Just God

In Genesis 15:1, God said to Abram, "I am your shield, your very great reward." He was telling Abram that He was the true gift and not the blessings that He can give to Abram and his family.

Do we worship God more for what He does for us or just simply for who He is? Can we separate the two? His gifts are a reflection of His generous nature, but we should pursue Him more than what He can give to us. We become nothing more than spiritual blessing junkies craving the next fix if we only focus on what comes out of the God-vending-machine. We excise true joy from our relationship with Him when we only seek the blessings from His hand and neglect to simply seek His face.

Screen Time

Now that more movies tend to add sneak peeks at the end, I tend to sit through the credits more frequently. They will roll by starting with the actors and then move on to everyone that had a part in the production of the film. Usually no one can identify who the "best boy" position was filled by and in fact, would not even be looking for that credit.

I saw an interesting parallel to that while reading through the Old Testament. So many books list numbers of people in tribes and long lists of family that I can't possibly remember. While I may skim over them, they still represent important people in God's timeline. They fulfilled a purpose and were part of something larger than themselves and their own ambitions. Much like a gaffer or best boy on a movie set they won't receive top billing. That doesn't negate their importance and the contribution they made to the whole picture. 

This only reinforces God's principle of each person making a difference and having a higher purpose to attain to. We may not always understand how & why it matters, but if we are trusting Him to guide each step we can be sure that our efforts play a significant role in the grander scheme of His perfect plan.

Spilling Out

My wife and I are fans of the show "Friends." We laugh and quote lines from it and do the same with other fans of the show. It's the same thing another friend of mine does with movies--always ready with a quote or famous line.

As I am reading my Bible this morning (and as a follow up to Friday's blog) I was convicted by the thought that famous quotes, movie & TV lines come to mind more frequently than Scripture does. I don't like to admit this, but my hesitancy doesn't negate that truth. 

My interaction with family, friends, and community would be richer if my mind immediately went to Scripture. Difficulties would be handled with peace and wisdom if God's Word flowed out of my mind and mouth. My vision would become more clear and sharply focused if Biblical truth was the true meditation of my heart and mind. Opportunities to serve God would increase as I become more attuned to the rhythm of His Spirit.

It's a challenge for me to accept--the willingness to engage God's Word so deeply that it is the source of the spring of words that flow out of my own life.

The Tuck Rule

Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." It is a reference to diligently studying God's Word so that it becomes implanted in us. It transfers Biblical truth from written words on a page to something that is applicable and real.

We will face temptations and trials and from my own experience I can assure you, faithful reader, that we will not have the strength on our own to endure. Our willpower will fail and our resolve will weaken when we rely purely upon our human capabilities. We gain strength from ingesting and meditating on Scripture so that it becomes the key foundation of our response system. When we are able to read and apply Biblical truth we change its impact from a concept to reality. 

If we aren't tucking God's Word away for future use, we will most certainly not be prepared when the time comes.

Full Disclosure

God desires a relationship with us that is fully engaged. We are the ones that tend to compartmentalize and keep parts locked away in our brain & spirit in an attempt to hide from Him. Theologically speaking this is impossible, but we still convince ourselves that we achieve it. It doesn't prevent God from knowing us, but it will prevent us from completely knowing Him. 

We become fully exposed to God when we humbly engage Him at every level and area of life. This changes our interaction with Him by making our faith commitment more authentic. We struggle with this total surrender because we believe the lie that we can control/limit our sin to parts of our existence. We fail to surrender because we are ashamed of the sin that has entangled us and don't want to relinquish it or don't believe that God can heal us from it.

Removing our mental & spiritual barriers leads to a familiarity with God that will transform our opinion of His desire to be engaged in real life with us. It will open us up to a relationship that is deeply powerful and genuinely intimate. It becomes a force that we live with in all of our life environments and not just a convenient stop-gap on Sunday mornings or when life gets tough. 

Full disclosure leads to full engagement.

Off Track

When we feel that we have gotten spiritually disoriented or distracted, we might describe ourselves as "off track." We get discouraged when we feel this way & can feel that our misplaced priorities have taken us away from the story that God is telling in our lives.

While we might feel that way (and I have in the past) I think it is an erroneous assumption on our part. We have convinced ourselves that we have delayed God's plan for our lives and therefore messed up what would have been a grand tale of faithfulness. In actuality, our current and future choices are the story we are living. It is the exact tale that God knew before He created us. He knew (and knows) the ebb and flow of our faith and still works in grander ways than we can imagine to shape us on the path we have chosen.

We aren't disappointing Him with our choices-that would mean that He didn't see them coming. In His inimitable fashion He is redeeming us through our faulty and flawed steps. We are operating from a present-based perspective that limits our understanding while He reigns from the end of our novel, having seen the triumphs that await us through our own imperfect and yet perfectly-written-for-us story.

D.T.L.T.

When I worked at Mainland, we won three state basketball championships. This was a result of dedicated athletes, great coaching, perseverance, hard work, and attention to detail. One of our team mantras was captured in four letters: "D.T.L.T." This was often repeated to keep our focus where it belonged. It was a reminder that for us to be successful we needed to "Do The Little Things."


I believe this principle is even more significant in our spiritual life. We desire to dream big dreams and accomplish great things for God's Kingdom, but can often miss that opportunity because we aren't focused on doing the small things each day. It was Jonathan Golden who said, "Every once in a while God gives us something big to do. Every day He gives us something small to do." 


When we are willing to commit to doing the small things that develop our faith on an everyday basis, I believe that God will give us the opportunity to step into something much bigger than we imagined. It won't come accidentally, but as a result of continued obedience towards the same objective. This constant sharpening hones an active faith in us that sets us up to make an impact for God's Kingdom. 


It is in disciplined attention to small details that great things become possible.