Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Step Four: Make IT Personal -- Get in the Word

Psalm 119:9 - 11 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your Word. . . . .I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

In the continuing saga of removing the IT in my life: IT has to get personal, and it is His living Word that makes it that way.

You have to recognize and be grieved by the fact that when you sin, you're sinning against God first and foremost. This is a huge step - too often we worry about how our sins affect the way other people see us. This is a very shallow response, one we're all guilty of. When you draw close to God, you are so in love with Him that when you sin, you ache because you've hurt Him, not your reputation, not your friends, not the world's view of you.

Think about what David said in Psalm 51:4 "Against You, You only have I sinned . . ." Oh, really, David? Well what about Bathsheba? One minute she's relaxing in the bath the next she's pregnant with your child and has a dead husband. And what about poor Uriah? He's out with his men, next thing his life is turned upside-down and he finds himself leading a charge against a city only to find that everyone has withdrawn and he's dead in a field. I think that somehow, David, your sin greatly affected these people. (Not to mention the child of this sin, who dies months after he is born, or his older children whose lives become ultra-messy.)

But what David is saying is true. The closer you get to God the more grieved you are that you have allowed sin into your life - because it breaks that fellowship with the One you love the most.

To combat this - you have to get into the Word. And I will say this as well: you have to believe that it's true and authoritative.

Therefore Step Four for me in my battle against the hindering sins in my life is this: Get into the Word and make it personal. We will fight for people more than we will fight for ideas, so our sin has to become about a Person, not a way of life, or else we will eventually stop fighting. Victory requires persistence. We are persistent about the people in our lives, not the ideas that come and go.

The change in my life occurred when I began to consume His Word. I love the Lord, but it was with a selfish love. Then some things occurred, of my own making and not, that forced me into a new job where all I had was God and the Bible. I began to read it every chance I had. I wore out three Bibles in three years. I can't overstate the importance of what happened during this time period. I fell in love with God. His Word, which so many of this generation struggle with, became consistent, beautiful, real, literal, authoritative - everything in your heart that you really want it to be.

And my sins - they became sins against God, not against my reputation. I attacked them with a vengeance, wanting them whittled out of me to the last sliver. My battle against the "ITS" of my life is now personal, because it affects my greatest desire: my relationship with God. The battle has become Personal.

If you are not in His Word, you will have a very difficult time taking out the IT that is killing your walk. It's the Word that makes it personal, that allows you see your sin in a way that's not just functional, but relational. So back to Psalm 119 - we have to hide His Word in our hearts so that like the psalmist, we will not want to sin against Him.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Step Three: Processing IT

I wish that God would simply act like He was pulling a thorn and do away with IT. I've often prayed this prayer: "God, You know I love You with all of my heart. I want nothing more than for You to do some Divine Emptying of all that is hindering me from following You without another thought getting in the way. I really believe my motives are pure. Reveal to me if I'm deluding myself. So - with all that in mind, why don't You just take IT away?"

Why doesn't He? Because the process matters. Understanding that is one of the most important parts to dealing with the things in your life that are haunting you and hurting you. But let's remember, not everything that you're dealing with is going to be removed, and the things that are removed may not be removed right away - for your benefit.

Let me give a personal example - one that hurts my memory, but if it helps someone, then that's the point of what I'm trying to say:

In Jr. High and early High School I had a serious skin problem. It was bad, to the point that my mother (bless her heart) spent many days bringing me to the dermatologist. Honestly, it was the worst thing in my life and I spent many nights wondering why I was going through this. But it did something for me, something extremely valuable to this day: It shut my mouth. I tended to have a quick response to people and a low tolerance for idiocy. But with this problem, it tempered me, I didn't want to draw any attention to myself so I kept quiet when my "natural" desire was to give a withering response to anyone who was saying or doing things that I found to be foolish, to put them in their place. It made me think twice before saying anything.

This change in my personality trait has served me well to this day. As a pastor, teacher, parent, I can't be blistering people at the first sign of something I disagree with. It allows me the time to look at both sides before speaking. It allows me to develop a much greater balance when thinking about issues instead of going with my first response. Simply put, I'm a more mature and effective Christian man because God didn't just take it away.

The process of dealing with this "IT" in my life also allowed God to develop in me a greater sensitivity to those who are dealing with things in their lives that are killing them. I know what I went through is not like cancer or anything like that - but believe me when I say in hindsight that going through that problem changed me for the better.

In Deuteronomy 7:22 God tells Israel that the land is theirs. The boundaries are already marked out, the enemies already have the target on their backs. Yet He says that they will grow into these pre-established boundaries because the process is matters. They won't have complete victory right away, it will take some time, for their own good. They need to go through the whole ordeal of small victory after small victory, as it will cause them to cling to God and knock out the things that have to be removed in their own hearts.

The prayer of Psalm 51 really matters here: "grant me a willing spirit to sustain me,"

We are directed to pray that we will have the will to sustain us while He works us through the process, instead of just quitting or settling for less. But as you work and pray to remove these things in your life that are killing you, you may need to think a little bit long-term and understand that God is preparing you and changing you and that this wouldn't happen if He simply blinked the IT out of your life.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Step Two: Shut Up And Sit Down

Joshua 24:19 "You are not able to serve the Lord, He is a holy God; He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins."

No, Joshua isn't saying that God won't forgive rebellion, or won't forgive sins. What he is doing is a precursor to what the Ultimate Joshua always did - he is forcing the people to count the cost, to shut up and sit down and think about the decision they are making.

What was happening in this passage is that Joshua is dying and he knows it. He calls everyone together and gives an unbelievable charge, an emotional call to stay true to the Lord. It's such an awesome message that we still put it in our houses today. I mean, what Christian home doesn't have some form of Joshua 24:15 on their walls? "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Think about it - if we still get chills hearing those words, imagine what it must have been like when he was speaking them! So the people did what we do, they immediately shout out: ME TOO! (Joshua 24: 18 "We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God!")

Then Joshua throws verse 19 at them. He tells them that they better stop and think about what they're saying, because God is holy and He doesn't tolerate sin and rebellion. It can't simply be an emotional response, it has to be a well-considered, well-reasoned response because the consequences are immense. "Count the cost!" he says to them.

Jesus, the True Joshua, continually did the same thing. To everyone who came to Him, He would throw a "Stop and think" at them. A difficult parable, a hard teaching, a high calling. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor. I only have a rock for a pillow. Let your father die without you. Throw away your livelihood. You must eat My flesh. In other words, shut up and sit down and think about this decision, because it will affect and invade every area of your life.

Side thought: Sometimes I wish pastors today would do that. Instead of altar calls, they should shout out: Sit back down! I don't want you coming up here. Think before you take one more step! Imagine if they did that? Maybe the church would be a little more serious about their decisions. Maybe it would eliminate some of the casual, cultural, convenient, compromising Christianity that has infected the church.

Back to the story: When the Israelites say again to Joshua that they will do it, he replies, "Then throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." (v.23)

That's the challenge. It can't simply be an emotional response to a great sermon (or blog!) or even "life verse." You have to sit down, count the cost, and then when you make the decision it means you have to get rid of all the garbage you've been tolerating in your life, all of the gods, and yield your heart to God. You have to clean house. It's kind of contradictory to say to God that you want Him to rule out the garbage in your life, the IT, and then cling to it at the same time and allow other rulers to remain.

Step one: pray for the will, the desire to want it. Without that nothing else matters.
Step two: Shut your mouth, sit down and count the cost. See how badly you really do want it.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Step One: A Willing Spirit

Psalm 51: "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me."

I'm assuming that anyone who wants THAT removed is already under the salvation of God through Christ, which David acknowledges in this beautiful psalm. (And please note that it is HIS salvation, not ours that David is seeking.)

So what does he plead for? A willing spirit. This is the first step in removing whatever "Jericho" or big thing that is in your face. Something that has to come out for victory to be achieved. And whatever IT is really does have to go.

Here's an example why: Towards the end of WWII, the Allies were marching to Germany after the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. They approached a city called Aachen that was heavily fortified - to the point that they decided they would simply side-step it and keep moving forward instead of suffering the high cost of battle. It seemed like a good idea, engulf it and move on - until they found out that their supply lines were constantly under attack by the men of Aachen. The generals got together and made the decision: Aachen had to be destroyed. So at the cost of many lives they attacked and after brutal house-to-house combat they took it out and moved forward.

We try to sidestep deep problems in our lives and hope that we can keep marching forward. But our "supply lines" are under constant attack and we fail repeatedly. These big things, the IT in your life, have to come down or we will be stuck where we are.

Step one: Pray for a "willing spirit" to sustain you as you fight this thing. Pray for a deep desire to actually have victory and to keep pressing forward no matter the situation. A willingness to engage in a sustained battle. Without this desire, we cave in or try to ignore it and suffer defeat.

Philippians 2:12,13 "Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." As we work out these things, as the IT is attacked and removed, we need to remember that God can actually work in us the will to have it done. Recognizing this changed the way I pray. I now implore God to work in me to will, not just to act - to give me the desire to want to have victory.

"Grant me a willing spirit to sustain me . . . . " as I work out the "Aachen" in my heart.

Friday, December 5, 2008

What Is THAT

There is a big difference between a burden that God is asking us to bear and something in our life that can and must be conquered for us to move forward in Christ. One of my pet peeves is when someone continues to live in a sinful way, or have a sinful thought process and claim that it's the "cross they must bear."

I also know that there are certain things God allows us to go through (or happen to us, depending on your theological viewpoint) and these are things we must work through to growth, not just try to have removed.

For example, my father has just found out that he has cancer. I pray and hope that he will be healed, but this may be something we all go through together as a family, and my father as an individual, that will not change regardless of my heart's desire. Our responsibility is to trust God and to lay it at His feet and allow Him to change us, not the circumstance. We must adapt to this situation, not vice versa.

But in my last posting, I was not talking about things like this. I was referring to sinful mindsets that we think can never be changed. Anxiety. Bitterness. Laziness. Lust. Coveting. Discontent. And some even deeper than these - core issues that are strangling the life out of us and we think that these are our "Burdens to Bear." I deal with these in my own life and as I wrote previously, I tend to be like the Samaritan woman. "This well is deep and You have nothing to draw with." I cave in to the thought that it will never change, and I adapt my life to it. But this is wrong and I have to come to the place where I go for broke.

In other words, I can't allow myself to accept this mindset. The well is deep, but He is deeper. He has the means to draw me out of this and into the living water.

How? I think we know how. We have to disengage from the destructive patterns. We have to immerse ourselves in the Word. When I allow myself to be filled with Him there is no room for this garbage.

Abraham sent Ishmael (the product of the flesh) out to the desert when Isaac (the spiritual) was born. We have to do the same thing with our fleshly thoughts. We have to send them out into the desert and stop feeding them and let them die there.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

But Can You Change THAT?

John 4:11 "Sir," the woman replied, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep."

Many (if not all) of us struggle with certain things in our lives that we submit to Christ with little expectation that He can actually do something about it. Certain things we do achieve victory over, but there are areas in our lives where we often resign ourselves to continual failure. We are like the Samaritan woman, in effect saying to Christ: "This is a very deep matter in my life, and I fear that you do not have the means to accomplish victory for me."

Of course we would never actually say those words, but our lives and our attitudes reveal the truth in our hearts. We are resigned to carrying this burden. "You can change a lot of things, but can you really change that?"

Rest assured today - He can change that. Whatever your that is, submit it to Him and allow Him to work it out of your life.