think wasting time doing unimportant things falls into that category. ouch, I know. We spend so much time on the things of man, when will we learn? As Americans we work so hard on character, appearances, self-image- when will we work on God-image and stop working on building up ourselves?
Do we realize all those times when we think God is working against us to make our lives miserable and we resent Him for it it's because He is working against us? That's right. He's working against our nature, our very being trying to make us more like Him. If we're trying to be gold, we must let the refiner work the process- and the process hurts, I'll testify.
Knock me down Jesus and build me back up like you.
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