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!

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.