Sitting at His Feet

Although I'm on a brief blogging hiatus, I decided to share this devotion since we didn't get to it on Tuesday night:
After rehearsal this week I was immediately convicted about not sharing this devotion with you all. Interestingly enough, the very fact that I didn't make time to share this devotion was an example of exactly what this passage talks about. It's familiar to all of us, but I trust that you'll hear it with new ears today as you read:

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus'[fn11] feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell to help me." And Jesus[fn12] answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42 NKJV)

As you read through this passage I'm sure you are freshly convicted as I am to make the focus of our lives worship and not service. The encouragement I have for you today in addition to that is to not limit worship to sitting at His feet by way of what we consider contemporary worship - the singing of songs, playing of instruments, dancing, etc. Let us take our definition to that of an entire lifestyle surrendered to Christ and a firm adherence to His truth. Sitting at His feet is not only about adoring Him, but about hearing His words. Look at what the passage says of Mary: she "sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." Jesus knew that if Mary would come and hear his words and truly receive them, that she would live and give everything in life to honor Him. He knew that her focus would not be on the works themselves, but that the works would come out of His word which was deposited in her spirit to produce good fruit. That should be our primary goal in sitting at His feet: hearing His word. Sharing our heart for him and acknowledging His greatness is necessary, but let us not stop at that. We must choose to continue to the place of hearing and receiving the words of life, because that's what will truly change us and cause us to do His will.

Remember that we can prepare all that we want to for 'good works', but without sitting at His feet to hear His word we may totally miss the mark. Even as the scripture says of Martha, "she was DISTRACTED with much serving." We can become oblivious to what God is saying through our own endeavors. He might be telling you to lay something down in order to pick something else up. He may be moving us in a new direction that will cause us to walk in a greater measure of faith. Whatever truth He speaks to us, the unwavering assurance we can have is that He will not only tell us what the truth is, but will also teach us how to walk in that truth. He is faithful to guide and direct our steps as we are promised in Psalm 37:23 & Proverbs 16:9. So today and everyday, especially as we prepare all of the many facets of our ministry, let's not forget what Jesus said, '...one thing is needed...' - to sit at His feet and hear His word.

Hiatus Time

I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting for just a couple of weeks. It's always good to step back, reflect and rest in Father God in order to not become mundane and full of empty religion in anything we do. With that said, look for some new posts in a few weeks.

Have a great day!

PS. This would be a great time to look through some of the older posts if you missed any of them. As the author I'm a little biased, but they are pretty encouraging :-).

Faith by Works

As I write to you today, my desire is to encourage us to strengthen our resolve to walk in God's word. As the church we've often regarded our role in God's Kingdom to simply keep a right heart with little regard to our actual fruit. The mantra of many of us in the church today is, 'we just need to have a right heart.' Although one of the reasons that Jesus came was to recapture the hearts of mankind, His imminent goal was to redeem us through our submission to His truth with a right heart, not one or the other. Although both of these are important in our lives, they should work in tandem and not with one above the other.

Whether you refer to having the right motives as purity of heart, having pure motives, good intentions or any other title of choice, to focus solely on having a right heart is to depart from obedience to God's word. This was of course what got us in this mess (the fall of man) to begin with; not obeying God's word. Now obviously I don't attempt to say that the condition of your heart is unimportant, but what I will say is that it is not the end. The coming of Christ to the Earth in order to redeem mankind was an ushering in of a renewed opportunity to commune with God by obeying his word through a heart that was turned to Him. To receive the lordship of Jesus Christ is to surrender to His authority. And who is Jesus? The word of God (John 1:14). By viewing our present situations in life through this lense opens up our responsibility in this wonderful process of the redemption of mankind. The truth (Jesus) came, and it was then/now that the ball was in the court of mankind to respond to that truth with worship/obedience (John 4:21-24). Our response to God's truth is what is paramount today. Your heart must be right in receiving that truth, but it's your response to it that will determine the results. It's the outworking of that heart that tell us whether we truly have faith in Him.

Imagine a man who spent his entire marriage refusing to disciple his wife and children in the word of God. Breaking promise after promise to his family. Living in such a way that he frivolously wasted any inheritance that could have been set aside for his family. And putting every other area of his life above his family. Now with all of that considered, imagine that he justified his life to his family, friends and God by saying: 'I wanted to do good' or 'I had good intentions' or 'Look at all of my other accomplishments.' Would we call this man faithful? Would this man have fulfilled his God-given responsibilities? Would we say he accomplished his God-given purpose? I don't even need to ask for your response because I can hear all of you yelling NO at your computer screens. The problem is, this is how we've often viewed our walk with Christ. We often fall short and do not fulfill what God has required of us as His children, and then our redeeming statement is that God knows our heart or that we had a heart to do right. I would say to this that I believe God is looking at us and saying: Yes I do know your heart which is why I sent the Way the Truth and the Life so you could walk in My heart for you. So you could not just have good intentions, but bear fruit worthy of repentance (John 14:6 & Matthew 3:1-12; Matthew 4:17 - NKJV).

As we have a fresh start on the calendar this year, let us choose each day to be diligent to show our faith by our works. A right heart is a start, but it is not what completes the race. Jesus declared to us that those who endure to the end would be saved, not those who have the purest of motives and intentions. He said to us that those who did the the will of His Father would enter the Kingdom of Heaven, not just those who had a desire and said: Lord, Lord, have we not done all of these things in your name? (Matthew 7:21-27) It's not just about a right heart or about good works, it's about the will of God. Let's take the challenge to be true to the word and the spirit and not ourselves (as the world would have us believe). Our allegiance is to the Father and His will and not the feelings that we have within our heart. Let's hear truth and respond to it and do whatver is necessary in order to apprehend and fulfill the plans of God for our lives. Let's begin with what He expects of all of us from His written word and then allow Him to paint the individual pictures for each of our lives in that context. Let your works speak of what is in your heart, confirming that you have responded appropriately to truth. The grace has been given to us by God to be saved, but then for us also to go forth and do good works. Ephesians 2:8-10 is a passage that highlights this beautifully:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of

God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared

beforehand that we should walk in them.

We have been saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves, it is God's gift. Thank God for His mercy, but we then must go on to verse 10 in which Paul tells us that we are the Father's workmanship. In that, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works that God HIMSELF prepared for us to walk in. This is great news as well as a great responsibility. Thankfully, Father God has poured out an ample supply of grace for us to complete every task which He has prepared for us to do. He has given us great and precious promises as we're reminded of in 2 Peter 1:2-10. Everything that pertains to life and godliness is ours by His divine power. Therefore, I encourage you today not to stop at having a right heart, but to go on to respond to the Father's truth in such a way that we show our faith by our works.

It's a New Day

Here we are at the close of another year with so many things which have happened. I'm sure we all can go over a laundry list of the highs and the lows. Some really fond memories, and others which we would gladly lay to rest, never to remember. Regardless of what your year has been like, the truth of who our Father in Heaven is, remains unchanged. His mercy, grace, faithfulness, power, love, kindness, and the fullness of His character continues without ceasing year after year, generation after generation. Realizing this, what we ought to strive for as we close the chapter of one year to begin yet another is to walk faithful as our Father does each day.

If this year has been great as far as personal goals and accomplishment or whether you fell short in these areas, your main goal should still be to emulate the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father. The writer of Hebrews encourages us in chapter 4 that 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts' (Heb. 4:7; Psalm 95:7-8 - NKJV). There is a fresh opportunity each day to either continue in faithfulness or repent and get on the road of faithfulness. Yahweh our God is the epitome of a Father, in that He desires what is best for us and will provide us with every resource we need to succeed in His plan (not our plan). In Him we live and move and have our being and His divine nature has already been deposited in us by the Holy Spirit (Acts 17:28-29 - NKJV). Considering this, let's embrace the ability that God has given us to become more and more like Him in all we do. Don't limit yourself to the calendar year as a new beginning in these things, but realize that each day the mercy and grace of God is new. Remember the word declares 'now is the day of salvation' (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). Everyday is a new and fresh opportunity to walk in the fullness of God's purpose for us as individuals and the corporate destiny that He has established for His church.

Entering into a new year is a great and wonderful experience, but never feel as if you're limited to what you can accomplish within a calendar year, but realize that every day is a fresh opportunity to know the Father, obey His word and accomplish His plan. So as we wrap of 2008, let's make the decision to not limit God's plans for us to the calendar year of 2009, but let's allow His purpose to consume us every day of our lives and not just during a certain time period. Set goals and have aspirations for 2009, but let those pale in comparison to the way in which you embrace the wisdom and instruction of the Lord and live by every word that proceeds from His mouth each day (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4). Make it your aim to live every moment realizing that truly, it's a new day!

Continue in His Word

I would like to encourage you with something that was freshly brought to my attention by our guide, the Holy Spirit. The reminder came from Jesus' words in John 8: ...If ye continue in my word, ye are my disciples indeed (John 8:31 - KJV). I specifically used the King James in quoting this verse because of the power of saying that we must 'continue' in His word. With that stated, I must reference the the verse that follows, which is the one most people know: ...Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:32).

Now, I'll be candid and say that verse 31 is often not quoted with the subsequent verse (which generally gets all the attention and lots of amens if you're speaking to a group). In fact, many times, people can quote 'the truth will make you free', but we don't see any of the responsibility that rests on us to obey the word of God which brings liberation. The very core of what it means to be one of Jesus' disciples is to keep His word, but funny enough, we don't quote this nearly as often as we quote the verse about freedom, even though the qualifier of being a true disciple and walking in freedom is 'continuing' in His word. Much of that stems from our society's desire to have the good fruit without having to plant the seeds and tend the crops. In short, we enjoy receiving benefits without having to put in time and effort. This is why freedom often seems to elude us in certain areas of our lives.

It would be nice to shout freedom and confess it with our friends during church, in our homes, or even in the streets, but what Jesus said would make us true disciples and in turn make us free was not confessing, but continuing. Continuing in what? His word. That is the end all be all for freedom entering into the life of the true disciple. By repentance and confession of Christ we are able to enter the Kingdom, but our continuance in His infallible word is that which will keep us there, and keep us living in freedom. That revelation must be a foundational stone in our life of faith. One that is not only to be acknowledged, but to be built upon continually. It is only then that we will see the true power of His word unleashed in our lives. It is only then that we will know the truth, and that truth which we know will make us free.

Life might be busy, tough, tiring and a host of other adjectives that we could conjure up with enough time and maybe a friend (or spouse like I have) that was an English major. Regardless of this reality, there is a greater reality which is that of God's Kingdom. And with that in mind, true discipleship and freedom are ours if we will be faithful to 'continue' in His word.

Thank You

This post in very simple and is quite literally summed up in the title, 'Thank You.' So much to worry about, so much to consider, so many things going wrong, but as so much is seemingly falling apart, let's remember the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father. Paul gave us a simple and straightforward answer for the temptation to be ungrateful in Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things

[are] noble, whatever things [are] just, whatever things [are]

pure, whatever things [are] lovely, whatever things

[are] of good report, if [there is] any virtue and if [there is] anything praiseworthy--

meditate on these things. (NKJV)

Thanksgiving is not about everything being alright, because most times at least a few things are not. Thanksgiving is about knowing that regardless of what's going on, God's kingdom is advancing and we get to be a part of it. It's about looking for the noble, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, praiseworthy things that are of a good report. It's about seeing the record of our God's power and faithfulness in all things, especially in our lives. It's about knowing that He is always worthy of all thanks and praise to Him for every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).

So this thanksgiving, and every day you live, have an attitude of gratitude, a grateful heart, and always be ready to bless the name of our Lord for his faithfulness and mighty acts toward us as His children. With that in mind, let the praise that comes from your mouth always be filled with those two special words: Thank You.

All Things Work Together for Our Good

Sometimes as we look at life's circumstances, trials, situations and challenges, Romans 8:28 can seem like not much more than wishful thinking. When crises and tough situations meet us in this life, it truly is a time when whatever can be shaken, is shaken. Our finite minds can only comprehend or see a part of the big picture that Father God is painting so flawlessly and beautifully. There is no doubt that the challenges we often face in life can seem so difficult and insurmountable, but remember the promise of the Word as Jesus told us in Matthew 19:26, 'with God all things are possible.' This one short statement is colossal in it's impact upon our lives, primarily in our faith and how we live according to that faith.

If we confess and believe that God is the creator of the universe, the sovereign ruler of all things, the giver and sustainer and life, the source of every good and perfect gift, then we must conclude that he is infallible and all-powerful. When we come into a realization of who He is, suddenly, any circumstance or situation becomes incredibly small and insignificant in light of His grace, mercy and eternal power. When the Apostle Paul declared, that all things work together for our good, he had to realize that in light of tough situations and circumstances, believing this statement was a tall order. The great thing about Paul is that he was certain of the greatness and power of Father God which would eclipse anything that we would ever face. So much so that he would go on in that very same chapter (Romans 8:29-39) to declare that NOTHING could separate us from the love of God.

It may seem like a tough road sometimes, because it is. It may see like it's a losing battle in the natural, because it is. It may seem as if there is nothing you can do, because you can't, but it's in that place that the true revelation of who He is in your life will come. When you're at the end of yourself and you've done all you can do, that is point at which you'll realize that His grace is sufficient for you because his strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). No matter how it looks in the natural, remember, trust in the Lord and know that all things work together for our good.