Spiritual Disicplines...

Following are some kickstarts to some of the Christian Spiritual disciplines with some beginning exercises for each discipline summarized from some entries in the NRV Spiritual Disciplines Bible:

Fasting

Hungering for God’s deliverance  2 Chronicles 20:3

Don’t wait for the Moabites to come marching in before practicing fasting.  Practicing fasting, dependence upon God, prior to emergencies leads to the natural practice of looking to God when emergencies do happen.  Start off practicing a short 24-hour fast, lunch to lunch.  Drink plenty of water, perhaps with a bit of lime or lemon.  Expect distractions and some discomfort--use distractions and discomfort to turn to God in thought and prayer.  Keep a journal/phone/pad handy to record insights throughout the day.

Service

Leading by serving  Mk 10:41-45

Though God is all powerful and worthy of all honor and glory, he became a suffering servant (Is 53.)  In the eyes of God, greatness is not measured by where we stand but by where we kneel.  Where are you most tempted to seek places of honor?  Church?  School?  Sports?  What one step can you take to free yourself from seeking your own interests and to begin focusing on serving others?  Write it down and let your friend know.

Repentance & confession

The 10 Commandments:  A gracious moral inventory  Ex 20:1-17

By God’s grace, a moral inventory of our past behavior compared to the 10 commandments is not a process of despair but rather restitution, reconciliation and renewal.  Examine your spiritual life by reflecting on each of the commandments.  How does each one apply to you--both in attitude and behavior.  What causes you the most concern?  What causes you the least?  How can you make the Ten commandments a regular part of your daily confession to God?

Stewardship

A way to remind yourself  Deut 8:17-18

Prosperity can lead to spiritual amnesia.  If we allow ourselves to be numb to God through comfort and prosperity (America is still the most prosperous world nation), we will pay the price.  Do you consider your money a reminder of God’s provision?  Can you remember living “manna” to mouth?  How did it affect your spiritual life living on more manna and less money?  Read Deut 8 noting the promises of God’s provision.  Record as many specific occasions as you can remember that God has provided for you.

Spiritual Friendship

But isn’t God enough?  Gen 2:18

Our spiritual journey is not a solo journey.  Spiritual friendships can heighten our awareness of God’s presence, provide accountability, and provide encouragement.  Who encourages your spiritual vitality?  Who is trustworthy?  Make a list of some people and spend time praying for God to lead you into a deeper “soul” friend relationship.  If you already have a close Christian relationship as such, pray for God to lead you in deepening that friendship.  Include who God has laid on your heart about your intention to deepen in fellowship.

Prayer

Exploring God’s Mercy, Learning God’s Heart  Gen 18:1-33

Prayer can be one of the most frustrating yet rewarding disciplines.  Prayer begins not with requests but with our relationship with God.  Reflect on your view of God.  How do you think God views you?  Is there someone you know in a bad situation, or is something overwhelming you with anxiety?  Talk with God about it as a conversation with a special friend that wants the best for you and for all.

Bible Study & Meditation

Handwriting on the heart  Deut 17:18

Israel’s king had to make his own personal copy of the law.  Obedience to God was essential to his effectiveness as a leader.  Spend a period of time copying Scripture by hand.  Choose one of the shorter epistles or several favorite chapters of the Bible.  what do you notice as you copy?  As you make your copy, be ready to note insights and ideas in your journal so you can give them thought later.

Worship

Take a Rest  Exodus 20:8-11

Few of the spiritual disciplines are clearly commanded in scripture, though some are.  Most are accepted because of example and the testimony of God’s people.  But observing the Sabbath, a day of rest, is a commandment, to serve as a worshipful reminder of the Lord’s covenant with us and as a means to our well-being.  Worship sets the pace for our lives.  When was the last time you scheduled a time of doing absolutely nothing?  Reflect on you weekly sabbath day.  Consider eliminating some activities and adding some restful things like taking a nap, sitting alone with some music, taking a leisurely walk...how do you rest?  The purpose is to rest and refresh your soul, not exercise the soul.  Remember God’s covenant with you and refresh your soul.

Who's Speaking?

I spent a recent morning in prayer alone with only God and nature on the back deck.  The birds chattered so much that any other sounds were muted in the process.  As I spent time in solitude, getting annoyed by the constant chirping and babbling of the birds,  Job's conclusive statements about God resounded in my head.

About God, he spoke:
You said, "Listen!  And I will speak!  I have some questions for you, and you must answer them!"  I had heard about you before but now I see you with my own eyes.  I take back everything I've said and now I sit in dust and ashes in repentance.

I'd read a different take on Job's conversation with his friends and with God earlier, one that is not important to review here, other than to say, this epiphany was much brighter.  God prepared my heart in  advance through a random presentation of His word.  Then through an exercise in solitude, God made clear to me the babbling bird I can be.

He loves the babble of the birds because He created their songs, but I get caught up in singing my song to other busy birds and forget to listen for the conductor, telling me when I'm a bit flat, or encouraging a good run of notes, or adjusting my tempo.

As I gave Him the issues on my heart, I left them on the table, stopped my chirping and listened for Him.  Scriptures zinged at me and through me as reminders that His voice is written down, and He's happy to remind us of what He's said regarding our struggles.   As I see the value of the rambling of this world compared to the clarity of Christ, I realize that I must listen.  God has some questions for me, and I must answer them.  Will my answer involve obedience always and repentance when necessary?  Truthfully, I'll probably still do my share of screeching in the trees, but I pray through regular solitude, I can become better at recognizing the Spirit's voice, listening for His lead and in obedience, keeping in step with His rhythm.

God Promises

     I've been studying this week about Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Asa and the split of Israel after Solomon's reign.  God kept His promise to Solomon to keep the line of David through the blessing of the autonomy of Judah even though Rehoboam did not please God at all.

     I looked back at 2 Chronicles 7:14 at God's promise to Israel:
     if "...My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

   Israel was splitting, hurting and in need of healing amidst struggles for power and control.  Instead of humbling himself, praying and seeking God's face; Rehoboam rejected advice from the elders, had no recorded prayer life, and sought to elevate himself in declaring himself greater than his father, Solomon.  Jeroboam did no better, appointing false priests to tell him what he wanted to hear, a prayer life that was not noteworthy and his glorification of idols instead of seeking God's face.
   
     Israel was torn into the northern kingdom and southern kingdom...Samaria and Judah.  Israel was broken from the most powerful and revered nation under Solomon to a people group split into two weak kingdoms with no repentance--opposed to God in politics, worship and daily living.

What is there to learn from this?  Sounds a lot like America, but in studying and talking with God about things, I think there is also a personal application.  Saving you seems more at God's heart than saving any political entity, though nations will definitely benefit from a revival of individuals in the body of Christ.

     Looking at the original promise, my attention is immediately drawn to Jesus in baptism.  He did not sin but followed through with baptism as an example for us.  He humbled himself to allow a fallen man, John, to dip him in the water.  Then, his conversation with God was heard by those witnessing the event.  Prayer is talking to God, but not just talking to God.  Jesus listened to God's affirmation of him as a son with encouragement to fulfill God's will.  Jesus then sought God's face through fasting and prayer in the wilderness as he prepared for doing his Father's will.  Then, he brought a call to repentance and redemption to the world, healing the physically sick as well as the spiritually sick.

     He lived the example of God's promise and through Jesus, we are called to live such lives as well.  We must give up our poles, our calves, our selves and turn to God through the Holy Spirit in prayer and worship to talk to Him about His will and our daily part in that will.

     Matthew 7:7 covers the same expression through the admonition to Ask, seek, knock and find.  James 1:6-7 instructs that we must ask with faith, but we are not naming "it" and claiming "it" as it refers to our idols, but we are praying in faith that God's will is what we desire and that He wants to reveal it to us.

     We are all spiritually broken and in need of healing through the Holy Spirit.  We must humble ourselves, come before God in prayer and seek His face in our daily lives.  If we do so, the Spirit will heal us and turn us from our wicked ways to be whole in Christ.  God promises.

Salty Sacrifice and Holiness

     Recently, I was reading a book regarding holiness, which ironically, pointed me back to scripture by pointing out Leviticus as a book devoted to holiness.  Many times we search for answers ourselves while God directs us back to His word, so I found no surprise in finding a verse I noted years ago in my Bible:
  "Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.  Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy."  Lev 20: 7-8

     So even before Jesus came in flesh, God instructed us to set ourselves apart, following His instructions, His law; but regardless of our efforts, it is God who makes us holy.  Paul poses the New Testament question of if we should just forget about trying to obey God, so that God's grace can be even greater.  The answer is absolutely not, and James expanded that answer to write that faith without works is a dead faith.

     Getting back to Leviticus and holiness, how does this work if God does the work, but we are supposed to play an active part.  Isn't playing an active part, in essence working?

     If I do not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman, will God make me Holy?  What about if I avoid taking my wife's sister as a rival wife?  Or not mating different kinds of animals?  Or not eating blood, making sacrifices correctly, burning mildew?  What do all these laws mean?

     Leviticus runs through a ton of instructions to give further detail from God's greatest instructions as applied to the Israelites.  Much discussion can be had on what those instructions meant to them at that time in relation to modern times on this side of the cross--but as a general look, it seems that the point of all the instructions was laying out things that would sever relationship with God, setting us apart from God instead of setting us apart for God.

     How do we set ourselves apart for God?

     "Season all your grain offerings with salt.  Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings."  Lev 2:13

     We must make an offering to God.  We don't make grain, or fellowship, burnt or guilt offerings today as they were prescribed back then, but this description given of the grain offering means everything compared with the offering we are asked to give today.  Jesus told us to sacrifice ourselves by taking up our cross daily to follow Him.  Paul describes the Levitical instruction in greater detail in Romans 12:1.

     "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."

     And when we offer our bodies, we should be applying plenty of salt.  Does this mean we should shower each morning in saltwater?  I don't think so, but Jesus referred to us in Mw 5:13 as the salt of the earth.  We don't want to lose our saltiness, so should be bathing in the light of Jesus each day to salt our living sacrifices in the Spirit.

     We can't produce the salt ourselves.  From where does it flow?

     "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."  Lev 17:11

     This verse referenced the restrictions of eating blood given to the Israelites, but we can see God's message that becomes clearer this side of the cross.  It is the blood of Jesus that makes atonement for our sins.  Jesus is THE salt of the covenant.  That is why we must salt our lives with Christ.  He makes us holy,   set apart,   as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever!  Amen.

Reading through Psalms

Psalm 131:1
O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty...

At first glance, this seems to read along the same lines as our sarcastic humor regarding humility.  We often joke that we are the most humble person in the room, or our humility is unsurpassed, or you need to be as humble as I.  This hit me in a different way this morning though, especially coming off Psalm 101, which was the preceding Psalm in my exercise of reading 5 Psalms a day, 30 chapters apart (today I read 11, 41, 71, 101 & 131.

Psalm 101:5
...No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.

David understands the LORD does not want a proud king, a proud man--a proud heart.  David understands the penalty is separation from God--death; so he sought God's heart and not his own.  I think we can relate these Psalms to today's vernacular a bit better than the NASB in this case--don't take me for being proud of this, as that would negate this entire entry!

The rest of 131:1 in the NASB reads:  ...Nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me.

I think this is the case of David, leading his family, the Israelites, on a life journey and getting lost in the land of Bathsheba, child-rearing issues and war.  The cliche' joke of men not wanting to ask for directions is a valid concern because men leading their families don't want to give any impression of stupidity, waywardness and insufficiency.  A man wants his family to trust in him, so he acts like he knows where he's going, refusing to seek direction from the lowly inhabitants of the land.

A man of God, though, says, "I ain't proud.  Let's stop for directions."

If you are a man and have stopped for directions, this has got to be the attitude of your heart whether you verbalize in true southern style or not.  The way I would translate 131:1& 3 in the language of the Southeastern United States is:  "God, I ain't proud...I'm counting on You to get me to my final destination."

David is not bragging about being humble; his statement of humility is one of admission of his position as a man compared with the position of God who created David along with the universe.  Many times, we won't have the answers to struggles in life, which direction we should go, why God set things up this way--but God has direction to give.  He asks that we model David's pursuit of God's heart and instead of trying to have it altogether, turning down whatever road looks best; He wants us to simply stop and say, "I ain't proud, LORD.  Direct my steps because you are my only hope of getting to my final destination."

Earlier, I mentioned that a man wants his family to trust him.  A man after God's heart, though, wants his family to trust Him--God.  Don't be too proud to stop and ask for directions.  Jesus humbled Himself to ridicule, spit, torture, and death by being nailed to a cross.  After going through that, He is not going to make fun of you, slap you around or give you faulty directions.  He wants you to get there (2 PET 3:9, 13); just stop, don't be proud and ask Him for your next step.

Jesus and Fig Trees

I was reading Luke and a parable I've read over before, but never really sank in.   Yesterday, it just kind of hit me as my brain tied it to another scripture from Mark.  Let me preface this with "I may not have any idea what I'm talking about."  Still, sometimes stepping out and laying it out for others to read is a good way to process the idea and to think through the initial light bulb.

The parable I read yesterday is in Luke 13:6-9.
"A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.
"And he said to the vineyard-keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any.  Cut it down!  Why does it even use up the ground?'
"And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.'"

The first thing that struck me was that this hit me out of the blue.  I've read through Luke before a few times...seems like I would have remembered this one, but I didn't!  Wow!  Then I thought about the story, and whether I'm completely on target or not, I pictured Jesus talking with God and one or the other said, "Look at those poor excuses for creation just using up that beautiful earth we made, and they're not even producing any fruit!  Let me just wipe them out and let's try with another planting!"

To me, this inserted conversation reminds me of the flood, and sparing Noah to re-seed the human existence.  But even with new trees, the Jewish nation was not producing the fruit God desired.  I like to refer to the Jews of that time and Israel to ignore the fact that my branches could go for some better fruit production too.  Are any of you similar to me in that?

Along with this image of a conversation with the Trinity, in which I left out the Holy Spirit--my fig production is really lacking--thankfully, the Holy Spirit didn't leave me out!  He led me to the recent parable I read in Mark that I've always found interesting and somewhat perplexing.

To sum up Mark 11:13-14 and 20-24, Jesus found a fig tree without any figs, cursed it for not having any fruit, even though it wasn't in season, and then Peter noticed the next morning the tree all withered from the roots up.

Now of itself, this is a perplexing verse.  Jesus does not seem to be very green, right?  But something clicked in my head making the connection between the two Gospels.  Was Jesus giving the disciples a vivid reality shot of what was about to happen?  When he withered the fig tree, he had just finished with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the tongue-lashing of the moneychangers and chief priests in the temple and was preparing for the crucifixion and resurrection to come later that weekend.

He told the disciples of the parable of the fig tree getting a little reprieve until after some fertilizer and another year to produce fruit.  Could He have been indicating with this unfortunate fig tree that He was done fertilizing.  His death was to come and with His coming resurrection, we're done with figs.

Perhaps our lives have been fertilized by the Spirit to produce His fruit.  When in our final "year" to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  If we dig deep with our roots to drink in the Spirit and allow Him to permeate our branches, we will produce fruit...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Don't reach with your branches as if it's by your own power to earn life; rather, reach with your roots, your heart for Him to live in and through you!  Don't allow your roots to wither...But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  To Him be glory, both now and forever!  Amen.

Spiritual Block: The Naked Man in Mark

I've heard several arguments and statements that the Bible is an old book of legend and myths.  I believe along the same viewpoint as Lee Strobel, C.S. Lewis, R.C. Sproul and other very smart guys--it just doesn't read like a lie!

I don't intend here to cover everything, but I've been following my own advice on the spiritual block and reading through the Gospels.  I landed on a verse in Mark that just doesn't read like a lie.   

"A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus when they seized him, he fled, naked, leaving his garment behind."  Mk 14:51-52

I have read some authors' views indicating this showing the tense urgency of the moment, or spiritualizing as he left his old covering behind to be naked and transparent before God, and some others; but as I heard this tonight, I thought something very different.  I thought guys sitting around Mark, recounting events from that dreadful night--only in light of the resurrection.  When ultimately, there is good news, the hilarious is easier to remember.

I envision, Thadaeus talking to James of Alphaeus:

     "Hey, James, do you remember that crazy dude who only had on a bed sheet in the garden when Jesus was taken into custody? "

     "Oh man, that was crazy, CRAZY, man!"

     "You remember, Peter cut that poor guys ear off, and then this guy took off and lost his sheet!"

     "Yeah, running in his 'birthday suit' through the garden!  Man, if it hadn't been so heavy a night, what a riot!"

     "Hey, Mark, what are you writing there?  Man, you've gotta include this!  That was hilarious!"

Mark:  "Well, I'm not sure how I'll work it in, but you're right...gotta include it, Man!"

You see, this just doesn't read like a lie.  Maybe I'm just a little off-center, but I think it could have gone down like this...I really do.