discernment – Page 33 – Growing 4 Life

Obeying the Coach

4 Comments / March 5, 2012 March 5, 2012

A month or so ago I found myself sitting on the bleachers in a gymnasium, waiting for a basketball game to start. I watched the floor as the assistant coach took the team through rigorous drills. He commanded and the team responded immediately. They didn’t care what they looked like or who was watching. As soon as their leader barked an order, they obeyed. That same immediate obedience and passion continued as the team played the game. Each player always had an ear out for what the head coach was shouting to them and obeyed his instructions. We all know this is really the only way a team can be successful. If one of them would have decided not to listen to the coach, it would have caused disorganization at the very least and chaos at most.

It was a team of high school boys and I couldn’t help but reflect on how often boys that age don’t want to be told what to do. So why were they so acquiescent for these coaches? I believe it is because playing basketball is something they love to do. The cost of obedience and hard work was worth the opportunity to play a sport they enjoy.

I couldn’t help but compare that to how we follow Jesus. We say we love Him and yet, so many of us want to listen to our own voices instead of His. We take Bible verses out of context and instead of obeying what it is truly commanding, we devise meanings that soothe our souls. And, in the meantime, the body of Christ reaps the harm of our personal choices.

We often choose to not obey, or perhaps partially obey:

“God, I will give you this $100, but I just can’t afford to give 10% all of the time.”

“God, I know that you have blessed me with this comfortable home, but I just don’t have the energy to host anyone.”

“God, I know you have given me a healthy, strong body and that there is something I could be doing to minister in my church, but I just don’t have time.”

“God, I know you call me to live a pure and holy life, but the entertainment of today is just so funny and it is only portraying real life.”

Of course, there would be many more examples. And we end up hurting not only ourselves but our team (the body of Christ) with our selfishness and our insistence to do things our own way. And I can’t help but go back to the question of why.

The basketball players obey because they love the game of basketball. Many of us claim to love Jesus, but we do not want the obedience and call to selfless and holy living that goes along with that claim. Oh, we want the perks of peace and joy and eternal life. But we would prefer to ignore the commands like deny ourselves (Luke 9:23), to be generous (2 Cor 9:5), to live a holy life (Ephesians 1:4), and that we should not love the world or the things in it (I John 2:15), just to name a few. We are called to completely surrender our lives to Christ.

So I look way down deep in my heart and ask the question: Do I love Jesus enough to follow without question or exception? Or am I squirming and questioning when it gets inconvenient and uncomfortable and costs me something? It is a sobering thought.

Starting with the Right Account

5 Comments / February 23, 2012 February 23, 2012

I glared at my computer. Why wasn’t this balancing? I glanced down over the screen, trying to spot something that may have been entered wrong. I was in the midst of trying to balance one of my business accounts and it just wasn’t working. Have you ever had that problem? You work and work to figure out why you are a few dollars off? Only this time it was about $65 and I was determined to figure out the discrepancy. There were only a few transactions for the whole month, so this should have been a piece of cake. And then it hit me! I was balancing the wrong account. We have two accounts that happen to have very similar balances and I had accidentally brought up the wrong account. I could have worked all day but it would never have balanced.

After I had scolded myself about making such a stupid mistake and wasting some valuable minutes, I couldn’t help but apply this to life. You see, so many of us start at the wrong point with our Christianity. We want to start with ourselves instead of with God. We come to God so He will meet our needs. We want to find our purpose. We want to experience God’s blessings. We desire for all to go well with us. We believe that God wants us to be “happy” and so we pursue happiness instead of godliness. We praise God for finding us beautiful (which I still just can’t seem to find a verse to support) and we sing songs of worship that are ME-centered instead of God-centered.

We start with the wrong account of “me” and because of it, we can never seem to balance our Christianity. I know this isn’t a popular thing to say but here it is: True Christianity is about repentance of sin, self-denial, holiness, and glorifying God alone. We need to repent of the sin that makes us unacceptable to God and come to Him with humility and a grateful heart for the gift of salvation He has graciously provided through His Son’s death and resurrection. Upon salvation, we should start living for Jesus, instead of ourselves.

John 3:30 says: He must increase, but I must decrease. Matthew 16:24 says: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Did you catch that? We are to decrease. We are to think less and less of ourselves the more mature we grow in Christ, so that people are seeing more and more of Christ. We are to deny ourselves our own personal desires for the sake of God’s Kingdom. For some, it may mean going to prison or dying for Christ. Others endure ruined reputations, ugly rumors, and broken relationships because of their dedication to Christ. But we are to glory in this persecution, because Christ’s purposes are supreme! (Matthew 5:11-12)

Because Christianity has become so ME-centered, it has rendered many of us useless for the sake of God’s Kingdom. We dedicate so much time to finding our personal purposes and “helping” God to bless us materially, that we aren’t even concerned about the souls of the lost. We become so wrapped up in declaring our “rights” and “personal freedoms” that we step all over weaker brothers and sisters, not caring for their fledgling walks with Christ. We rationalize our behaviors and choices, all the while hurting the Kingdom of God. We seek personal pleasure and justify it under the banner of the “freedom we have in Christ”. It is absolutely tragic.

We need to start with the right account! We need to start with God, instead of ourselves. Ironically, it is only when this happens, that we will find the joy, blessing, and peace that our souls long for.

What does the Bible say about OMG?

149 Comments / February 20, 2012 May 1, 2017

I was sitting at a sporting event, when the lovely, Christian lady beside me shouted, “Oh, my God!” as her child made a mistake. I cringed inside. And then I wondered, “does she know?” Does she know that the Bible tells us not to use God’s name in vain?

And honestly, this is not unusual. I hear Christians do this all of the time. Many are wonderful people who obviously love the Lord. Is it because we just don’t hear this called sin anymore? Are we so hardened to the use of His name due to the company we keep and the entertainment that we fill our minds with, that we just didn’t notice when we started doing it, too?

Exodus 20 is where we find the ten commandments. The third commandment is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

We are not to use God’s name as a curse word. We are not to use His name lightly. If we study who God is, we understand a bit more why this is such a grave sin. God is holy, sovereign, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient, faithful, patient, and merciful. This is just a short list of the adjectives that could be used to describe God, the One who made a way for us to be reconciled to Him through His son, Jesus Christ. If He is so awesome and so wonderful (and He is!), then we can understand why it is so important for us not to use His name when we are angry or surprised.

I am not writing this to point a finger or to make you feel guilty. Quite honestly, I have personally believed for a long time, that I probably shouldn’t even say “Oh, my gosh!” It is obviously a sadly disguised copy of the original. And yet, I still struggle with it. You will still hear that come out of my mouth on occasion. Language is a hard thing to change. When we grow angry or are surprised, we tend to forget our speech in the heat of the moment.

My desire in writing, as always, is to make us think. We need to think about the words that come out of our mouths. If we are a redeemed soul saved by grace, then all of life should be lived intentionally to please our heavenly Father. May we recognize that taking God’s name in vain in any form is offensive to the Holy God who saved us. And let’s start today anew using our tongues to glorify God’s name instead of curse it!

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Saving the Hemlocks

Leave a Comment / February 16, 2012 February 16, 2012

The other day one of our employees told me about a customer who blamed us for her dying hemlocks last season. Oh, she wasn’t blaming us for harming the trees. She was blaming us for not noticing them. This customer was annoyed because the men who mow her lawn had not spotted the infected hemlocks and therefore, it was our company’s fault that her hemlocks were dying.

Now, I am not here to defend our company. Perhaps we need to train our employees to be more observant. However, what I really want to focus on is this shift in our culture to blame anything bad that happens to us on someone or something else.

We don’t want to take responsibility and so we offer up all kinds of excuses. If we are overweight, we blame it on our metabolism. If we are angry, we blame it on the person who “made” us angry. If our kids aren’t doing well in school, we blame the teacher. If our children aren’t growing in Christ, we blame the church. If we are addicted to anything, it is someone else’s fault – certainly not ours!

But there are consequences for our actions and even for our ” inaction”. If we choose to ignore the health of our trees and shrubs, disease may sneak in and kill them. If we choose to ignore our children’s entertainment habits, Satan may sneak in and spiritually destroy them. If we choose to eat whatever we want and never exercise, we will not only weigh more, but may even suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes because of it. If we do not require our children to study, they will probably not do well in school. And when these things happen, it won’t be anyone’s fault but our own!

Instead of languishing in the land of self-pity and blame, we need to take responsibility and, with much prayer and biblical counsel, start moving forward out of the morass we find ourselves in. We have all made mistakes. We have all chosen the wrong path at times. But if we acknowledge our sin, repent of it, and change our direction, the Lord will be there to strengthen and guide us!

Unfortunately, hemlocks often die if we wait too long to treat them. Thankfully, we serve a big God and it is never too late to repent, turn to God for help, and move forward.

Psalm 25:9 The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.

Avoiding Catastrophe

2 Comments / February 6, 2012 April 8, 2014

Yesterday, my husband asked our teen-aged son to start a fire in the wood stove in our shop. We were blissfully having lunch at our neighbors’ house (who also happen to be my in-laws) unaware of the excitement taking place next door.

Apparently, our son had started the fire, watched it for a bit, and then decided to head back into the house to watch a little ice hockey while the fire got going. A little while later, he decided he’d better go check on it.

What he found was a raging fire! Cardboard boxes, unbeknownst to him, were laying too close to the stove and were now in flames. I am so proud of what he did next. Clear-headed and calm, although I am sure with a heart beating so fast it may have hurt, he grabbed the fire extinguisher and found out that those things really do work! He then threw the boxes out onto the pavement to smolder and cool down.

I am here to tell you that had he not gone to check on that fire at just the right time or had he not had the presence of mind to respond to that emergency, we would probably not have a shop today.

Sin is a little like that fire in the wood stove, isn’t it? We start nursing a secret habit or sin and we think it will stay contained and just affect us. But what we don’t realize is that there are almost always “cardboard boxes” laying nearby–they are usually in the shape of our spouse and children, or perhaps our parents, or even our friends. And like a fire, sin will consume anything that gets too close.

Many of our families have been consumed by our sins of selfishness, our lack of discernment, and our pride. They have been consumed by our materialism, our wrong priorities, and our sharp words.

And this is one of the reasons why self-examination is so very important (2 Corinthians 13:5 says Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.) If we are in step, on a daily basis, with God, reading and studying His Word, dedicating time to prayer, we will know that many things we view as innocent personality traits or harmless activities or attitudes are sinful. And these sins become like fires that are going to damage, if not destroy, those around us.

We can’t afford to go watch hockey while our fire is burning. We have to watch our fires constantly, or better yet, not even start them. But, as we all are sinners, we all have hot ashes that are just waiting for a little kindling to start a roaring fire, don’t we? We can never let down our guard. Never.

I am so grateful that the Lord saw fit to spare our shop. I don’t know why. But I am so thankful He nudged our son to go check on that fire at just the right moment. May we not even leave any fires of sin burning unattended, and if we make the mistake of doing so, may our minds be filled with God’s Word, so that we recognize the danger and douse that thing as soon as it gets started.

What does Facebook say about you?

1 Comment / January 23, 2012 May 18, 2016

I wonder if most of us realize what Facebook tells the world about us? When I was in that wonderful stage of dating (do you hear the sarcasm??), my parents had no idea what my date’s favorite bands were, what he liked to watch on television, or if he went to R-rated movies. They didn’t know if he was a whiner or a busy-body or used bad language.

Aah- how life has changed. As a parent, I love the tool of Facebook. I can tell immediately where someone’s heart is by looking at their info page. I can judge pretty quickly if the young person would be a friend that builds up or a friend that tears down. Because, like it or not, Facebook often shows our true character. It shows what we love, what we believe is important, and with what we fill our minds.

But it isn’t only our info pages that tells the world about us. Have you ever stopped to think what Facebook statuses and comments say about you? If we aren’t careful, we can fall into bad habits of complaining or bragging on this modern town square bulletin board.

When I first got my Facebook account, I tended to do some of this. It is easy to complain and now I had a chance to complain to the “whole world”! There is also a great temptation to share only the good stuff to make yourself look like your life is totally together. But, after awhile, I realized that neither of these tactics was uplifting or benefiting anyone, including me.

Now there is certainly not anything wrong with sharing exciting news or family photos. It is fun to share our lives and reconnect with far-flung family and long-lost friends. And there is certainly nothing wrong with asking for prayer about a difficult situation or sharing with the world something that we are really struggling with (if we are truly okay that the whole world knows it!) Facebook can be a great networking tool for people without jobs or in a situation where we need encouragement. But when we find ourselves in a pattern of only writing the negative, it says something about us. It says we are a complainer. And we all know what God says about complaining: Do all things without complaining and disputing (Philippians 2:14) In fact, in the Old Testament, God hated complaining so much that he swallowed some of the Israelites up with fire!

Numbers 11:1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.”

The other thing we can tend to do on Facebook, if we are not careful, is to make underhanded comments or statuses meant to hurt or embarrass others. Have you seen these statuses? They will be stated in such a way that they are not quite accusatory and they certainly do not mention names, but everyone makes their own deductions about who these statements are directed towards, while the intended party of the accusation or embarrassing statement is left to figure out how best to deal with the slight. This isn’t a healthy way to use Facebook and certainly not a good way to communicate with others.

And, finally, I have noticed another trend recently. It is the trend for people to only care about their own statuses. They share all of the interesting news in their own lives but never show any interest in anyone else’s. But, then, I guess that is the case in much of life in the real world, too, isn’t it? I think it is so important to show we care about others and what is happening in their lives, both virtually (if you are part of that world) and in the real world (Philippians 2:3).

Facebook can be a great tool for connecting with others. It can be a great way to stand for the Truth in this very dark world. May we use it in a way that glorifies God. Colossians 3:17 says: And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Believe it or not, “Whatever” includes Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. ;)

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