Am I a Doer or a Hearer?
James 1:22-25 (ESV)
22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
This scripture has been bouncing around in my mind for the past few days. I came across it while doing a devotional reading the other day and I have been thinking about it since. Am I a Doer, do I live out God’s Word? Or, am I more of a Hearer, someone who hears God’s Word then continues on living my life as I always have? These questions are magnified as I am reading through two different books that both challenge how we (I) are living out our faith. David Platt’s Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
Last night we had a Bible study that was talking about chapter 4 in Crazy Love entitled Profile of the Lukewarm. The video we watched to start things off was powerful and asked a tough question. How many of the people who walk through your churches doors each week will you actually see in heaven? This question stands out even more with the release of Rob Bell’s new book that many are probably correctly labeling as having a Universalist prospective.
But with James 1:22-25 rattling in my mind my thought is how well am I living out my faith. Or put another way, if you asked the people who know me how they know I am a Christian would it be because of how I lived, or because I said I was.
Over this past week I have been wondering what I should do about the disasters that hit Japan. I have always wanted to visit the country. I have a love for their culture including their animation, but what can I do? I have been praying for them, as much of the world has, but I want to do more. Is it enough to send some money, should I try to find an aid organization that I could go with to help out first hand, would that make more of a difference, or would the money be better spent by sending it to a known organization like World Vision?
What is Ash Wednesday
According to Wikipedia Ashe Wednesday is
Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. An ancient example of one expressing one’s penitence is found in Job 42:3-6.
And just to show Wikipedia is right on the money here is what Catholic.org had to say
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.
I was interested because, I never really understood why we put ashes on our foreheads. Growing up I had them put on me because it was what I was told to do. Then when moved and changed denominations and I don’t remember having ashes put on my head anymore. The church I currently attend does not have an Ash Wednesday service, so with everyone celebrating it I was interested in why it is done.
As I read through the purpose of Ashe Wednesday I find it interesting that the main idea is one of repentance and humility. I wonder how many of the people who go to a service today and then walk the streets with the ashes on their forehead are doing it for that reason, and how many are doing it because of tradition(the “It’s what I’ve always done”).
Do you celebrate Ash Wednesday with a church service/mass? Do you celebrate Lent by forsaking luxury or giving something up? Or, do you have other ways of fostering repentance and humility in your walk with Christ?
Do I follow an imaginary Jesus?
I recently had a friend recommend the book Imaginary Jesus
Just bought a book called "Imaginary Jesus" It might sound sacrilegious…but it’s an AMAZING look at how we make Jesus out to be what we want, and don’t look at who He REALLY is…oh, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Seriously…look it up. It was free for Kindle!
If you know me you can see why I was intrigued, if you don lets just say when I was younger my teachers compared me to Curious George. I am about a quarter of the way through the book and am loving it. The book is very well written, and the characters are very entertaining. However, the book has a very important message to go along with all of it’s humor. I recommend that you read it, and if you have a Kindle or will read it on your computer or Smartphone using the Kindle software its free, so why not check it out.
Fear of The Unknown
Another excellent title for this post is “But I like my life how it is”
God has been doing a lot of great things in my life recently. I was given an opportunity to have a long term subbing job for a 5th grade class for two and a half months. I have recently been blessed by being given the opportunity to go from serving God by volunteering on our worship production team to leading and organizing the volunteers for the worship production team. God has blessed my finances as I worked and prayed to get out of debt to be better able to serve Him. And he is starting to open my eyes to the need for more spiritual growth and discipleship from me.
This all sounds great, why would I be writing of a fear of the unknown? It all has to do with a book, well two books, and a stirring in my soul. The books are The book of Acts in the Bible, and Radical
First, from the outset you need to commit to believe whatever Jesus says. As a Christian, it would be a grave mistake to come to Jesus and say, Let me hear what you have to say, and then Ill decide whether or not I like it. If you approach Jesus this way, you will never truly hear what he has to say. You have to say yes to the words of Jesus before you even hear them.
Then second, you need to commit to obey what you have heard. The gospel does not prompt you to mere reflection; the gospel requires a response. In the process of hearing Jesus, you are compelled to take an honest look at your life, your family, and your church and not just ask, What is he saying? but also ask, What shall I do?
If I read the book while subscribing to these two preconditions, what might I have to do, what might I have to give up? I know God has given me so much, so I should not fear what he might ask of me, but I am afraid. I plan to go start reading chapter two in Radical shortly after writing this. While I am afraid, I am also excited for what changes God has in store for me, and where my desire to lean in and grow closer to God and the Holy Spirit shall take me.
Am I Unproductive?
Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others; then they will not be unproductive.
~ Titus 3:14, NLT
This verse was perfect for today. This was the verse I found in my e-mail inbox when I first woke up today from K-Love. It has set my mind racing again because of a book I began to read last night.
I was at a thank you party for some church volunteers last night, and after most of the guests had left there were a few of us left chatting in a small circle. One of the members of the group asked us all if we had read Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
Now, I have only read the first chapter of Radical, but it hit me hard. I plan to be writing reflections on it as I continue to read. It has really got me thinking about if I take what the Bible, and Jesus in particular, says and apply it in my life. Or do I rationalize what I am told away and think through it and decide that what it really means is different so I am ok? I am both excited and afraid to continue reading this book, maybe you will join me in reading it, and we can have some interesting discussions about what we read.
Lesson from Luke
Tonight I was reading some from the Bible when my yearly reading plan lead me to Luke 10. Before I began reading I asked God to open my heart and allow me to grasp something new, to have a fire kindled into flame as I read the passages. While I ask this often enough, I find myself struggling more often than not to believe that something will happen. As I was reading the first moment of my dialog with God started when I read:
Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
(Luke 10:9)
Not a big verse, nothing too unusual about it, right? Yes, that is absolutely true, except I was imagining myself taking Christ’s charge for myself and following through with it. I could see myself packing my favorite bag with my toiletries, my Bible, a journal and not much else. But, when it came time to heal the sick, I didn’t know what to imagine. In one image that flashed in my mind I was laying hands on a hurt child and praying. In the next image, I wasn’t praying but wrapping a wound with gauze. I began to think about it, and how healing was often accomplished through prayer and miracle, until we got too smart for God and turned to our own knowledge for healing, and that is what my mind defaults too. I also thought of videos I have seen of people going into an amusement park and praying for healing for people, and my skeptical mind looks at what happens as I doo the latest David Blaine special where I look to see how it was done, to figure out the “magic”. At this point I feel god helped me a bit with this hang up I have had for a while because in my mind I heard the thought “How is it you can read of Christ’s miracles and accept it, believe that he gave his disciples the power to cast out demons and heal others, but when it comes to people in this day and age doing the same thing you cannot believe it could be God?” (I think this is what it was, it is the right idea if nothing else, but I cannot think of the exact phrasing). With that simple thought, I wanted to be praying for the healing of the child, not just wrapping the wound in gauze, I wanted to be praying over my uncle’s cancer, but more importantly praying with him about Christ, and how he died to save us from our sins. So, I have this revelation then continue reading and come to this:
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
(Luke 10:18-20)
I am claiming these verses, and will be memorizing them and writing them on my heart. Satan shall fall. Christ has empowered us and nothing shall hurt us. The spirits are subject to us. But all of this means so little when compared to the FACT that God has saved my soul, my name is written in heaven!
Thank you God, I can not earn this no matter how long or hard i try, I will never make myself worthy of what you are giving me. Thank You!
Now I am off to finish my reading, I got so excited I had to stop and write this 🙂
Matthew 5:37 – Plain Speech
This week, my study has lead me to do things a little differently. Instead of reading through a section of scripture, I have been wrestling with a single verse. The concept really stood out as I was going through “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster. In the book chapter 6 deals with the discipline of simplicity, and Foster’s eighth guiding principle for simplicity is to “obey Jesus’ instruction about plain, honest speech.” He references Matthew 5:37 and continues to explain how plain honest speech is uncommon in this day and age because we often fear what others think, and want the freedom that modern speech allows to change our “yes” for a “no”, or vice-versa. This got me thinking, ALOT. This whole chapter in Foster’s book was difficult for me to read at time, and I plan to write more on that at a later date, but this section stuck out because I have grown up with a tendency to embellish the truth.
I do not know when it started, or how it got out of control for me, but far too often I want to add to my story, or to a story I am telling to make me sound better, look cooler, be more important, or to seem to relate better to others. I say that I want to do this because the majority of the time that is all it is a thought. Those times where I do not keep myself from speaking out can be very difficult for me. I feel like a failure for speaking them, and then I worry about “what if they find out?” To overcome my desire to speak these half-truths, or embellished personal histories I am setting in place a single rule that will help keep me in check (I had to edit this because the first time I wrote this I wanted to write it as if I already did this). “If I tell someone something that did not happen, I need to apologies to them, and explain what I did, made something up, lied(embellish the truth or whatever other nicer label you want to put on it), and then I have to continue to talk to the person and honestly answer any questions they have. For the record, this is extremely embarrassing to think about having to do, let alone actually doing it. I think this rule will keep me better in check, if I am honest enough with myself and with those I talk with to do this.
I know some people will ask me why I am doing this, the best answer I can give you is that God has called me to let my “yes” be “yes” and my “no” be “no”, and I cannot do that if anything in between is a lie or fabrication. Also, I can be very frank and open about my thoughts and feelings with some friends, and I am happy to say that I have added the least amount in my conversations with them, but I need to be more open and honest with myself about what I am doing and why.
I have some friends who might read this post and wonder what I have told them is true and what is not. All I can say is that I promise nothing major I have told you is fabricated, and if I discover through talking with you that I have misinformed you about something I will let you know. You are people that are closer friends, and I am sorry for any hardship this might cause.
I know that I have some people in my life that may or may not read this post that will not care at all if I added details, or made myself look better when talking with them about life, they do it themselves, because "everyone does it". They will not care, and I am not worried about going back to right anything I have misinformed them about, but with God’s help and strength I will not do that in the future.
To those who are closest to me, or who I hope will eventually be very close to me, to you I want to right all miscommunications. They are not your fault, they are mine, mostly due to my own insecurity and desire to be “cooler” to you. From here out I have to ask a favor of you, help keep me honest. I plan to come clean with you, but it scares me and the idea of admitting I made up an event or conversation makes me queasy. I want to die of embarrassment that I would make up a stupid story when my life is full of so many great stories inspired and orchestrated by God.
That is the last part, realizing that by adding these details, and these fictitious encounters to my life’s history I am saying to God that I don’t think you have given me enough, you haven’t made my life interesting enough. That is not the case at all, but that is what I feel that I am doing. I do not know if this post will ever see the light of day, it very well may not, the idea of posting this and making it public scares me and makes me worry about having to be good on my vow to tell the truth or come clean.
P.S. I sit here over 24 hours since I originally wrote this post, while part of me doesn’t want to post this because I will have to answer questions about it,a far greater part of me realizes that I need to post this to be asked the tough questions. So, I have decided to post this and deal with the aftermath as it comes.
A Thought on Numbers
While reading in Numbers this morning I came to Numbers 9:15-23. This is where the Bible talks about the cloud that is the presence of God that was above the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting.
God’s word tells us that the cloud would hover above the Tabernacle and when it stayed there the Israelites stayed camping in the same place. But, when the cloud lifted the people would pack up camp and march out following the presence of God.
The Israelites were literally following God in the wilderness, they knew if they were where God wanted them by following a cloud. How, I wish and long for God’s presence, His cloud to guide me through life. I wonder how life would be different if I had a visible cloud to follow through life.
I know that God’s Holy Spirit lives in me, that it gives me wisdom and guidance. I know that the Holy Spirit guides me and prompts me throughout the day. But come on, a visible cloud top follow would be so much easier, so much simpler, wouldn’t it? I don’t really know if it would, the Israelites rebelled and wandered for 40 years in the desert, so maybe not.
1 Peter 3:8-17
I found reading and studying a single chunk of the Bible like this to be a lot more difficult than I expected. Did I read through 1 Peter 3:8-22 multiple times, in different translations? Yes. Did I read through it every day? No. I found it difficult to make the time daily to read through and study this after work. In the morning I was consistent with my daily reading plan, but to set apart time to really dg into God’s Word , I was at best inconsistent. However, I did get some good study in during the days that I did read this section of scripture. But, I realize I need to be more purposeful about this study. Because of this I am starting to read through How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
Peter opens this section encouraging the believers to come together and be of one mind, through sympathy, love for each other, and a humble spirit. I can relate well to this section because of past experiences with my close friend Joe. Joe is an amazing Catholic youth pastor. Joe and I went to high school and Boy Scouts together, and we grew to be good friends. However, we would frequently “discuss” the differences in our faiths and some of these became rather heated at times, admittedly this was my fault many times. Now, as we both matured these arguments have subsided. I can not speak for Joe, but I know a big part for me was growing spiritually and realizing I needed to celebrate our common faith, what C.S. Lewis calls Meer Christianity, and to not focus on those insular beliefs that caused strife.
Peter then speaks to the believers and instructs them not to be hateful and insult people just because they are hateful and insult you. He goes so far as to call on us as believers to BLESS the people who are hateful and insult us. I know I need the Holy Spirit to do more work in me because my first reaction to this is to throw up my hands and say “What, you want me to bless the jerks who are hateful and insult me?” I continued to read through this, and consider this teaching in context of Jesus, his life and ministry. Jesus often did this, and one of the best examples I can think of is as he is being taken to the high priests house. Judas betrays Jesus, and the high priests thugs move in to capture Jesus. The gospel of John tells us that it was Simon Peter, the author of 1 Peter who took out his sword and cut off the ear of one of those who came to capture Jesus. Then in Luke we see Christ bless one who came to capture him and lead him to his death.
Luke 22:51 But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him.
Jesus knew he was being led away to be killed, he knew that he would be abused and tortured by these men and the Roman guards to come. Yet, he sees a moment to reach out and bless one of his captors, and he dose it, by healing their ear that was cut off by one of his followers. I know that goes against our culture today, and I have to imagine that it went against the norm even back in Jesus’ day. This challenges me, and makes me thoughtfully examine how I treat those who are hateful and insult me. How do you respond when insulted?
Peter moves on to say not only should we bless those people who insult and hate us, but if we want to love life, and be happy we need to stop saying cruel things and quit telling lies. I have a lot to say on this one, but for now I want to remind you
Eph 4:29 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.
for a list of other scripture verses regarding our tongue look here.
When reading verse 14 all I can think of right now was a previous series we did at North Way called Fearless. Verse 14 calls out to me and challenges me to be fearless. "Peter tells us not to worry about what people might do, and to stop being afraid, do good things to glorify God regardless. For me this is a call to not be ashamed as well. I should not be hesitant to proclaim that I do not believe in sex before marriage, and because of that I will not have sex before my wedding night. I should not be ashamed to stand up for my faith, or explain why I am not swearing, or staring at women in skimpy outfits. I need to be proud of what sets me apart in Christ, but it is essential I remember what comes next in verse 15, I need to do this with gentleness and respect.
There are entire books written about Peter’s instructions in verse 15. The importance of verse 15 is so great that they have created an intelligent sounding word for it, verse 15 is about apologetics. As Christians, we each need to honor God by making Him Lord of our life, and always being prepared to give an answer to those people we know or meet who wants to know about our hope and faith. Peter warns us to do this with gentleness and respect (ESV), or meekness and fear (KJV and LIT). I have talked to people who have been turned off from Christianity because of people trying to shove their religion down someone’s throat, or by holding non believers to standards set for Christians. Christ calls us over and over again to love others, and to gently and lovingly share our faith with those we live, work, and relate with. Another important aspect of this is to keep yourself above reproach. If you do this when people falsely accuse you or slander your character you can stand back and let God defend you
Tedward's Ramblings 