Like a Candle in the Wind

I was going to start this devotional with a reference to the prop comic Carrot Top, but didn’t want make people mad that I had compared God to Carrot Top.  So instead of saying that God is the original Prop Comic, let’s say that He knows we’re a little dense sometimes and relies on visual aids to keep our limited attention.  In Numbers 21 He used bronze snakes on sticks to cure snake bites.  In Exodus 20 He used tablets of stone to represent the unbendable rules of Old Testament Law.  In Numbers 15 God commanded blue tassels on the corners of the prayer shawl to remind them of the Laws of God.  In 1 Samuel 7 Samuel put a rock between Mizpah and Shen to remind them where the Lord helped them.  In Joshua 4 they placed stones in the Jordan as a reminder where the river stopped flowing as the Ark of the Covenant passed across.  At the Passover feast with Jesus in the upper room, He takes the unleavened bread and the wine and says “This is my broken body,” and “this is my blood.”  Throughout the Bible, God has told His people, “Here are things that you will do to remind yourselves that I am God.  Here are things the world will see to know that I am God.”  And now all these years later, God still uses visual aids.  No, I don’t just mean the rainbow to remember His promise to never again destroy the world by flood.  I mean YOU!  And no, I don’t just mean the baptism of water that symbolizes the death and burial of your old self, and the rising from the grave of the new creation that lives for a new calling and purpose (although that is a good one).

I mean that he uses you living your life.  Like in Philippians 2:14 when the Bible says that we are to do everything without grumbling or complaining.  But why are we to do everything without grumbling or complaining?  The answer is in verses 15 and 16.  So that “you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”  Just like Jesus said in Matthew 5…after He’s just given the list of beatitudes of how we’re supposed to behave, treat people, carry ourselves, and live our life… ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  Wait, what?  So I’m a visual aid for God?  Well, yeah, I’m supposed to be.  I’m sorry if I’ve let you down from time to time.  I’ll forgive you if you’ll forgive me.  We’re supposed to be different from the world around us – for the explicit purpose of being noticed as standing out different from the world around us in order to bring glory to God.  Are you being noticed by those around you?  Are your actions always pointing out that you’re different from the world and in doing so bringing glory to God?  Let me ask you this (as non-accusatorily as I can):  Are you doing anything at all to bring glory to God?  Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Do you do all that you do in the name of the Lord Jesus?  When you’re with your friends, do you pray?  When you’re with your church friends, do you pray?  When you’re with your friends, do you stand out as different from the world so that they notice your commitment to Jesus Christ?  Or do you conveniently (and silently) just play the Grace Card and count on God forgiving you when you deny Him with your actions in front of other people?  Do you tell dirty jokes in the name of the Lord Jesus?  Do you cuss like a sailor in the name of the Lord Jesus?  Do you do your drinking in the name of the Lord Jesus or maybe hope that people notice that your difference is only having 3 beers while they’re staggering around you? 

Take up your cross and follow Him.  When you accepted Jesus as Master, you accepted Him as Master.  Or else you didn’t.  That’s what it boils down to.  You either decided to let your light shine for Christ so that when you’re in the world you shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.  Or you didn’t…and you still shine your light on you and whatever it is that you want to do.  Are you embarrassed of living for a new purpose in front of other people?  Do you take Matthew 10:32 “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father who is in Heaven.” to mean “only the people at church when I went down front and gave my confession” – or do you believe that Jesus meant “all of mankind throughout the world”?  Are you afraid that people will mock you if you decided to live a life of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control?  Or is that just too hard to worry with doing?  Or is it just too much fun to blend in with the world and tease others and make snide comments.  Or instead of actually trying to make a difference in this world, would you just rather sit on the sidelines and make jokes about people you were called to love?

Listen to the Whisper that asks you “What are you doing to show the world that He is God?”  And if your answer is anything other than “with everything I do I’m trying to do it so that I can show the world that He is God,” then I’m sorry but it’s not enough.  I’m the first to admit that I fall short frequently…a lot…ok, honestly it’s most of the time.  And I’ll never be a good enough person to earn the Salvation that I accepted from Christ.  But when I lay my cards all out on the table to see what I’m holding in my hand, it shows that I’ve been holding on to a couple of jokers that I should have discarded a long time ago.  Temper and Tongue have been my trip-ups for a long time.  “But it’s hard to break the habit,” I say.  “I’ve been doing it for so long, it’s just who I am,” I say.  “I just get so frustrated by people that waste my time,” I say.  “I love Jesus with all my heart and believe that He is the Son of God,” I say.  Wait, What?  One of those things doesn’t belong with the others.  And saying one of them means that I need to stop saying the others. 

Which is harder, to stop losing my temper with people or to walk to a hill with a cross on my back…carrying the load until I can’t carry the cross any farther and someone carries it for me…because after I’ve carried the cross of my temper and my tongue until I couldn’t carry it any farther, Jesus carried those for me.  The same way that Simon of Cyrene carried Jesus’ cross when (after being beaten) he no longer had the strength to carry it Himself.  And then Jesus was hung on that cross…with my temper, my tongue, and my whole sinful self…and He died for all of it.  He was nailed to a cross, died a criminal’s death, and did it for me.  And I can’t stop doing the worldly things I do for Him?  He wasn’t lifted up shining like a city on a hill…He was lifted up and hung on a cross between two thieves.  And He did that for me…and you.  And we live in a world today, proclaiming to love Jesus yet we can’t say “no thanks, I don’t drink” or “God has forgiven me, so I forgive you – and will continue to forgive as many times as you offend me” or (the one I struggle with most) “I will not belittle and insult them, because God has been patient with me even as I’ve tried His patience time and time again.”

You want to be different?  Stand quietly in line at the store.  Don’t grumble and complain.  Ephesians 4:29 says “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”  Does retelling the dirty joke you heard on the radio lift up others?  Does it set you apart from the world?  Is it a joke you’d tell to Jesus?  Live your life like Jesus has called you to live it.  Live your life the way you know God expects you to live it.  Live your life as a bold proclamation to everyone around you that God is King above all, and you serve Him and Him alone.  Live your life showing that you will not be corrupted by this world and coerced to blend in.  Live your life like a city built on a hill and shine your light for all to see…then people will notice that you are different.  And then you’ll shine among them like stars in the sky.  And when you boldly shine your light, it will shine on others and help show them the path to Life.  And God will look at you and say, “There’s my Bronze Snake, my stone tablets, my blue tassel…there’s the reminder for the world that I am God.”

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Bible Bibliography

Let’s look at some totally disconnected (but are they really?) Old Testament verses, shall we?

Deuteronomy 32:6 “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.”

Ezekiel 36:23 “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.”  And Isaiah 6:2,3 “² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Micah 4:8 “As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you;” And Exodus 19:6 ”’…and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

Ezra 10:11 “Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” And Psalm 40:18 “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

Proverbs 30:8 “Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion,” and Exodus 16:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.”

Numbers 14:19 “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your loving kindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now” and Jonah 4:11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

Psalm 97:10 “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked” and Amos 5:15 “Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate!  Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

And that should be enough…but for good measure and a shot of tradition, let’s add:

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.”

Psalm 62:11 “Once God has spoken; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God”
And one last Psalm reference
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”

Wow, those all seem pretty significant.  Those few verses tell us that God is our Father, and that He is holy.  That the nations of the world will be restored to God, and that His Will should be done.   They tell us that we should not be greedy and ask only for what we truly need (not what we truly want).  They tell us that we should ask God to forgive us just as He has forgiven others from the time they were taken out of Egypt…with the logical conclusion that if HE can forgive Nineveh, that maybe we should forgive our personal Ninevehs.  And that we should hate evil and rely on God to lead us.  And just for tradition let’s add that His is the kingdom, the power and the glory.  Amen.  Because in the end, when is it bad to praise God a little more?

Listen for the Whisper that tells you that when Jesus speaks, it’s with scriptural authority.  Just like my earlier devotional about Jesus’ quoting of King David as he died on the cross, this devotional proves that when Jesus speaks, He speaks with unequivocal knowledge of the Word of God.  By now, you realize that the verses above are just a few references from the Old Testament for what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” from Matthew 6:9-13.  And while we’ve found in older manuscripts that the last part was added to the original text, it’s not a bad ending to throw on there…even if it’s just tradition.  Sometimes you need to just get out of the way and let the Jesus speak for Himself.

Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

Yup…Amen.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

F-R-E-E That Spells Free

In the first Madagascar movie, we meet Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the giraffe.  (There’re some crazy penguins and later on some even weirder lemurs, but I’m ignoring them for the purposes of this devotional.)  But when we meet the main characters, they’re in the zoo happy, content, being fed, and hanging out with their friends.  Through the course of the movie, they ended up in (you guessed it) Madagascar.  And there’s where we run across the strange lemurs, and with them the unfamiliar surroundings.  They’re scared, and they want to go back home.  They have some self-realization along the way, but overall the theme is getting back to the zoo, back to comfort…back to home. 

In the second movie they end up in Africa (while trying to get back to the zoo) and have a fun adventure in Africa.  They all see where they came from originally and have a little more self-discovery, but they still really just want to get back to New York City…to the zoo where they know what to expect, back to comfort.  It’s the same theme in the third movie, of course.  They go all over Europe with a circus, put on a circus wig, sing a goofy “circus afro” song, and in the end, finally make it back to the zoo…only to find that they really weren’t happy there at all.  They were captives.  They didn’t know freedom.  Sure, there was comfort, and they knew what would happen every day – but they weren’t really free.  It’s what Marty the Zebra wanted in the very first movie…freedom.  By the time they’ve finally made it back to the zoo three movies later, they’ve all known real freedom.  When they finally get back to the familiar, they discover that are eager to break away from that bondage and live in the freedom that they’ve truly lived over the course of their adventures…

Now we’ll jump from Madagascar to the Gospel of John.  Chapter 8 to be specific: 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Free indeed?  Ooh, I like that.  And then again in Galatians 5:1 and 13-14: 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

So, basically, to me it sounds we’re like the dumb, ol’ animals in Madagascar – on a side note, I think that I would be the witty zebra.  We start off with the sinful nature given to us by Adam…and we think that since we’re doing what we want to do however we want to do it, then we must be free.  Then we hear the message of the Gospel, and we decide to follow Jesus.  But then we start hearing that nagging little devil on our shoulder…and that guy is going to town telling you, “just look at all these RULES!  Boy, this Jesus stuff is cramping your style…I mean, look at all these ‘thou shall nots’ and remember how fun it was back when we shalled?”  And you start thinking that maybe that little guy is right.  Because that life of sin is what was comfortable…it’s what we knew…it’s where our friends are.  And now they’re all going to say we’ve changed, and we’re no fun.  And if I go to church, then those people at church will all judge me for the person I used to be, and the stuff I did.  And yeah, maybe that little devil guy has a point about all these rules.  I mean, I like to covet…being jealous over someone else’s things makes me happy, right? (that was sarcasm)  And I like talking about people behind their backs – or on Facebook.  (not so much sarcasm in that one) So maybe I should leave this foreign land of Christianity and go back to where I was when Jesus found me.

Don’t go back.  Find the true freedom that can be found in Christ.  I mean, c’mon, did you really find yourself happy being jealous over someone’s things.  Or hating someone for 25 years over something that never really mattered?  Is that where you found your happiness?  Was that joy?  No, that wasn’t joy – and you weren’t really free.  No more than the animals in a zoo are free.  They’re alive, but there’s no purpose.  Even in the really fancy zoos, they fix up the cages so that they look really nice – but it’s still in a cage.  It’s an illusion of freedom designed to keep them happy while they’re locked in a box.

But to be free…to be really free…To borrow a line from an old song, “Where all is peace and joy and love” is something we should strive for.  The freedom from hating others.  The freedom from worrying about tomorrow.  The freedom from eternal destruction.  And somewhere Mel Gibson’s William Wallace is screaming FREEEEEDOMMMM!!!  Because it’s really the same speech he gave to his men in the movie.  You may live a long life, but someday dying in your bed, reflecting on your life, you can decide if you were really free.  Or did a ruthless king dictate your every move?  Was your whole life a game of deception trying to hide secrets from your wife, or your work, or the tax man?  Was your whole life a shell game where the truth was hidden under a coconut shell, and you kept slipping the truth around so your wife never discovered your lies?  A shell game so the boss never put two and two together and realized where the money went?  Do you want to spend your entire life in a neatly decorated cage…so that you think you’re free, but basically still just locked in a box?

Or do you want to live free?  The freedom of giving it all to God and saying, “You are the Good Shepherd, and I shall not want.  I trust you to lead me, and to carry me through the storms.”  Because those “rules” that the little devil on your shoulder complains about – are easy rules.  Don’t murder?  Don’t Steal?  Don’t Commit Adultery?  Those are easy – so why do we act like they’re not?  Oh yeah…because there’s always that first one.  “No Other Gods Before Me”…that one always trips us up.  Money, Sports, Women, Ourselves – lots of other gods try to sit where God should be.  And it blocks our freedom because those other gods cause us to have to break all the other rules.  And if we’d just let God be God, and do our role of following Him, then the rules, aren’t really even rules anymore.  To borrow another movie line, They’re more like guidelines than actual rules.  Because we never really have to deal with them if we’re following the right Master.  1 Peter 2:16 says Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.

So Listen for the Whisper that tells you not to chase the freedom you thought you used to have.  That sort of freedom is like a fancy zoo designed to give the illusion of freedom…leading to an empty and pointless existence.  I heard a line in a movie recently, “that’s not living, that’s just not dying.”  Live for the true Freedom given through Jesus Christ.  The Freedom that a parent offers to a child…the freedom to explore, and live happy, and share your joy with others…the freedom where you know the rules, but since you know how to handle freedom, the rules are a moot point.  And more than that, make sure you use your freedom the way the abolitionists used theirs in the late 1800’s.  Use your freedom to help others achieve their own freedom.  If it’s an encouragement they need, then give it.  If it’s a guiding light to help them back to the path, then give it.  If it’s an underground railroad to help someone that’s stuck in slavery to sin to find their way to your freedom, then give them that path.  Reach out your hand…the way Jesus stretched out His…and offer freedom to someone.  Tell them that the water is fine, come on in.  And be sure to help them when they struggle with their freedom. 

It’s like the Stephen King Novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption where the character Red has trouble adapting to life outside of his own cage.  Many will truly struggle with the concept of freedom.  Like the animals in Madagascar, they will seemingly always wish they were back where they were – because it’s simpler, and they remember the happiness of familiarity there.  Use the freedom you’ve been given to help someone appreciate their freedom, and help them to understand the freedom they have.  Paul was absolutely right in Galatians, For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  The trouble comes when we try to mix the freedom we’re given with our old slave mentality.  God’s not going to tell you what to do.  He’s going to tell you what He expects from you, and trust you to be able to handle it.  And if you see someone unsure of how to handle their freedom and do nothing to help them, then you’re not doing a very good job of handling yours.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Janis Joplin said it this way: “Freedom’s just another word for ‘nothing left to lose’” – and if you’ve given every part of your life to God, you have nothing left to lose.  Trust Him fully and know true freedom.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Mister October

I have to say that as far as Octobers go, this one shapes up to be a good one for me.  Despite a mild depression over having turned 40 in September, I have a lot to look forward to this October.  We have a trip to Branson planned.  We’re going to see a Beatles tribute band on Halloween.  My wife’s paternal grandmother will be celebrating her 90^th birthday…which by the way is more than double 40 so “Yay, Mammaw” for making me feel young!  And not least of which is the baseball playoffs.  Being a Braves fan, October has provided me with something to look forward to since the early 90’s.  Being a Cardinals fan as well, it’s given me something ELSE to look forward to, just in case.  The St. Louis fan in me seems to be rewarded with World Series trophies more often than the Atlanta is, but what can you do?  And usually by October the football season is shaping up, and I have a good feel on how the Razorbacks and Red Wolves will be doing.  And based on the play of Minnesota and New Orleans and the other teams in their divisions, I can usually get a feel by October whether there’s going to be any vested interest in the football playoffs come December and January.  And again, here lately, the New Orleans fan in me seems to be getting the better part of that deal.  The Vikings fan in me seems to be continually screaming, “My kingdom for a quarterback!”

The college football fan in me never has any conflict.  Arkansas State never plays the University of Arkansas, so every Saturday I can openly root for both to win.  That’s not always the case in pro football or the baseball playoffs, though.  And those are the times that duplicitous part of me that claims to love the Atlanta Braves AND the St. Louis Cardinals has to pick a side.  Same for the lying part of me that says I love the Minnesota Vikings AND the New Orleans Saints.  Especially THIS year as St. Louis and Atlanta came down to the wire over home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  I’m happy for St. Louis, but being honest with myself…I was REALLY pulling for Atlanta.  Of course, as I go back and proofread this devotional to get it ready to go out, they’re both down 2 games to 1 in their different series and on the brink of elimination, and neither may make it to the next round – so there’s a “chickens before they hatch” devotional in there somewhere.  But when the rare instance comes up that Minnesota plays New Orleans…it’s the one game a year that I really hope New Orleans takes a loss.  Regular season or playoffs doesn’t matter…when it gets down to brass tacks (whatever the entomology of that phrase…I’ll google it at some point), I’ll always pick Atlanta and Minnesota as my favorites.

And surely you’ve figured out the point by now…Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13, of course.  No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  That is to say, at some point you will find something on God’s throne in your heart…something…anything that’s NOT God.  The typical translation of the end of both verses reads “You cannot serve both God and money.”  But in truth, it’s not just money.  The original greek word is “μαμωνᾶς” – which usually gets transliterated mammon…with the usual translation of “worldly wealth”.  But it’s actually the comprehensive word used for every kind of valuable or material good.  It’s not wealth as a collective unit like we usually think of wealth.  It’s anything.  So where this usually gets looked at from a God vs Money or God vs Your Collection of Stuff, that’s not really accurate either.  It’s a simple matter of You cannot serve both God and anything you have that’s NOT God.

For Abraham, his mammon was Isaac.  For the Israelites it was a golden calf.  At one point for David, it was Bathsheba.  For Solomon in his later life, his mammon became women.  For me (among other things), it’s the gluttony of not knowing when to say “enough” when I’m eating.  It’s a struggle to turn away from the mammon.  It burrows in like a tick in a dog’s ear.  So I’m not saying it’s easy to get your mammon evicted from God’s throne, I’m just saying it’s an absolute necessity.  Exodus 20:4,5 is where God is laying down the Law for Moses in the form of the Ten Commandments…”The Decalogue” if you like to use fancy words (like using Pentateuch for the first five books of the Old Testament or duplicitous like I did earlier).  But either way, that’s where God tells Moses that He is a jealous God, and that man should not bow to anything – regardless of what it looks like.  Whether it looks like something in the Heavens, or something on the Earth, or something in the water.  (And as a side note, I find it ironic that we make golden crosses and plaster the “Jesus fish” on just about everything.  Not judging, just observing.)  But whether it looks like a new car, a football team, a spouse, a child…even if your mammon looks just like you, it doesn’t matter.  And there’s nothing wrong with any of those things in and of themselves.  They’re only wrong if instead of keeping the car in the garage or the football team on the field, you start putting them in God’s seat…and refuse to ever let Him take it back.

So as the sports-filled month of October gets geared up, and your team plays their team…or maybe your team plays your other team, Listen for the Whisper that tells you that God should always be your favorite team.  Whenever God competes with whatever other team you root for – gluttony, pride, vanity, deceitfulness, dishonesty, rudeness, vulgarity, complacency, or whatever yours is – that when comes down to it, God needs to be to us what the Atlanta Braves are for me in baseball and the Minnesota Vikings are for me in football.  Regardless of who God is competing against, we need to hope He wins.  It’s His throne, and we like to let all sorts of other things sit in it.  But none of them belong.  Like Goldilocks trespassing in the home of the three bears, the throne isn’t made for those for other things…and they’ll find the throne too hot or too cold, or too hard or too soft.  But for God, His throne is just right.  It’s His throne, and He alone belongs on it.  As humans, we’ll always be tempted from time to time to place something else where God is supposed to be in our lives.  But we can’t serve two masters…God knew that about us way back when He was giving us the Ten Commandments, and even farther back when Abraham decided that maybe Isaac belonged on God’s throne in his heart - and God knows it about us today.  So the question really boils down to this – can you support the coupe that wants the rightful King on the throne, or are you content to be complacent and support whatever “king” happens to be sitting in God’s throne in your life at the moment?  God’s told us that He’s a jealous God.  Are you willing to test that over a football team or a new car?  Or can you accept that God alone will sit on His throne, and let your only complacency come from being content to bow before God’s throne?

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

I Wanna Know What Love Is

It’s hard to imagine, but this very Monday one year ago I started this devotional.  In honor of its first birthday, I wanted to pull some of (what I think are) the more memorable lines/contexts from my year-long journey of trying to train myself to find God in places we don’t expect to find Him.  So here they are…my David Letterman Top-10 List – of course, in no particular order.

But like Morpheus said in the movie, The Matrix, you need to “free your mind” to break away from the world you see with your eyes, and see the world with the Spiritual Eyes that we’re all supposed to have.

God doesn’t work to bring glory to us.  God doesn’t work miracles simply to make us happy or be our Jesus Genie that pops up to grant wishes when we rub our Bibles.

Are we Christians because God is Holy and Righteous and Sovereign, and should we serve Him because He truly IS the King above all Kings?  Or are we Christians because Jesus is preparing a place for us?

But we don’t always wear the Armor of God.  We wear the armor of ME!!  And I grab my Belt of Half-Truths, and the Breastplate of Self-Righteousness, and my feet are fitted with the worries of this world because my worries outweigh His Peace.  And I stand behind a Shield of Weak Faith (that sometimes falters when it’s tested), and I don’t need a Helmet of Salvation because My Big Dumb Hard Head is helmet enough for me!  And lastly I use a dull, rusty sword.  And my sword is rusty and dull because I never sharpen it.  My sword (which is the Word of God) lays in my back seat all week long until I get it out to carry it in on Sunday morning.  Then I carry it back out (having never opened it) when church is over, and when I finally need my Sword of the Spirit, it’s mostly useless to me…because I don’t know how to use it, because I never have.

And feel the comfort God offers when He pulls you to Him unexpectedly in a great, loving hug and says, “I was never angry with you.  I was sad because you had lost your way.”

God’s love is perfect love, and He gave it to you when He didn’t have to.  So crank your love for Him to 11 and rip the knob off!

Be the kind of person that you need to be so that your Christianity is never ketchup on a baked potato.

Don’t try to be like a kid at the store…close enough to see mom, but trying to stay far enough away to still find mischief and be out of swatting distance. 

After creating the universe, I’m feeling pretty certain that God was capable of naming the animals and then telling the man, “Hey, Jethro!  This is an elephant.  This is a camel.  This is a dog.  No, that’s not a monkey, THIS is a monkey.” 

But being the best goat in the goat pen, doesn’t make you a sheep.

And there you have it, folks…a quick snapshot of these devotionals.  Presented in quick, rapid-fire format were ten snippets of the 78 devotionals that preceded this one.  Now for the twist – because oh no, my friends, this wasn’t just some quick stroll down memory lane of the weird things I’ve said – so the twist is this:  Did you get a full understanding of any of those 78 devotionals from those ten highlights?  Me either, and I’m the guy that wrote ‘em!  So here’s the follow-up question for bonus points:  If you can’t get the full meaning of some devotionals by reading 10 cut and paste segments, why do we try to do that with the Bible?

John 3:16, Psalm 23, Genesis 1:1, Philippians 4:13, Proverbs 3:6, Galatians 5:22, and 1 Corinthians 13 dissertation on true love are all wonderful Bible verses (I’ll let you look them up on your own).  But why is that we think we can truly understand who God is and what God wants us to do in this world if those are the only glimpses we’re getting into the Bible?  Ephesians 6 lays out the full armor of God from which I drew my parody above, but if we’re not reading the instructions that came with it…it’s useless.

Listen for the Whisper that tells you that the whole Bible is God’s Word.  If you want to understand, to learn, to grow closer, to love someone then you have to try and get to know them.  Going way back to your school days, when you wanted to get to know a girl you liked, you didn’t spend the whole time talking TO her.  You listened to what she said.  You read the notes she passed you between classes.  And if you want to get to know God, then His Word is where He speaks.  It’s all there.  His power, His holiness, His jealousy, His anger, His compassion, His promise…His promise to Abraham and His promise to you…all that God is can be found in His book.  Along with some very weird allegories when reading the prophets, but it’s still there.

You can’t learn anything about a new girlfriend if you only see her for an hour or so one day a week when someone else tells you about her…like we pretend to do at church.  We go to church on Sunday morning, and we listen to a preacher tell us a few points about how God expects us to live our lives.  And somehow we act like we know God?  Let’s say you go to church 3 times a week and call it an hour a “go”.  52 weeks a year. That’s (pulling off my shoes to do some ciphering) 52 times 3…carry the one, remainder of four, rounded to the slope of the tangential angle divided by the speed of light through a dirty window on a cloudy day…is 156 hours a week.  Quick back figuring for 156 hours and 24 hours in a day…is 6.5 days for 156 hours.  Six and a half days per YEAR is what many people spend getting to know God.  How well do you know someone that you only see six and half days per year?  That’s not even a full week.  Take your yearly vacation week and spread it out over the year in one hour chunks and see how refreshed you feel.  My guess is not very.  And if you only go on Sunday mornings, then that time gets cut by a third…and then you’re talking a whopping two days a year that you spend “getting to know” God.

Take time to know God.  God took the time to put together a plan of Salvation for all of mankind.  Jesus Christ came to earth and took the blame for all of history’s and all of future’s sins onto Himself.  And paid the price of death for you.  And for me.  And for the person you hate most in this world.  I’d want to get to know the guy that did that for me.  I’m never going to get to know God by reading a few verses someone posts on Facebook – even if they come with a funny graphic.  It’s time to blow the dust off your Bible.  Open it up and wear the pages thin reading and rereading it…then go buy another one.  Maybe get a reference Bible that explains extra things in the margins, or a keyword bible to get back to the root languages.  But even if all you have is a basic New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs thrown in…that’s a start.  It’s all right there in the Bible.  And you’ll never truly get to know God if you’re only reading random, disconnected verses.  God loves you.  And God’s asked you to be like Him.  How are you going to act like Him if you don’t even know who He is? 

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Mapdot Devo

OK, so I’ll admit on the front end that this set-up story is one of those stories that will really only be interesting to those immediately involved.  “Just had to be there things.”  A Location Situation if you’re in, like, 9^th grade.  There’s a little town in Mississippi about halfway between Grenada and Jackson named Durant, Mississippi.  It’s just east of the Interstate 55 – population of about 2,600.  I’m sure millions of people drive by the exit signs on I55 that say Durant and pay no attention.  But the sign means something to someone.  Back when Andrea was growing up, her family was on the way to Florida, and their car broke down.  A kind, local sheriff, let’s call him Andy, came and picked them up and let them hang out at his house for the afternoon while the car was being fixed.  It was a regular Mayberry scene, with local church folks bringing food and the whole nine yards.

So now, every single time we pass that sign, we point it out.  “Hey! There’s good, ol’ DOO-rant, Mississippi!”  (and yes, I say it just like that) And there are other little towns like that.  There’s Star, Mississippi an unincorporated area outside of Jackson where Faith Hill called home.  And there’s similarly-named Start, Louisiana near the booming metropolis of Rayville (population 3,600)…15 minutes the other way from Monroe, where her hubby Tim McGraw called home.  They still have friends and family there.  That is to say that places that are negligible and insignificant to most folks may mean quite a lot to others.  It’s the same with Bible verses...Some of the ones we rush right through mean a great deal to someone else.  Maybe it was their grandpa’s favorite verse.  Maybe it was one they learned when they were young that inspired them to do something…or whatever, you get the point.

And, in what will likely be a short devotional, Listen for the Whisper that tells you that maybe “DOO-rant, Mississippi” isn’t a mapdot town, or a Bible verse…maybe it’s a somebody.  Maybe it’s somebody walking down the street that looks tired and hungry.  The guy that looks like he’s walked a million miles, with a million more to go.  Maybe it’s someone sitting alone in a church pew that looks like maybe there’s nowhere else to turn.  Their last stop was here to look for answers…The Answer.  Maybe it’s someone at work, and you know they have the weight of four lifetimes weighing on their shoulders.  You know they’ve brought it on themselves…bad decisions, poor choices, but still they’re buried under a mountain of poor choices.  And maybe each of those people is a “DOO-rant” unto themselves.  Other people (maybe you, maybe me) walk by them, ignore them, no reason to even glance their direction.  But God knows each of those people.  Like God told Jonah about Nineveh in Jonah 4:11, “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left…”  We judge them as unworthy of attention – or even a look sometimes.  You know, like when we pull up to the stop light, and they’re standing on the left side of your car…then you get that sudden guilt-crick in your neck, and you can only look off to the right until the light changes?  But God thinks they’re important – important enough for Jesus Christ to die for them – just like He did for you and me.  So maybe those people ought to be important to us, too.

The prodigal son made stupid choices.  He wished his father dead, and squandered his “inherited” money.  And still the father welcomed him home.  And in that parable, which person is it that Christ tells us we should be like?  I’ll use Ephesians 5:1,2 to answer my rhetorical question, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”  If they’re important to Him, they should be to us.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other

There’s a popular Christian song that we sing at church from time to time.  They play it on the radio a lot, too…well, on Christian radio, that is.  It’s called “I Can Only Imagine”, and it’s a song that describes the range of emotions that people might experience when they come face-to-face with Jesus.  The chorus:

“Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel, Will I dance for You, Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall?, Will I sing hallelujah?  Will I be able to speak at all?

I can only imagine”

It’s a difference of emotions we see in church on Sunday mornings, too.  Some people wear their “Sunday best” and some people come in jeans.  Some people raise their hands in song and some people keep them in their pockets and sway to the music…maybe tap a foot in rhythm.  Some shout “Amen” at meaningful points in a song…while some are silently crying at that same moment.  Some approach God’s throne with boldness like Hebrews 4:16, while some feel like Job “Indeed, I am completely unworthy – how could I reply to you?  I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself.” (Job 40:4)  Some people are like David in 2 Samuel “I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” while others are Habakkuk 2:20 “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”  And while some people take an Ecclesiastes 5:2 view of approaching God in worship, “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few,” others are like Moses and Miriam and the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea safely and you feel like singing and dancing and playing tambourines to praise God (Genesis 15:1&20).

And why did I tell you all of that?  Obviously it was so that I could tell you a story from Lethal Weapon 4.

The end of Lethal Weapon 4 – Mel Gibson wants to marry Renee Russo, but feels bad because he feels like he’s replacing his dead wife “Amanda” (that’s been dead since before the first movie).  So Mel’s at the gravesite talking it over with her headstone.  Joe Pesci comes along and tells him about a frog that he had growing up…one of his only friends was this pet frog “Froggy”, and that now, all these years, later Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are his new friends.  (Although they’ve made jokes at his expense and abused him whenever they’ve gotten a chance.)  But Joe Pesci makes the point to Mel that he and Danny Glover weren’t better friends than Froggy – they were just different.  And Mel realizes that it’s ok to go ahead and marry his new girlfriend…because by marrying Rene Russo, he’s not saying she’s better than his dead wife…just different.  Joe Pesci’s exact line, “You’re not better friends than froggy.  You’re just different, and eh, I just thought that maybe that might be relevant.”

And why did I tell you all of that?  So that I could point out that like David wasn’t better than Habakkuk or like Moses dancing beside the Sea wasn’t better than Job who wanted to put his hand over his mouth, the guy wearing jeans isn’t any better or worse than the guy in the $500 suit.  The people that sit quietly aren’t any better or worse than those that want to shout “Hallelujah” during songs or “Amen” during a sermon.  How you approach God on His throne is between you and God, and only you and God.  If you feel like you worship best dressed to the nines and silent before the Lord, and that your behavior and your clothes are to show God the utmost respect by offering your best, then your conscience will be clear before God.  If you feel that God is open and accepting and looks at the heart and not the clothes, and you’re so excited about a chance to worship that you want to clap, then your conscience is clean before God.  So long as you’re doing it for God.  And when face-to-face with Jesus will you be overwhelmed with joy for your Salvation, or overwhelmed with guilt because it was your sin that helped keep Him nailed to that cross?  Because if you think you’re too enlightened about it all to feel a little guilty then you’re missing something.  Because even the Apostle Paul for all the great things he did for the church after his conversion is every bit as responsible for the death of Jesus Christ as I am.  And what did he tell Timothy?  “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”  And follows that right up with, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”  It’s the duality of man if you can wrap your head around that.  Joy and guilt at the same time?  Hard to do both at the same time, but it’s the position we’re in.  And we usually pick one or the other.  Rejoicing for my Salvation and ashamed that it was because of me that Jesus died.  Which one wins, when we see Him face-to-face?  Which one wins when we stand surrounded by His presence at church?

God accepts only our best, and you’re the judge of what your best really is.  And your conscience knows if you’re doing whatever you do in order to offer your best to God or if you’re doing it just to be seen by those around you.  Like Cane’s offering was deemed unworthy, and Able’s worthy, only God can judge your worship.  That’s not to say that ONLY God will judge your worship…let’s not kid ourselves here.  Everyone around you is likely to judge (in their hearts) if you mean it or are doing it to be seen.  But only God can truly judge your worship and deem it as acceptable or unacceptable to Him.  But just because your worship is different than someone else’s doesn’t mean your worship is any better than someone else’s.  Dressed in your best suit and remaining silent before the Lord doesn’t make you more respectful of God than David who danced with excitement in his underwear rejoicing.  Wearing jeans, and clapping with the songs doesn’t make you more enlightened about God’s acceptance of us as humans than Habakkuk when he said all the world should keep silent before Him.  Whichever you feel is giving your best to God is what God expects from you.  And if it’s different from someone else’s doesn’t make it better or worse.  It just means that it’s just different…and eh, I just thought that maybe that might be relevant.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com

I Ain't THAT Bad!!

In the Danny DeVito Lorax movie, I believe there are enough songs to be able call it a musical.  I’m not sure it’s officially labled a musical, but there is so much singing that I kept expecting the little Bar-ba-loot teddy bear guys to start working on an old, beat-up car while singing “Greased Lightning”.  Then see the sad, dejected, disappointed, mustachioed Lorax sitting on a swingset singing about “Stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool.  What will they say, Monday at school?” aft the last Truffula Tree fell.  But at the point in what would be the standard “musical montage” section of a movie where lots of scenes flash by with musical accompaniment in order to speed along the story, the main character guy “The Flashback Onceler” is singing “How bad can I be”?  It starts after he’s said he won’t chop any trees – just pull the fuzzy stuff off the tops.  As the song starts, he’s chopping down a tree, then more.  And then there’s a factory and pollution and money.  All the while he’s doing more and more of what he said he wouldn’t do.  Then by the end of the song he looks up, and he’s gone so far past the line that there’s no going back.  All while incrementally stepping one toe over the line saying “How bad can I be?”

That’s a universal sentiment.  “In the grand scheme of things, what I’m doing isn’t that bad.”  We compare whatever it is we’re doing to what we see others doing.  That little trick starts all the way back in Little Kid World.  Mom asks, “How did you do on your test today?” and little Junior replies, “ummm…well…I…uhhh…I got a…uhhh…64.” And Mom flips out yelling, “A SIXTY FOUR?!”  At which point, little Junior immediately blurts out “well everybody else did worse!  I was the second highest grade in the class!!”  But what little Junior doesn’t realize is regardless of how it stacks up with the rest of the class, a 64 is never good.  The teacher knows what she taught.  The teacher has been watching how the students are working, and she knows when she thinks they’re ready.  She’s set the standard.  And the expected level of complete achievement based on her standards is 100%.  So when you pull down a 64, then it really doesn’t matter if everyone else is worse.  A 64 is just bad.

God has set a standard for us.  And no, it’s not 100%...the Old Testament proved that He can’t expect 100% from us.  But God’s standard is called being Holy.  Be holy because He is holy (Leviticus 11:45, Levitcus 19:2, Leviticus 20:7, then Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 1:16).  We can’t get close to God without it.  The Old Testament had an extensive list of rules concerning being holy.  Lots of rules and consequences…and blood.  Lots of animal sacrifices were required to pay the penalty of sin.  Something had to die.  You placed your sins on the animal, you offered your repentance and the animal was sacrificed to God.  Then Jesus comes to the world to be the ultimate sacrifice.  Jesus comes to do the work that no animal could do.  To permanently take away sin.  One sacrifice offered for all sins, and in that sacrifice enabled all men to be holy (Hebrews 10:10).  Well, other than the sacrificing of yourself that you have to do.  We don’t like to hear that part, but it’s part of the deal.  Jesus took our sins upon Himself, and we have to take up His yoke.  And what does that mean?  Love God with everything you are.  And then love everyone else as you love yourself.  Full self-sacrifice to Jesus Christ.  Love God first with all that you are.  Love everyone else like Jesus did, and commanded us to do in Matthew 25.  Feed the hungry.  Clothe the naked.  Visit those in prison (ooh, don’t like that one either, do we?)

But we’re still looking around us and pulling the little Junior stunt.  “I’m not as bad as that guy.  What I’m doing isn’t as bad as the guy at work.  I haven’t killed anyone.  I haven’t cheated any old ladies out their retirement.  I haven’t kidnapped anyone.  I haven’t abused my children.”  And Jesus says (like in Revelation) “that’s good, but here’s what I have against you.”  And there’s a scroll unrolled before you with a whole different list of what you’ve missed.  You hate your coworker.  You know you’re not giving enough but can’t bring yourself to change it.  You complain about something you saw someone do to everyone except to the person you saw do whatever it was.  You put football or money or cars or yourself in God’s throne – and you love those things with far more of your heart, soul, mind, and strength than you love God.  You clutter up the world that God entrusted to us with litter.  You sit in church on Sunday mornings and judge people that come forward based on if you think they really mean it.  Basically the laundry list that we would all call “minor offenses”.

Except that God has set the standard.  And the standard is holiness.  It’s an all or nothing game (and thank you for grace that bridges that gap quite a lot).  But it’s not a “well, I got a 64, but I was still the second highest grade in the class!”  It’s self-sacrifice.  It’s separating sheep from goats.  Did you proclaim Jesus Christ as the king of your life?  Did you do as He commanded and feed his sheep?  Not just the sheep on the corner in the dirty jeans and scraggly beard that needs food…but the sheep that have never heard the gospel?  The deeds earn you nothing, let’s not make that mistake.  Feeding sheep is NOT earning salvation.  But just like getting a 100% means you studied and understood the material, feeding the sheep and treating others as though you were doing it for Jesus shows that you understand what you were taught.  Listen for the Whisper that says until you “get it”, you just don’t get it.  It’s not being better or worse than everyone else.  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?  Or would you pick a bridge that just wasn’t as tall to jump off of and then claim you weren’t as stupid as little Junior.

Stop comparing yourself to others.  It doesn’t matter what the other guy did…that’s between him and God.  You’ve heard THAT before too!  “Well little Junior gets to watch Rated R movies!”  And what did your parents say?  “That’s between little Junior and his parents.  I’m YOUR mom, and I said you weren’t going to do it.”  As a personal aside, I added the “mom” there because I would usually only argue my case with mom.  Dad laid down the law, and there wasn’t much debate about it after that.

And in our case, God laid down the law, and there’s not anything left to debate after that.  The penalty of sin is death.  The way out is accepting Jesus and His commands.  If you decide to live by the world’s standards, then you are judged as the world is judged.  And when it comes time to separate the sheep from the goats, you may very well find yourself in the goat pen trying to argue the point that you’re the best goat in the goat pen.  Might be a goat bragging about how much you acted like a sheep from time to time.  But being the best goat in the goat pen, doesn’t make you a sheep.  Quit worrying about what everyone else is doing and how your actions stack up to theirs.  Worry about doing what God has told you to do, and everything else will take care of itself.  And while you’re worrying about you, make sure that (like the onceler) you’re not steadily sneaking one toe at a time past where you know your Christian behavior limits out to be.  You know where God’s drawn the line, but we all treat it like the speed limit and try fudge a little bit farther and farther over.  And then when we get pulled over we point to the Corvette that was running even faster than we were.  It’s not a matter of asking if you’re better or worse than that other guy – it’s a matter of asking “am I doing what Jesus told me to do as a Christian”.  And only you and God can truthfully answer that one.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net

http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com