Pouring It Out

2Samuel 23:16 So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD.

We are capable of lusting. Duh. But, most of us generally assume that the object of our lust is something wicked or steamy at the least. Not necessarily. We also have the tendency to lust after the blessings of God. Now that’s a mouthful, but here’s the deal: When we attempt to hoard the blessings of God rather than God Himself, we begin the process of rotting from the inside. It’s what the children of Israel discovered with the manna that 24 hours later became maggots. Yummy! I think the milepost of a maturing Christian is when he or she attains the awareness of the sufficiency of The Savior. And, based on that sufficiency is willing to “pour out” even the greatest blessings back to The Lord, or at a minimum, to His Body, The Church. David exhibited incredible “chutzpah” in pouring out the very thing that he desired, AND that his men had risked their lives to attain. Listen, the point is NOT that David wasted the water. The point is that David’s heart, his character and motive, was rightly aimed at redirecting all glory and honor to God. He was “after” or perhaps better, he was “aimed at” or “directed at” God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). What really is my focus? Yours?

Holy Sacrifice

John 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

So how much is Jesus really worth? Really? Out of us is supposed to flow streams of living water. So, one of the greatest evidences of maturity along the journey of faith is that which emanates from us. Is the “stuff” of my life a sustaining stream of life? According to how God the Father sent His Son, He was most interested in the preparation of the Son to be poured out…for someone else. In this God is glorified. I wouldn’t do it that way, but that’s why my email signature doesn’t say “God” after the title bit. God’s plan is that we be sanctified, or set apart (1 Thess. 4:3). Why? So that we can continue to pour out holy sacrifice TO Him so that someone else might be blessed by an imager of Christ in this world today. When we look at our circumstances through this lens, it changes things, and properly resets our expectations. So we refuse to look, and instead insist on using the convenient lens of the culture and world around us. Always disappointing. Just as Mary poured out everything she had and was to wash the Savior’s feet, so too can we. There are tears, but there is joy in the sacrifice. God knows!

Be Holy

1Peter 1:16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Could there be a more unreachable concept in contemporary spirituality? The world has gone gray, no more absolutes. But holiness is absolute. It is to be cut off, separate, not common. The entire page-turner known as Leviticus is a treatment of the difference between a holy God and common man. Leviticus is the instructions of practicing holiness. So is Jesus. This is why the designation Paul repeatedly offers of “in Christ” is so massively important in the Christian’s life. Nobody in the camp full of Hebrews could fulfill the instructions of Leviticus. So nobody could be holy. A-ha! But NOW, Christ has come! He has bridged the gap between God’s holiness and my commonality, and He has made ME holy. So why do I keep running back across the bridge to be common? Because I really don’t believe that He has made me holy. But He has. So Peter…Peter, of all people…! Peter tells us to be holy because God is holy. And He has made me holy. It’s not so much “do it” as “be it” because I am “in Christ.” This is why God really doesn’t care at all about my happiness, but cares intensely for my holiness. Life is learning to want what God wants…

His Joy - My Joy

John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

The idea of joy vs. happiness is a buzz topic these days in Christian circles. What does “blessed” mean in The Sermon On The Mount? Some would say “happy,” and this is not incorrect, perhaps just incomplete. It seems best to say that “blessed” means “to have received joy,” and genuine joy is not dependent on circumstances whereas happiness is. Christ’s joy came from surrendering His own agenda and picking up that of His Father. Yes, there was suffering, but there was also a persistent joy, even though He was known as “The Man of Sorrows.” I am the one that produced His sorrows; He is the One that produces my joy.

Laughing At God

...And speaking of prayer, and what makes us tick, I think this pretty well encapsulates the human condition:

The Purpose Of Prayer – Luke 11:1

Luke 11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

OK, this is SO golden, that I had to publish the entire Chambers commentary for the day:

Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

"Ask, and you will receive . . ." ( John 16:24 ). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, ". . . unless you . . . become as little children . . ." ( Matthew 18:3 ). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

To say that "prayer changes things" is not as close to the truth as saying, "Prayer changes me and then I change things." God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.

This is such a profoundly different approach to prayer than is generally practiced by people…like me. As William Barclay has said, “Prayer must never be an attempt to bend the will of God to our desires; prayer ought always to be an attempt to submit our wills to the will of God.” So, prayer is about changing ME; not just getting God to do what I want. If that worked, then it would be pretty clear which one of the two of us was really God. Maybe that’s why it never works… Still, God is good, and He delights to give His children good gifts, and the joy is in the asking, just as my son asks me for things because he loves and trusts me. But at some point, my son must grow and not view me as merely the dispenser of treats, but as the person he most wants to emulate. Same with me in my view and pursuit of God.

Whoa dang; that changes things...namely me. 'Bout time.

Living My Theology – John 12:35

John 12:35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

Yeah, this is the whole book of James, so where do you start & end a reflection like this? Christ says that we are to walk in the light He has given us. Paul says to continue working out your salvation (we call that “sanctification”). Chambers says, “If you are sanctified, show it.” When we say, “I’m not really living what I believe right now,” that is a horrible self-deception. We ALWAYS live what we believe; we can’t help it. So, the REAL question is: What do I really believe? My life & actions evidence what I believe. Scary! But, a theology that is not lived out & practiced persistently is no theology at all, and is worthless. Christ, Paul, & Oswald Chambers all agree. I’d say that’s good enough to bank on. “Just do it!”