Can You Run Away From God? - Jonah 1

 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil^[a] has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Who was Jonah? The Bible never calls him a preacher, priest or prophet. He was a believer, certainly, but if he was anything more, the Bible is silent about it. But he was called to be a prophet to Nineveh. 

Anyone can be a prophet. A prophet can be someone who speaks to a nation or city, or it can be someone who speaks to a friend, a relative, or a stranger. Anytime we are saying what God wants us to say, then we are being a prophet. If God calls us, we have to speak.

But what if we don’t speak?  Suppose that God tells us to speak and we ignore it?  What does God do?

Jonah’s story isn’t about a whale. It’s about a man who was called to speak, and tried to ignore it. It’s really about all of us who are called to speak for God and who keeps their mouth shut.

Jonah tried not to speak. Jonah must have struggled with that calling for a long time. The Word of God troubled him at night, and haunted his mind in the daytime. It wouldn’t go away. Finally, Jonah couldn’t stand it anymore so he ran.

Jonah thought that if he left God’s people he wouldn’t have to listen to God anymore. If he ran from Israel, then God would leave him alone. People are doing the same thing every day. We live in a day of great immorality which is the real reason people are leaving the church. They run from the church because they are running from God. 

But even if we run, God is with us. We can’t run far enough or fast enough to avoid His calling on our lives.

The Bible does not tell us why Jonah ran, but we know enough to guess at some of it. Why does anyone run rom God?  The same reasons Jonah ran are the same as why we run from doing God’s will.

 

God called Jonah to go to preach to Nineveh.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. In the Seventh Century B.C it was the largest city in the world. It was located in Iraq, across the river from the modern city of Mosul--the last stronghold of ISIS.  For Jonah, being called to Nineveh was not much different from you or I being called to Mosul to preach. It seemed like suicide, just as preaching in Mosul would be today. 

Jonah ran out of fear. The Ninevites were known for their cruelty. They literally dissected whole countries. They broke up families and tribes and scattered their members throughout their kingdom. Anyone who resisted was murdered. No one was safe if you stood in the way of Nineveh. As far as Jonah was concerned, this was to him a suicide mission. He was afraid to say anything.

Jonah ran out of anger. The Ninevites had already attacked the northern kingdom of Israel. The “ten lost tribes” were destroyed by the Ninevites. These were Jonah’s people. He had every reason to be angry with them. Later in the book it is revealed that his anger was so strong that he actually wanted the whole nation to go to hell. Why should he preach to people he did not want to be saved?

Put yourself in Jonah’s sandals. A foreign country destroys America, and takes away your wife, children, family and friends. Then God calls you to go and minister to those people. Would you do it? 

Sometimes God calls us to that very thing.  Even so, we find ourselves resisting.

Jonah ran because he was looking for peace.  How did Jonah afford a ticket to Tarshish? Most people couldn’t. He must have been at least middle class if he could afford a ticket to a foreign country. Tarshish was a popular and prosperous town—a tourist destination for the Israelites. The Phoenicians were among the richest traders of the ancient world.

Eugene Peterson in his book, Under the Upredictable Vine compared Tarshish to every preacher’s ideal ministry. Preaching in Tarshish would be like being a part-time preacher to millionaires in Hawaii.  Preachers get itchy for a new, exciting ministry in places where it is easy.

Laypeople get the same itch. They see big churches where people can sit back and do nothing, but still find all the help they want, where everyone gets along, and where they can be involved just as much as they want to. Some churches are easy. But God doesn’t call us all to easy ministry. We are called to hardship, suffering, sacrifice, and even dangerous places. Don’t think if you are doing God’s will things will go well. Sometimes you do God’s will and you still go through hell!  Jesus did God’s will perfectly, and they crucified Him. Paul counts suffering for Christ a privilege. Jonah would have much preferred a cushy life in Tarshish to a short life in Nineveh. But those God trusts the most are called to war. Those who are the most faithful serve in hard places, not the easy ones.

Jonah ran out of insecurity. Maybe we believe in God, but do we believe in ourselves? Who will listen to us?  Many of us trust God, but do not believe God can speak through us. 

We know ourselves too well. We live in doubt and fear, because we cannot believe that God can use us. We cannot feel God’s love and protection, so we feel insecure in serving Him. 

But God loves us and calls us, warts and all. He expects us to fail, He counts on us to fail so we can succeed. What makes Jonah’s story so significant is not that he succeeded at Nineveh, but it was how God overcame his fleshly fear to get him there. No one ever talks about Nineveh but about how he was so disobedient that God had to create a great beast to fetch him!

Jonah ran for at least some of these reasons. But he had a problem. You can’t run from God.

Sometimes God allows us to escape. Other times God does not. God allows us free will, but He loves us too much to let us escape His love. God interferes with our plans when He really shows His mercy. Only then do we know the severe mercy of God. 

He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

⁴ But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶ So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

⁷ And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹ And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Jonah could not escape the presence of the Lord. But he made three serious miscalculations.

He underestimated the reach of God.  He thought that God only existed inside the “religious” world of Israel. But God is the God of all the earth, not just a part.

He underestimated the power of God. He thought that a ship which depended solely upon the winds and the currents and the waves could go against the will of God, who made the winds and the currents and the waves. We can never build ourselves up enough to resist the power of God who made the heavens and the earth.

He underestimated the witness of God. He thought that the sailors on the ship had nothing to do with God. But most men will call on God when they are faced with a life-and-death situation. Its one thing to live your lives without God, but few will face death without calling to Him. The knowledge of God is even in people who do not think they believe. If he had realized who God was, he might not have run. 

Whenever we refuse to speak about God, we assume that people will not listen to Him. But people are hungrier for God than we think. When the Power of God is with us, people listen. 

¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹² He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

¹³ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard^[b] to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴ Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

^17 [c] And the Lord appointed^[d] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The sailors threw him overboard, and the seas calmed. That should have been the end of the story, but it is just the beginning. Jonah was broken seemingly beyond the chance of repair. God sent a fish to swallow him. 

Most of the time, when a shark or a whale swallows you, you’re dead. His killer became his lifeboat. What an act of mercy!

God does many similar acts of severe mercy.  We fail at one thing and succeed at something else. We stumble on the wrong path to start on the right one. We get fired from one job, to find another. We lose friends to find new ones. We are abandoned and divorced, but find new love. That mercy feels as hard as the jaws of a shark clamping over us. Yet we survive and find our way forward. 

The point of this story is not to argue whether can survive in a whale, but whether God ever gives up on us. Our connection with God is predicated on our obedience. But if we are disobedient, God will pursue us. He really loves us enough to interfere with our running, and to redirect us towards His perfect will. 

But why should we challenge Him? Why should we resist? Listen to God and obey him from the first. Maybe we won’t have to be swallowed by Jaws to find our way to Him. 

Parables of the Kingdom - Matthew 13: 31-52

Matthew 13 is a collection of eight parables. Today we will only deal with six of those eight.  These six parables are verses 31-52. Together they present a single message that our Lord wants us to hear about the “Kingdom of Heaven”.

The kingdom of heaven is wherever God rules. It is in our hearts, it is heaven, it is the church, but it is also coming here on earth. But for the sake of our discussion we will confine ourselves to the church as the visible representation of the kingdom of heaven on earth. These six parables are a message to us about how God works in the church.

What do they say about the church? Basically, it teaches us three lessons.  

First, He teaches that the church will grow.  Look at verses 31-33:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

These two parables are parallel. Both have something small that grows bigger. A mustard seed grows to the largest plant in the field. A bit of yeast leavens the whole lump of dough.

 That growth occurs effortlessly. Trees and yeast are living things. As long as they are alive they are growing. Numerical and spiritual growth come because we are alive in Christ. A seed, giving the right conditions will germinate. Yeast given the right conditions to sustain its life will multiply. God made them to grow. A church planted in the midst of the world, watered by the Word and Spirit will accomplish the will of the Father in spite of all obstacles.

The mustard seed grows into a big shrub and the birds come and nest in its branches. The birds are the lost and hurting people of the world, who are looking for some place to rest. It makes no difference to the tree whether it is big or little—birds will rest in it.

Whether a church is big or small makes no difference. Even the smallest church can grow, and can minister. We need to get our minds off the idea that we have to get bigger to be better. Instead, we need to focus our attention on being the most faithful to God that we can be where God planted us. The more active the yeast, the quicker it grows. The more passionate we are about doing the will of the Father, and the more we concentrate on growing deeper spiritually ourselves, the more we will be able to increase numerically, and the more impact we will have on the rest of the world.

God desires for His church to grow. If we are following His will, then we cannot help but grow. It will occur naturally, if we live obediently in the Kingdom of God.

Second, if we want the church to grow, we have to make the sacrifice. Look at verses 44-46:

The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Again, Jesus uses two parallel parables—a treasure hidden in the field and a pearl of great price.  In both parallels, He uses these three words---“he sold everything.”  The man with the treasure in the field sold everything else for it. The merchant found the pearl, and sold everything for it, too. They sold everything because they knew the value of their investment. They knew that if they could buy the field or the pearl they would multiply many times over what they had. 

If the church is destined to grow, and God desires for the church to grow, then why are many churches, including ours, not growing?  The answer seems obvious--they won’t pay the price. There are too many ideas, possessions, and comforts that we will not sell, not even for the kingdom.

Suppose you have a heart condition. The doctor tells you to change your diet.  Your health becomes your pearl of great price. What is a cheeseburger when compared to your life? You give up the habits of a lifetime for the sake of your life.

What will we give up to grow God’s church?  We’ve starve the church by forsaking the tithe. We insist that everything stay the same, preferring our comfort to God’s work. We hold back our time and energy, then we wonder why a church doesn’t grow.

We have to take care of ourselves and our own, there is no disputing that. We have to remain strong so we can do more to help. But we must still acknowledge that God’s kingdom demands our sacrificial giving. If we only give when it’s comfortable or convenient, then it is not a sacrifice. 

Third, the church will grow, if we use all available means. Look at 47-52.

 "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 "Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.

 He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

Jesus compares the kingdom to net fishing, not line fishing. When you’re line fishing, you bait for particular kinds of fish. In net fishing you aren’t selective. You may separate good fish from junk fish later, but at first, you bring them all in. The secret of growing the church is to be inclusive and unparticular. 

Someone told D. L. Moody once that he didn’t like his way of evangelizing. Moody asked back what his preferred method of evangelism was. The man replied, “Sir, I do not do evangelize.”

Moody answered, “I like my way of doing it more than your way of not doing it.”

The church doesn’t exist only for saints. It exists for sinners. We are here on earth to change the world. We can’t say it isn’t our responsibility. As long as we are on this earth, we must use any available means to bring people into the kingdom.

 Dr. Manfred Gutzke was a seminary professor, evangelist and avid fisherman. He’d visit a friend’s private lake and take several fishing rods. He’d set some on the bottom with worms, others on the top with minnows, and some in the middle with crickets. When one rod produced results, then he would set them the same way. His method of fishing was determined by the preference of the fish, not his own. The same was true of his method of evangelism.  If we are serious about doing God’s will, we must be flexible enough to do what is necessary to bring people to Christ. It may not be our preferred method of fishing, but if it produces results, then that is what we should do.

The second parable teaches the same message in a different way. When you live in a house for many years, you collect junk in your attic—pictures, lamps, etc. You may not think of them, until you move into a new house. You may go out and shop for new stuff for the house. You also rummage through the stuff you have in the attic. Some of the junk you stored in the past now works, when it didn’t before.

When we look at the methods for building a church it’s the same. There is no real difference between old and new methods. The important thing is that our methods bring results. If we get stuck on saying that ideas are better because they are new or because they are old, then we will miss the point. Methods must fit the situation. If we are sold out to the kingdom, then we must be flexible.

Let me summarize:

The Kingdom of Heaven, that is the church, will naturally grow. It is God’s will.

The Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the church, will grow if we are willing to make a sacrifice. It is the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price. If we hold back even part of what we own or have, then the church may not grow. 

The Kingdom of Heaven, that is the church, will grow, if we are willing to use any available means. If we hold on to methods and ideas simply because they sound innovative, or because they are traditional, then the church will not grow. If we are willing to truly serve God, and to do whatever it takes, then God will honor us by bringing growth.

First of all, we must determine whether or not we are part of the Kingdom. Is Jesus your hidden treasure, your pearl of great price? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to worship Him? If you are, then become part of His visible kingdom on earth, where you can make a difference. 

Bringing Our Prayers into Focus - James 5: 13-10

 James 5: 13-18
Last week, we discussed three principles of prayer.
1. Prayer is not talking to God, but being with God.
2. Know Who we are talking to—recognize God’s power and goodness
3. Prayer requires full stop concentration.  Casual prayers are good, but prayer which focuses our entire being is what brings God’s power.

Let’s discuss prayer as focus. When I was a boy (about 1960) my father bought our first color television set. It seemed then like the ultimate in consumer technology. But when we first turned it on, it was a mess. It was like we had three pictures—one red, one yellow, and one green.
On the front of the TV, beside the volume and tuning were three more dials. These dials controlled the three projectors inside the picture tube that created all the colors. If they were aligned correctly, you had a nice color picture, but they were not, it was all fuzzy and weird--three different versions of the same picture. You had to fiddle with the buttons until they all lined up so you could have a color picture.

Prayer is something like that. Effective prayer requires having three images lined up correctly—our image of God, our image of ourselves, and our image of the person or situation we are praying for. If any of these images are off, then our prayers will become confused. But when they are lined up correctly, our prayers are powerful. When our picture of prayer aligns with God’s revelation of His will, then we may ask whatever we want. 1 John 5: 14-15 says, “ And this is the confidence that we have towards him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”  If the image of what we want, lines up with the image of what God is sending us, then we can have the answer.

The expression of God’s ideas is called “confession”. Confession literally means “to speak with” or to “agree.” Confession is when speaking in agreement with the mind of God. It is both believing and saying the truth. If we just believe it and are afraid to say it, then our confession loses power. But if we both believe and say the truth, then we have confessed it.

There is power in a confession. If you confess to a crime, you are going to jail. If you confess your love to a woman, then you had better get married. If you confess Christ in church, then you can join it. If you deny that confession later, then you will likely be put out of a church. If you confess to yourself that you cannot do something, then you likely won’t do it. But if you confess that it is possible for you to do something, then you have a chance for accomplishing it.
In prayer, confession takes two forms. First there is negative confession, which is to agree with God that we are a sinner, and have done things wrong. By confessing our sins, we admit we need help. Then there is positive confession, which is acknowledging God’s sufficiency and power to do what we cannot. Confessing our sinfulness is to get the right image of ourselves. Confessing His promises is to get the right image of God.

Confession of sin has always been (until recently) an important part of prayer and worship. It is usually done early on in our prayer time. We see this in the Word in 1 John 1: 8-9, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Confession of a sin is not required for forgiveness, but for cleansing. There is no requirement in the Bible that every sin we commit must be individually confessed before it is forgiven.  We have too many sins for that! God doesn’t expect total recall of everything we have done wrong before He grants forgiveness. The blood of Jesus covers all our sins, past present and future. But confession is necessary to overcome the power of sin over us. We cannot expect God to deliver us from an addiction or a bad habit unless we acknowledge that the sin exists.  You can’t break a smoking habit unless you admit smoking is hurting you, or break off an adulterous affair until you admit the affair is wrong. If you think you have not sinned, John says you have deceived yourself. As long as you are living in deception, sin has power over you. If you think you don’t need God’s help with a problem, then you will not get it.

In James 5, it doesn’t say just to confess your sins but to confess your faults as well. We may not be intentionally sinning when we deal with personality flaws, blind spots, and honest mistakes, but we should confess them anyway. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to acknowledge our faults and mistakes. A student who already thinks he knows everything is a poor student. A person who thinks they already have the answers is not going to seek God’s will. We must hold a true picture of our imperfections if we are to stay in focus with a perfect God.

When you come before God, come before Him with your hands in the air in an attitude of surrender. You can’t fool Him by looking innocent. You must acknowledge your faults to Him, with complete honesty and openness. Otherwise, the Devil will use our faults to undo the good we do. If we are lazy, then our good intentions will amount to nothing. If we are prideful and narcissistic, the Devil will use it to make us closed-minded and insensitive. If we are stubborn, then he will destroy us through unwillingness to change. Without an honest acknowledgement of our sins and faults, prayer becomes more about defending ourselves, and not about advancing the Kingdom.

James and John agree that we should confess our faults not only to God, but to one another. We really don’t like that part! Confessing sin in private is hard enough, but why would God ask us to confess to others?  No one can come to God in serious prayer without humility, and no one is humble who is not just honest with God, but before others. It isn’t necessary to confess to everyone, but there ought to be some Christian brother or sister with whom we can be completely honest, who can pronounce the forgiveness of sins over us in Christ’s name.

We confess the image of God by celebrating who He is, and what He can do for us. Positive confession is standing on the promises of God. Negative confession leaves us helpless, but positive confession restores our hope.

In order to confess God’s promises, we have to know them. That is why it’s almost impossible to pray without a Bible in our hands. God’s Word reminds us of Who He is, and what He has done.  
When we get the right picture of ourselves and God, then we bring the third part into focus, which is the object of our prayers. Now we are ready to pray for others. This is not as easy as it sounds.
One mistake people often make when learning how to pray is that we make long prayer lists and just read them to God. How can we pray fervent, effective prayers (as James tells us to do) for people and situations when have no burden or relationship with them? I have known true prayer warriors who did, who kept a long list of fervent needs, but these people prayed for hours, not minutes. They walked so closely with God and had such a love for others that everyone on their prayer list was a personal concern. Until we come to that place, it is better to pray for one or two people passionately than a long list of people casually.

To be effective in our prayer, we should also be specific. Elijah prayed for a drought and got it, then prayed for rain until it came. The elders of the early church prayed for the sick until they were healed.  These prayers produced tangible results, so that people could rejoice in Him. Don’t just pray for a person in general. Set objectives in prayer, and pray for them. If you don’t get what you prayed for, then ask God to show you why. If we don’t set goals in prayer, then we don’t know if we get results.
But how do we know what to pray for? If we confess our faults, we must recognize we don’t and we can’t. We don’t have solutions for all the world’s problems. There are many problems in people’s lives that we cannot know the answer to. But if we line our thoughts with God’s thoughts through reading the word and confession of that Word, then we ought to have some sense of what God wants for others. This is not always easy, but as we learn to see people from God’s perspective, we have a better idea of how to pray.

A rich, prosperous, and healthy life is something God’ wants for us, but it is not His main desire. He would rather see us poor, broken, and persecuted if it will lead us to inner peace and real spiritual strength. We may want to be healthy, wealthy, and famous, but first He wants us to be godly first. When God doesn’t do things our way, we get mad at Him for not listening to us. We really should be wondering why we are not listening to Him.

At first, we often pray for the wrong things.  But as we learn God’s will we can become clearer in our prayers for others. When our prayers line up with God’s will, then our prayers will have great power.
How clear is your focus?  As we come to rely more heavily on Christ, and listen to His voice in the Word and in prayer, we start to understand His will better. Then our prayers become the same as His will, and great things will happen. When we understand who we are in relationship to Him, then God can help us focus our attention on how to pray for others.

Are you a Mary or a Martha? - Luke 10: 28-42

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10: 38-42

The story of Mary and Martha isn’t liked much by most Christian workers I know. That’s because a lot of Christians think it’s unfair. 

Imagine the scene. Two single women suddenly have at least thirteen important guests show up at their door—Jesus and His disciples. Imagine what needs to be done! They have to clean house, prepare for dinner, make sleeping arrangements, decorate the house, cook meals—and tend to their every need!  All of this without any advanced warning that they were coming. It was a huge undertaking, and had to be entered into without warning. 

The two women are of very different temperament. Martha is the take-charge woman. Almost every man or woman in the church in a leadership capacity is a Martha. Some of them do it by necessity, others do it because they enjoy being in charge. Without Marthas the church would not survive. They are the ones who run everything.

But then Jesus arrives and while Martha is preoccupied with the arrangements for dinner, her sister Mary does nothing. Instead, she sits beside Jesus at his feet, and listens to Him. 

Martha sees Mary there, and loses her temper with Jesus, because Jesus won’t tell Mary that she should be helping with the arrangements. This is typical Martha behavior. When guests drop in the most important thing is how much food goes on the table, how clean the house is, and how comfortable the place looks. It’s how much effort you put into entertaining. Martha is convinced that serving Jesus is all about action. It’s about getting up and getting busy. Jesus ought to know that the most important thing in the world is how much we serve in the church.

One way to spot a Martha is to look at their attitude for worship. Marthas believe that worship is just a pep rally for the big game. Prayer is just talk--they want to get on with the real work. The Christian life is like a rescue mission, and prayer is just the radio where we get instructions. What’s really important is the mission, not the talk. That’s the way Marthas think.

They aren’t wrong. The work of the church is important. Spreading the Gospel, teaching the children, feeding the poor, fellowship, church maintenance, worship practice, sound systems, etc. are important and valuable things. 

But as Ecclesiastes says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to ever purpose under heaven.” Jesus really isn’t saying that Mary is better than Martha, for sitting at Jesus’ feet. Jesus is just saying at that moment, what Mary is doing is more important. He doesn’t love Mary more than Martha, as Martha seems to think, nor is He saying that Martha is bad. He is simply saying that Martha has got her priorities wrong at that moment. There is a time for cooking and cleaning, and there is a time for sitting and loving. Martha has been serving so long, she doesn’t know when to quit and just appreciate Jesus. 

Worship is work. Worship takes time—focused, concentrated time that cannot be given to anything else. Worship—both public and private—is not something that we should do in order that we can go do something else, even something good. It has value in itself, just as time spent with a sick friend or in the company of someone we love has value, simply because it does. It is a basic value which must not be consumed with concentration on “larger” tasks. It is a time for being in God’s presence, not a means for doing Godly things. There is a season for activity, and there is a season for listening and waiting. Wisdom lies in keeping the two separate, and in knowing when to be silent and when to get busy.  When we are in the season of work, we work. When we are in the season for worship, we worship with the same concentration we give to work.

How many times does Jesus actually come into your house? What if Jesus came to your house only one time in your life, and you were busy in the kitchen the whole time He was there? What if, instead of asking the important questions of life, you could only ask Him how he liked his steak cooked?  What if Jesus was talking and all you could see was that the floor underneath His feet needed vacuuming?  What a waste of an opportunity—to look at worldly things, when Jesus is right before you! 

I am convinced that when it comes to prayer, the biggest challenge we have is slowing down. That’s because we are mostly Marthas at heart. Our attention is naturally drawn to worldly things. We see what we are used to seeing in our busy lives. It requires great effort to learn to stop thinking about the world and to refocus our attention.

This process of refocusing is called meditation. The word meditate really means to pay attention or concentrate. Marthas finds meditation hard, because their minds are always busy. They can’t just be, because they are too busy doing. But meditation requires us to be still in the presence of Christ. They are too busy with the peripheral business of the church to have any real relationship with Christ. They are God’s servants, not His companions. Meditation calls us to drop what we are doing and just be with Jesus.  

The reason we become Marthas instead of Marys is that we are convinced that our tasks are more important than our relationship to Jesus. We think we are “special” so the words of Jesus to spend time at His feet don’t apply to us. We are convinced that the things we are doing are so important that we don’t have to obey the rules. We see ourselves like caterers at a party. Everyone else might be enjoying themselves, but that’s only because we are taking care of everything for them. We are the exceptions to the universal call to sit down and have a good time.  We think that our serving up munchies at the party is more important than the party itself, and that if we don’t do it no one will have a good time. When he says, “Come and dine,” he doesn’t mean us.

But that’s not what Jesus means. We are as important as everyone else. Jesus holds a dinner, and asks the servants and butlers to sit at the head table with Him. If the dinner plates don’t arrive in the correct order, who cares?  Jesus would gladly serve us, before he would allow us to be just servants.

Underneath this story is some great wisdom about prayer that we need to know. Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to be a “Mary” sometimes, instead of always being a “Martha.”    

1.       Prayer isn’t talking to God. Prayer is being with God.

Our biggest mistake in prayer is that we talk too much. It’s hard for God to get a word in edgewise. A good friend is a person who listens. An even better friend is one who does not expect us to say anything at all. Around such a friend we are free to be silent.

Think of prayer as being on a date with God.  Does it matter where you go, just Who you are with.  In prayer, we spend time in God’s presence so you can have a deeper relationship with Him.

2.       Prayers is knowing Who we are with.

We would not address a king casually. We should treat Him with great respect. If He says, “Sit with Me” then we sit. God is not our “good buddy in the sky” nor is He a stern and unforgiving judge. He is an all-powerful being who loves us and wants us to spend time with Him.

3.       Prayer requires “full stop” concentration.

I was in a hurry one day to get home. I turned right on a road at a “T” shaped intersection. To the left, a construction crew had shut down the street, so right was the only way to turn. As I hurried down the street, I saw the blue lights of a policeman in my rear view window. I had no idea what was wrong. 

“You didn’t stop at the stop sign.” He said.

I argued with him. There was no traffic coming from the other side. The stop sign wasn’t needed, since no one could be coming from the left. Besides, I slowed down to a “rolling stop”.  Surely that was all I needed to do!

“No,” the policemen said as he wrote out the ticket. “Full stop at a stop sign, even if it there is nothing coming. There is no such thing in the law as a ‘rolling stop.’”

We think that prayer will calm us. Often it doesn’t, because we aren’t really praying. Our minds haven’t come to a full stop. They are still worrying, planning and fuming about our problems. We can’t look at God and look at the world around us at the same time, not without some preparation. 

The Psalmist says, “I have composed and quieted my soul.” Another way of saying that is, “I’m at full stop.”  Being attentive and open to God requires that we stop listening to the voices around us. We stop so we can listen to the voice of the Spirit. 

When we worship in private or in public, put out of our minds the problems of the day and practice mindful concentration on Christ, His presence, and His love. Don’t rush to speak or to act, but set everything aside for God’s sake. We can do nothing about our worries when we are praying, and when we are worrying, we cannot think about God.  Meditation on God is the act of recognizing Who He is, and that His presence is among us. 

Revive us again! - Psalm 85: 4-6

Psalm 85

This week we began a month of prayer. Now some of you may wonder—why a month of prayer?  Why spend extra effort praying for one month? What do we hope to accomplish? Whenever prayer is suggested, there are always some people who think of it as waste of time. They believe we should be doing something more practical, like cleaning the church, knocking on doors, or advertising. But there is nothing more practical than prayer. Nothing is more essential to the growth and health of a church than a concerted effort in prayer. Without revival, the church perishes. Without the Spirit, there is no revival. Without prayer, and the right kind of prayer, the Spirit will not come, and all our efforts to build the church ultimately come to nothing.

The Psalmist prays, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? This implies three things to be true. (1) That at more than one time in the past, God has revived His people.  (2) That prayer for revival brings revival.  (3) That when revival comes, the church will rejoice in God.

The Holy Spirit does not manifest Himself in the church as a steady stream, but as a succession of waves, like breakers on the seashore. Sometimes the Holy Spirit seems powerful and strong. Other times, we can hardly feel Him. 

The strong times are when revival comes among God’s people. The church flourishes. These are times of great increase to the church, often accompanied by signs and wonders. But these times do not last forever. At other times the Spirit seems to barely move. These times are not outside of God’s plan, but are actually part of it. They are times of resting and organizing. These times are hard and discouraging, but they are as much of God’s plan as times of revival. But in time, when revival comes again and the church goes forward. This is the way it is, and the way it has always been.

There are seasons of the Spirit in the Old Testament. He was active in the time of Abraham and the Patriarch, but these days were followed by four hundred years of captivity. He was active in the time of Moses and Joshua, but then came the period of the Judges, when the Holy Spirit only showed sporadically. He was active in the days of King David and Solomon, but after that fell into division and apostasy. 

Jesus promised the Spirit would permanently dwell with us, and so He does. He came at Pentecost, and the church was literally on fire. Then persecution scattered it, and division weakened it. Even so, the church grew, as the Holy Spirit continued to bring awakenings and revivals in various places.

Throughout history, the power and presence of the Spirit was more or less noticeable, depending upon the season. When the Spirit was manifest, the church grew. When the Spirit dimmed, the church fell. The Spirit ebbs and flows. There were great Spiritual revivals in the Fifth, Tenth, Thirteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. But there the growth Islam, the folly of the Crusades and the inquisition, as well as wars between Christians quenched the Spirit, and the Spirit’s presence dimmed for a time.     

Officially, in America there were three Great Awakenings that were mighty waves of the Spirit— one at the end of the 17^th Century, one at the end of the 18^th Century, and one in the middle of the 19^th Century. Contrary to what some may think, America is not nor ever will it be a Christian nation. But within this nation, the Holy Spirit has moved mightily many times. This has given the American experience a uniquely Christian perspective that until very recently was part of our culture. That Christian influence is fading today, but another Great Awakening could bring it back in almost an instant.

These waves of the Spirit have struck much closer to home than we think. The ARP Church was built on revival. The activities of the Puritans in England were also a revival of the Holy Spirit, as were the preaching of the Erskines. That wave continued in America for many years, and led our Spiritual ancestors to settle this area. In 1803, Revival broke out at the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian church in Van Wyck.. More than two thousand people traveled weekly from all over this area to attend a little country church. This revival had a great effect, all denominations and people worshipped together as one. But by 1806, the revival had cooled, and factionalism prevailed. But our denomination was the product of a wave of the Holy Spirit.

The last half of the Twentieth Century saw several waves of the Holy Spirit in the 1950’s through the 1980’s. After World War II, churches were planted in large numbers. One of them was Rogers Memorial. By the 1960’s this wave of church planting had subsided, but a wave of renewal began--the charismatic. This move was (and still is) controversial, but there can be no doubt of its influence. In the 70’s and 80’s the Jesus movement grew out of the charismatic movement and thousands of idealistic young people found Christ and revolutionized the worship and music of the church. More importantly, they brought revival to youth across the country.  By the 1990’s that movement disappeared, but it left behind the megachurch movement and contemporary Christian music. The styles of worship we enjoy today are the direct result of those movements of the Spirit, and many of our modern church leaders were saved during that time of revival.  

Now, let’s look at this church. Rogers Memorial was the center of a move of the Holy Spirit in the period of 2001-2005, when the Pointe ministry was going strong. This church was instrumental in bringing hundreds of decisions for Christ. The size of the church more than doubled in that time. This was not the result of good planning, talented leadership or bold planning, but was a true move of the Spirit. The success of the Pointe and the power of the Pointe was not in how it was organized or the talent of the people involved. It was in the power of the Spirit, and how God used them. 

But like all movements of the Spirit, it was a wave, not a tide. Now in 2016, three quarters of those involved have left the church and gone elsewhere. Half left before 2009, and another half of those left before I began preaching here in 2012. Once it seemed that everything here was growing, now for four years we have struggled to survive.

It is human, I suppose, to seek to understand what may have happened from a human perspective.  Certainly there is enough blame to go around for everyone, just as there is credit to be given out for our successes. But when we do either, we miss the overall pattern, and we frankly offend God. God is in charge. He is the bringer of revival. The waves of the Spirit not a work of the flesh, but part of God’s appointed time.   

The revival you once experienced did not happen because of your efforts. It was a wave of the Spirit, and it crested and fell, like all waves. When a wave comes, we should enjoy it, but we should also not fool ourselves into thinking that we can hold the wave forever. When it comes, our sand castles crumble, and we must start again.

Is there any way of predicting when a wave of revival will come?  Predicting revival is like predicting earthquakes. We cannot know for sure, but we can observe the conditions that bring it. Revival comes when we are desperate for it. He doesn’t send revival when we are happy and content, or when everything is going our way. God sends revival when we are burned out, fed up, and tired. 

I have read that when a tsunami is coming, the first thing anyone on the shore notices is that the water begins to recede from the shore. The beach is exposed for hundreds of feet. People can sometimes be fooled by this into walking out father on the exposed shore line. Then when the giant wave appears, it drowns them. So it is with revival. Before revival comes dissatisfaction. People wonder—where did the Spirit go? Often, they start to blame each other. Little divisions get big as the Spirit seems to recede. The Devil seems to have a field day, planting doubt and discouragement in our hearts. Things seem to be falling apart.

This time of dissatisfaction is followed by a season of prayer, repentance, and confession, as people humble themselves before God. All our plans for self-revival have failed. The programs that once sustained us seems to have fallen apart. It’s time to quit trying to fix ourselves and to recognize we need God in our lives. 2 Chronicles 7: 14 says, “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.” There is no revival without sincere, honest repentance and humbling. 

The voice of pride says, “I know how to fix this!” The voice of humility says, “God, You have to fix this!” As long as we cling to the lie that we know what is best, the Spirit will not come. Only when we humble ourselves before God will He make things right. The leaders of the church must begin this by setting an example. 

That’s where we are today. We have been in a desert place for a long, long time. But there is a whiff in the air of water. It may be that another revival is coming. All my life I have prayed to be there when a great wave of the Spirit comes. We can do nothing to straighten out the church, but this one thing we can do--we can humble ourselves and pray.

There are those who argue again that we should be giving ourselves to advertising or programs, that we should be trying to adjust this or that, to clean up the church and rebuild old programs, and so we should. But that’s just building barrels to catch the rainwater when the floods come. We don’t need more barrels, we need rain. We don’t need the superficial work of people, but the mighty work of the Spirit.

This church has been blessed by revival in the past, and we need it again. But it doesn’t come from better music or bigger programs. It must be revived by the power of the Spirit. 

I ask you to join me this month in the one activity that can prepare the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit, joining together in prayer. Prayer works when it is from the heart and full of passion.  Prayer can bring revival.

In the church where I was ordained, there was an old farmer named John Creel. There was drought that lasted for several months. The church held a special prayer meeting for rain. John came, and brought his umbrella. When they left that prayer meeting, it was raining. Only John was prepared.

Let us prepare for revival today, by humbling ourselves and seeking the power of the Spirit. We need to pray for revival in our church and in our country.  Not only do we need to pray but we also should bring our umbrellas. Only by the grace of God can we receive. 

Exercises in Community - Philippians 2: 12-15

Once for a children’s sermon, I sprayed a bottle of perfume, explaining to the kids how the tiny particles of perfume covered the room. Christians are like those perfume drops, taking the fragrance of God out into the world. I then asked them what Christians are supposed to do.

They all answered “Smell!”

They were right. The most important thing Christians do is to smell like Jesus.

The New Testament uses different metaphors, but makes this point over and over. We are the salt of the earth--tasting like Jesus. We are the light of the world--shining like Jesus. We are the leaven in the dough—tiny things that cause a whole dough to rise. We are the stars shining in the dark sky. We are very small bits of righteousness, out among the sinner, changing everything.

A tiny speck of light can be seen light-years away across the heavens. The light of a single Christian can be seen in the darkest, most evil places. It isn’t our quantity that matters—it is our quality. It isn’t what we do that matters, it’s who we are that matters. 

Ever since the church was founded, this has been God’s plan for it, not to develop programs or to put out social propaganda, or to gain worldly power and force the world into obedience to God, but to be a community of influencers. Keeping a low profile in the media, but by our likeness to Jesus we go out and make the world better one person at a time. We aren’t an isolated society, we’re part of the community, but wherever we go in the world—in our homes, work, and businesses we are to witness for Jesus by acting, thinking, feeling, and being like Him.

Bill Hybels in Becoming a Contagious Christian offers this formula sharing the Gospel: 

High Potency + Close Proximity + Clear Communication = Maximum Impact on the world.

High Potency means Christians who really shine. They are connected to Jesus on a daily basis through studying the word, passionate worship with others, and daily devotional habits. If there’s no difference between the Christians and non-Christians, then it makes little difference whether we are present or not. 

Close Proximity means that we are out in the world, among the unbelievers and little-believers. If a Christian is not around non-Christians, then they will have little impact. Much of the way Christians behave in the church restricts their witness by focusing on the institutional church and Christian fellowship, rather than touching lives outside the church. We need the church, but if we stay in it too much, then we become a guarded subculture that is easily ignored by everyone on the outside.

If we are high potency Christians, then we don’t need to be afraid of worldly influence. We are constantly strengthened by the exercises of the Christian life and in touch with the Spirit of God, we are the influencers in the world, and we are not under the world’s influence. We are in the world, but not of the world. The church doesn’t need a lot of programs and propaganda to witness. We only need be Christian in the world, to merely be true to our true Christian nature.

Clear communication means making Christ clear in word and deed. We let everyone know how we are Christians, that we have been changed by the Gospel, and that they can be Christian, too.

I teach a course on evangelism in the seminary.  One question I always ask my students at the beginning of the class is to tell me in twenty-five words or less what a Christian is, and how a person can become a Christian. About half the time, my students cannot do it in twenty-five words or less. 

Bill Hybels did it in two words. While on vacation he and his wife made friends with a wealthy non-believer. The man invited them to go boating with them. Hybels prayed for an opportunity to bring up the Gospel to him, but the whole day he did not seem to be interested. Finally, as they were off the boat to go home, the man asked, “By the way, how does a person become a Christian, anyway?”

Hybels answered, “Let me put it this way—religion is spelled DO. Christianity is spelled DONE. It means that Jesus has already done all you need for you.”

I am a shy person. I do not find it easy to reach out to strangers, nor do I feel comfortable casually expressing my opinion. Sharing with strangers on the street is outside of my comfort zone. But then, so are all the other spiritual exercises. Prayer isn’t easy; neither is Bible study. Witnessing is the same. But it gets easier the more you do it. 

One thing that helps is to remember what witnessing is. Witnessing is not persuading people to be Christians. It is being a witness—telling people what we personally have seen and heard about Jesus. What they do with it is up to them. Evangelists are people who are gifted at persuasion and argumentation. Witnessing is just sharing from the heart. It is letting people know your story. A witness isn’t like Billy Graham standing in front of large crowds. It is more like the man mentioned in John 9 who was cured of blindness. When people asked him how it happened, he just said, “Once I was blind, now I see.”  He did not hide the miracle, nor did he hide that he met Jesus. He just told the truth. Witnessing whenever possible is telling the truth. It is pushing the “share” button on your story and letting people know who you really are. 

Witnessing is a spiritual exercise. It is intentionally choosing to communicate Jesus to the people around you. It is being publicly a Christian.

Most of what we know about Jesus are not his speeches, but his actions. His compassion is mostly how we know Him. His voluntary death on the cross for our sins is the ultimate act of love. His miracles, acts of healing, condemnation of hypocrisy, and expressions of compassion to others stand out most in the Gospel narratives. If it weren’t for the personal acts of Jesus, then no one would remember the words of Jesus.

The world Jesus lived in was far more unjust than ours. The gap between rich and poor was wider. There were far more homeless people. The life expectancy was around thirty-five. Infant mortality was above fifty percent. Any serious illness could lead to you being cast out of society. Women were treated as property. Most public buildings were built by slaves. Cities were wretched, dirty places. Even so Jesus did not speak out on these social injustices. Instead he reacted by being individually compassionate to the victims of injustice.

I grew up in mainline churches where we were taught that Christianity and socialism were basically the same thing. Our denominational leaders thought they had the answers for every social problem. I have since learned that the answers for the social problems are never simple. When we try to fix poverty, we are just as likely to make it worse. People and society are complicated, and require individual attention. 

So instead of starting a social movement to fix society, Jesus makes people who would shine like stars of compassion and concern. This army of compassionate people would care about people as individuals, not just social classes. They would not force their will on others, even in a good cause, but would be servants to the lowest people. 

These people would go everywhere—into politics, into entertainment, into social work, and into business. They will not all agree about how to fix problems—they would be found in all political parties. But they would try their best to live as Christians with all people.

Paul says that we should “work out our own salvation.” He’s not talking about salvation from hell, or eternal life. That was done for us by Jesus. He is talking about the living of that salvation in this world. It is salvation from a fruitless, pointless life. Neither Paul, nor anyone else can tell Christians exactly how to do that. It’s individual and personal to each person to shine in their own particular way.

As a pastor, I won’t tell you how to live out your faith in the world. I will only tell you to live it. I have no universal solutions for poverty, homelessness, or prejudice. I will tell you, though that God can help you be influential for His sake in the world around you. I won’t tell you who you should marry, or what you should do for a living, but I will tell you to be a Christian as you are doing your job. Your work is important to God and therefore it has value. Pray that you do it as Christ would have you do it.

As a pastor I won’t tell you how to vote, but I will tell you to vote. Voting and speaking out on social issues is part of what it means to be a Christian in public. Speak out on issues that matter to you, even if you think you might be wrong. Most Christians are too shy. Say what’s on your mind, and say it the way Jesus would say it.

As a pastor I won’t tell you where to volunteer in the community, but I do tell you to volunteer. Put feet to your compassion by helping poor, sick and homeless. God has given you only a little time in this world, so use it to make a difference. Make an example for your children. Do you want your children to learn that they and their immediate families are the only things that matter in life? Or do you want to demonstrate to them the importance of being salt and light for Christ’s sake. Get active. Get involved. It’s how we shine like stars in the world around us.

Don’t worry about whether you are good or bad at it, just do it. A recent movie Florence Foster Jenkins told the true story of a wealthy, eccentric woman who wanted to be an opera star. She made a record and rented Carnegie Hall to perform. She was of course hilariously bad. Critics savaged her. But as she was dying she told one of her friends, “People say I can’t sing, but no one can say I didn’t sing.” 

Maybe you say you can’t witness. Maybe you say your little contribution isn’t much. But let no one say they didn’t contribute. Which is better, shine weekly or go dark? Don’t be afraid to try, but make it a habit to always shine for Jesus. 

Exercising the Will - Ephesians 5: 1-2

In our study of spiritual exercises, we have discussed the mind and the heart—two dimensions of our lives that we need to develop to serve Christ with our whole heart.  Today we are going to look at third dimension—the will, or the actions. We can’t just think or feel like Jesus-we must act like Him, too.

Our actions are determined by our will. Willpower is the ability to do what we do not want to do. It is self-control for God’s sake.  If we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, we must resist our own desires and to do it consistently.

Psychologists who study willpower have discovered that it works a lot like muscle power. The more we exert our wills, the more tired they get.  If we are already using our willpower for one thing, the less willpower we have to do something else. It’s hard to lose weight, quit smoking, or start daily devotions at the same time.  If a difficult situation requires us to keep our emotions under control, self-discipline is harder to exert.

But like our muscles, if we exercise our will it gets stronger.  If we begin somethings and stick with it, our will gets stronger, so we may use our wills to make other changes.

Even so, doing the right thing consistently takes effort. Fortunately, God has put a mechanism inside the human mind that makes it easier. That mechanism is called habit.

Habits are what we do without thinking or feeling it. Let’s say you have a smoking habit.  You know it’s bad and you feel terrible about it, but it’s hard to stop smoking.  You have a subroutine in your brain that is programmed to smoke in spite of what your mind and heart saying “no”.

There are also good habits. Good habits lead us to do good things without thinking. God wants us to have good habits, not bad habits.  

When Paul talks about “walking in the Spirit”, I believe he is talking about having Spiritual habits.  Following Christ means habitually spending time with God, obeying His commandments, and loving others. We don’t choose to do these things any more, we have already chosen to do them. They have become habits.

Paul understood the connection between public obedience and private habits. If our personal, private habits are bad, it is unlikely that we will long maintain good public behavior.

      Gordon McDonald wrote about a great old oak that stood in his parent’s front yard when he was a boy. From all outer appearances it was healthy. One day, a wind blew it over. Only then did they discover it was hollow inside.  Termites had completely eaten away the interior of the tree. 

Bad habits eat away our insides. To everyone else we seem strong, but if our habits are weak, our faith will fall. Before we try and change the world, we must conquer our personal lives.

People are like icebergs. Seven-eighths of who we are is hidden from view. Only God and ourselves know who we are when no one is looking. This inner life is the life of our inner habits.

Please understand, God does not judge our habits.  He loves us in spite of bad habits, which are already forgiven on the Cross.  God doesn’t give up on us.  If He did, none of us would be in heaven! Eternal life is based on what Christ has done, not on what we do. 

But when we allow our bad habits to run our lives, we are not imitating Christ. Walking like Christ is following a lifestyle of obedience.

Jesus had habits, just as we do. But unlike us, His habits were always goo. It was His habit to pray daily, love others, and help people in need.  The habits Jesus had are the habits we need to develop. 

What habits did Jesus have?  Here are a few of them.

Jesus had a submission habit

In John 14:31, Jesus said ^“I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”  Jesus’ did His Father’s will. 

Submission means building submissive habits. In the army, soldiers express their submission by saluting officers. In court, people express their submission to the judge by saying “your honor.”  Children are taught to say “sir” and “ma’am.” These habits are not just empty rituals, but reinforce submission.

The church also has habits of submission to God. Tithing is one of those habits --a percentage given to God’s work off the top of our income.  The amount of our gifts to God is not as important as the attitude that God comes first in our income.  Sabbath-keeping is another act of submission. Giving one day of the week to worship reminds us that Good is first in our time.  Church attendance is another act of submission.  Daily devotions are another. Respecting God’s name is another. Other actions such as prayer before meals or evening prayers are voluntary acts of submission.  Not everyone keeps every habit, but all of them reinforce our need to bow our hearts before them. These habits continually remind us to keep God first.

We are not required to do any of this. We do it because we want to honor God and keep habits of submission. If we are to be like Christ we must stay in submission to Him.

Jesus had a working/resting habit.

Keeping a Sabbath is an act of practical benefit. If I just keep the Sabbath because someone tells me was supposed to, then I’m submitting to a person, not God. But if I keep the Sabbath out of choice, because I want to keep close to God and honor Him, then it becomes a blessing.

Peter Scazzaro in his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality has an interesting take on the Sabbath. The Sabbath, he says, is like a “snow day.” When we were kids, whenever it snowed, people had an excuse for taking off work.  They got to go home, sip hot chocolate and go out and play in the snow. On snow days we were given permission to play hooky from work and enjoy ourselves.

Sabbaths are weekly vacations that give us permission to spend time in recreation an refreshment.  God encourages the habit of rest as well as the habit of work.  It keeps us human and make us realize that life isn’t about what we do, but what we are. It is a spiritual discipline that is also a personal time of refreshment. 

Jesus not only took he regular Sabbath, but He also took time away from the ministry regularly for prayer and refreshment. It was a habit He developed that kept Him sharp before God.

Jesus had a fasting habit

Little is written about Jesus’ habit of fasting, except that we know He began His ministry with a complete forty-day fast. We also know that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not say “if you fast” but “when you fast.” This implies that He expected that His disciples would fast.   The early church fasted regularly two days a week. Hippolytus, one of the earliest Christian writers outside the Bible wrote that the heretics were fasting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the regular church fasted on Wednesdays and Friday.  Evidently, they believed fasting was a valuable spiritual habit to have. 

But what does fasting look like today?  Traditionally fasting is not just going without food entirely. It was usually simply restricting our intake of food for a set time. We have another term for that today—dieting!  The purpose of fasting was not to lose weight, which is why we usually diet today, but to master our appetites. If our physical appetites possess us, then God does not.  The purpose of regular fasting was to put our bodies in their proper place, as being under the authority of God. 

There are other activities that are similar to fasting in this, and all of them were traditionally part of what it meant to possess our bodies for Christ. Chastity was one of them—refraining from sexual activity until God says the time is right, and with whom God says is right.  If the world practiced chastity today, I believe the majority of poverty would be solved.  Another one is simplicity, not spending more than we need to spend, or owning more than we need to own. Everything we own also owns a piece of us.  We either master our possessions, or our possessions master us.  Today, we should think about electronic fasting as well—disconnecting regularly from the internet and from the electronic media.  We must always be sure that God comes first, above our appetites.

Jesus had a praying habit

We read that Jesus prayed every morning and every evening, that He prayed before every great decision in his life, and that he prayed regularly in the temple and with the Jews, as he celebrated Jewish holy days. Jesus’ life was a regimen of prayer.

Those who have been greatly used by God have all discovered that prayer is the key.  Martin Luther once wrote that his responsibilities were so great that he had to spend four hours a day in prayer.  Paul Yong He Cho, the pastor of the largest church in the world in Soule Korea once said that he had to spend between four and five hours in prayer daily.  Prayer is a habit that we all require, both as a church and as individuals. When we neglect it, we lose our spiritual power.

  All of this talk of personal spirituality may seem to some like legalism and judgment, but it really isn’t.  God doesn’t think ill of us because we don’t do everything right.  What God does in our life is not so much to condemn our failures but affirm our success, and reward that success by building up our bodies, souls and spirits to help us reach our full potential.  We all aren’t Olympic athletes, just as we all are not spiritual giants  (I certainly am not!)  But developing the right habits and breaking the wrong ones will certainly  make us better people. 

Each victory we have helps build our willpower, and helps us to go further in Him.  Not only that, but with each victory, we learn to rely more upon the Spirit of God, which can enable us to reach our goals of becoming more like Him.

As we gain victory in our inner habits, we become blessings to the world around us.  It helps us to develop the habits that will transform us into stars, enlightening the world. Around us. 

More about that, though in the next message.