This fascinates me.  The Israelites literally heard the voice of the God of Heaven and Earth.  They saw Him consume a mountain, they saw Him fill the tabernacle with the thickness of His Presence, they saw Him perform miracle after miracle. To have been so wayward, they were more privileged than anyone else in all of history!  And yet…how terribly sad…and yet within 2 generations of those who crossed the dry Red Sea, who saw God rescue them so miraculously, there was no knowledge of God or what He had done for His people.  (Judges 2:10) How does that happen? How does someone ever get over seeing all that they saw?  How does the newness, the coolness, the awe of it ever wear off?  How is it that every one they ever saw didn’t know about their God and what He’d done for them? And somehow, not even their children and grandchildren knew.  How does that happen?

The Israelites forgot about God, they became complacent about passing Him on to their children because they didn’t have enough faith.

Bold statement.  Sounds a little pious and judgmental really.

Here’s how I say it anyway: All of life with the Lord is the beautiful balance of grace and works.  It is so hard to quantify, impossible to grasp, inconceivable to wrap our minds around, absolutely the reality of the situation.  God could do everything all by Himself.  He chooses not to.  He requires things, He enables success, He intervenes miraculously, but He makes us play the game.  We have to be willing to put out our hands for Him to place the gifts within.  It simply is what it is.  If you wait until you grasp the enormity of these truths, you will live a life of confusion and disappointment because some things are just His ways and are far to great for us to fully grasp.  You can’t wait to “get it” before you live like you believe it.

For the Israelites, God had told them that He would give them the land.  He called it theirs, He made His promises and His covenant and He held up His end of the deal.  Until they reneged on their part.

All of the story of the Israelites conquering Canaan is this back and forth between the people “never drove them out completely” (Judges 1:28) and God’s driving them out Himself (“I will No Longer drive them out, Judges 2:10).  You see it takes a little of both.  God could have had every Canaanite drop dead in his tracks without standing from His throne, but He didn’t.  He could have had a plague run through all the land and kill every last one of them, but He didn’t.  He called men like Joshua and Caleb, He called men of every tribe to strap on armor and get in the game.

God said He would do it, but the men still had to put on the armor.

Life with the Lord is a wonderful balance between letting God work and be willing to join Him when He does.  It is man acting in faith that God is acting in power.  It is man’s reaction to God’s promises and provision.  It is the evidence of man’s faith playing out in the wars we wage and the promises that we put out our hands to receive.  God will do it, but we have to be willing to suit up.

I can say the Israelites lacked in faith because if they had truly believed that God would do what He said He’d do, they would have put up the fight, they would have suited up day after day for the simple joy of seeing how their warrior King would take the victory today.  If they believe the God who revealed Himself, they wouldn’t have struggled to see Him in all the glorious splendor we see detailed in Revelation 19.  If they really knew Him, that image would just fit and it would inspire greatness.

Your relationship with the Lord is not an amusement park ride.  At salvation we do not get inside the little car and let the wheels of life drive us through all the greatness of an exciting adventure as we watch the Lord whiz by us in all His greatness and glory.  We have to suit up.  Life is Not a passive journey.  We are not simply called to action, we are called to war.  How dare we.  How dare we thank Him for offering everything and not even consider that we might be called to offer so little.  He paved the road, He opened the gate, He paid the bill, He prepared the house, He put in all the work, and we don’t even attempt to do so very little as just showing up.  Show up today.

Suit up today.  Trust He’s doing His part and show up to do yours.  Christ didn’t die a brutal death so that you could selfishly demand a cush life.  He paid it, don’t despise it.  Seize it, utilize it, build on it, participate in it, fight for it.  Suit up for life today.  Fight for Him, work to take hold of the gifts He’s secured for His people.

How do some men get so far from good, those who lead such heinous lives, who by all accounts are truly evil men?  How do men and women find themselves doing things they swore they would never do?  How is it that so many fall so far from where they set out to be?

Peter speaks of false teachers and brutes who deceive and carouse and pursue wickedness in 2 Peter chapter 2.  I think that he gives us a clue in those verses that answers this age old question: How on earth did I get here, how did I ever let this happen?

There are many descriptors of what evil men do listed, but one descriptor is not so much what they do but what they no longer do.

They have left the straight way and have wandered off….                        2 Peter 2:15

When you load up the car and head to D.C., do you map out a course or do you wander?  When you have an appointment in another city at a certain time, do you wander there or do you purposefully set your course?

Most of us don’t plan to leave the straight way that leads to life and purpose and wisdom and meaning and love.  Yet so many of us find ourselves far from that intended path.  We find we have indeed left the straight path.  We have wandered off.

Life must be so purposeful, so intentional.  If we just let things come as they may and answer to whatever demand comes at us at the time, the day loses it’s purpose and it’s productivity.  You lose sight of what you were supposed to get done, you doubt that all you did was worth doing.  The greatest of things rarely ever happen without someone intending them to.  Without intention, there is wandering.

As believers, we are not designed to wander.  The Israelites weren’t meant to wander, they were meant to conquer.  It was only in their sin that God condemned them to 40 years of purposeless wandering.  That wasn’t the perfect plan.  We are wired for action, for purpose, for victory, for conquest, for intentionality.  While God has been known to provide in our wanderings, while He promises and has proven that He will not leave us no matter how far we wander, it isn’t the plan. We were made to cling to the straight path, to resist the bending and the following of crooked ways.  In order to  stay straight, we must be mindful of all the ways and situations in which we bend.

David Platt’s word choice has become well known, Radical.  In order to keep to the straight path, we must be radical.  We must be intentional in every step, we must vigilantly watch after the course of our paths, we must not allow ourselves to wander too far off course.  If you want to live the life of the righteous, if you want to put yourself in a position to fulfill every purpose for which He designed you, it WILL NOT happen by accident.  You WILL NOT wander into eternal greatness. You WILL NOT bear the name righteous without putting in the work.  And the measure is set high, the bar is infinite perfection. Christ alone is the standard.  If we endeavor to model Christ, trust me, we’re going to look radical.  You will stand out, and even some of the greatest Christians you know will say that you have taken it too far.

If you ever use the word bend: I had to bend the truth a little, I had to stretch the definition of that policy just a bit, I needed to gloss over that situation; these are obvious signals, you’re not just bending truths, your bending your path.  The way isn’t lying out straight before you any more.

There are two realities here.  One, righteousness takes work, it doesn’t come hap-hazardously, it will never just fall in your lap.  And two, if righteousness is your goal, every situation in which you bend your values, the truth, God’s perfect standard, the further you will find yourself from the righteousness you seek.

If Christ is your aim, you won’t even be throwing at the same targets this world shoots for.  You will need to set your eyes and your standards on things the world doesn’t see, value, or understand.  But it will win you a prize of eternal value and be worth every ounce of your vigilance and sacrifice.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed,”Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages-so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.”                                               Mark 1:35-38

This one might be all for me.  This story wasn’t where I was studying this morning, but just like the all-powerful God He is, He led me to it anyway.  We don’t always plan to go where we later realize He’s led us.

The night before the story above begins, Jesus had been hard at work.  People all over town had come to be healed.  It didn’t start until night because they were all Jews and they had to wait for the Sabbath to end at sundown.  So He had a late night.

He was human, He was surely tired.  But He got up not just early, but very early to go spend some time with the Father, get the game plan for the coming day.  He drags Himself out of bed, goes outside to let the cool morning air help awaken His spent body, and He does what He knows He needs to do.  And by this time, I know that it isn’t just what He has to do, even in His tiredness, it is what He wants to do. He’d done this enough times, He knew it was worth it.

He has His moments of fellowship and revitalization and then He’s ready.  Peter thinks He knows what He’s ready for and seems rather shocked that He isn’t already about it.  I love the wording on this verse, he ‘exclaims,’ his statement–not question or even a good morning–ends in an exclamation point.  He’s indignant. Does Jesus know there is work to do?  Does He have no idea how many people have hunted Him down this morning!?

Peter comes on the scene like a road manager, he’s got the day planned out and, frankly, his charge is already behind schedule.  And Jesus takes the agenda, rejects the frenzy, tosses aside the plan and calmly says, “Let’s go somewhere else.” All the worry and the anxiety and the scheduled healing appointments, all tossed aside without a single care.

How does Christ do this so flippantly?  Because He knows what the big picture looks like.  He knows why He’s come. And meeting all those appointments just doesn’t fall in line with it.

We look at Him and say things like, “Ah,  how nice to be able to walk away like that! What energy He must have had to go on so little sleep!  Of course the Son of the King of Kings would know His purpose!” It’s a story about someone else’s life, right?  A perfect someone else.

It’s a story about you.  Christ came to save us, from our sins and our destruction and ourselves.  And He’s trying to show us how to help the situation.  Follow me, He says.  Do as I do and as I say.  I Was a Man.  Stop excusing yourself and chocking the hard parts up to my divinity.  It falls in line with my humanity.  And it’s what’s right for you too.

One, value your time with the Lord above everything else–people, sleep, demands, obligations, ‘urgent’ situations-yours and other peoples, schedules, and agendas. No compromising, no ‘breaks’ or vacations, no ‘special occasions.’ His mercies are new every morning and yesterday’s manna isn’t going to fill your belly today.

Two, be willing to disappoint people.  This one is tough.  We think it makes God look back for us to not be doing certain things or presenting a certain image.  God can handle His part, if He wants you in on it, He’s pretty capable of letting you know. (And if you just spent your morning time with Him, He’s had ample opportunity to fill you in on the plan.)

Think of all the people who were looking for Jesus that had asked Peter where He could be found.  They were all left without Him.  He moved on to what that day held and it wasn’t them.  But it was the plan. He moved on to doing what the Father had just told Him needed to be done, that which was in line with His purpose and destination.

Third, know your purpose and do that which falls in line with it.  Know what you need to be doing today, this season, this year, with this life.  Andy Stanley called this idea the Principle of the Path.  If you hop on I-75 North, you will not end up in Orlando.  You need to know where you are headed or you will likely never arrive there. When something has to go, make sure it isn’t the things that fall in line with your purpose.  Make sure they aren’t detours that take you off of the path that leads to your destination. Listen to what God requires of you and don’t let your schedule get cramped with things that don’t line up with that purpose, that don’t take you in the direction of your destination. Remember, if you spend every day with Him, you’ll be ready to hear the plan, you’ll be prepared to get your driving instructions.  Don’t be overwhelmed with wondering where to go and whom to serve and who you need to say No to, He’ll let you know, you just have to show up when He’s ready to tell you.

It’s hard to even attempt to model a Man who was and is God.  It’s so easy to say, He could do that, He was God. I’m just a man.  Don’t let the size of the goal dissuade you from attempting to reach it.  Start at the beginning; show up to hear the game plan, make your day’s decisions based on the direction He gives you, follow the path that leads to your purpose.

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.                                                                                                                   2 Peter 1:20-21

Men spoke from God.  God did the talking and mere men took dictation.  They sat with poised pens and papyrus and wrote all that God spoke.  And they heard every Word accurately because they were being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so.

So God spoke, man listened by the divine empowering of the Spirit, and that which was revealed was written down.  I want to make sure we “understand” this progression.  God spoke and what was said by the divine, the eternal, the all-powerful, loving, saving, watchful God of Heaven and Earth was written down by humans.  Those humans wrote it down, copied it, passed it around, preserved it, translated it, protected it, compiled it, and now witness it’s mass production.

God’s Words, spoken to men and women like us, are sitting on our bedside tables. They have worn edges.  They gather dust.  They ride around in our glove compartments.  They get pulled up on our phones.  They are treasured or ignored, sought after, handed down, and given away every minute of every day.  People have gladly handed over their lives because they weren’t willing to hand over the Words.  People have made it their lives mission to make sure every hand on the planet held a copy of them.  Persecuted believers all over this earth treasure them, share them, memorize them, cling to them, pour over them, find the infinite and enduring value in them.

God spoke and we can read what He had to say.

God still speaks.  But if you aren’t in the habit of listening to what He already said, you aren’t likely to hear what’s on His mind today.  The God of all Creation, the Ruler of Heaven and Earth who has all He needs to see you, love you, come to your aid, encourage you, map out the best course for you, He has spoken.  Are we even listening?

You can read it for yourself in any one of the volumes I’d have to guess you could come up with around your house.  You can have someone read it to you–while you drive, while you shower, while you run, while you sleep! (There are free apps for that you know.) You can quote it to yourself all day long in your head.  God’s Word has never been more accessible than it is today. He went to a lot of trouble to get it in your hands, in your head, in your path, in your life.

He’s got something to say.  Let’s listen shall we.

We like to talk about ourselves.  We’re often offended if friends don’t ask us about ourselves or our current situation.  Most of us know that look on a friends face (or our own!) that says “Please hurry and finish that sentence because I don’t want to interrupt you, but I’m just gonna have to if you don’t pipe down soon!” If you are talking to someone, who talks more about you, you or them?  If you are going through some tough stuff, how do you want the conversation to go?

I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting a warrior of the Lord this week.  I was there to serve her.  She dealt the lion’s share of the offering that day.  She was peaceful and faithful, she was needy and honest, she knew and enjoyed community (I tend to find that very attracting of late), she believed in the power of prayer.  And she wasn’t on a stage or TV show, she wasn’t seeking her own interests, she wasn’t whining or complaining, she wasn’t much more or less than Christ-like.

She had quite a few needs.  I asked her about them, not sure she would ever bring them up if I hadn’t.  We prayed over her, for her family and health and witness. There was a lot to pray over.  And then she turns to me, the one who was supposed to be the “giver” to her “taker,” and she so very genuinely asked me, “Now how are you doing today?” I had food in the pantry.  I had no overwhelming medical bills, my hips work and my kid’s names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.  And she asks me how I’m doing.  Humility is an awesome thing if you ever get to see it purely.

Peter was nearing the end, he was preparing daily to put off his tent.  (2 Peter 1:3) He could have complained and asked people if they knew someone who knew someone who might be able to stay his execution.  He could have talked incessantly about how he felt about what he knew was happening.  He could have recounted his emotional journey and regaled us with his spiritually profound acceptance of God’s divine plan.  He could have.  But he didn’t.

He so downplayed his own dire situation that he called his impending execution simply “my departure.”

Humility says, yep my situation stinks and it’s cold in here and I’m starving, but what is it all for in the grand scheme, why am I going through this and how can I make sure that steals the show?  I don’t see much of that these days.  And I’m looking in that mirror for it all the time.

He was so selflessly preoccupied with making sure he had taken care of all that his Jesus had given him to do, that he didn’t even seem to notice himself.  Do you see how that works?  When we are busy about God’s plan, ours doesn’t really matter very much.

Give generously and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything that you put your hand to.                                                                             Deuteronomy 15:10

When the plan doesn’t revolve around us, we pick the right work to give generously to.  When we pick the right work to do, God gets involved with it. When God gets involved with the work, it’s blessed.  And it all starts with humility, relegating your desire to be catered to to God’s desire to be glorified.

Lord, let me serve like Peter!  Let me not be preoccupied as I so often am with the me and the now and the schedule and the temporal.  Let me look to others interests like your warrior daughter does.  Bless the works of our hands, Lord, as we take our eyes off of ourselves, surrender our need to be heard and considered and deferred to, and give generously to that which you’ve called us to labor.

Attempt to lose yourself in the needs, desires, and even whims of someone else today.  Let us work at it!  Let us put forth energy necessary for growth in selflessness.  Exercise your selfless preoccupations and let’s give ourselves over to Peter’s example of Christ-likeness and be showered in the peace that it affords us.

I’m generally not very forgetful.  This last week or so has done much to skew that curve.  Drives me crazy.  I absolutely can’t stand it when there is something that I can’t remember!  The worst are the things that you put somewhere “safe” where you know that you will remember them only to find that it is the one place you’d never think to look for them later.  Foolish.

Neville Longbottom received the coolest gift from his grandmother.  Yes, I am referring to the much debated “children’s” series, Harry Potter.  For those of you who have grievances with the books, I can only encourage you to read them for yourself and do so with a mind toward Kingdom truths.  Now, back to Neville.  He has a tendency to lose things and has been given a Remembrall, a small glass ball that turns red in his hand whenever he has forgotten something.  It doesn’t tell him what he’s forgotten, simply that he’s forgotten it.

So, we have a forgetful writer and an imaginary boy and his proverbial string-around-the-finger trick ball, where might this be headed.

I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.                                                          2 Peter 1:15

I forgot where I had hidden an early-purchased Christmas gift.  I forget where my headband might have last been lain.  I forget these temporal things.  A remembrall might be nice for those, but what about the truly important things?

So much in society has it’s roots in reality.  Here’s a bit of truth from Harry’s world.  Remembrall’s exist.  They are readily available, but they aren’t glass balls and they don’t limit themselves to lost shoes or forgotten homework.  That which truly needs to be remembered is, in itself, a tool for remembering it.  Little chicken and the egg isn’t it.

God’s Word both implores us to remember and is that which we are called to remember.  Peter says that it is worth some serious work to make sure that people remember the stories, the truths, the facts and their implications of what God’s Word says.  He’s willing to “make every effort” in order to make sure people remember. Remember what?  Remember what is true, what really happened, what was said, what has been done, what was recorded and prophesied.  And why is it so important that we remember these things?

Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.                                  2 Peter 1:21

It’s because men didn’t write them.  They aren’t “cleverly invented stories.”  They are the Words of the God of all Creation and He has had men write them down so that you could have them today.

I have been given the very Words of the God of the Universe spoken for my benefit, for my growth, for my encouragement, for my guidance, to MY heart and My life.  If I only manage to remember one thing today, I would desire that it be the thing that is of greatest value.  If I’m going to misplace two things, my prized and priceless family heirloom or the piece of toast I fixed for breakfast, I’m clearly going to hold on to the one of more value, right?

Then why is it that we will spend 20 minutes searching for the “toast” today and not even 2 remembering that which God orchestrated all of history in order for me to have at my disposal?

As we look not to the things which are seen, but to the things which are unseen.  For the things that seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.                                                                                                                2 Corinthians 4:18

We will easily forget that which we do not make it a point to remember.

Be reminded of the Gospel.  Refresh your knowledge of the Prophets.  Reminisce on the Exodus.  Be mindful of what all the Holy Spirit took upon Himself to do in order for so much knowledge to be made known to us.  Isn’t it astounding that I am allowed to be so intimately informed about the character of the Great and Unfathomable, Awesome and Eternal God of Heaven and Earth?  Isn’t it amazing! The most powerful Man you know invites you daily to peek into His mind and His life and His character and His history.  Talk about something of value worth keeping your eye on.

Leave the tennis shoes hiding under the sofa.  Let the toast gather dust on top of the fridge.  Find what’s worth looking for.

We had the most beautiful morning here two days ago.  The ones since have been quite astonishing too actually.  But that morning was just something incredible. It had rained all day the day before and the sun just came up in a perfectly blue sky and gently touched every wet blade and leaf.  There was still that touch of moisture in the air and not a cloud in the sky, it was simply breathtaking.

My dad and I had just been talking about how gorgeous the Golden Rod had been this year, it’s his favorite.  As I drove through the streets as the sun peeked over each tree, house, and hill, it seemed to pick out every golden flower between home and my destination.  I was so overwhelmed that I went back home, got my camera, and drove around the city letting Him illuminate every last sprig of it. Simply incredible.

Today I spent hours out soaking up the Sun–literally, one should not be so naturally tanned from 50 degree Fall.  I talked to the Lord, I handed Him my burdens and concerns, I listened, and I observed.  Toward the end of my time, I turned on some music.  There is a song that seems to put to words the cry of my heart. I searched through every song in the playlist until I found it.  It was just what I wanted to say.  I came into my house, singing with a gusto that came from somewhere deep inside, and found myself nearly bumping into the God with whom I’d communed.  It’s like He was waiting there at the refrigerator.  With my hand on the door, I stopped short, overcome by His Presence and overwhelmed by the desire to know it more.

I fell to the hard wood floor on my tired runner’s knees and I sang to the God who came near.  I poured out my desire to see Him this way more often, I praised Him for the myriad of ways He makes Himself known, and I fell at the feet of the Savior who made this inexplicable connection possible.

Simply incredible.

Look for Him where you are today.  He’s there and He’s beautiful.

Second Peter begins with the words, “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.”  Seems simple enough.  But there is just a touch of something to this at which I marvel.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!                                                                                                                   2 Corinthians 5:17

Early on in Peter’s time with the incarnate God in the flesh, Jesus renamed Simon the son of John, Simon Bar-jonah, he renamed him Peter.  Christ told this man that he was no longer who he used to be, he was someone new.  He was someone new and whole and redeemed because of his relationship with this Man who had the power to change not just a name, but a life.

And yet years later, this apostle still identifies himself with the old name Simon. He takes on the new name as well, but can’t seem to shed the old name completely.

Peter was a great man.  Christ chose him, with all of his failures and emotional outbursts, with his denial and his bossy, demonic demands.  Christ chose him to walk with Him on this earth, He chose him to be forgiven of his most painful sins, He chose him to build His church upon, He chose him to be a part of His inner circle of dearest friends, He chose him to unspeakable greatness and distinction. And yet this great man never seemed to completely shed the old and fully embrace the new.

There may be something very healthy in this.  He may be holding on to this little touch of his old self in order to serve as a reminder of where he came from, adding it to the new name to remind him of how he became something new.  It may be an indication of humility.  While Christ has made me something new, there is a fallen someone in me of old.

Or maybe it’s something more even.  Perhaps Peter, the older he got and the closer he walked with the Holy Spirit that his Friend sent to help him, realized every day just how far he was from the new man he was called to be.  Perhaps he was every day saddened anew with how much of the old man there still was in there.

There is a parenting analogy that I’ve heard.  As siblings grow, younger kids want the privileges of older kids, they want to know the same things and be granted the same responsibilities.  Here’s how the analogy goes.  You line up different size suitcases filled with varying weights.  You’ve got small bags in the front with light weights and terribly large and heavy bags in the back.  Have each kid attempt to pick up various bags.  Smaller kids are only meant and able to carry lighter loads. As they grow, they are able to carry more.  So it is with responsibilities and information and obligations.

As you progress in your spiritual walk, as you prosper in maturity in the Lord, don’t go straight for the back bags.  Celebrate the accomplishments you find in tackling the lighter ones too.  Start with that which God reveals to you and asks of you and teaches you today.  You, not anyone else.

Even great men like Simon Peter, Son of John never got to what he felt like was the heaviest bag.  Even after a lifetime of devoting everything to Him, giving up everything for Him, he still saw himself as only partly that which his God and Friend had declared him to be.  In your failures, know that others, great men and women of growth and distinction and faith and fervor, they all failed too.  They all fell short of fully claiming all that God declared them capable of.

While we are made new, while we are called to cast off the old and embrace and nurture and grow the new life that we find in this incredible Friend and Saviour who came to grant us this freedom, we all still have those parts of the old that linger on, that we hold on to like an old blanket.  If Peter never felt on earth as though he could drop the distinctions of his past and move forward without reservation into the newness granted him in Christ, I think I may be expecting too much of myself to think that I can.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on.                                                                                Philippians 3:13-14

Be content with your accomplishments today, set new heights before you tomorrow.

Have you ever just felt as though there were things lurking about, unseen, thieving things?  Time stealers! Thieves! Without our even noticing, they come in and loot our days!  They walk off with our quiet moments and our still hours and our joyous and peace-inducing visits to the throne room of God.  Little buggers are messing up my spiritual growth!

So much happens right under our noses and we don’t even see it happening.  We have great intentions and then, somehow, completely unexplained, we find ourselves without the time to act on our grand gestures.  How does this keep happening and why does it take so long for me to see that it is?

Identify the little thieves.  Call them what they are; indulgences or selfish moments, idols or weaknesses, demands, obligations or oversights, call them what they are and oust them!  We all have the same amount of time in our days.  And God has deemed that it is enough.

“Unlike your boss, God has never given anyone too much to do.  If we find ourselves in that position, it is not God’s fault…God has given each of us a day with the same amount of time, and it is enough to do what God wants us to do.”                                                                                             John Ortberg

If we run out of time, we must have added in a few things that weren’t “what God wants us to do.”  Be sure that the things that get left off of your to-do list today aren’t the ones that God actually intended for you to get done.

Be still and know that I am God.                                                                                                                                                                          Psalm 46:10

Slow down.  For just a minute today if it can’t be more, slow down.  Close your eyes, clear your mind, picture the scene that you were made to occupy.  Your rightful place is at the feet of the God who made you, find yourself there sometime today.

I am an introvert.  I am one of those people who could have their groceries delivered, never see another living soul, and be disciplined and happy and stress free.  A few years ago, God told me that though I may be inclined to this, it wasn’t His design for me.

I was made to live in community.

It took quite a bit of time and testing, but I now take Him at His word and am reaping wonderful benefits.  Our God is an incredible delight wrapped in wonder and adventure and newness.  With every lesson that we encounter with Him, every step of growth and maturity, we must know that this is just the kindergarten version, the beginnings, that there is a doctorate to be earned out there somewhere.  The complexities of a life devoted to growing in Him are profound and never ending.  Do not be content with a kindergarten education, let us –together–contend with the strangle-hold of mediocrity and strive for something greater, something deeper, something nearer and nearer to the heart of this incredible Man who opens the eyes of those of us who concede to our blindness.

Therefore, (yes, if you begin reading here you do need to say, ‘what is it there for’–a nod to a wonderful mentor) let us grow in community.  For some of us that is easy-peasy.  You thrive in company, you delegate well, you see your place in the big picture and relish in it.  For some, the idea of being a part of a larger whole terrifies you.  It means others put dictates on you, they depend on you, they have a say in your schedule and your agenda.

The Word is clear, over and over, we are not alone, we are not islands, we are dependent upon one another and only grow in that context.

Spiritual maturity happens in community, fullness of life and faith happen in community, directionality and purpose are found in community.

Now what on earth does living in community mean?

Second Peter 3:2 is Peter’s summary plea that we remember some of the prior things in order to create minds and hearts prepared for growth.  He says that we should recall the words of the prophets and “the command given by our Lord.” You see anything funny about that?  Just one command.  That’s a singular word, the one command of our Lord.

Somehow we all know what that command is don’t we.  Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.  It’s a two part thing.  How often we discount the importance of the second part in some delusion of spiritual grandeur that our efforts are better spent solely on the first.

From the first words of this incredible Book to the final chapters, our God lives in, promotes, and exemplifies life in community.  In the beginning, they were all there.  In the end, they are all there.  In His time on earth, they still find a way to be all there for each part of this incomprehensible Trinity.  He knows what it’s like to live together, He knows the value of filling your role in the Body, He knows what it is He is demanding of us.  And it’s for our good and His glory.

Some of the images that have peppered my mind over these last few days are these:

Caleb and Joshua: Caleb was right there with Joshua as they pleaded with the people to follow where the Lord was leading.  They both remained faithful and saw their reward west of the Jordan.  But how much do you know about Caleb? We all know Joshua, we know his victories and his speeches, we know about the wall falling and the jars breaking, we know this man to whom the great Moses left his charge and final commands.  And what of Caleb?  He was clearly faithful, we learn from Joshua 14 that he was a mighty warrior, full of energy, faith, and vigor. What he exhibited after that first spy mission didn’t seem to wane some 45 years later.

But God’s place for him in this community wasn’t quite like Joshua’s.  They each had a role to play and Caleb’s didn’t carry quite the notoriety that Joshua’s did. Do you think that ever bothered him?  Do you think Caleb ever implored of the Lord, “Why Joshua, I was there too, I’m faithful and brave and devoted too”? Here’s something the word doesn’t tell us about Caleb that I think must be true. He knew his place in the body and trusted God’s sovereignty in having chosen it.

The Levites and the High Priesthood:  One branch, the line of Aaron, had the distinction of being called the High Priest, but the whole tribe was chosen.  While some balked at the designations within the tribe, there was such a beauty to the order of it all.  Aaron’s line was chosen to carry the prestige, but also the burden. But they didn’t carry it alone.  The whole tribe served the Lord together, each a necessary element of the whole.  They knew the place where God had fitted them and they served Him with trust in it.  And in that, they never had to do so alone, the burden was never too heavy because the weight was born by the masses.

Peter and Paul:  While they may not have been great buddies who had a natural liking to one another, they recognized the distinctions given to each by the God who guided them and they respected it.  Paul reprimanded Peter for his reverting to Jewish customs, he belittled him publicly (Galatians 2:11+).  Many people wouldn’t get on well after that. And yet, in a show of such enviable humility, Peter extols Paul in 2 Peter.  He concedes to the position that the Lord had put him in, he acknowledges the place that Paul’s writings were to have in the Scripture, he implored people to heed the words of wisdom found there.  It didn’t have to do with whether or not they “liked” each other or had the same interests or were of the same social set (remember that Paul was upper echelon high class Jew and Peter was a fisherman), it didn’t matter how obvious the connections between them were or were not.  What mattered was that they knew, acknowledged and respected where God had placed them both and they faithfully fulfilled their roles there.

Treasure your role, respect others part, feed off of one another, find out what your contribution to the whole is supposed to be and thrive in doing it.  Let others serve you. Be a servant.  Grow together, contributing to the growth and benefiting from it.  Pray for one another.  Give generously.  Remember both parts of the command of our Lord and Saviour.  Love deeply.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.                                                                                                                      1 Peter 1:22

Obey the truth and let it lead you into the communal life that God designed for His people.