The Heart of David

I have a brother that is walking out the path David chose to take when Saul was literally after his life. The brother I write of today is Michael. He is a godly man and has served in the church most of his adult life. He doesn’t just show up, he actually gives 98% of his non-working time to actively serving God and his church family. He works with kids in the Royal Ranger program and is also the Commander that goes around helping other churches get the program started in their church. Nearly every weekend he is leading, teaching and inspiring kids and their parents. Countless hours are spent in preparation, execution and successful completion of the endless campouts, pinewood derbies, authentic reenactments, wilderness training, fishing trips, color guard training, and many more activities. He is also involved in a new program that takes non-believing men on wilderness campouts where they simply and with love share the heart of God.

Michael lives on the Gulf Coast and makes a point of staying in town to keep the church open for people that do not have a place to go when a hurricane heads their way. The first time he did that I spent the night watching TV for any news of their area and situation. I had begged him to come and stay with us for the duration of the storm. Growing up on the coast you develop a healthy respect for the power and intensity of a hurricane. I spent the night it arrived in prayer for my brother’s life and safety. He slept through it! His comment was that if God was to take him home during that storm what better place to leave from than church! Little brother taught me a lesson in all that. The next hurricane I prayed and went to bed. He and the church were still standing when the storm moved on.

At this time Michael is facing a trial of David and Saul proportions. His pastor has confronted him regarding tithing. Michael is a man of little financial means. His income rarely covers the necessities of life and he is still supporting a teenage daughter. His pastor confronted him several different times because he is unable to tithe regularly. In a recent conversation his pastor stripped him of his official duties in the Royal Ranger program in that church saying he had to step down until he could show he would tithe regularly and consistently. He is fully aware of Michael’s financial position. At the time his pastor made this declaration, Michael was on off work for a total of three months because of surgery that took bones out of his wrist. Basically, he was kicked while being down. His involvement with the kids is his ministry. Michael has tithed his time, his service, his love of God in training up these kids, yet it seems that years of service has little value to his pastor if he doesn’t give money. All these weeks following his dismissal, Michael continues to perform his duties because he had events planned and in motion with those kids and he said he was not going to disappoint them. He shows up to teach his classes every week. No one has stepped up to take his place. He has said nothing about any of this to the people within the church. Word is leaking out now about the situation, as word often does. Other churches want him. His pastor ignores him, not even speaking to him. I witnessed this myself this past weekend.

I asked my brother why he stays. He said that God showed him he was to treat his pastor as David did Saul when he had an opportunity to kill him in his sleep. God dealt with Saul and God will deal with the pastor. Saul tried to kill David many times, chased after him, had a bounty on his life, yet David did not harm him when opportunity came around. Michael has continued to seek God throughout the painful situation with the pastor. He chooses to be a man after God’s own heart like David as he deals with his own Saul, the pastor.

We all face our own versions of Saul in his sick and descending days. We all have enemies that come after us, chasing us, trying to beat us down and turn others against us. David had fear, yet he continued to seek God. David suffered greatly and was dishonored in the eyes of his countrymen, yet he continued to seek God. David kept his eyes on God. Michael has suffered more than he will admit as his pastor turned against him, yet he raises not a word against him because he keeps his eyes on God. My little brother is saddened by the loss of the friendship he had with his pastor but his resolve to stand faithful to the calling and to God’s direction gives him strength and conviction. I am filled with admiration and proud to call him my brother; both in the natural and in Christ!

As we face the Saul’s in our lives I pray we, too, can be people after God’s own heart and deal with our situations with honor, prayer and integrity. It is a timeless lesson in faithfulness and seeking God.

Rain, Rain, Come my Way

As the rain gently falls on my garden I am reminded we have choices to make everyday. As with the rain, we can view it as life giving nutrition to our plants so we have food to feed our families or we can see it as something ruining our plans for the day, a nuisance. Scripture says the rain will fall on the just and the unjust alike…I see that as the same opportunities for everyone. We can choose to look for the positive, the blessings, and the favor of God that pours out in our lives…OR…we can look at every circumstance and see only the negative…what we can’t do, can’t buy, can’t accomplish.

Using the rain again, I see it as refreshing and replenishing life here on earth. I know people that see it as gloomy, depressing and the cause of disappointments. That is so sad to me! The same rain is falling on each of us, yet our perspectives determine how we feel about it.

Those that live in lands where drought is common probably cannot understand a negative attitude about rain anymore than those of us that have lived without Christ can understand why everyone would not choose to live with Him. To know life without His mercy and then have personal knowledge of Him and His mercy is as much a contrast as barren drought plagued lands before a season of life giving rain. One brings death, the other brings life.

My heart is heavy when I see the suffering of people in the sun scorched lands where loved ones die at alarming rates and new born infants wither in their mother’s arms. Believers, there are people dying all day every day everywhere you look without anyone taking the time to share Jesus and His life-giving love with them. Life in a drought stricken land is painful, hard and brings certain death. Life lived without Christ promises a painful, hard and certain death where the suffering lasts for all eternity.

My challenge to you this rainy day is that we take the time to see the rain as life giving and a reminder that people dying all around us living drought-like lives without Christ. May the rain serve to prompt us to share Christ with those around us. May the life-giving Living Waters of Jesus rain down everywhere we go on everyone we see. May we be a part of the solution to people living barren lives and not a part of the problem by being passive. Rain falls; it is life in action. May we be life-sharers in action.

Standing on Holy Ground

This morning my mind and heart keep running through a Christian song ‘We Are Standing on Holy Ground’. Yesterday I had to take my shoes off at church to accommodate my back injury or walking and fellowship with others would have been impossible. I had a few people make comments about my bare feet, mostly in a joking manner but they were empathetic when they heard it was because of a bad back. I just told them I was standing on holy ground. This usually brought a chuckle in reply but the thought would not leave me…weren’t we standing on holy ground? Shouldn’t we consider our church property holy ground? Does that mean we should all go barefoot at church? My mind and thoughts evolve quickly. So it was no surprise to me that the song was in the forefront of my mind. I decided to research what scripture had to say about standing on holy ground.

After reading scripture, commentaries of scripture, historical information about practices during religious rituals, etc…I have come to the conclusion that I was much closer to practices of our Jewish forefathers and the early Christians than my fellow church people wearing shoes and boots. It turned out to be interesting reading.

In looking up ‘standing on holy ground’ in scripture, there are only two specific references…Moses’ encounter with the Lord at the burning bush and stories like Stephen’s speech of Moses at the burning bush. I was most touched by one of the commentaries on this scripture. It talked about God using Moses out in the desert to show the people of Israel that the temple or holy land was not the only holy place God inhabited. They jealously guarded and regarded their temple as the only place God would communicate with man. The burning bush experience showed Moses took off his shoes out of respect for the Lord. It concluded saying any place God makes His presence known is holy ground. So, that answers my question about considering our church holy ground. That being the criteria, any place you commune with God is holy ground; your living room, church sanctuary, prayer time, etc. Shoes not required!

Additionally, back in the Temple days, the High Priest were the only ones allowed in the inner sanctums of the temple and had to ritualistically wash their hands and feet before entering…no shoes in the Temple!

Jesus, on the night of the Last Supper, washed the feet of the disciples as an act of servitude and love…no shoes there. The Armor of God tells us to shod our feet with the Gospel of Peace, that is all that is necessary when we are prepared for spiritual battle.

There are many cultures, religious denominations and/or groups that practice leaving your shoes outside the door when entering homes or in places of worship. Even when we were ministering in a remote African village and a few of us ventured out to the hut where their priests and drummers were stirring up the spiritual realm, we were instructed to leave our shoes outside the hut. It appears to be a global sign of respect.

I did not feel self-conscious about being barefooted before my Lord at church. I did not feel uncomfortable about the people and their opinions, either spoken or unspoken. I felt humbled standing before the Lord and in my weakened injured state felt this was the best place to be. I know there is a mentality out here that you wear your Sunday best to church but I’ve never felt that was a God thing. Our clothes neither make us more connected to God or less connected to God. Coming before Him with a bare naked heart and transparent soul is where our priorities should be in my estimation. I give Him my worship, my service and my time every day; not just on Sundays. As I write this I am in my jammies, barefooted and full of love for Him.

Let’s not forget that our bodies are His temple! My naked feet are a part of that temple. I am to care for His temple as long as I inhabit it. I do not allow graffiti on it, I do not put harmful substances in it and I keep it clean and as free from disease as possible. Yes, my humble opinion is that shoes are optional. As long as my feet are willing to go where He leads me, I do not think He cares what is on them.

We are standing on holy ground
For I know that there are angels all around
Let us praise Jesus now
For we are standing in His presence on holy ground

Give it a Rest!

The writer of Genesis said: “..By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done…”

It seemed important enough to God that He rest after a week of work, yet in today’s craziness, most people are so bent on running faster and faster; filling their schedules to the brink of exhaustion and even playing a game of one upping one another to see who can claim rights to being the busiest. We tend to feel lazy and unproductive when we aren’t running, made to feel quite small if stopping to take a nap. So much so, if we slack off from the crazy race we tend to do it on the sly so others will not know we are taking a time of rest. Are we are ashamed of rest?

Do we think of time away from work as a waste; as second class hours? That is not a Biblical principle. ‘Sabbath is God’s antidote to workaholism. It is the checkmate to men and women who have fallen into the trap of believing their personal worth is built upon what they do rather than who they are.’ according to the wisdom of Gordon MacDonald’s book Renewing Your Spiritual Passion. I know most people believe they simply have to cram in all the activities in order to maintain life as they know it. There will always be dishes and laundry to do. No matter how much time you put into it on Saturday or Sunday, there will be more on Monday. We can not say the same about our strength and energy.

The heart, probably the strongest and most resilient of our muscles, is designed to rest between every beat. Most growing things have a period of dormancy every year. Yet we tend to fill as many hours of each day with as many things as possible. A while back I realized I was walking at a crisp pace while talking on the phone because I felt I wasn’t wasting time just talking and visiting with people. How sad is that? Then, I decided to purposely walk while talking because I was adding to the number of steps I take each day in my efforts to increase my physical stamina. It was a habit developed out of guilty feelings of wasting time that I turned into part of my health regime. I’ve done it for so long now that rare is the time I can actually sit down and talk on the phone at the same time. Birthed from guilt to a positive purpose is good but it is incredibly sad to think that time visiting with friends or family is wasted time. I’m confident that was never God’s plan for relationships! Nor was staying so busy we do not take time to rest. He was the role model for what should be our actions and habits.

I had a doctor tell me once that I did not really rest even when I rested. My mind stayed busy, my body stayed tense, my rest never felt recuperative and I was paying the high toll it had taken on me. I now make time for quiet and rest. No TV or radio to fill the airwaves with noise. No books or internet to fill my head with an endless parade of things to think about are allowed either. I require a certain amount of alone, quiet time for maximum sanity. I feel the drain on my body and spirit when I am deprived of that time. Yes, the spirit within is directly affected by the activities and busyness of the outside. If we are not taking time to rest and renew our bodies and mind are we really taking the time to renew our spirits? Probably not. Can ‘crash and burn’ be far behind with we deplete our physical, mental and spiritual resources?

May you rest in the Lord and be filled with all the goodness that comes from following the example our heavenly Father set for us. May your bodies be strengthened, walking upright in vigor and purpose in providing for your family. May your mind be set at ease and be filled with the peace that only our Lord can bring. May your days be fruitful and your labor rewarded. May you take diligent care of the body, the Lord’s temple, with which you are guardian over while walking this earth. May you use wisdom in all your choices and directions, seeking the Lord for wisdom and His will to be done. All this and more I pray for you and me alike. Rest in the Lord, Friend.

It's Me - Really!

This morning, while logging in online to the blog site I had a thought zip through my mind I’d like to share. You see, at this moment in time, I have four blogs with two each on different blog sites. The log-in box has a little place to click on if you are logging in under a different user name. I was.

I have two primary email addresses; one for family and friends and the other I use on business emails. They are set so that when I receive an email on either one, it is forwarded to the other. This way, regardless of what mode I may be at the time - personal or business – I am notified when I receive a new email. Since your user name on the blog sites is determined by the email address you use, you can have more than one user name. Clear as mud…I know.

The thought I had was that just as I juggle user names and email addresses albeit the same old me, some people use different ‘faces’ and personalities for different situations even thought they, too, are the same old person. We all tend to put our best foot – or face – forward when we want to impress and try to insure a certain facade but the person behind the facade is simply the same old you. Rather like the “man behind the curtain” in “The Wizard of Oz”. We can blow smoke and flash mirrors but we are who we are and everywhere we go…there we are!

We can fool some of the people some of the time but we can not fool all of the people all of the time. And we certainly can not fool God any of the time! As people in our lives come to know us more and more, they are exposed to bits and pieces of the real us; eventually putting together a picture of who we really are as if we were a jigsaw puzzle. God, however, sees who we really are before we are ever born! He knows our victories and failures, our highs and lows and the very number of hairs on our heads. We can change our names, faces and move about the earth as we choose but we are who we are when God looks at us. The awesome part of this story is He loves us regardless of how we try to mask and disguise the real us to those around us. Scripture tells us we are to be transparent with one another, meaning showing our true selves weaknesses and all.

Somewhere in my life, even as a child, I knew the parts of me that others liked or did not care for. I’ve always seen the pattern that people either liked me a lot or didn’t care for me at all…no middle of the road to speak of. My mother used to say that you never had to wonder where you stood with me, I would tell you. I never really understood why that was a problem, it seemed honest to me. It took some maturing on my part to understand that not all people care for transparency and revelation. I had to learn to play the game I detested so much. Imagine how delighted I was as a born again Christian to realize God wanted me to be who I was all along. He loved me just as I was, even before I started the walk toward becoming more Christ-like. Any half baked facades were tossed aside gleefully and there I stood before the Lord, unashamedly naked with all my warts and imperfections….and He loved me.

I entertain myself with thoughts of changing my name and I certainly can be anyone I want to be in my email addresses and user names, but I am who God created me to be and none of the other stuff matters. Yes, there are still people that either like me a lot or do not like me at all and that’s ok. I can live with that. I know I am being true to God and true to the person He created me to be. My God account far exceeds the import of my email or user accounts!

This is the real me wishing you a Jesus-filled day being the real you in the one and only real God.

The Standard by Which We Measure

Years ago in Austin, Texas I introduced my Honey to my favorite tortilla soup at a restaurant where I frequently had lunch during the week when I worked close by. He was just as delighted by the savory concoction as I. In fact, the past ten years we have tried to find a place locally with a tortilla soup that even comes close to the one in Austin. It became the standard by which we measure all tortilla soup. You would think living near San Antonio with a Mexican restaurant anywhere you look one could find a decent tortilla soup. We have found some better than others but none to measure up to the standard. I make a pretty good one here at home but we have not even found a close second anywhere we have ventured into when eating out. Our standard set the bar very high. We will, once again, partake of our favorite tortilla soup when we are in Austin next week on business. We are excited! We are entertained easily, can you tell?

We have consumed a lot of soup in all the years we have searched for a comparable tortilla soup. We’ve talked of our quest to people with whom we may be dining and they tell of places to try; some even purchased some for us they think is great. This is not to say there is not good tortilla soup to be had but merely to say the standard by which we measure has not been equaled or topped. This may seem a silly quest to you but once you’ve known the best, the standard setter, nothing else compares and your satisfaction level is never satisfied with less. You walk away feeling disappointment and are let down. This applies to every area of life, not just tortilla soup.

As Christians the bar has been set very high indeed by our Lord Jesus. He is the source of our strength, the provider of all things, the reason we walk in grace and not condemnation. He set the standard we are to strive to obtain in how to worship, how to love and forgive, how to face adversity with confidence. He, too, faced obstacles and temptations as He walked this earth. Yet, He never failed to measure the obstacles against His Father God. His standard became our standard when we make the commitment to follow after Him. We, too, need to measure our obstacles against our God. There is not one issue or obstacle that looms large when God is our standard. They will pale in comparison and no longer hold us in fear when we keep our eyes on the standard by which we measure and not give thought or consideration to our own strengths. Alone, we have none. Like the many bowls of tortilla soup we have tasted in hopes of finding one as good as THE one, we often try different ways to combat our obstacles on our own only to fail again and again. Nothing measures up The Standard.

As I said earlier, “…once you’ve known the best, the standard setter, nothing else compares and your satisfaction level is never satisfied with less. You walk away feeling disappointment and are let down….” This is never an issue when we keep our eyes and focus on the highest standard by which we measure…Jesus.

Purpose for Life

Most all of us from time to time have pondered and questioned the purpose for which we were created. ‘What am I really here for?’ When we are children we are asked what we want to be when we grow up and in our childlike minds we picture ourselves in various common roles. While the job market for a princess or cowboy may not be what it used to be, the act of thinking about what we want to do or become is now implanted in our minds.

From pondering what we want to be when we grow up to questioning why we even exist is not a big leap. I believe it is a fundamental quest to understand the purpose God had in mind for us when He ‘knitted’ our parts together inside our respective mother’s wombs. It is a deep seeded quest for knowledge and understanding on a spiritual level. When the spiritual aspect is left out in the seeking, the answer may elude us all our days. The Potter sculpts a vessel by hand with intent in mind, thus the shape takes form to fulfill the intended purpose. He is the Potter; we are the clay.

To know our genuine purpose, we must seek the Father and His Will for our lives. His purpose for us will bring a greater sense of direction and motivation. His purpose brings strength when we feel weak in our efforts. His guidance makes clear our path and focus. This does not guarantee smooth sailing and a roadblock free journey but it does guarantee His hand is own our back as we make that journey.

Consider with me the road Jesus had to travel to fulfill His purpose. It is obvious He knew His purpose when at the early age of twelve He was sitting in the Temple with the scholars blowing their collective minds with His insights and comprehension of the scriptures. His purpose was the reason He walked the earth in the first place. He was to become sin, the physical representation of all our sin, to endure a cruel and violent physical death and what must have been a horrifying separation from the Father to make our path to the Father clear and straight. Jesus is the path, the only path back to the Father that created us; back to the Father that wove His purpose for us in the very fibers that gave us form. Is it important, then, to seek and work to fulfill our God given purpose? You bet it is! It was important enough for Jesus to suffer humiliation and abuse. He fulfilled His purpose to bring us to a place where we even had a chance of being restored to the Father.

This weekend we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. His purpose on earth fulfilled, He moved from being our sin to becoming our advocate with the Father. His God given purpose to reign continues. King of kings, Lord of lords, Jesus walked this earth just as you and I. His purpose: to be a living sacrifice for us. As we worship and praise Him this Easter, giving thanks for the purpose which He came, ask for direction in finding the purpose for which you were sent. How better to honor His purpose than in walking out our own in serving with thanksgiving?