Worthless Things

At this time of year, everyone is talking about the real meaning of the season and striving to live with a generous and unselfish and serving heart. The chapel speaker at school this week spoke on this very topic and used an acrostic for SERVE:

S: Single-minded Loyalty -- to be loyal to God with single-mindedness. Without such singlemindedness we become our own focus.

E: Extensive Devotion -- again, devotion to God, a devotion that overshadows all else.

R: Right Spirit -- confession is good for the soul, they say; confession allows us to reclaim the intimacy with God that allows to have the freedom to love others more than we love ourselves.

V: Victorious Life -- no more barely making it, spiritually and emotionally and physically. Christ came to give us life and life abundantly. When we live this kind of life, He overflows from up like water from a brimming cup.

E: Exalting Purpose -- My purpose is to love God and serve Him forever. I can serve Him in many ways, including serving the downtrodden around me. And the downtrodden take many forms: the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, Zaccheas, the man born blind, and the paralytic, to name a few.

So today's Psalm 119 verse is vs. 37: Turn my eyes from worthless things.

Turn my eyes to what is important. Your ways, your people, your creation.

I am a Stranger

Psalm 119: 19
I am a stranger on earth;
       do not hide your commandments from me.

I am a stranger in NYC. Don't like the city. Try to avoid it. But when I am there, I need directions. I need street signs and subway signs and the helpfulness of strangers.

That is the way it is on earth, for God's believers. We need directions, road signs, and helpful friends. Most of these come in the form of God's Word. His commandments and the life principles that can be found in His Word are the necessary tools for navigating this world, its pitfalls, and my own sinful nature.

Thankfully, God doesn't hide His commandments from me.

I just have to open my eyes to read them.

vs. 18: Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

Chip Ingram's Book Post 2

Thinking Great Thoughts

John Locke said, "The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thought." Basically that means: if you want to know what I think, watch what I do. We know this is true. Your mother can tell you that eating peas is good for you, but if you constantly watch her throw her peas away, you won't believe her anymore.

So if I say God's will and God's ways are important but never spend time thinking about them, do I really believe it?

Ingram writes, "The thoughts we entertain in our minds become the thoughts that guide our lives."
If all I think about is what I read in the magazines at the check-out or what I watched last night on TV, then those ideas will guide my life. The petty concerns of starlets and the drama of unreality will influence me more than anything else. If I want God's will and God's ways to guide my life, then I need to think of those things at least as much as the other.

Though I have found that the more time you spend in God's Word, the more you want to spend there.

I can say I will give equal time to God's Word but the very nature of His Word is to draw me in deeper, until soon I forsake the TV to read the Bible or some other book about godly ideas. Like Good to Great in God's Eyes.

Psalm 119: 9-16
How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commandments.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Chip Ingram's Book Good To Great in God's Eyes: Post 1

Do you want to be good at your job? Or great?

What about as a parent, as a friend?

Chip Ingram, in the Introduction of this book, points out that when Christians are asked that question, we have no qualms about saying we want to be great.  But ask a Christian if he/she wants to be a great Christian, and we hem and haw, ducking our heads, as if embarrassed to admit that yes, we do.

How dare we be so pompous as to desire greatness when talking of spiritual things!  Of course, when talking about  secular things, it's OK to want to be great. It's just a job or hobby, after all.  But when talking about the things of God?  It is arrogant.

"Yet what is the alternative? Should be aspire to be mediocre Christians? Is it really prideful to want to honor God with lives of great faith and excellent work?" (p 8)  Ingram goes on to point out that when the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus did not admonish or chastise or reprimand them; what He did was correct their view of greatness.  "We are designed to be great in God's eyes. When he created humanity, he proclaimed us  not just good, but 'very good' (Gen. 1:31).  We exist for his glory.  That kind of purpose is not served well by mediocrity or even by settling for simply being good." (p 9)

How do atheletes become great?  They practice.

How does one become great in business?  One makes wise choices and works diligently.

How does a Christian become great in God's eyes?  How do I?

I must work and strive and take it seriously.  Greatness in God's eyes, just like greatness on the soccer field, isn't going to happen by me standing on the sidelines, no matter how loudly I cheer for others.  I need to stop living a passive life, reacting to  what happens to me and around me.  I was talking with my students this week about Christians being thermostats instead of thermometers: thermometers tell you the temperature around you but thermostats set the temperture.

Guess I should take my own teaching to heart.

I Want to be Great

Most of us would say we want to be a great:
       Wife
       Mom
       Teacher
       Lawyer
       Nurse
       Sister
       Friend


What about "Christian"?  Would we say we want to be a great Christian?  According to Chip Ingram in his book Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices of Great Christians,  most people would think saying we want to be a Great Christian is not humble, too over-reaching.


How can I -- knowing how deep my sinful nature goes -- ever call myself a Great Chrisitan?


But thinking about it, I have to ask myself, how can I NOT STRIVE for that?  Is God displeased if I want to be a Great Christian?  Would it bring Him less glory if I were? 


I am eager to read this book and share here what I am learning.

The End?

I have been in counseling for my addiction for two years.  Summers are busy for everyone, including my counselor and myself.  For the second summer in a row, we met only once.  When the fall arrived, and I expected things to get back to normal, I have not been able to get in touch with her to set up a meeting.

At the end of the summer I failed but managed to pick myself up.  It is true what she says: I know the truth -- I just have to remember to live it.  And so I managed to get back where I need to be.  And have been consistently doing that for some weeks now.

Perhaps I don't need her anymore.

But the idea that I won't be meeting with her anymore makes me sad.

When God Chases You

It can be a hard thing.



As you can see by the dates of my posts, it has been nearly a month since my last post.  I wish I could claim busyness or forgetfulness or even that I have simply lost interest.

Alas, that is not the case.

I have not posted because I have not been reading the Diane Evans book.  Nor have I been reading my Bible.  Nor have I been spending much time with God or even thinking about God.  I have been willfully and determindedly running from God by sticking in my addiction like a fly in poisoned honey.

But God is not willing to let me go. 

Today I was the storyteller at church.  The young children have three main ideas that the curriculum circulates: God made me, God loves me, and Jesus wants to be my friend forever.  This month is God made me, and the verse is from Psalm 139: 14 --

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
I did a cute song and activity -- it wasn't really a story this week.  We did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."  We jumped and marched and used our hands to pick up stickers off the floor.  Because God gave us eyes to see and ears to hear and mouths to speak and feet to walk and hands to help. To see His people and to hear their needs and to tell them about Jesus and to walk with them and to help them. 

Then I left the kiddos with their teachers and entered the adult service.

This month our pastors are teaching from Jonah. What happens when you run from God.

Um....

The pastor was teaching on chapter 2 today, what happens when you pray to God.  Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish.  In the farthest down he could get -- the living dead way down below the surface of the sea -- he prayed to God....

And God listened.

The pastor read the passage and then turned to the psalms and said there is a psalm that very nearly mirrors what Jonah was saying, although Jonah came after the psalm.  So I guess Jonah mirrored the psalm, but the reflection is there.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

That's from Psalm 139.

Um....

And then the pastor said that God gave us these legs, even though He knew we'd run.

Um...

"You can't run from Me, my daughter.  Wherrever you go, I am there.  You run with these legs I have given you -- given to you so that you can GO to them and tell them about Me.  I knew you'd run.  I didn't have to give you legs.  I could have made you so that you could never leave Me.  But I didn't.  Go ahead and run -- but I'm right there with you."

Oh, God, my Father.
I don't want to run anymore.
I am faithless.
You are faithful.
Thank you for loving me, for chasing me.
Oh, God, let me run only ever after You!