Home Invasion

Genesis 4:7 "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you; but you must master it."

This is one of my favorite verses in Scripture. It puts the burden on us to get right with God, to do right, and to keep sin from working its way into our homes. The crouching tiger is a hidden dragon - but he can only get to the door. He can't get in if we don't let him.

One part I especially like is thought that we can protect our homes, that they can become sanctuaries of holiness and rightness, even while the world flails away at you from the outside. I think of the time when I was growing up when one of my older brothers was being bullied and ran home and got to our front door, only to find it locked. He then got beat up. But he knew if he could have made it inside he would have been alright. Home was a safe haven from the bully.

This is not necessarily true anymore. I just finished reading an article about a local high school girl who hung herself because the bullying had entered into her home through the internet. They got to her in what should have been her one safe place. What once gave the bullied some sense of security, some peace, is now being lost. Satan is in the process of a "home invasion" and he no longer is simply crouching at our door.

Men - we know this. What we once had to seek to find (filth) is now pouring through the wires. The walls have been breached, and we have allowed it to happen. Satan has amassed an army of the vilest images and has them pulsating in the cables of your home. All you have to do now is flip a switch, hit a button or click an icon - and it comes in like a flood.

If we truly want to master sin so that we can be vessels of kingdom advancement, we have to begin in our very homes and purify them. They must become sanctuaries for God to work freely. Our very bodies must become the Temples that they are designed to be. If we can't protect them - then we're lost. The bullies will come in and destroy us. They got to this girl in her one safe place, and they will get to us unless we allow the "consuming fire" to be the only Life burning within us.

Rebellion Eliminates Options

I work in a private school that for the most part consists of students who want to be there. However, as in most schools, there are kids who for some reason or another are forced by their parents to come. One such girl came up to me the other day after class wanting to know how she could get her grades up. She said, "I didn't want to come here so I rebelled by not doing my work. Now I'm applying to another school and I don't think I have the grades to get in."

I immediately thought: Rebellion eliminates options.

I try to tell my students that all the time. When you choose paths now, they will affect future decisions. But of course, like I was at that age, they can't see beyond their nose. Some will smoke because they "want to live their own life" not realizing that this very decision will not allow them to do so in the future. Some live destructively in relationships, not realizing that this will affect a future ability to relate rightly with someone that they want to spend the rest of their life with. In trying to create our own walk, we shoot ourselves in the foot, giving us a permanent limp.

This is why God intervenes. He knows these little rebellions will eliminate plans He has made for us, plans to prosper us and to make us useful for His kingdom. If He is speaking to you now about some life-decision, listen. He is not a kill-joy. He knows. He knows the ends of paths and the destruction that follows. He knows that decisions now will pare down your ability to pursue things that are eternally meaningful. He knows that rebellions now will eliminate options then.

Listen to Him - give "it" up now. Whatever "it" is.

Yield

In II Samuel 7 we read that David's heart's desire is to build a Temple - a permanent resting place - for God. It's his consuming passion. During the night it is revealed to Nathan the prophet that David cannot do this - he is a man of war. Solomon will build it.

What is David's response? Incredibly, he yields his heart's desire to the will of God.

Your consuming passion may not be the will of God. Do not base your life on your emotions, your wants, your desires . . . .even if it is something as noble as building a temple for God. Be willing to yield everything you are to God.

Broken Cisterns

When you watch over a 7th grade study hall, you get your fill of stupid conversations. Consider the following that took place this past week:

7th grade boy: "Mr. D. may I go to the bathroom. I need to redeem myself."

Long pause....

Me: "Son, I don't know what possibly could have happened last time you went that would make you think you have to redeem yourself, but go ahead."

Student pauses . . . . looks at me. "I need to splash water on my face, I'm getting tired."

Me: "Oh. Okay."

Student walks away.

I call out: "Son - never use that phrase again. Ever. Just trust me."

But it did make me think. At that moment he came to my desk I was reading Jeremiah 2 - about the Israelites rejecting the Living Water and digging their own cisterns. Why do we do that? We have the God of the Universe who loves us and wants to pour Himself through us, and we head off to dig our own wells that are nothing but stagnant, putrid water.

We're not much smarter than that 7th grade boy. At least he was looking for fresh water to redeem himself.

A Christian Medium

I had a tough week / weekend. A good friend of mine who had been battling cancer for a few years finally was brought home. I had the privilege of doing his funeral Saturday. Why was it a privilege? Because I got to be what seems like a contradiction: a Christian medium.

What is a Christian medium? It is someone who speaks for the dead. Who goes between that dead person and those still alive and gives the message that they wanted you to hear. You see, my friend and I had some good conversations before he died, things he wanted you to know. He wanted you to know that chasing the world is a complete, 100% waste of time. I'm not talking about chasing the people of the world - that's what Christ came and did and empowered us to do. I'm talking about the THINGS of the world. Money. Prestige. Security. Comfort. When all is said and done, there is no "there" there. Your hands are empty.

My friend found this out over the past couple of years as God stripped away the facade and he realized what matters. But because of setbacks and treatments and testing he was unable to shout out to the world what he was learning. He wanted to, he was ready to - but his voice was taken from him.

So I will speak for him. I will tell my elementary chapel students that they need to start looking beyond what is right in front of them. The things that they can touch are not necessarily the things that matter. I will tell my Jr. High youth group that these feelings that seem so important right now, like they're the end of the world - are not. That bigger things await. I will tell my Sr. High students that God is not a concept - that He is real and they can trust their futures to Him. They can ask Him the tough questions, that He will answer, and they can sell all to Him now. I will tell the Young Adults group that meets at my house that as they are beginning their careers and families, now is the best time to put a stake in the ground and not get stuck in the entanglements of the world to the point that they think it can never be undone. That the decisions they are making now are tying up their futures in increasingly intricate webs that will cause them to feel that they can never undo them and follow God with a whole heart - so don't get caught up in them now. Stay simple and clean. I will tell the middle-aged, the age of my friend, that he found out the truth and was ready to live in it until God took him away. They can learn this truth and live in it while they are still here. I will tell the elderly of the church that it's never to late to learn this lesson. As long as they have breath they can let go of every fear and doubt and be a fruitful vine even into their last days.

And I will tell myself that I need to stop typing this and start living it.

Accustomed to the Desert

Jeremiah 2:23 - 25 "You are a swift she-camel, running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving - in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, "Its no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them!"

Does the world even have to try to take you in?

I think we're too easy. I think that we sniff at the world, not to find out how to help the lost, but because we are enthralled with it. We want it. They don't even have to try - any temptation and we're in.

The excuses we make when we fail are embarrassing. I Corinthians 10:13 says that there is no temptation that doesn't have a way out. The problem is we don't want the way out. We want the way in.

In the Lord's Prayer Christ tells us to pray: "Lead me not into temptation." This is very powerful and challenging, as He is in essence telling us to ask God to keep us away from the things that we love (from a worldly sense). To move out of the desert and quit being so weak. Every time we cave into a temptation every part of our being is weakened to the core. Our spiritual structure becomes more and more tenuous. In this weakened state, the next step in the progression is crumbling.

I hate being this easy. I hate being so "accustomed to the desert" that I never see beyond my self-imposed borders and head for the streams of living water.

Faithlessness versus Unfaithfulness

Jeremiah 3:11 "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah."

I'm reading through Jeremiah for this month and I come to a devastating passage - one that pierces my heart. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, has been cut off. She had lost faith, walked away, and was done. Judah, the Southern Kingdom, remained. But she had watched her sister and had learned her ways. Now she is turning to false gods - yet still proclaiming to be the "chosen bride."

In Jer. 3:11, God pronounces judgment on Judah, saying, if I'm reading it correctly, that Judah's unfaithfulness is worse than Israel's faithlessness. Help me out here - is that what this passage is saying?

If so - it slays me. It means that, to God, a lack of belief is one thing, but to proclaim that we believe, that we are His lover, yet continually betray that covenant is worse. I see the truth in this. It would be one thing for a woman to reject me and walk away. It would be a completely different story if she proclaimed her love to me, covenanted with me, yet then kept leaving me for other lovers - all the while proclaiming that she is my chosen bride!

Our betrayals are worse - less righteous - than just walking away in unbelief. It's the less righteous part that kills me. I tend to think my stumblings and my turnings are okay because I am still His. I am still righteous! Yet this seems to say otherwise. How can I possibly proclaim to be righteous, to be His chosen bride - yet continue to walk away from Him? I'm worse than an unbeliever. Less righteous.

This has huge implications for the church as well. We think we are righteous simply because of who we are. I know God's righteousness is imputed, credited, to us. And I know it is apart from any works. But the after-effects are what I'm talking about. The church thinks it can go off in any direction it wants and is still "righteous." This is a dangerous mistake. We must be a holy vessel, set apart unto the Lord.

Jeremiah 3:11 is a killer verse.

New England and Christianity

A couple of quick points as I come in from shoveling and find out that the reason my feet felt funny was that the socks from the last snowstorm were still in the bottom of my boots:

1. New England and the Mega-Church

I have always wondered why the people in Southern California like to mock those living in the cold weather states. What are they trying to accomplish? Do they want everyone to pick up and move there with them, thus ruining what they’re bragging about? Secondly, just because you live somewhere doesn’t make you a better person. The same thing with big churches. Just because you go to a bigger church doesn’t make you a better Christian!

And finally, why do people that live in nicer places or go to bigger churches try to get others to change where they are? Do they not trust that God has called people to specific places to minister? Would you say to a missionary in Africa: “What are you doing there? The weather and the living conditions are much nicer here!”

Before the conditions make you wonder if you should leave a place, make sure you're not leaving your mission field because the cross (or the shovel) is too heavy to bear.

2. New England snowstorms and a “good enough” walk with God

After shoveling out for the third time this winter, I have come to the realization that we in New England have a definite sequence to digging out of our storms. When the first storm hits, we wipe every thing down perfectly to the point of pulling the cars one by one out of the driveway to get every last speck of snow off the ground and cars. Second storm hits and we are still diligent but not quite to the same exacting degree. When the storms keep coming we care less and less until finally we wipe enough snow off our windshield so that our face can look out and then drive right through the plowed snow bank at the end of the driveway and never look back. "Good enough."

I’ve realized that our Christian walk tends to look like this. When first struck by a “revival of the heart” we strive to remove every last jot and tittle of sin, anything in the past or present that could cause the slightest stumble or block our vision. In subsequent “revivals” we tend to knock off enough that allows us to still see and move forward. "Good enough." We’ll deal with the snowbanks later. As long as I can move unhindered I don't need to get rid of everything. Do I?

2010 Vision

2010 vision is when you can see at 20 feet what most people can see at 10 feet. I want to see things more clearly this year. To see the bigger picture (God's plan) but also sharper details (people). To know that real change is possible, not just a pipe dream. To understand that God really can change "that" - whatever the "that" is in your life.