Heavenly minded AND earthly valuable

While I’ve not heard anyone say this for a long time, it is still thought-provoking . . . “He is so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good.” Today’s Scripture could be about that:

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:14–16)

Chambers tells me to brood on the reality that I am crucified to the world and the world to me, and to realize that whatever actions I might take to make me look like a Christian ought to look are not important. What is important is that God has made me a new person and all else flows from that.

Chambers says in today’s reading that such brooding is not to turn me into a subjective pietist that is only interested in my own purity and cares little for others. Jesus was not a recluse or an ascetic aloof and not in contact with the world He lived. Yet He was inwardly in another world, disconnected and not allowing anything to interfere with His consecration to do the will of God.

It seems a confusing thing this being consecrated and at the same time living in such a way that there is the risk of being called names . . . The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7:34) Yet Jesus lived in such a way. Not only that, He prayed that I would do the same . . .

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (John 17:14–16)

Being in the world still means glorifying God in ordinary life — “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) — just as yielding to God and resisting sin also glorify God. He wants total consecration and obedience from the heart, not recluses who tries to store up spiritual power in case we need it later.

We laughed at the roadside sign in California advertising a Christian college with “We are located twenty-five miles from the nearest sin” because they missed the point that sin is what comes out of the heart. Not only that, they failed to realize that putting themselves away from the world would not make them more useful to God.

Jesus never lived that way. He ate and drank and risked being called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of sinners. Does my life in this world look like that? Yet He also was totally consecrated to His Father’s will and did not sin. Does my life look like that?

God wants me to live as a child of His family in His kingdom, but do it in this world, not a world of my mind where I’m ‘off someplace’ rather than in the reality of where He has placed me. This is why Jesus prayed that I would not be taken out of this world, but that I would be kept from the evil one.

This is so challenging that I realize why Jesus prayed it rather than commanded it —only God can accomplish such a feat.

Obeying God beats legalism

Legalism is the principle of strict adherence to law or rules to gain salvation. It is more about doing the letter of the law rather than obedience from the heart. It is like the child forced to sit down in the car but says, “I’m standing up on the inside.” Only a legalist seldom recognizes that they believe this doctrine or that they are trying to earn the favor of God. It is easily recognized by others because the legalist insists that everyone else must do what they do.

The doing part is usually not a bad thing though, just rules and restrictions that MUST be followed. Legalism could include: church attendance every time the doors are open, praying each day for at least an hour, women wearing hats to church, not playing games or going anywhere there is fun on Sundays, and a host of other thou shalt and thou shalt nots.

Paul wrote an entire letter (epistle) to the church in Galatia with strong words about legalism. In their case, one problem was the issue of circumcision. This practice identified the Jews as God’s people (obviously only the men) but is not part of what Christians do to identify themselves. Paul explained to the Galatians why those legalists were trying to get them to be circumcised.

For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. (Galatians 6:13–15)

When I read it this morning, I thought of the many legalistic attitudes that are current. Some insist that a pastor must wear a suit and tie on Sunday. Others insist that Christians must speak in tongues, or wear certain clothing, or never play card games, or only sing hymns, and so on. I re-read the above passage with those in mind . . .

“For even those who only sing the old hymns do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you agree with their preference that they may boast that you agree with them. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither singing hymns counts for anything, or singing choruses, or any other kind of singing because God is in the business of making a new creation out of sinners.”

Put that way, our preferences pale in the light of God’s power to give us a new heart. Out of that heart flows the love of God and a deep desire to share Jesus Christ with those around us. All our old ways and insistence on rule-keeping fades away as the new life brings peace and joy.

I want to please God, but cannot decide what pleases Him without listening to Him. As a writer once said, “Today you might be writing; tomorrow He may ask you to do something else.” That fits my escape from ‘rules’ into the freedom Jesus gives. This Sunday God may ask me to dress up and be in church, but if He asks me to quickly don some jeans and go to the hospital and share the Gospel with a dying friend, grace sends me there and legalism would be disobedience.

The interesting conclusion from these verses is Galatians is that if I spout, “You must do this to please God” by my very words I would be denying the truth of God. I would sin even when I just say it because pleasing God happens only by submitting to His will and not my own ideas!

Life is full of voices

A former neighbor told us about one night being ready to go to bed and God distinctly told her to go to the house of one of her friends. This friend lived with her daughter and both of them had no sense of smell. Our neighbor argued with God, then finally got dressed and went to her friend’s house. As soon as the door was opened to her knock, she realized her friend’s house was full of gas, normally odorless but equipped with an additive so it can easily be smelled. She got her friends outside and called the fire department. Later she said, “What if I had not listened?”

This incident illustrates how Paul was compelled to preach the gospel . . .  

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)

He had to do it. He may have resisted like our neighbor, but he did it with a great sense of compulsion. This is a good way to describe a calling.

One writer said if you cannot ‘not write’ then this is the thing you must do. I’m not sure about this statement, for such determination might not be a ‘calling’ but an obsession. Instead, God’s call is about deep motivation that comes from a heart to obey. An obsession has other motivations, such as ‘I must do this or I have no worth’ or ‘I must do this to impress my girl friend’ and so on.

Yet as Chambers says, all Christians must be wary of plugging our ears to the call of God. In this verse, the call was about preaching, but whatever God asks us to do, we need to recognize and obey Him with that same sense of knowing this is from God and is important, even a necessity.

Having that dedication to the Lord’s commands is what it means to be a servant of Jesus Christ. He does not say anything like, “Would you mind doing this for Me?” Instead, He simply tells me what to do. I can refuse, but the “woe to me” part is also part of this obedience. I don’t want that sense of failure nor the grief that goes with ignoring God. His command might seem difficult, inconvenient, even senseless, but ‘woe’ of grieving the Holy Spirit and myself is far worse than whatever obedience might cost me.

When Jesus broke bread, He said “This is my body broken for you . . . .” Later on, Paul calls Christians the Body of Christ. We are broken for Him, poured out like wine to please Him. He writes that he was “separated unto the gospel” meaning that he heard the call of God, and in hearing it, he entered into that sense of ‘I must do this’ meaning ‘I must do whatever He says.’

Paul responded to the voice of God whole-heartedly. It may take more time and training for others, and certainly has taken many years for me. Yet the goal of God is to push back all other ambitions, quenching all my desires, leaving only one: to serve the Lord, listening for His voice and obeying Him.

Chambers says, “Woe be to the soul who tries to put his foot in any other direction when once that call has come to him.” I understand that woe. I know the threats of competition to His call. Life is full of voices, but only One is important; only One is necessary.

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This afternoon the respirator specialists took Bob off the oxygen and tested him without it – a quick walk up and down the halls. Then they took his blood oxygen and it was normal. We are delighted! The doctor said earlier that once he can breathe on his own and the blood oxygen stays up there, he can go home. It will take 8-10 weeks for his lungs to clear, and perhaps a few weeks for his cough to go away, but at home he will be able to sleep as long as he wants to. Joy!

He had H1N1, viral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, and a few other viruses all at the same time, on top of CLL with a weakened immune system. This has been a long two weeks. Good Lord, we are grateful for Your grace, mercy and the power of healing.

To Live is Christ — means no worries, no wants

My father, who was a farmer, used to say, “I plant the seeds and God makes them grow.”

This working arrangement with God was an expression of simple faith, an attitude that is almost odd in a world that largely assumes prosperity is about personal effort and a bit of luck. However, the Bible says otherwise.

The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands abundantly successful and multiply your children, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more rejoice over you to make you prosperous just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,  if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him with your whole mind and being. (Deuteronomy 30:9–10, NET)

God does control the outcome of whatever His people put their efforts toward, yet there is a sense of human control in that our success hinges on our obedience. When I do what God tells me, then He will bless the work of my hands.

A simple example is in giving. When my husband first became a Christian, he heard about tithing and decided to give a portion of his income to the Lord. We didn’t have much at the time so this decision involved both faith and sacrifice. However, God is faithful. When we obey Him, He blesses us. Every time that my husband decided to give a bit more, soon after that he received a raise in pay at work. He didn’t base his giving on a desire for that outcome, but over the years we have seen the truth of: “You cannot out-give God.”

These verses are not a mini-manual on how to be prosperous though. They are about obedience. The concept of obedience connected to prosperity is repeated many times in the Bible. One passage comes to mind:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25–34, italics mine)

By seeking God first, not riches, I am promised all that I need and then some. I need not worry about food or clothing or any other necessity of life. God knows what I need and tells me that worry is not only completely unnecessary, but it also reveals a lack of faith.

Besides, when I trust God for my needs, my mind is set free to focus on things that do require attention. I can be more creative, productive, and certainly better able to think about and tend to the needs of others.

My dad was thrifty in many things, but he had a big heart and would help others without any qualms. He didn’t talk about his faith as much as he lived it, and God blessed him and our family because of his simple obedience.

I’m a penny-pincher too, but I have also learned that when I do what the Lord says, and stop worrying, He takes care of me and I am never in want.

I like being a cookie

When I was in Bible college, I observed that some of the young people seemed to be there against their will. Their parents delivered them to this school with the hope that the Bible college experience would mold them into upstanding citizens.

This idea of being stamped into a mold is behind the Greek words in the last phrase of today’s verse. It says,

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. (Romans 6:17)

From this, my mind forms a picture of sinners moving in an assembly line toward Jesus. They go in bad and come out all looking the same, as if what Jesus does for them is like a giant cookie cutter turning out identical cookies.

However, that is not the right image. When Jesus Christ changes a person, they become more like Him, but we do not look or act the same as each other. Being a Christian does not mean losing your personality. It does mean losing your sin.

The author of my devotional reading explains how that works. When someone is stamped into the “Christian” mold, they are given “a heartfelt desire to obey God.”

This is not an “I should” or a “you must” kind of desire. While we can fall into obedience as a sense of duty, what God intends is obedience from the heart. Obedience becomes an appealing word.

Since Christ came into my life, obedience is my deepest desire. I want to obey God, not because I am afraid of Him, or afraid of hell, but because I love Him and trust Him. I know that He has delivered me from the power of sin, and even though I sometimes fall back under its influence, that deliverance is a wonderful thing. Obedience is a wonderful thing too. Through it, I learn the power and wisdom of God. He gives commands because He knows what is good for me.

Christians often say that every person obeys something or someone. The Bible says we obey either God or sin. We are not as free as we’d like to think. There is no middle ground. When I do what I want, that “doing my own thing” is sin. Isaiah 53:6 says that, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus Christ) the iniquity of us all.”

Romans 6 and other passages are black and white about this; I am either doing the will of God or obeying sin, but my mind is often shades of gray. I don’t always know what side of the fence I am standing on, or if what I am doing is from “my own way” or from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the only way I can tell is by realizing that I have tipped over into sin and lost that love, peace, and patience that come from the Holy Spirit.

Part of the problem of these gray areas is that if I get too busy with self-examination, my motivations shift easily into self-absorption and then into self-indulgence, and that is sin.

Instead of looking at me, I’m to look at the Author and Finisher of my faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of being delighted in my own things, I am to delight myself in God. These may sound easy to some, difficult to others. All I know is that I have been delivered from slavery to sin and have a new Master and a new way to live. When I obey Him from the heart, life is incredible and my focus is not on me. I feel free, no longer in bondage.

But when I don’t obey Him, I’m back to obeying sin. I hate the shackles and feeling like a slave. The only positive about such failure and foolishness is that it humbles me and helps me remember all over again that I am not able, and sometimes not even willing, to save myself. Jesus is my Savior and as today’s verse says, God be thanked!

The root of legalism

Many people, including Christians, prefer a list of rules for outward behavior rather than paying attention to the attitudes and motivations of the heart. It is easier to say, “No movies” than deal with an inner lust for watching sinful behavior (on screen or on television). It is easier to say, “Don’t beat my wife” than it is to deal with a seething anger that becomes a passive-aggressive neglect. It is easier to find some sort of determination to look good than it is to deal with a sinful heart. It is easier to be a hypocrite than go for the radical cure offered by Jesus Christ.

My devotions today are again about good and evil. God tells me that I must, “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

The word for evil is the same as yesterday’s verses. It can mean anything from that which is purely wicked, to hard labor or fatigue that tests faith which is not at all the way God does His work.

However, these verses use a different word for good. Yesterday’s word, agathos, is about that which has a good constitution or nature, is useful and perhaps gives opportunity for learning from experience. It is about the pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, upright, and honorable things of life.

This word is kalos and is also translated as good, but sometimes as“better” or “honest” or “meet” (fitting). It means beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable. It is about being beautiful to look at, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends. It describes that which is genuine, approved and precious. Sometimes it speaks of people and their position as in competent and able, or noble. Kalos means beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, praiseworthy, morally good, noble and honorable. It refers to good things that affect the mind agreeably, or in a comforting and confirming way.

These descriptions remind me of the folks who think that God does not want anyone to have any fun. One young girl told me she was interested in Jesus but was afraid of church rules that told her she could not dance or go to movies. I tried to explain that following Christ was not about rules, but a changed heart. She didn’t understand.

A changed heart means hating evil, all kinds of evil. I abhor the obvious wicked actions like child molestation and stealing, but after my study yesterday, now know why I also hate getting in a flap and being stressed out by my work. God hates those things too. He wants me to choose good, both agathos and kalos with their slight differences in meaning.

Sometimes good is obvious, just like evil is obvious, but sometimes in the economy and wisdom of God, good is hidden behind frustrating and difficult experiences. These are occasions where God wants me to learn something and if I give in to evil (such as resentment, anger or complaining) I will miss that opportunity.

In contrast, no one can dabble with sin and avoid falling into it, but temptation is only the bait. The real problem is the human heart. If I am enticed by some sort of evil, simply staying away from temptation does not fix the gunk in my heart. God’s way of curing it is through confession, forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9), but He also asks me to replace the enticement by pursuing good and clinging to it.

Of course I need to “delight in the law of the Lord” and “meditate on it day and night” (Psalm 1:2), but in fleeing my sinful desires, I also need to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).

The heart is the issue, but the heart once cleansed needs to go after the good and avoid the evil. Sometimes I don’t like doing the godly thing, but instead of doing it when my heart is not in it (rules and hypocrisy), I need to confess the problem of my heart also, not just my actions. God wants to change me right at the core. Letting Him do that is often painful and always humbling, but it strikes at the root of legalism and solves the problem of hypocrisy which goes with it.

My problem, God’s solution

The child refused to sit down in the back seat of the car. After repeated “Sit down” orders, the parent pulled over and stopped, got out and plunked the child onto the seat and fastened the seat belt. As the car began moving again, the child said, “So okay, you win. But I’m standing up on the inside.”

Who hasn’t heard the story? Who hasn’t had the attitude? I might be going through the motions of being polite, while inside my head I’m screaming in protest. Or I’m outwardly patient with traffic in my actions, but my attitude is anything but patient.

It is this problem that the life of Jesus Christ addresses. Knowing the human condition that we are rebels at heart, God sent His Son to give us the inner life we need. He knew that I could fake some of what He calls for — patience, kindness, good will, but exterior goodness is not what pleases Him. He wants obedience from the heart and I have to be honest about this; I cannot do it by myself.

The Law of God explains the externals, even hints at the internals, yet no one has ever kept it perfectly (except Jesus Christ). We are told not to kill and if we can avoid the act, who can avoid the thought? Or at least the hatred or anger that precedes it? Jesus makes it clear that the heart is the true measure of law-keeping.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.” But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. (Matthew 5:21-22)

God’s answer to our problem is a new heart, a change, a regeneration whereby our old nature is crucified and replaced by a new one. He offers us the very life of Jesus Christ. When we have it, by faith, then, as Christian Watchman Nee once said, “The Lawgiver on the throne becomes the Law keeper in our hearts.”

Over and over Paul also wrote about this need, God’s solution, and my responsibility to yield to that new life:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:2-4)

In traffic, I can choose patience in an external way where I don’t ram my car into the fellow who cut me off, but when I choose to walk according to the Spirit, I’m more apt to not even notice that someone cut me off, and certainly will not think to ‘get even’ or be tense up about it.

Years ago at Christmas time in a grocery store the lineup at the till and the bustle around us made me comment on the pressures of shopping this time of the year. My daughter, who was about seventeen at the time, said, “But mom, we don’t have to hurry on the inside.”

She cannot remember saying this, but I’ve never forgotten it. Because of Jesus, His people can have the integrity of being the same on the inside as they appear on the outside. Because of Jesus, we are set free from the Law of sin and death, which is a wonder in itself, but because of Jesus, we are also able to live by the law of the Spirit who has given us new heart and a new life.