Author: LizG

1 Kings 12:26-30 (MSG) But then Jeroboam thought, “It won’t be long before the kingdom is reunited under David. As soon as these people resume worship at The Temple of God in Jerusalem, they’ll start thinking of Rehoboam king of Judah as their ruler. They’ll then kill me and go back to King Rehoboam.”  ^28-30 So the king came up with a plan: He made two golden calves. Then he announced, “It’s too much trouble for you to go to Jerusalem to worship. Look at these—the gods who brought you out of Egypt!” He put one calf in Bethel; the other he placed in Dan. This was blatant sin. Think of it—people traveling all the way to Dan to worship a calf!

Observation

First, can I just draw a parallel here?  The serpent in the Garden twisted God’s words by saying, ““Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”  He knew this was not true, but used lies to deceive and lure Eve and Adam into sin.   So, Jeroboam has done the same, twisting the truth (downright lying!) to serve his own purposes – “He made two golden calves. Then he announced, “It’s too much trouble for you to go to Jerusalem to worship. Look at these—the gods who brought you out of Egypt!”  His fear and greed for power has driven him to lie and lead the people into sin.

When we lose sight of the knowledge that all we are, all we have and all we have accomplished is of and by The Lord, we fall into a trap, a hole in our road that we did not see. Fear of losing face or praise or position causes us to dig the hole deeper, even to the point of leading others into sin with us, rather than humbling ourselves, repenting and seeking the Lord’s arm to lift us out. This is just what Jeroboam did when he allowed fear to drive his decisions. He was appointed as king of the 10 tribes by God but he did not trust God’s word or His ability to sustain His promise. He started to look for ways to please and attract the people, pandering to their unholy desires, serving their pagan cultures, in order to maintain his popularity and secure his rule. I am sure that God was not surprised, but was giving Israel the king they deserved; after all, we reap what we sow.

Impact on Me

I suspect I am not alone in experiencing this same fear of rejection, loss and disgrace or being challenged to compromise for the sake of favor with the people around me. I want to be liked, respected, loved, but I pray never at the cost of being faithful to truth, never twisting that truth to suit my selfish purposes.  I want to be faithful to Jesus Who lives in me and keep my worship of God pure. 

I wonder what concessions have I made to culture that have become altars to another god?  What compromises have I allowed to creep in and become altars to the idol of convenience or complacency or people-pleasing?  Where have I protected or promoted myself at the cost of truth?

Prayer

My God and Father, Source of all Truth, Justice and Mercy, I pray that my life before You will become ever more holy.  Search me, examine my motives, reveal any fear or pride that is tempting me to alter Your truth for my purposes.  Help me to recognize those serpents hanging out of the trees who would want to lead me astray.  Show me the places in my soul where I might have a golden calf that has been substituted erected in place of surrender to You.  May my life be a crystal clear lantern for Your light as it shines forth to bring Your redemption to those  I meet.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

John 4:46-53 MSG Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that He come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”

⁴⁹ But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.” ^50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”  The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”  ^52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”  ^53-54 That settled it. Not only he but his entire household believed. 

Observation

Here is a case of believing before seeing.  This man has heard about Jesus and His healing ministry, the signs and wonders occurring when Jesus would reach out and touch someone.  This was miraculous and wondrous enough, but Jesus is asking this man to stretch his credulity even further, challenging him to believe that Jesus’ authority can effect healing over long distances.  We humans are a funny lot.  The healing is impossible, miraculous, but, because the impossible is happening through the touch of Jesus, that touch now becomes for us a ritual necessity of the miracle.  Why?   Isn’t all of it impossible?

Up until Jesus touched and healed, it was impossible regardless of method; now, the touch becomes married to the method in the minds of those watching.  Here is a man who knows that believing and trusting Jesus’ word is his only hope, and so, he chooses to believe in this new impossible thing, which is what he came to do in the first place, even though he probably headed home disappointed because he did not get the response he thought he came for.  How many times do we come to Jesus with our plan for how He should respond and, then, are disappointed because He does not go with our plan? 

Impact on Me

How many times have I missed God because He doesn’t answer the way I planned or do things the way I think it must be done, insisting on and disappointed if He doesn’t perform as I think He should?  What sacred cows, traditions, religious protocols and strongholds keep me from experiencing the miraculous in my life?  How have I rewritten the Covenant (contract) between the Lord and me, inserting my expectations as necessary to His fulfillment of what He has promised?  Do I believe without first seeing or, like Thomas, do I need God to prove Himself to me?

If I want to live in God’s possible, I need to examine why and what I believe.  Is my faith based on what He has done alone or on my willingness to believe regardless of what I see?  Am I willing to allow the Holy Spirit freedom to examine and evaluate my sacred cows, traditions, religious protocols and strongholds so I can believe without seeing, trust regardless of my judgment of His performance?  This requires surrender and the desire to have a pure heart that worships Him in spirit and in truth.  I want this to be what marks every footstep of my journey of life in Christ.

Prayer

Lord God, Spirit of Truth, Teacher, Lover of my soul, I am so grateful for You and the grace You have for me.  Search me and expose every place that does not honor and please You, every place that is a barrier to the free flow of Your Holy Spirit.  I want to be one who believes that nothing is impossible for You and live accordingly.  Open my eyes to recognize when I am putting You in my possible box and limiting Your ability to act by my unbelief.  Help me to know Your voice and quickly, gladly, freely obey without question.  May I always believe in hope.  Make it so, in Jesus’ Name.

1 Samuel 16:6-7 NIV When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”  ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 MSG Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

“Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human! One look at Jesus’s life reveals the intense humanity of authentic spirituality. Jesus is a carpenter’s son; He eats and drinks with sinners; He laughs and weeps. He teaches, tells stories, observes the seasons, prays, worships, and experiences love, joy, strength, friendship, weakness, and sorrow. How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.”  Mark Slomka, Western District Supervisor, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel

Observation

We were created to be human by God.  As humans, we have the capacity to be fickle or faithful, false or true, unwise or wise, emotional or rational, and all the other roller coaster emotions and responses built into our human nature.  These are molded and shaped from childhood by our community and family values, culture and ethics.   We either embrace or rebel against the human expectations placed upon us by our upbringing.  If we are raised from childhood in a church, there will be standards which judge our level of spirituality and make you a “somebody” or “nobody” in the congregation.

When Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the next king of Israel, God told him that it was not the outward appearance that moved God.  None of the big strong sons of Jesse were to be the next king. The one God chose as the future king was the youngest and smallest son, David, who was called “a man after God’s own heart.”  God is looking for character, not achievement.

Paul, who certainly had been a “somebody” in the Jewish faith, is telling the Corinthians (and us) that Jesus does not judge by compliance with outside standards of spirituality or achievement (the brightest and the best, the influential, the rich, the rigid rule follower) but looks on and chooses whom He uses by the heart (those who are faithfully rooted and grounded in God’s grace, mercy and love). Just as Jesus was wholly human – experienced joys and sorrows, considered of low birth, judged a friend of sinners – we, too, can honor and praise God with our lives. “How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.”

Impact on Me

“Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human!”  How do I become whole in my humanity – fully loving and serving God and loving and serving others?  How do I avoid the shallow spirituality of judging by outward appearances and achievements? How can I truly be a person after God’s own heart? How do I – without shame and withholding areas – allow the Holy Spirit to truly search me, know my heart, and remodel and remake me?  How do I freely and fully submit to Him the taming of my roller coaster of human emotions, remaking the values and cultures imprinted on my soul from childhood, and healing the pain, sorrow and wounds inflicted upon me?  How can I emotionally survive the exposure of all of that?  Will He still love me after He sees my darkest secrets?

This seems to me to be a wholly heart (soul) choice.  It began with choosing Jesus by embracing the salvation He provided and changing my position from in and of the world to in and of Christ.  I then began the lifelong process of sanctification – the searching, knowing and remodeling by the Holy Spirit.  Every move, every change, every healing He makes requires my submission, my willingness to give over to Him permission to open and clean out the closets hiding the shame, guilt and pain of my past.  When I am tempted to say no because I do not want Him to see what is in there, I am reminded that He already knows and will graciously forgive whatever is exposed.  How do I deserve such a God Who loves and treasures me to such extent?  I am forever grateful.

PRAYER

Father God, Savior, Precious Holy Spirit, I worship You.  You are Love too vast to understand.  I pray that You will give me the courage to say yes and strength to endure in that yes when my darkest moments are exposed for You to see.  You will not be surprised, but I will be ashamed.  Forgive me.  Help me to be authentic in my response to Your love, grace and mercy as You make me into the best human I can be – one that reflects and represents You in all my ways and words.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-5 NASB Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. ² For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵ not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Thessalonians 4:1-5 MSG. One final word, friends. We ask you— urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity.  Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.

Observation

Like Ephesis and Corinth, Thessalonika (now known as Saloniki) was an important seaport on a major trade route between Rome and the East. The culture of the city was characterized by its location, its importance, its influence, its cosmopolitan population, its Roman occupiers.  There was a synagogue in the city, but the great majority of the people  would have practiced a pagan religion, such as adopting and worshipping the Roman pantheon of gods.  Christianity was seen as heretical by religious Jews, often seditious by Rome and foolishly priggish by the secular culture.  Many pagan religions either overlooked and condoned promiscuity or actually included sex acts in their worship practices. 

Paul is exhorting the new Christians to revolutionize their understanding of how to please God, even in the face of cultural or religious persecution – whether they are converted Jews or pagans, whether they previously worshipped religion, gods or culture.  Paul exhorts them to live a pure life in order “to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance.”  In the face of persecution and regardless of appearances or immediate results, their faithfulness to a living, spirited dance, planted the seed for worldwide generations of redemptions to follow.

Impact on Me

Paul’s exhortation to the believers in Thessalonika rings as true to me today as it did to the believers in the 1st century. San Diego is also “an important seaport on a major trade route” and home to many nationalities, cultures, religions, people brought here on military orders, for research, study, education, some as refugees seeking an environment for freedom, success, a warmer climate or ??  Is it any surprise that Paul’s words of so long ago seem to also describe this seaport of today?  Times may change, but people who don’t know Jesus will always be the same.  They all need to be invited into that “living, spirited dance” in Christ.

The secular culture in which I live worships status, possessions, winning, “Mother Nature”, created things, physical pleasures, expediency and convenience. How are these challenges (idols, false gods) any different than the ones faced by those early Christians?  How do I need to examine myself and consider how I may have been influenced by these cultural and religious practices?  Like Jesus, how do I look past the person on the outside to see the anguished soul needing salvation?  Where does my life need to be purified and am I willing to face persecution or disfavor to do so?  The great and glorious news is that the Holy Spirit is not discouraged by my failures or fears regarding opposition or persecution (He has dealt with humans like me then and now), so I can be encouraged and choose in Christ a living spirited dance of following, loving, and serving Him expecting the same results in my spiritual brothers and sisters of so long ago.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, Savior, My Joy and Spiritual Dance Master, I submit myself to You. Take me in Your arms and teach me that spirited dance of joyful worship to You. May my heart and soul hunger to draw others into the same dance, even if they are currently dancing to the Enemy’s tune or they have allowed all music and light to fade away into the darkness of “a dogged religious plod,” hopelessness, anger, bitterness, or apostasy.  When I  become distracted or discouraged by the current circumstances, my inadequacies, or the immensity of the task, turn up Your music and draw my eyes back to Yours so my hope and faith will rise as I return the lead to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 MSG  God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:  wise counsel [Word of Wisdom], clear understanding [Word of Knowledge], simple trust [Faith], healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation [Prophecy], distinguishing between spirits [Discernment of Spirits], tongues, and interpretation of tongues.  All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

“The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal power, and His gifts do not spring from a human source; it is the work of God.  Gifts are from the great gift, the Holy Spirit; ministries are modeled by the main minister, Christ the Lord; and the works of the Spirit come from the chief worker, God the Father.”  Donald Pickerill, Spirit-Filled Life Bible, 1 Corinthian notes

Observation

Corinth was a bustling seaport with a reputation for licentious living.  Their pagan religion had many gods, but Venus, the goddess of lustful love, was its patron.  So, when the Corinthians worshipped, their services were often wild and reckless, full of debauchery.  They were used to gods (demons) who would possess and take control of them.   So, the new converts in Corinth struggled with a new concept of God living within while working His power in and through them, empowering rather than controlling.  Paul in this letter is helping them to change a paradigm, shifting from being controlled to freely, consciously, moving in the power of God. 

God in the person of the Holy Spirit is in charge, in control, of choosing the what is given and who receives of gift-giving, but we remain in control of how the supernatural gift works in and through us.  We can say “no” at any time.  The Holy Spirit is not like the destructive demons of pagan religions who possess and control a life. Holy Spirit gifts are not the exercise of a heightened human ability but rather the vesting with God’s power by the Holy Spirit to do the work of God and fulfill His purpose.  There is no competition here, no winner of any prize, no ladder of status to climb.  These supernatural giftings are to be used to grow us individually and as a church so that we can then evangelize the world around us.  The work of Holy Spirit is to reproduce the dynamic ministry of Jesus in and through us.  We are in complete control regarding whether we partner with Him or not.

Impact on Me

When I accepted Christ as my personal savior, I became a supernatural person in Christ.  The work of the Holy Spirit began in me to reshape, mold and make my life into one that is representative of Jesus Christ on earth.  This is a lifelong process.  Just like remodeling a house might require tearing down some walls, tearing up some floors, repairing the plumbing, electrical and HVAC, so does the Holy Spirit need to remodel me so that Jesus can make Himself at home in me.  I need to leave the fixtures and furnishings (gifts and ministries) in His hands rather than being discontent with how He would “decorate” the home I want Him to make in me.

All this tearing and repairing will certainly be uncomfortable, emotionally painful and humbling as He exposes my sin and fleshly habits that keep me captive to my past.  I am in control of what I allow Him to do.  Am I willing to be part of cleaning out what I have hoarded in life before I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior?  Am I willing to look upon and deal with the shameful, hidden thoughts, actions and words I have hidden away in locked closets within me?  Am I open to being transparent and welcoming (tearing down walls to become an open concept home) if it will serve His will and purpose?   Am I willing to give the home of me into Jesus’ possession? I pray it is so!

Prayer

Lord God, Helper, Teacher, Perfect General Contractor of My Life, I worship You and thank You for accepting the job of remodeling me.  Lord, I pray that You will give me the courage and determination to agree to undergo whatever it takes to make me that open concept space where others can come to meet You in me.  Help me to let go of my possessions so You can replace them with Your own. Teach me how to allow Your empowerment to thrive and flow out of all my doors and windows to invite others to invite you into the homes of their lives.  Keep me from becoming prideful – impressed with the fixtures and furnishings You have installed in me – and taking credit for any of the work You have done and will do.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.