Learning to Love

Here is another quote from Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender.

“And how can I learn to love? I cannot learn to love until the Spirit of God fills my heart with God’s love, and I begin to long for God’s love in a very different sense from which I have sought it so selfishly – as a comfort, a joy, a happiness, and a pleasure to myself. I will not learn it until I realize that ‘God is love,’ and to claim to receive it as an indwelling power for self-sacrifice. I will not love until I begin to see that my glory, my blessedness, is to be like God and like Christ, in giving up everything in myself for my fellow-men.”

God is love. He is the origin our love. We love because he first loved us. He demonstrates his love to us, transforms our hearts, and enables us to love him and love others.

Christians know we are to love God and to love others. We know love is the fruit of the Spirit. We know we should possess and radiate love. But, as Murray states, we often pursue love first and foremost for selfish reasons, such as personal comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure. The problem isn’t seeking joy or comfort for ourselves; the problem is when we place the priority on ourselves above God.

The call of the Christian life is self-sacrifice. We are to give up our cravings for our glory and instead seek, above all else, the glory of Christ. We are to seek him, know him, depend on him, and live for him. It is in this type of life that true comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure come. The giving up of the self-life and the living of the Christ-life leads to amazing joy.

This doesn’t come naturally to man. We need to love of God to transform us – our hearts, our minds, our motivations, our goals. We need God to regenerate our hearts and we need him to continually fill us with fresh love for him and for others.

Let’s pray today for greater love from God, a giving up of the self-life, and a increasing desire and ability to live all of life for God’s glory.

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Georgia on Our Minds

On June 20th my family & I moved to Georgia. God called us to leave Maryland and move to St. Simons Island, Georgia to serve at The Whitefield School (TWS), which is a small, independent Christian school that serves families of the Golden Isles of GA.

Anyone who has moved knows the challenges of the task. Moving a family of five 700 miles is a new experience for me. God has been faithful in leading us for many months, but we do miss dear friends from home and familiar streets and parks. (We look forward to two different families visiting from MD in the next three weeks.)

On July 1st, I started working at TWS. After getting my office set up and my “stuff” moved in, I’ve been assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the school, developing a plan of action for the coming months, and getting ready for the new school year.

It has been a joy to get to know many individuals who have been faithfully serving the Lord for many years at TWS. Christ described those who serve others as the greatest in his kingdom. These are the types of heroes I have been meeting. I look forward to seeing the many treasures in heaven they will receive as they make a difference for Christ and his kingdom at TWS.

Please pray that we will quickly settle into our new life on St. Simons Island, develop close friendships, and get connected in our new church.

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Desiring Change

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a Christian classic. Every page inspires and challenges me.

In book 3, chapter 5 Lewis writes about sexual morality. He covers many principles that apply to morality in general. Here are three good quotes from the chapter.

“Before we can be cured we must want to be cured. Those who really wish for help will get it; but for many modern people even the wish is difficult. It is easy to think that we want something when we do not really want it.”

Have you ever prayed to God asking for him to change you, but really there is a side of you that still desires the sin? Examples: relief from conflict with a sibling, but still possess hatred towards him or her; lose weight, but still indulging in certain treats; overcoming lust, but still harboring lustful desires.

We need to truly want to change at the heart level. When we look to God to help us change at this level, we will experience real change.

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God firsts helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue may be this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments. And, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.”

It is easy to see how God helps us to change in a particular area. We ask him to help us stop being angry and start being patient, or we plead with him to help us resist pride and practice humility. We can often overlook the significant grace God shows us in forgiving us when we sin and enabling us to begin anew in the battle against our flesh. We have the Holy Spirit helping us, guiding us, and giving us strength to continue on even after we fail.

“That is way a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.”

It is possible to attend church regularly and not be a Christian. The danger is that most individuals in this situation think they are Christians. Attending church, reading the Bible, and having Christian friends gives some a false confidence that they are Christians. Having knowledge of God and the things of God, but not having a personal faith in Jesus Christ is extremely dangerous. In many ways it would be better to not be involved in the church at all. But, as Lewis states, it is better to be neither.

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Unbelief

In Mark chapter 6, Jesus traveled to his hometown of Nazareth. There the people saw him as the person who grew up among them, and they rejected him as the Messiah. Verses 5 and 6 summarize his time there, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.”

When I read this passage, I feel a deep sense of sadness. Nazareth had among them the Lord of the universe, the Savior of the world, and the Messiah they longed for, but they never even knew it. A little boy grew up in their town, matured into a man, and began to work wonders throughout the nation. Then, when he returned home, they did not believe he was the Christ, the Messiah.

The section closes with Jesus marveling at their unbelief. That is, Jesus saw their clear lack of faith in him and who he was.

We can look down on the people of Nazareth and how they missed it completely, but the reality is we are very much like them. In our everyday living we can demonstrate the same unbelief. When we get a low test grade, we can doubt God’s faithfulness. When we have an extremely busy week ahead of us, we can question God’s ability to help us accomplish all we need to do. When we suffer physical trials, we can complain to God. When all is well and we are prospering, we can think we are successful and forget God controls all.

I suspect God looks down and marvels at our unbelief too.

Are there any areas of your life where you tend to struggle in your faith in God and your confidence in him? Confess this to God, and ask him to strengthen your faith in him. Repent of placing your confidence in yourself, your gifts, and your wisdom and lean on him. Turn from trusting others and begin to trust God as he works through others.

Let’s learn from the mistakes of the people of Nazareth, apply this lesson to our lives today, and believe in Christ for salvation and for strength in our Christian walk.

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Communication (Ephesians 4:29-32)

What characteristics or qualities should mark a Christian’s communication? How does God want us to talk to our friends? How does Jesus Christ want us to listen to and speak to our parents and siblings? What should the Facebook posts, Instagram posts, text messages, and e-mails of a Christian look like?

Communication is essential for life. Every day we are interacting with others, listening to their thoughts and sharing our own. Like any other aspect of our lives, we need to consider how God would want us to act and the direction he has given us through his Word.

We need the same desire as the Psalmist describes in Psalm 119:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Ephesians 4:29-32 describes both what our communication should avoid as well as what it should include. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear…Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

How does your communication measure up to God’s Word?

Because of our natural sinful hearts, communication is particularly difficult. Laziness can result in not asking good questions or just giving short answers. Selfishness can lead to talking only with our closest friends and not reaching out to others. Arrogance can prompt us to talk a lot about ourselves and our accomplishments.

This is because “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” which Jesus taught in Matthew 12:34.

When we understand that our hearts drive our communication, we will seek to develop heart attitudes that lead to God-honoring communication. We need to pursue love, patience, humility, gentleness, honesty, serving others, and many more.

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Likes & Dislikes

“Never, never let it be forgotten, that our tastes on earth are a sure evidence of the state of our hearts and the state of our hearts here is a sure indication of our position hereafter. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. He that hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven while he only loves the gathering of sinners on earth is deceiving himself.” J.C. Ryle in Practical Religion

Our likes and dislikes reveal something about us. Our longings show what we value. Our passions demonstrate what we consider important. The music we enjoy reveals something about us. The time we give to sports demonstrates how we value it. Our efforts in school show how much we consider the importance of education. Our closest friendships express what we want to be like. Our likes and dislikes reveal the values of our hearts.

The same is true in specific spiritual disciplines. Our likes and dislikes regarding worship, Bible reading, prayer, church, and youth group reveal the state of our hearts. Genuine Christians should love God and enjoy things that help them learn more about him and live more effectively for him.

Our dislikes say a lot about us too. Christians should dislike the sin they see in their lives, take it seriously, repent, and seek to change. They should dislike unwholesome language, which is so common these days. They should dislike worldliness in music, movies, television shows, Internet sites, and friendships. Our dislikes reveal the true state of our hearts.

What do your likes and dislikes say about you? Do you like things that God likes? Do you dislike things that God dislikes?

If you are like me, your answer is probably both, but I want to like and hate the things God does. I want to grow in godliness and lessen in worldliness.

Take a minute to think of one area you would like to grow in your love for. Now think of one thing you need to dislike more. Pray that God will help you change; he is eager to answer this prayer.

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Our God is Real

I Kings 18 records one of my favorite Old Testament stories.

Ahab is king over Israel, and he is evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshiping the Canaanite god Baal. God’s prophet is Elijah, who Ahab despises. A famine has come to the land, and Elijah is the mouthpiece of God, communicating God’s anger towards the sin of Ahab and Israel.

Then Elijah issues a challenge to the priests of Baal. He challenges them to a competition in which they and Elijah would make separate altars, place a slaughtered bulls on each altar, and call to their god/God to light it. They would do this in front of many of the people of Israel.

The drama begins as the priest of Baal, all 450 of them, build their altar, gather the wood, chop up their bull, and place them on their altar. They then spend all morning crying out to Baal to light the wood and take their offering. Nothing happens. They continue. Nothing happens. They begin to cut themselves. Nothing happens.

Then Elijah builds his alter to God. He slaughters his bull and placed it on the altar. He then has his assistants pour four buckets of water onto the wood and bull. And then he calls on the name of the living God, asking him to demonstrate his power and reality and bring fire to the altar. God responds with amazing power, sending fire and consuming the offering.

The people respond in faith in the one and only God. They know he is real and Baal is not. They follow Elijah’s command to seize the 450 priests of Baal, and they kill them all.

There is a lesson in this for us today: God is real, powerful, and desires our worship and devotion, and all other gods are false, without life or power.

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