How Then Are We To Pray?

How Then Are We Supposed to Pray?

Sermon on the Mount Series: Matthew 7:7-12

            Last week in Sunday School, one of my members mentioned that when he prays he asks one time and then doesn’t mention it again. His rational was that God was going to do what He was going to do anyways. He had made his request, and it seemed like a waste of time to keep asking for the same thing over and over and over again. I agreed to a certain extent. I believe God wants us to share with Him our wants and desires as well as our thoughts and feelings. (Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”) I’m sure God wants a deeper relationship with us than Him just being our celestial Santa Claus. Imagine if you had a friend that only talked to you when they wanted something. And to top it off, they asked you for that thing over and over and over again. Chances are you probably wouldn’t want to be around that guy or girl anymore. If you saw them coming you would jump into the bushes or start making out with a complete stranger or something. I did that once. It turned out to be a cactus. I don’t recommend it. It might even get to the point that even if you had the ability to give them everything they asked for, you wouldn’t do it simply because they were such a lousy friend who was just using you to get what they wanted.

            Now stop and think. When you pray do you always ask for something? Do you ever tell God something about what’s going on? Do you ever quietly wait for Him to respond? Or do you simply pull into the drive-thru, throw your request into the tube, and drive off like you’re at a pharmacy? What would God feel about your relationship? If the roles were reversed would you delight in blessing someone like you? I’ve heard of people who set out to go a whole month without asking God for anything. Their prayer life became telling God about what was going on their life and worshiping Him. Remember asking God to bless others is still asking God to do something.

            My response to the young man in my Sunday School class was, “Yes, but…” and then I shared how I was coming home from a trip knowing I had to deal with an issue when I got there. My stomach was rolling in anticipation of confrontation. So I prayed a simple prayer, “God you know my heart. You know I don’t want to screw this up. You know I don’t want to intentionally cause a problem, but something needs to be done. Give me the words to say, and give me your peace.” Immediately the anxiety of the situation went away. A few miles down the road, the anxiety built back up and I said a similar prayer. The anxiety again subsided. This went on for hours. I repeatedly made the same prayer over and over again, and yet God gave me the peace I sought.

            So how are we to pray? We studied earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Series where Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions like the heathens do. For they think they will be heard for their many words.” So obviously volume and repetition is not the answer. He went on to teach his listeners what we know today as “The Lord’s Prayer.” But even in my Bible, the sub-title to that section is “A Model Prayer,” in other words, something to base your prayers on—a skeleton to flesh out your own prayers. We could completely miss Jesus’ point and recite “The Lord’s Prayer” word for word a hundred times a day.  All that it would do for us is be a repetitious, vain prayer that would in all likelihood go unanswered.

            Let’s look at some common prayers of today. The Catholics have what is called a Rosary. Perhaps you have seen the man who walks up and down Dogwood and

Stewart St

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all day. Sometimes he’s riding a bike, but he is always thumbing through the Rosary. I guess the idea is that he is blessing everything he’s walking or riding past. Many people make fun of him and have given him nicknames. I disagree with his theology but I admire the depth of his belief and conviction.

The rosary is a series of beads on a string, very similar to but not a necklace, and shouldn’t be worn around the neck or hung from a rear view mirror. I’m not now, or have ever been a Catholic, but I know that is a “no-no.” (See attachment for proper prayers for the Rosary) To me, this screams vain repetition something Jesus himself spoke against. It amazes me how Jesus spoke against the Pharisees for their vain, repetitious prayers, and their funny hats and robes. Here we are 2,000 years later and the leaders of some of the largest denominations wear funny hats and robes.

            But the Catholic Church doesn’t have a monopoly on vain, repetitious prayers. A few years ago a Pastor named Bruce Wilkinson was reading through 1 Chronicles. For those of you who have read through 1 Chronicles, you can agree that parts of it can be extremely dry, particularly the parts of the genealogies. Chapter after chapter, verse after verse of John begot Sam. Sam begot David. David begot Michael. After a while your eye starts to twitch, and you begin to question your sanity for attempting to read through the Bible. Eventually you get to 1 Chronicles 4:9 where you find this little oasis, “There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. ¹⁰ He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.” And then you go back to Tom begot Jerry. Heckle begot Jekyll. Chilly begot Willy. Verses 9 and 10 were almost like a commercial in the midst of a boring documentary. So Wilkinson wrote a book about his findings. The main point of his book was that this was the type of prayer that God will answer. He made note that the prayer wasn’t a magic spell, but like the Lord’s Prayer it was simply a model to flesh out our own prayers. However, his book, The Prayer of Jabez sold six quadrillion copies, and then all of the other merchandise and books came out: hats, shirts, calendars, devotionals, pens, bracelets, key chains. Wilkinson became an overnight Christian media sensation. This simple two verse prayer became a mantra for millions of Christians wanting to be blessed by God, without care for the relationship behind that blessing.

            Then there is this prayer. It’s not famous but it is popular. Have you ever heard somebody pray and throw “God,” “Lord,” “Lord Jesus” and other names in there as if they were commas or other punctuation points? “Oh God, Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the blessing you’ve given us, Lord Jesus. You are, Oh God, so amazing, Lord Jesus. Father, please help, Lord Jesus, the Buckeyes, Oh God, to have a winning season, Oh Lord.” Imagine talking to your friends like that. “Hey Cody, friend Cody, matchless and wonderful Cody, did you watch, Oh Cody, the baseball game the other day, Cody, son of Gary and Karen? It was, Cody, the best, magnificent Cody, game I’ve ever seen, oh Cody.” Aside from breaking one of the Ten Commandments for using the Lord’s name in vain, it is extremely annoying to listen to, and most likely hinders our relationship with God. I know for a fact it would hinder my relationship with Cody if I talked to him like that. There was a man at camp who prayed like this. It went on for several minutes. I became distracted from what he was saying to how he was saying it. I also made a mental note not to ask him to pray before my meals.

            So how should we pray? Short prayers? Longs prayers? New prayers every time? I pray almost the same prayer over my food everyday? Is that wrong? Yeah, because it has become just another thing I say—words without meaning. Like a recorded message. Imagine if your loved ones recorded a message that said “I love you,” then simply pressed play for you as they went about their daily lives. It wouldn’t mean as much to you as if they would stop what they’re doing, take a moment, and tell you what you mean to them.

            Today’s passage will shed some light on the subject of how we are supposed to pray. Matthew 7:7-12, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? ¹⁰ Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! ¹¹ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”

            Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. If it is important to you, ask God. I’m pretty sure Jesus wasn’t referring to a new Bentley, but down the road when it comes time for you to find a suitable spouse and there doesn’t seem to be one on the horizon, ask, and keep asking. If you need a job, ask and keep asking. Do you think He doesn’t know that you’re broke? These are prayers God wants to answer, but what’s most important to Him is the relationship between you and Him. Do you trust Him? Or are you still banking on yourself? There is a military term called FPF—Final Protective Fire. Imagine you are in a position but are surrounded by the enemy. You can hold them off for a little bit with the little remaining rounds you have left, but the enemy knows all it has to do is wait until you are out of ammunition and then storm you. You would be basically defenseless. That FPF is a little bit of a reserve to hold back that storm when it happens. At some point you have to fire off your last rounds and then trust God. Do you trust God that He will give you what’s best for you or are you still holding onto some of that FPF? Maybe the best thing for you right now is to be single rather than be in a bad relationship that will take your focus off of Him. Maybe the best thing for you is to be unemployed rather than take a job that might make you compromise your values.

            Jesus said, “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? ¹⁰ Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! ¹¹ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” We have to trust that God has what’s best in mind for us. I admit that when I was younger and didn’t have the faith in God I have now I was afraid that God would have me marry some Christian woman I wasn’t attracted to. It was a lack of faith that God wouldn’t give me what was best for me, that what was best for me would be something I hated, or even that he wouldn’t fulfill the promise he made in Psalm 37:4, “If you delight in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart.”

            So how can we apply this information? 1) We need to be aware, (not beware) our prayers. Are they selfish? Are they short term? Are they one sided conversations? Are they repetitious? Do I use God’s name, or title, 30 times in a 60 word prayer? 2) Trust that God has what’s best in mind for our lives. Rebekah and I wish that we would have dated all the way through HS and College. That way we could have experienced more memorable moments together, but that wasn’t God’s plan and we trust that it was in our best interests. 3) Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Are you delighting in the Lord? What exactly does that mean? Do you spend time with God? Is that time boring or is it awesome? Do you do what God asks of you? If you do, is it like pulling teeth for you? I delight in the Lord, and I trust that God will give me, not only what I need, but what I want.

                        

Do Not Judge

Do Not Judge

Matthew 7:1-6

            There is an episode of The Simpsons where Maude Flanders, the now deceased wife of Ned Flanders, yells out of a bus window, “Hi, Marge! I’m going to church camp to learn how to be more judgmental.” What do you think about that? The entire Flanders family is a hyperbole of what the writers would consider to be an extreme Christian. The joke was designed to make fun of Christians, but it also pointed to a belief that Christians are judgmental. I don’t believe I’m judgmental. Do you believe that you are judgmental? This is a very hard trait to identify in yourself. It is like a sense of humor. Everyone believes they have a sense of humor—even people who clearly do not. Most people, even the most judgmental, don’t believe that they are.

            Christians are criticized for being judgmental because we have the audacity to tell other people that they are not good enough to go to heaven. That by its very nature is judging another person’s actions and thoughts. It also is an open door for the other person to look at you and say “Who do you think you are telling me I’m not good enough? I saw what you did the other night.” And then you better have a good response. Are you going to A) Try to live a perfect life and go crazy in the process; B) Pretend to live a perfect life when you are in public and be a hypocrite; or C) Admit that you aren’t perfect and that is precisely why you need Jesus?

            Think about it. Christianity is the only religion where its followers can’t go to heaven by their own efforts. In fact, their efforts get in the way because it clouds their view of the truth. Let’s create some examples: the captain of the cheerleading squad has been raised in the church her whole life, reads her Bible, sings in the choir, and volunteers at the Pregnancy Resource Center. She doesn’t have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Will she go to heaven when she dies? No. Is she a good person who does good things? Of course. Isaiah 64:5-7 says, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” Do you know what “filthy rags” means? It’s one of the most descriptive things in the entire Bible. It literally means used Tampons. Let’s look at another example: A man who has never darkened a church door, has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager, and knows he has made mistake after mistake in his life. He doesn’t own a Bible, volunteer anywhere, and is fact on his way back for another stint in prison, this time for a long time. Will he go to heaven when he dies? No. Is he a good person? Not really, but this person, if presented with the gospel, will have no trouble believing he can’t make it on his own merit.

            In both cases we could come off looking judgmental. Like we are fault finders and sin sniffers just looking for ways to show that we—looking good, smelling good, church going Christians—are better than them. But that’s not what we’re about. At least that’s not what we’re supposed to be about. Are there judgmental Christians? Sure, but there are also judgmental atheist, and Buddhists, and Muslims, and Seiks. In fact, if someone calls you judgmental, they have themselves made a judgment on you. Weird, huh? So what does the Bible say about judging others and how are we supposed to apply that in our lives?

            Our passage this week in our continuing series on the Sermon on the Mount comes from Matthew 7:1-6, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. ³ And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. ⁶ Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.”

            The first four words in the NLT says, “Do not judge others.” When you see a sign that says, “Do Not Enter” what does it mean? How about, “No Eating and Drinking”? How about “No Smoking”? All of these are pretty clear, but in this passage it says “Do not judge others,” but it then goes on to give us two instances of how we should judge others (the recognition of a speck in our friend’s eye; and the difference between holy and unholy people). So was Jesus wrong? Did He misspeak? Or is there something else that we may have to learn?

            The deeper issue involved in judging others, except in the profession of being a judge, is pride. Where judging others becomes a sin it is because we look down on other people and their issues in an attempt to build ourselves up. “Look at that person smoking. They’re killing themselves. What an awful habit. I would never do that.” We also tend to judge others by their actions and then judge ourselves by our intentions. “Susie didn’t read her Bible today. I wonder if she is really saved. She should be reading her Bible everyday.” But when you don’t read your Bible, “You know I’ve had a really long day today and my eyes are kind of blurry. I’ll just read some in the morning.”

Pastor Ray Pritchard suggested that we often hypocritically rename our sins in order to build ourselves up. When you don’t tell the truth, you are a liar. When I don’t tell the truth, I’m just stretching the truth. When you break the rules you are a cheater. When I break the rules, I’m just bending them a little. Here are some others:

You lose your temper; I have righteous anger.
You're a jerk; I'm having a bad day.
You have a critical spirit; I bluntly tell the truth.
You gossip; I share prayer requests.
You curse and swear; I let off steam.
You're pushy; I'm intensely goal-oriented.
You're greedy; I'm simply taking care of business.
You're a hypochondriac; but I'm really sick.
You stink; I merely have an "earthy aroma"

        In this passage Jesus is not condemning all forms of judgment, only that which is done in a mean-spirited, overly critical, and prideful manner. In fact, Matthew 7:24 says, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." He wants us to judge because that is how we make righteous decisions. If I said, “Hey everybody, let’s load up in the church van and Hannah is going to drive us to Sonic for ice cream!” How many of you would get in the van? Probably not many of you and certainly all of you should not get in the van. Why? Because we have judged her not capable of getting us there safely. It is not because we don’t like her. It’s because she’s in the 6^th grade and her feet wouldn’t touch the pedals. And then you should judge me for my decision making ability in choosing her to drive.

This was not meant to be a complete study of judging in the Bible. We could talk for many weeks specifically on judging, or on how we are to deal with the plank in our own eye before dealing with the speck in our neighbor’s. Or even what exactly it means to cast your pearls before swine. But I do want to mention one more topic, and that is being a fruit inspector. Jesus said in Matthew 7:20, “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” We will dive deeper into this topic in a few weeks, but for now it will be enough to say that Jesus wants us to inspect the fruit of anyone who may be trying to teach or influence you. But Jesus also warned us that the manner in which we judge others that will be the manner that we will be judged.

            So how do we apply this? Look at Pastor Brian. Look at me. Look at your Sunday school teachers. Are there signs in their lives that they believe what they are teaching? Is there evidence that what they are teaching as truth is actually false? Do they teach one thing and do another? Pastor Brian believes it is important to witness to people on a regular basis? Has he done this? I believe it is important to read and study your Bibles? Has my Bible been read and are there notes and highlighted sections in it? Osama Bin Laden claimed to be leading a holy war on infidels, or those who were unfaithful to Allah. But when he was found he used one of his twenty some wives as a human shield. And do you know what they found in his compound? Loads of pornography. Not exactly what you would expect from such a holy man, leading a holy war. Where’s the fruit? If they are good trees they will produce good fruit. If they are bad trees they will be like the fig tree in Mark 11. It was not producing fruit so Jesus cursed it. The next day it was all shriveled up.

            Now conversely. Where’s your fruit? If you are going out to tell your friends about Jesus, you better believe they are checking you out for fruit and you better have some.

A review of "Life, In Spite of Me"

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/10006 
 "Life, In Spite of Me" is one of the rare books that made me really glad I had read the book. Authored by Kristen Jane Anderson with Tricia Goyer, the book was a page turner from the beginning to end. If I had found a large enough chunk of time, I could have read the book cover to cover easily.
   The book chronicles the true story of a three to four year period of Kristen's life where everything was falling apart. She had lost two friends from school to automobile accidents, one friend to suicide, a grandparent to illness, and was raped by someone she thought she could trust, all within a two year period. Battling undiagnosed depression, Kristen's school grades, and home life slid further and further downhill. It was at this time that she decided to commit suicide. Living through the ordeal, Kristen learned to trust the God she knew of but never knew personally, and began to accept His will for her life.
   The book comes complete with thoughts at the end of a few of the chapters that Kristen wished someone had told her when she was going through her struggles. There is also a resource section for those struggling with depression, as well as warning signs for a potential suicide. The book would be an easy read for upper middle school and high schoolers, but the best part of the book is that the Good News of Jesus Christ is very clearly portrayed throughout it.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

A Review of "Love at Last Sight: 30 Days to Grow and Deepen Your Closest Relationships"

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/9297 
 Love at Last Sight is co-written by Kerry and Chris Shook which is a second to their "One Month to Live" book. It is written as a 30 day devotional. The reader is to read a chapter a day and then complete the challenges laid out for them. The good news for the reader feeling pressured by having to read a chapter a day is that each chapter is only 5-7 pages long.
   The third page of the book lays out a bold claim, "But if you apply what you read over the next thirty days, your key relationships will grow and deepen." I found that statement to be not only bold, but arrogant. Are we to believe that they are holding the key to lasting relationships that have been elusive for 6,000 years? If only Cain and Abel would have read this book. Beyond that point, I have to say that I have enjoyed doing the thirty day journey into growing and deepening my closest relationships even though I found the book to be lacking in some areas. Here are those areas.
   I did read a chapter of the book everyday, which is a first for me to be that diligent, as well as journaled my thoughts. Unfortunately, by around day six, I had given up on "officially" trying the daily challenges. And by around day 15 I just skipped reading that part of the chapter. I found the challenges to be obscure, obtuse, overly simplified, or overly difficult. It ranged from being so simple I didn't even have to think about it or so difficult I knew I wouldn't even try it.
   Secondly, Day 17 was almost a chapter long summary of Chapman's The Five Love Languages yet he went uncited as a source. I was quite disturbed by that.
   Finally, I thought some of the anecdotes, jokes, and stories were tired, over played, and occassionaly out of place. I've occasionally listened to sermons and wondered what the point of the illustration was, but routinely, when I set out to journal about the day's chapter (immediately after reading it) I had to review the chapter to see what it was about. It's problematic when the illustrations are clouding your point and not supporting it.
   I don't want to overly negative. There were stories and points that really hit home and were definitely worth reading. I have read many relationship books in my life. This book ranks near the top, but there was not enough new material to consider it a great book. If you have not read any relationship book, or you are a novice I would recommend this book, but that is about it. 
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. 

The Two Masters Matt 6:24

The Two Masters

Possessions, Popularity, and Perceptions, Oh My!

            We are going to take another look at Jesus’ longest, and most influential sermon that He preached—The Sermon on the Mount. Specifically the passage we will be looking at today talks about money and possessions.

How many of you are familiar with a guy named David Platt? He is a pastor out of Birmingham who wrote a best selling book called Radical. In fact, one of our Sunday school classes is currently studying the book and watching a video series on it right now. So what is Platt’s “radical” idea? The subtitle of the book is “Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.” That is a radical idea when we are constantly being bombarded by commercials and media telling us what stuff we need in order to be happy.

            What is the American Dream? There are countless varieties of the American Dream because each person can have their own, but the idea stems from the absolute fact that as Americans we can have and do what almost everyone else in the world could never dream about having or doing. In America a person of any race, gender, or financial background can grow up and be whatever they want from President of the United States, Astronaut, Fighter Pilot, or Mayor of Bagdad. It doesn’t matter. You also have the ability to go to school, get a good education, choose between running a business or working a job so you can have a car, house with a white picket fence, green grass, 2.5 kids, and a dog.

            We are so unbelievably blessed here in America that we have lost touch with the rest of the world. Every single person in this room is rich compared to the world’s standards. If your family has a car you are richer than like 92% of the world. If your family has two cars, you are in the top 1-2% richest people in the world. The amount of money it would take to feed and water all of the world’s starving and dehydrated population is less than what Americans spend on ice cream each year. We get upset about the things we “need” and don’t get like a new Xbox Kinnect, an Iphone, or whatever it is that we think we need that we forget about Neharika who lives in a mud hut and how she thankfully received dinner plates for Christmas. How many of you received dinner plates as your main Christmas present this year?

            How did we get here? How did we get so spoiled? Abraham Lincoln said, “Religion gave birth to prosperity, now the daughter has eaten the mother.” In other words, we had a great devotion to God so He blessed us. When He blessed us, we became enamored in how much stuff we had that we forgot about Him. We sang “How Great I Art” instead of “How Great Though Art.” And because of that we began to lose God’s favor.     

            Let’s look at our passage, Matthew 6:24 NLT “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Some of your Bibles may contain the word “mammon” which is just a funny sounding word that means money, wealth, or possessions.”

            In the game Tug of War, you have two teams on each end of the rope with usually a flag in the middle. When one team successfully pulls that flag across their goal line they win. Other, more fun ways to play, include a muddy pit in the middle and the game ending when one team successfully pulls the other team through the mud. Either way, you probably have all played it or seen it played before and realize the concept—two opposing forces tugging with all their might to inflict their will on others.

            That is the situation Jesus is warning against in Matthew 6:24. Think about trying to be on both teams of a Tug of War match. It’s ridiculous right? Almost as ridiculous as trying to serve two masters, especially when one of them is God, because eventually your two masters will make opposing demands. One will say give all your possessions to the poor and the other will say make all you can and can all you make. Don’t get confused, I have two jobs with two different bosses requiring vastly different things, but I have only one master and it is not Pastor Brian or my dad.

Let’s look at Mark 10:17-22. As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’^[a]”

 ²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

 ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

 ²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

 

            This man holds the distinct honor of being the only person in scripture who Jesus said “Follow me” to and did not follow. Why? He sought Jesus out as the answer to his problems and yet did not follow Him because he was trying to serve both Jesus and the god of possessions and wealth.

            Can you be rich and still serve God? Absolutely. I can name you several millionaires that serve God in ways we’ll never know about because they want to keep it a secret in obedience to Christ. The key is that they don’t serve money, wealth, or possessions. They view it as a tool to do the work of Christ.

            Maybe money, wealth, and possessions aren’t hot button issues for you, but I guarantee that there is something that will trip you up. Maybe it’s not money but popularity. If being popular is a master to you, you will eventually have to decide which master to follow when the two make opposing demands. I’m willing to make a wager that there is a smelly kid at your school, or somewhere in your life that needs to know about Jesus. If you are more concerned about what your friends would say if you sat next to him or her at lunch than what God would say, then you are trying to serve two masters.  I will never forget when I was substituting as a P.E. teacher at Brush High School near Cleveland, two kids came up to me eagerly asking me to let them be the captains of the kickball team. I didn’t know why, or even care to know why so I let them. I assigned the first pick to one of the two and watched in amazement as he picked the kid with a learning and physical disability as his first pick. How amazing was that to witness? How often does that happen in a public high school? Almost never I bet.

            Can you be popular and still serve God? Absolutely. Tim Tebow is a perfect example. Is he popular? Yes. Does he serve God? Yes. The key is that he doesn’t serve popularity, but views his popularity as a tool to serve God. What if he served popularity as if it were a god? Perhaps his agent said in order for him to get more endorsement deals, he needed to date a high profile celebrity with low morals. If he would bow to the god of popularity, his work for Christ would be tarnished. I remember when he was a junior people asked if he was leaving school early to go to the NFL. He replied that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go to the NFL but might go directly into the mission field instead. He later decided that going into the NFL would give him more of a platform to evangelize.

            Maybe possessions and popularity aren’t that big of a deal for you. Perhaps how you are perceived is though. No one wants to look like a disheveled homeless person, but are you spending a disproportionate amount of time getting ready in the morning than you do anything else? If you timed yourself getting ready for school in a week versus reading your Bible or praying would it even be a contest? This is another area where you have to be honest with yourself. I know for a fact women go into a bathroom and time is measured by calendars instead of a stop watch.

            Or what about raising your hand in class when you don’t understand something? “But then people will think I’m stupid.” Yeah that’s a good point, it’s better to wait until you get your test back and everyone will know for sure.

            Can you be pretty and perceived well and still serve God? Absolutely. Look at me. I’m obviously extremely handsome. The key is that I don’t serve the god of good looks. But seriously, God is far more concerned about what’s on the inside than He is on the outside. He is also concerned about why we’re doing something as compared to how people perceive why we’re doing something. For example: You see a politician working a soup kitchen—what’s your first impression? Just trying get votes, right? He’s putting off a perception that he cares about the plight of the less fortunate.

            So how can we make sure we’re not serving two masters? First and foremost you need to become a follower of Christ. Life is pointless without Him, and all of our efforts to do anything are useless. Secondly, you need to identify areas that you are weak in because that is where you are susceptible into being lured into serving another master. I, personally, don’t have a problem with being tempted to spend hours getting ready in the morning. I do have a problem with wondering how people might perceive me if I try to share the gospel with them. Thirdly, you need to acknowledge your dependence on Him and ask Him to assist you. This could be a daily prayer for you. And lastly, test yourself. Do something this week that stretches you. Go talk to someone. Strike up a conversation. Eat lunch with the smelly kid. Go a day without your usual preparation and see if anyone cares or notices. If they ridicule you, you at least will know where you stand in that relationship. Being a servant of God is not easy, but it is worth it.      

A review of Hope Rising

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/8332

My wife received Hope Rising as a birthday present a few years back. I suggested it to my daughter as a good present to give after her mother and I both listened to the author speak about the book on Focus on the Family. When my wife gets into a book she will read it from cover to cover without putting it down. That’s exactly what she did with Hope Rising. I knew I would eventually read it. It took a while for me to get to it, but I eventually did.
 The author, Kim Meeder, and her husband Troy started a non-profit horse ranch designed to take in abused and neglected horses while ministering to children and families dealing with difficult situations. I’m sure the Meeders would agree that the horses do most of the ministering. The book is written as a series of devotional like short stories or memoirs from their ranch. Most of the stories are three to four pages long with the longest being around twelve pages. I found myself tearing up from the first page as she described how a horse brought out a toothless smile from a little boy. The boy, around 5-6, had his teeth knocked out by an abusive father who on occasion would shoot his gun at him.
 As a father and animal lover who believes that God speaks to us through His creation, I found the stories fascinating and heart-warming. When I was finished with the book my wife said, “That book made me very sad and want to start a horse ranch.” I had to agree.
 Meeder, deservedly so, has won awards for her service to her community and for her book, but for me I got a little hung up on the literary style. Every paragraph came equipped with a simile, a metaphor, or both. It was a little much. My other complaint probably stems from the fact that I am a guy, but many of her stories included her personal insight to not only what other people were thinking but what horses and animals were thinking. Much of her insight was probably on target but I found myself questioning, “How does she know what that guy was thinking?” I believe many of the problems men and women have in communicating is that we assume we know what the other person is thinking. This is a hot button issue for me. So when she continued to use that insight as a literary style it became a distraction to me.
 Overall, it was a very good book. I wouldn’t tell anyone not to read it, but it would be best in the hands of animal lovers, and people who rank high on the empathy section of personality tests.

The Lamp of the Body

The Lamp of the Body

Matt 6:22-23

            I was watching PBS the other night and caught a little bit of a program about Cassius Clay, more commonly known as Muhammad Ali. They were showing his 1964 fight against the heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Liston. At that time Clay had won a gold medal in the Olympics but wasn’t expected to stand a chance against the hard punching Liston. None of the sportswriters covering boxing gave Clay any chance at all at beating Liston and assumed the fight would be over very quickly. Liston himself trained for a short fight.

            When the fight began, Clay with his signature “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” dancing was able to dodge and dance out of the way of Liston’s punches. Years later the writers covering the fight admitted that their opinions of Clay changed, that he wasn’t terrible, but all Liston had to do was hit him one time and the fight would be over. As the fight wore on, all of Liston’s empty punches, along with his lack of endurance training wore him down.

Then something happened that changed the course of the fight. A few seconds after the beginning of Round 5 Clay began to rub his eyes as tears streamed down his face. Clay was blinded while Liston, as if on cue began hitting him with a flurry of punches. Clay miraculously survived the round, wandered to his corner, and told his trainer to cut the gloves off and get him out of there. The trainer suspecting something was up, rubbed Clay’s eye and then rubbed his own which immediately began to burn. Years later someone in Liston’s corner admitted that they had juiced Liston’s glove with a caustic fluid designed to come off his glove and burn Clay’s eyes long enough for Liston to knock him out. Liston had resorted to this tactic in two previous fights aswell. Clay’s trainer washed his eyes out the best he could between rounds and forced him back out with one simple command—“Run!”

Run Clay did. Sending him out blind to dodge the heavy hitting Liston would have been suicide for anyone other than Clay. Liston, however, was unable to connect against Clay and as the round wore on, Clay was slowly able to regain his sight and hit the tired Liston at will. After the sixth round was over Clay answered the bell, but Liston did not.

We are continuing our journey through the Sermon on the Mount tonight by looking at Matt 6:22-23 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. ²³ But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!”

What’s it like to be blind? Everything is dark. Here Jesus is comparing the eye to a lamp. Imagine you are in a barn in the middle of a moonless pitch black night. You have a lamp, but it is not very good and it goes out—everything is dark. Perhaps you didn’t take good care of your wick, or used cheap watered down oil instead of what was recommended. Everything is dark and you have no hope of getting it lit again. If you properly maintained your lamp it would be putting out the much needed light but you didn’t.

The eye is compared to a lamp for the body. It provides light. It allows you to do so many things so much easier. If you disagree, put on a blindfold. First notice how dark it is, and then try to do your normal activities—like drive a car, pour boiling water in a tea cup, pee into a urinal. If you properly maintain your eyes—wear sunglasses in bright lights, keep them free of caustic materials that will burn them—you can reasonably expect them to continue to give you light for a very long time.

It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to figure out the difference between light and darkness in this passage. Light symbolizes good spiritual things. Darkness symbolizes evil spiritual things. Jesus said “If your eye is good, your body will be full of light. If you eye is bad your body will be full of darkness.” There is a computer programming terminology that says “Garbage In- Garbage Out.” Or GIGO. In other words if your programming is junk, you can reasonably expect that the program will not do what it is programmed to do. If you only allow good spiritual things to enter your eyes your body will be full of good light. But if you allow evil things to go into your eyes your body will be full of darkness.

What kind of evil things are we talking about? Pornography, violent movies or games, or violence in general. When I was thinking about this passage, the old proverb “the eyes are the window of the soul” kept coming to my mind. What are windows? They are barriers that separate the inside from the out, but are transparent to allow a person to look out, while another can look in. Have you ever seen someone, or even a picture of someone, and could just tell their hearts were full of darkness? That is the view of someone on the outside looking in. Lets talk about the inside looking out. Imagine you live in a house that has two windows: one window looks out to a beautiful lush valley before a snow capped mountain; the other window has a view of your neighbor’s window. Your neighbor is a mean ugly old man who has nothing better to do but to watch for you, flip you off, and moon you when you glance out. Which window would you peer out of, and which one would you put extremely thick curtains over?

Jesus said in a later teaching (Matt 18:9), “if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out because it would be better to go to heaven with one eye than go to hell with two eyes.” Apparently, Jesus thought it was important to guard what goes into your body. If you don’t guard what goes in, so much garbage will go in that you won’t even be able to tell the difference between light and darkness.

How can we practically guard what we see, besides plucking out our eyes? Internet blocker, bounce your eyes (Every Man’s Battle)—whether you see something tempting or violent, don’t watch violent movies, or play violent games. You can say that violent games don’t affect you but you don’t have science or empirical data on your side. I remember playing a game one time called “Carmageddon.” You literally drove a car around and tried to hit as many people as possible. It was awesome—or terrible, depending on your perspective. It wasn’t until the next day when I was driving past a playground full of kids and had a flashback from the game that I realized how much we are affected by the video games we play. The movies and television programs we watch, the games we play, the books and magazines we read, the music we listen to, all affects us. I’m not here to make anybody do anything. If you aren’t ready to put negative things away and grow spiritually then don’t. It’s cool. I won’t lose any sleep over it. I am here to tell you what the Bible says about the subject, and to tell you about my personal experiences with it. I’m just a beggar telling other beggars where I found food. Maybe you won’t have to look as long as I did before I finally found it.