What a glorious morning!  I have labored in my heart over a command of the Lord that I did not understand and this morning He sent me clarity.  I have wrestled!  This one little phrase has haunted me, I have written about it, I have pleaded over it, and with such simplicity today He says, this is the gist, this is what I’d like for you to understand about it today.  Our God is a cool, cool Man! Walking with Him is the greatest thrill you can ever have; you need no money, you don’t have to leave home, it requires no tools or expertise, you have it all right here.

What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.                                                    Micah 6:8

I want to do all that He requires, but what if I don’t understand what He is requiring of me?  What does it mean to act justly?  How do I do that?

The three aren’t meant to be taken apart.  I kept trying to tackle them one at a time, but that wasn’t what He had for me this time around (God’s Word is living and active and may speak a different Word to me here some other time, but this it the skin it’s taking on today.)                                                                                                                                      

There are three parts of you.  The outer circle is the body, the middle is the mind, the inner is the soul.  This simple explanation has so much to offer your life by the way.  You know why it is that some relationships just hit it off right from the start?  You know how sometimes you can really work at a relationship and it just never gains any depth?  It’s all about the circles.  The deeper into you you go, the greater the connectedness.  If you meet someone who shares your core, they click right off the bat, you share that inner circle.  If all you have in common with someone is that outer circle, same gender, nationality, social status, then you aren’t going to gain much depth because there isn’t any.  If you look like someone and you tend to think the way they do, you can build a halfway decent relationship.  But if you want real depth, if you want something that you feel can weave its way all the way through your life, find one that connects with you at the soul level.  In that center is your God-shaped hole.  In that center, you meet with the the Lord and you house His Holy Spirit.

So how does all this answer my perplexing question?  The requirement goes core deep.

To act justly is a governmental word, it connotes ethical living, fairness, justice, getting what one is due, good or bad.  It involves the outer layer.  It puts dictates on the way that we conduct ourselves on the body level.  It says, treat people well, don’t abuse, put skin on that love you profess, control your own actions and conduct.

To love mercy, which would be translated grace in the New Testament, goes a layer deeper.  It says, let it touch the emotion in you, let it permeate to the heart of who you are.  Love and value and dispense grace, cherish and protect it.  Don’t just act, believe, emote, take it beyond what you do to what you are.

Walk humbly with your God.  We find ourselves at the center.  And here at the heart of us we find not a dictator on the throne, not an old man in a rocking chair, but a Husband and Father and Savior and King.  At the heart of this requirement is a relationship.  Our God doesn’t pass out demands and requirements and say good luck.  Just like me this morning, He didn’t leave me to figure it out and hope that I get it right enough times.  The goal of His dispensing justice by grace through His Son was so that we could not walk humbly around Him or near Him or up to Him or even before Him, it was so that we could walk WITH Him.

It’s like a good marriage.  You make decisions together, with one another.  You consider the implications of your decisions on the other.  You live and work and operate and exist together, there are no longer two, you are one.  That’s the plan. As one unit, God and man, you live, you make decisions that touch every layer of you.  And the choices that you make rise to the surface of your circles and find their way into the lives of those around you.

What does God require of you?

God requires that I fully invest in this marriage.  That I trust that He has my best interest at heart.  That I buy in whole hog to the amazing reality that the God of the Universe moved Heaven and Earth because He wants to share life with me. He requires that this faith, this belief, this truth, this knowledge be allowed to shape every circle in me, that it touch every facet of my life and play itself out in every part of who I am.

Do you think Paul knew that his letters would become Scripture, that people would pour over his words so meticulously for thousands of years beyond his own life?  Do you think Peter had any idea that his words would go down in history as the very Words of the Living God?

Peter seemed to know that Paul’s words were powerful, Scripture even.  Did Paul know it? Would he have done anything differently if he had?

If you knew that something that you did today would literally have offshoots that would last for eternity, would it change the way you did that thing?  If you knew that the words you wrote or the actions that you took today would be told of forever, marked in history as profound moments in time, would you do them with zeal?

In the tabernacle in the wilderness, the Lord came upon the finished product with such power that the smoke of His Presence pushed Moses right out of the building. There wasn’t room for them both.  I have a prayer that I pray every time before I speak.  “Drain me of myself, fill me up with You, then make me glass so that all they see is the You in me.”  There is only so much room in each of us.  We all just get our glass-worth.  We fill it up or allow it to be filled with only so much.  For there to be more of God, there must be less of me.

So Christ becomes more important while I become less important.                                                                                                                                  John 3:30

If I do something in this body, it is temporary because it’s maker is temporary.  I cannot produce that which will outlive me by much on the eternal scale.  If God does something, it will last forever because it’s originator lasts forever.  In order for me to do anything that has eternal significance, it has to be done not by me, but by Him.

If I work myself to the bone in service to others and do so apart from the Lord’s will and provision, that service may have great implications, but it will not bear eternal fruit.  If I hand this body over to the sevice of the Lord and He does some of those same things, the ramifications will bear results forever.  If I, like Moses, allow the Lord to push me right out of this tabernacle in which I dwell and fill me up to overflowing with Himself, then He can get to work on that which will truly last.

Did Peter and Paul know the long-lasting ramifications of the things that they were doing?  I think it probably didn’t matter to them if they did.  They were just the instruments , God was the handy man.

I don’t want to be a writer. I want to be a vessel.

I don’t want to be a business man.  I want to be a follower.

I don’t want to be a salesman.  I was to be a delivery boy.

I don’t want to be anything but used.

Drain me of myself.  Fill me up with You. Do that which will last.

What does this mean really?  How does one drain themself?  In order to make room for the King of Kings, I must dethrone the king of me. How do I do that?

1.  Start by asking the Lord what He would like for you to do with your day and your life.

2.  Work to find avenues to do that which He desires, listening intently all the while for His prodding toward one stream or another. (As you wait, work.  If you aren’t sure where the Lord is leading, find somewhere where you see God at work and join in!) And don’t limit your thinking to volunteer organizations or efforts, also look inside your home, your family, your office, the job where you invest so much of yourself already.  Use these familiar areas as opportunities to take what you know and make it what you do–love there, serve there, show grace there, be compassionate there, share the Gospel there, work with excellence there, breathe joy there, exude peace there.

3.  Test and see.  Do things that look like they could be in line with what He desires of you.  Be willing to stop them when the Lord says move on.  Be willing to stick with them when the Lord says keep at it.

4.  Be wide open.  Drop preconceived notions, let your plans, dreams, and schedule fall away if the Lord says He’s looking for something different today.  (Even Paul had plans to serve the Lord in various places and had to refrain when God said that wasn’t His plan.)

5.  Some pieces of you will naturally clear out as you find venues and opportunities to serve the Lord.  Most, however, will need a push.  Be willing to work at it.  Like a long run on a cold morning, force yourself to begin the ‘unpleasant,’ knowing that only by beginning do you get to enjoy the end.

For this we labor and strive, that we have put our hope in the living God who is the Savior of all men.                                                   1 Timothy 4:10

6.  Choose Him again and again.  When you hear Him calling you–or even think you do–answer it every time.  The more quickly you respond, the more clearly you’ll hear the call next time, and the more next times there will be.

With every opportunity to push out our selfish natures, we create opportunities to have the Lord fill those areas with the Holy Spirit.  We empty that glass just a bit, making room for Someone who can do more.  Draining us of ourselves is done one way: slowly and purposefully.  It will not happen by accident and it will not happen overnight.  Let Him push, be willing to bend, be willing to let Him lead, be ready for an adventure of eternal proportions.

Have you ever noticed how the apostles really didn’t talk much about the cross?  The big deal in those days wasn’t necessarily that Christ died for them, it was that He rose for them.  The highlight wasn’t His death, it was His resurrection.

We don’t like death.  Ask the insurance guys.  What makes selling life insurance so difficult is that in order to be willing to buy it, you have to be willing to concede that at some point you will die and need it.

You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.                                                          2 Peter 3:11-12

Peter, among others, makes it sound as though our vision should be pretty well set on some future occurrence, we should live now in light of that event, and it should be the fuel that moves us and the compass that leads the way.  The New Testament is replete with calls to long for the day, speed its coming, set our hearts and minds on that which is eternal.

How much time do you spend thinking about Heaven?  Have you ever spent any time thinking about the Day of the Lord?

The old guys made it sound like that was the primary topic of conversation in their day.  It isn’t even a conversation in our day.  Preachers rarely preach on it, people next to never sit and compare thoughts of what it will be like, very few daydream of its greatness.  It’s all they could talk about and you can’t get us to give it a thought.  When was the last time you heard a sermon based around the Day of the Lord?  Do you even know what it is or what it entails?

Why is it that something that was so paramount for the early church is almost obsolete today?

Here are a few of the reasons why I believe that I am known to shy away from the topic.  One, the Day of the Lord is usually mentioned in reference to judgment; the judging of nations, and peoples, the punishment of sin by the Righteous Judge.  If we humans don’t like to talk about death, judgment is a close second.  I think most of us prefer the old granddad in the sky passing out gifts version of God over the Holy, Righteous, Reigning Judge one.  I think one reason we don’t think on this time is because it isn’t warm and fuzzy for us and so we’ll ponder more pleasant things.

Two, when we talk about eternity and Heaven, we usually talk about death.  There are two points of interest here.  First, we are fearing the moment of death so profoundly that we’re willing to forgo the greatness of Heaven just to not have to think about it!  C. S. Lewis played this out perfectly in his Narnia portrayal. People were terrified of walking into that barn or whatever it was, but once they got inside they realized it was right where they belonged all along, there was no fear, no turning back, and no desire to.  We spend too much time sick because we’re too afraid that the saving medicine might taste nasty.  And, second, what must this say about what we believe Heaven will be like?  If we let walking through the door scare us away, we must not think very highly of what’s on the other side.

Three, the Day of the Lord isn’t personal, it’s vague and all-encompassing and not just about us.  It’s too broad, not nearly personal enough for us self-absorbed types.  It encompasses the judgment and reconciliation of all–people, creation, nations, all.  We like things that center on the ‘me’ part.  And the only ‘me’ part in this scenario is my own death, the only part of ‘me’ that we don’t want to talk about.

The first generation followers of Christ had the faith to withstand so much more than we’ve ever even witnessed, much less been subjected to.  They invested their whole lives in a new, better, counter cultural way that literally got them killed. Where did they get the resolve to live like that?  They kept their focus trained on eternity.  It didn’t scare them or bore them or fall under their rugs, it held center stage–because it was the fuel that kept them faithful, the goal for which they continuously strove.  It was an end so grand that no other topic could ever be stimulating enough to beat.

What does Heaven look like to you?  What will be so amazing about the Day that the Lord returns in judgment and power to claim that which has been His all along?  What will it mean to you to see your Savior riding in to save the eternal day?  When all creation is redeemed, will we be able to actually hear the rocks cry out?  When the Messiah returns in all His glory will this body be able to contain the beating of my heart?  Will my soul be able to contain the pride I’ll feel in knowing that this is my God, my King, my Savior, my Father, and my Friend?  Is there anything my heart could ponder more wonderful than this?

The day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.                                                                              2 Peter 3:10

No matter how prepared we might be, it will still sneak up on us.  This is not new. I mentioned Haiti before.  I’ve known people who heard about the heat and tried various ways to prepare their minds and bodies for it before going down there. Then they get there and find they aren’t any more prepared for it.  It is hot.  I mean really hot.  The humidity can’t even be described.  You can try and be prepared.  You can know that it is coming and still not be really ready.

That’s how the Day of the Lord will be.  We will prepare, and yet be unprepared in so many ways.

What shall we do to be more ready, what should we consider in light of this truth?

Don’t leave anything undone, and certainly don’t leave anything in the closet or under the rug! Here’s the reality: all that you hide so fastidiously here on earth is going to be “laid bare” in eternity.  There will be nothing of all that you work so hard to hide that God will not reveal and redeem on that day.

So if it is all going to end up ‘on the table’ then, why not go ahead and lay it on the table now?  There is nothing hidden from the Lord.  We know this.  So if we are hiding things now, it isn’t from Him.  It’s from ourselves and others.  It’s all going on the table.  It will be laid bare. Sprawled out for all the world to see.  That sin you tuck away, that life you wish you could run from, that desire you are mastering to suppress, all of it, all laid bare.

There is much beauty in the Lord, from the things that we see to the things that we become to how He makes all that possible.  Here is something beautiful: He can take that which you despise and make it lovely.  He can take your hurt and your sin, your past and your future, your lies and you treachery, your life and your witness.  He can take it all and make it something beautiful.

I had a sweet family of friends many years ago.  They lost their oldest daughter in a tragic and gruesome crime.  Over the years that followed her death, they kept getting more details of what had happened to her, every one more harsh and painful than the last.  The mother was a bit quiet, not one for the spotlight. They loved the Lord and still do.  They didn’t ‘deserve’ this tragedy, but God let it transpire.  That quiet mom found her voice.  People came to her and her husband from all corners of life.  They had hurt too, they had ached and doubted and cried. How could you survive it together and with your faith intact?  They had the answers.  Thousands of people had a hand to hold in their hurt because this family took their pain, laid out their horror story, and let God make it beautiful.

But you have to be willing to lay it on the table.

In the end, it’s where it all ends up, but if we are willing to lay it out there now, He can use it.  He can transform it and mold it and wrap it up in light and perfection and purpose and make it of great value for His eternal purposes.  My God doesn’t waste anything.  He doesn’t waste opportunities or time, He doesn’t waste tears, heartaches or sin, He doesn’t waste any experience you have dragged yourself through.  He can use it.  Someone has been where you were. Someone needs to know how you got out of the boat they are now in.  Someone needs to hear that they aren’t the only ones on this ledge.  God can make use of every thing you lay before Him, your good, your bad, your private, your well-known.  There is value in the experiences of our lives and it can all be used for His glory.

But you have to be willing to lay it on the table.

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.                                                                                                                                               Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insanity: repeatedly attempting the same task while expecting different results

I’m actually a fan of change.  I love tradition, but I have come to realize that we are meant for change; God ordained and even demands it, so it must not be so bad.  This is funny because I have been known to give a leading characteristic of myself as being “consistent.” I like for things to stay the same, but am usually excited when God says it is time to mix things up.

Have you ever watched someone put multiple coins into a vending machine and never actually get their Coke?  They put in the first one and nothing happens, so they think maybe something got jammed but one more coin should get it fixed right up.  Another coin.  Still no Coke.  Six dollars later, parched from the strenuous work of shaking, kicking, and cursing an enormous metal thief, they walk away with no refreshment in hand.

You know you’ve seen it–or done it.  You stand and watch and think, “You’re never getting that Coke buddy.  Move along.”  But they foolishly persist to their own dismay.

In many situations, before many a soda machine, foolish consistency is indeed insanity, the hobgoblin of little minds, the silly thoughtlessness of small thinking. Going about doing the same things time after time and expecting somehow for this time to be different; it is foolish consistency, needless effort, wasted time.

Our God is rather known for being counter-cultural.  His ways just don’t make any sense at all to us at times.  He demanded the impossible of His people, all the while knowing they couldn’t deliver.  He gave them the Law and called them to follow it.  No one could.  Only One ever has.  He called them to perfection, knowing that they weren’t capable of delivering it.

He sent the Law not to give us the standard that marked off who was and was not good enough.  It wasn’t like some qualifying time to discern which runners advanced.  None advance!  He sent the Law not to set the qualifying standard, but to make it abundantly clear that no one comes close to making the grade, there are no true contenders among us.

Then Christ appears, revealing just what the Father was thinking with the Law. And He calls us to a new “law.” He said, don’t just refrain from murder, don’t even think hateful thoughts.  Don’t just stay free of adultery, don’t even look lustfully. He took that old, impossible Law and applied it to hearts and minds as well as the physical actions of our bodies.  He took what was completely impossible and made it just a bit more difficult still.

Foolish consistency right?  I try and try and try to keep this Law.  I fail and fail and fail to get it right.  Is this insanity?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways.                                                                                                Isaiah 55:8

Just when we think we have some things figured out, He goes and changes not just the rules, but the whole game.  All the sudden we aren’t supposed to fight for first, we’re aiming for last.  Without warning, the goal becomes out-serving rather than out-ranking.  Just when you thought the point of the game was to gain one’s life, you find the desire is actually to fully lose it.

And just when you think that foolish consistency is the perfect phrase for striving one’s whole life at a known, stated, understood Impossible goal, you find it is neither foolish nor even consistent.  Every day we are to attempt the impossible. And if we do that, every day will be different because we will be one bit closer to meeting that goal than the day before.  The only consistency will be in the fact of attempting.  All else is new and prospering, wonderful and adventurous.

Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.                                                                                             2 Peter 3:14

Peter knows well enough that failure is in the plan.  He doesn’t tell us to do the impossible and Be Found spotless.  He tells us to make every effort to be found spotless.  Failures, disappointments, setbacks, and frustration aside, strive for the goal of spotlessness.

In a sense it is a bit crazy.  The primary goal of my whole life it to do that which I know for absolute certain I cannot do.  Only when my striving is done, this part of my journey is over, will success be in sight.  And still it’s worth the striving.

The goal is holiness.  May the reality of continually falling short never deter the fervency of the pursuit.

Yesterday was a booming day for my business.  It created a bustling day at the depot of my crazy thoughts.  And today I ponder Peter’s words of wisdom and his purposefully expressed intentions:

I have written them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.                                                                                               2 Peter 3:1

Peter, by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was compelled to contribute to this great Word two whole books that were written for the very purpose of helping me to control my thought life.

I should probably pay attention.

Much like the power of the tongue, the power of the voices is our heads are far greater than we give them credit for.  They tend to shape my day.  They take me from peaceful to frantic.  They take me from elated to exhausted.  They take me from encouraged to discouraged like some cruel hijacker stealing the controls right out of my hands.  They control so much of my day and my perspective and my attitudes and expectations and, therefore, the condition of my heart and my life.

Just as we can will our bodies to pass by the stocked fridge or hop on to the treadmill, we must will our minds to do and not do certain edifying or detrimental things.  It is an art and an exercise that must be trained, practiced, purposefully expanded upon.  Without willful intent, our thoughts will be constantly hijacked by list making, to-do’s, planning, stress management, negativism, what-if conversations (many of which we’ve perfected over years of mental trial and error), negative self-chatter, anything ranging from the normal day-to-day scheduling to extreme stress or depressive negativity.  Given the freedom to rule the roost, our thought-filled minds can surely produce some bad eggs.

How then does one exercise wholesome thinking?  Peter seemed to have something to say about that, what might he suggest?  He preceded this verse by recapping events of old, varied characters and situations and how God had intervened in history.  He implored his readers to listen to the prophets, and to take to heart the (as in one single) command of Christ, and he warned against schisters who might put their own commands up there with our Kings.  He talked about holy living, being content with your lot and position, and never being satisfied to sit still in your soul.

What then is wholesome thinking, this lofty aim that the Rock on which Christ chose to build his church attempted to stimulate us toward?

Wholesome thinking promotes peace, within and without.  Wholesome thinking leads to ideas on how to better love on others.  Wholesome thinking fosters humility, taking ones eyes off of ourselves.  Wholesome thinking leads to godly acting; it bears fruit, makes waves, leaves some sign of its having been there. Wholesome thinking lets Scripture bumble around in one’s mind like Bingo balls in a tumbler.  Wholesome thinking dismisses and dispels that which is not true, lovely, noble, right, and excellent.  Wholesome thinking puts the brakes on runaway trains of thought.  Wholesome thinking remembers.  Wholesome thinking helps to narrow the focus, clarify the purpose, eternalize the perspective. Wholesome thinking is grand-scale, it doesn’t get lost or taken captive by the mundane, petty or insignificant.  Wholesome thinking promotes proper perspective –letting the temporal fall away and the eternal rise victorious.

Without good brakes, this train will run away.

Without purposeful intent, Peter will have guided us in vain and wholesome thinking will sit on the shelf of unused treasures as my life plays captive to the thoughts that scream the loudest.

I serve with an orphanage in Haiti.  I love the people of Haiti, I love the culture and the language, I love the beautiful faces of those joyous children, I love the way they cherish people and foster relationships.  I go to Haiti and I don’t usually see things that need to be fixed.  There is much that is broken, if you’ve ever been you can attest with me that there is much in the way of ‘progress’ that could be done. Many disaster relief workers after the earthquake 5 years ago found it frustrating to work to assist there because the Haitian’s just didn’t see the needs the way they did.  I was told more than once that “Haitians don’t know how to take care of their stuff.”  Well that depends.  What stuff is it that you believe is worth ‘taking care of?’ They take care of relationships.  It’s where they invest.

So when I go to Haiti I don’t look to fix them but to be fixed myself.  I am eager to let them tell me and show me how to cherish relationships, how to love deeply, how to value that which is truly valuable.  And how to hold all else with a lose hand and a firm trust in our Provider.

My Haitian mantra: “I’m not going to fix them, I’m going to love them.” Some days now that seems so trite.

I find this mentality harder to do here at home.  Things need fixing, people need fixing, their situations need fixing.  Love ‘does,’ right?  In the name of love, I think I may have side-stepped love altogether.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.                                                                                               John 13:35

I think that I far too often believe that this loving of one another is mainly between believers.  When I see this playing out in the church of Acts I see new converts taking care of one another, young men making sure the old women are well fed.  I see outsiders looking in and thinking, “Man that looks nice, they really love each other, I want to be one of them.”

I recently read that the Old Testament commands love of ones neighbor one time, but there are 36 commands there to love ones enemy.

The love that draws people in is not just the love that they see us showing others in the family, it is also the love we show those who aren’t there yet.

Perhaps if I stop trying to fix people here, I’ll stop being so attentive to all that they have that needs to be fixed.  Perhaps if I stop seeing them as projects to conquer, I’ll start seeing them as children to love on.  Perhaps if I stop seeing them as evil or different or broken, I’ll find it easier to see them as searching, lost, hurting, loved, potential vessels, future housings of the Great God whom I serve.

Love is such an abused word. It is overused and undervalued.  Love isn’t something that walks out the door of our hearts when things aren’t fun anymore or when the object of our love gets too long winded or doesn’t have straight teeth. Love doesn’t say no because it might not fit in the budget or because that time slot is already taken by The Bachelor.  Love doesn’t pretend to not see because seeing just gets too complicated.  Love sees potential.  Love gets up when I’d rather sit down.  Love says I’ll love you even if you don’t appreciate or ‘deserve’ it.  Love is ready and eager to throw out the agenda — if it even came in with one.  Love needs nothing in return and loves even if you don’t ever concede to where it came from.

I feel loved today.  There have been no major breakthroughs.  I didn’t win anything and no one has waxed eloquent about my potential.  There have been no crowns passed out and no accolades extolled.  It’s been a normal day with normal activities.  But somehow God reached down into this day and simply laid it on my heart that He loves me.  And it worked.  It sunk in.  I feel it and I sense it and I know it to be true.

God didn’t need to change anything about my day to change my perception of it. He didn’t need to fix my phone or correct my theology or pay my bills. He just needed to make sure that I knew He loves me.  That is enough.

If God Himself can change my life and my day and my outlook with this simple and profound impression, why do I think that I always have to do more than that to change someone else’s? All He often needs to do is bring Himself into my day. Maybe all I need to do is the same, bring Him into someone’s day.   Love is enough.

While there is certainly a time to fix and repair and guide and get down to business, that time will never come with a stranger or friend who isn’t sure whether or not you just love him as he is to begin with.  We have to see him as valid and valuable and bearing the image of the God we find quite easy to love.  I have to stop seeing him as anything less than a future brother, a dearly loved son, and a fellow child of my eternal Father.

Teach me how, Lord.  Teach me how to lay down my agenda.  Teach me how to love the unlovable.  Teach me how to set aside my desire to fix. Teach me sincere, selfless, Christ-like love.  Teach me to see people and not problems, seekers and not sinners, opportunities and not agendas.  Teach me what love looks like and then use me to show it to others.

I’m rather torn.  Most of the time I get so excited about the fact that I will spend forever attempting to mine the riches of who this great God of mine is.  But there’s that little bit of the time when I just get flummoxed at how very little of Him I must know now for that to be true.

His ways aren’t like mine.  His thoughts are so infinitely far above mine. (Isaiah 55:8) I find myself daunted by the truths I find in His Word, unable to reconcile them to what my life and my culture and my church and my logic tell me to be reality.

Here’s my “for instance”: The rich young ruler of the Gospels.  He was zealous and obedient and ‘religious’ and appeared to be blessed –in biblical culture, if you were wealthy, it meant that you were blessed of the Lord.  He looked and acted like he was the perfect salvation candidate.  Any of our churches today would have let him in!  And put him forward as a model member at that!  But that isn’t at all what Jesus did.  He spoke to him rather harshly.  He seemed to completely overlook all the ‘good’ in him and denied him access to the Kingdom because of one little area that he didn’t seem to have handed over.  Looks like he gave everything else quite freely.  He just left that one room locked.  And that was all it took for Christ to say no. (Matthew 19)

This man was denied salvation.  I’m pretty sure that in today’s evangelism we would say that No One is denied that.  With a simple prayer, some ‘faith-filled’ words and thoughts, a few verses and salvation can be yours.  Christ seems to tell the young man that there is a little more that he requires of him.  He wants it all. And He doesn’t seem willing to take less.

There is so much I have to learn.  I don’t get this.  Is He still telling people no?  I know very few indeed who don’t keep at least a few rooms locked.  Is He telling anyone no today — and are they just not hearing Him say it?

Of all that I don’t know, here’s what I do:  Jesus told the young man no because He knew that this one throne would never really be His.  No matter what He or anyone else saw in the man’s actions, God knew about the condition of his heart, and it didn’t belong to Him.

For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.                                2 Peter 2:19

For all the niceties, for all the obedience, subservience, and zeal, this man was slave to someone else and that just won’t do.

Then you have a man like Gideon of Judges.  He didn’t look the part.  He was fearful and questioning, he was a polygamist and idolater.  But this man God accepted.  This was the kind of man that God could use.  What’s the difference?  At the end of the day the rightful King was enthroned.  (Judges 6-8)

Let us not deceive ourselves.  Today I would venture to guess that few of us would see any need to seek the Savior and make sure that all our great efforts were enough.  We would feel ever so confident that they are.  That young man has more than a few things on us.  He did all the ‘right’ things just like us.  He looked the part just like us.  He had zeal and enthusiasm just like us.  He knew the Law and lived daily by it just like us.  He even recognized the Savior and admitted as much just like us.  And in humility he sought that Savior to see if there wasn’t something even more that he could do.  He had humility in all of his religious pomp.

So how is it that I differ?  If everything on the outside looks the same, the differences must be somewhere else and not necessarily outward at all.  We know this.  Samuel made it clear to us in the choosing of David as Israel’s next king.  We know God looks at the heart.  But have we realized that He doesn’t need to be the only one doing that?

It is possible to look the part and not own it.  It is possible that our ever-deceiving hearts have pulled one over on us.  It is possible that there are locked doors where God says ‘No I won’t allow that.”  It is possible that, despite the free-will we cling to and applaud, we live enslaved to hidden masters.  Satan is the ultimate deceiver.  And a darn good mascarade.  That’s a nasty combo for deception.  Top that with hearts willing and eager to deceive their owners and we had better be vigilant.

Try me, search me, examine me, O God.  Find out if there is any master I serve but you.  Depose those whom I have allowed to contend with you. Let me not be deceived, but let me follow hard after my one and only rightful King.  (Psalm 139:23-24) May good works and ‘right’ living never be my aim or my delight.  May my audience always be One. May I never overlook the Gideon in praise of the young ruler.  May I serve one master Jesus and no other.

The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, the Lord, the God of Israel.                                                                                                              Judges 5:5

A name often tells so much about its possessor.  We’ve lost that art of naming our children names that truly mean something.  We usually name them something that we think sounds good with the rest of the family, flows with the other kids names, meshes well with the last name.  Names used to mean something.  In biblical times, there was much to be learned from a name.  So when we go to learn about the Lord of the Bible, the names given Him there likely tell us much about Him.

Deborah calls Him the One of Sinai.  I love this title.  I have two favorite chapters in this incredible Word.  One is Revelation 19, and the other is Exodus 19.  Exodus 19 is the story of how my God got that great name, the One of Sinai.  Read it.  It’s beautiful and powerful and insightful and awe-inspiring.  If you lack reverence for this unmatched God of mighty men and women of old, read it!  He reigns in power among those verses in the same way He desires to reign in power in you.  (I really mean it, stop and read it right now.)

Here are a few other names of our King:

Jehovah Nissi – Jehovah is my banner

Jehovah Tsidkenu – Jehovah is my right (as in natural, moral, or legal right or place)

Jehovah Shalom – Jehovah is peace

Jehovah Shammah – Jehovah is thither (old word, means near)

Jehovah Jireh – Jehovah will see

A banner tells what something is. If God is my banner, He tells me what I am, who I am, that I am His.  He is my purpose and my direction, my map and my predecessor.

Because of Christ’s redeeming work in me, I have rights.  Through Christ I have the right to enter the throne room of grace, the right to stand before the eternal seat of the eternal God!

While the Father is forever Judge and King, the Son is ever my Advocate, the Intercessor, and my Savior.  God Himself became peace in order to make peace available to me through the Son.

In order to make all this a reality, God came thither.  My God is not distant.  He is not far away.  My God is near!

He sees and He knows and He still offers a way and He still goes before and He still calls me His own.

This powerhouse of a God who came down like fire of Mt. Sinai is my Jehovah Shammah.  This infinitely astounding Lord of Heaven and Earth, this One of Sinai is my Jehovah Shalom.

Read those verses people!  Witness this great God we serve! This God of the mountain stands primed and ready to descend on any mountain you face today. This God of fire can burn off all that is impure in you today.  This God of warning stands waiting to guide you on your path today.  This God of Mt. Sinai, this Man who drew near, this King who holds court in your very soul, are all One and the same!

These stories we read and these characteristics and images that we see displayed in Scripture are vital to our lives today.  They tell us who He is, what He’s like, what He demands (yes demands) of us, who we are, and who by the power of this same God we are meant to be.

This is the God you serve!

This is the God who condescended to being wrapped in infant flesh!

This is the God who came near!

This is the God who goes before you!

This is the God who made a way!

This is the God who holds your chin, lifts your head, and feeds you with His own hand!

This is the God who says “Go”!

This is the God who sees you!

This is the God who loves you anyway!

This is the God who will last when all other gods fade away and disappoint!

This is the God who commands you: March on, dear soul; be strong! (Judges 5:21)

This God, the One, this Jehovah, this Man, He’s my Father, He’s my Protector, He’s my Sustainer, He’s my Deliverer, He’s my Comforter, He’s not merely my Savior, He’s my King!