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