Create In Me A Clean Heart

The church in Thessalonica had only been ministered to for about a month before Paul had to leave escaping to Berea. But what amazes me (and Paul) is how the church still thrived after his leaving. They were young in faith and needed spiritual 'milk' and instruction on how to live a holy life (4:7).

As I read through Paul's letter to a thriving church and I studied his "how to" in living a holy life, I brought back to the simplicity of it all. (It always is). Here it is, I'll summarize:
- Stop being sexually immoral and control your body in a way that is holy.
- Live a holy life, not an impure one.
- Love others even more than you already do.
- Live quietly, work with your hands.
- Live a sober life, putting on faith & love as a breastplate and hope of salvation as a helmet.
- Encourage and build one another up.
- Don't pay back evil with evil.
- Rejoice all the time.
- Pray all the time.
- Thank God all the time.

Seems pretty simple huh? I am convicted by the fact that I tend to over-complicate or over-think how I am to live a life according to the One True God. I am a thinker. I think more than I should perhaps. Most of us do. But here, Paul is telling a young church who took grasp of the Gospel, who left their idol-worshiping days behind and began living the holy life. I am convinced the Holy Spirit pierced their hearts, made it clean. He gave them a new start. A fresh beginning to live the holy life. I am in need of that too. A piercing of the heart, a clean heart. And thus miraculously I as drove away from the coffee shop where I was reading, my iPod played Jon Foreman's "White As Snow." Here's what Jon wrote:

Have mercy on me, O God
According to Your unfailing love
According to Your great compassion
Blot out my transgressions

Would you create in me a clean heart O God?
Restore in me the joy of Your salvation
Would you create in me a clean heart O God?
Restore in me the joy of Your salvation

The sacrifices of our God are a broken and a contrite heart
Against You and You alone have I sinned
The sacrifices of our God are a broken and a contrite heart
Against You and You alone have I sinned

Would you create in me a clean heart O God?
Restore in me the joy of Your salvation
Would you create in me a clean heart O God?
Restore in me the joy of my salvation

Wash me white as snow
I will be made whole
Wash me white as snow
I will be made whole
Wash me white as snow
And I will be made whole
Wash me white as snow

I love the simplistic brilliance of this song. Of course we all thank the Psalmist of 51:10 giving us those words.

As the church of Thessalonica had questions about Jesus' second coming, they knew they had to prepare for it by living a holy life. We too have questions, but we at least know how to live. Let's begin today.

Christmas Realization

With each Christmas season that approaches, I realize more and more how I still don't grasp the true significance of it. Yes, we could socially criticize our consumerist country; where the giving (& buying) of gifts is the focus of our energy. We could go there, but we are not there. We are not side-lined critics. We are active players. We are those "in the world, but not of the world" and I realize how hard that is to act out living in this country. And I'm sure God is up there almost laughing and probably lamenting us who still don’t get it. Our nativity scenes are set up in our houses along with our Christmas songs playing and we try to show our neighbors, our friends and family that we do know what this season is all about. The Christmas season seems to be such an external presentation of sorts. This season should actually be an inward realization of what it is really all about. And what do we know about this season? Why do we celebrate? We celebrate the birth of Jesus. Who is in fact living inside us every single day. "Living inside us" is what we need to pay more attention to.

Every Christmas morning for a number of years I have read to my family the devotional My Utmost for His Highest, December 25. Here is what Oswald Chambers says about the day:

"Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a 'Bethlehem' for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth…The Characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me."

How many times have we proclaimed that Jesus is the reason for the season? Countless. But it goes way beyond that. What is the explanation of that phrase? It's our lives, our testimony. It's how we respond to the facts of what God did for us.

The thought of God Incarnate being born to a teenage girl who would someday become the King of Israel and ultimately the King of our lives just floors me every time. I wish each Christmas morning – the day we celebrate – I could fall flat on my face in reverence and cry out with thanksgiving, knowing that Jesus was born to be my King and to live inside me. This Christmas could be the time to share in this realization and thanksgiving.

Our Commonsense

What got me to this idea I'm about to write about was inspired by this quote from Oswald Chambers from his book "Studies In The Sermon On The Mount":

"The conflict for the Christian is not a conflict of sin, but a conflict over the natural life being turned into the spiritual life. The natural life is not sinful, the disposition that rules the natural life is sinful; when God alters that disposition , we have to turn the natural life into the spiritual by a steady process of obedience to God, and it takes spiritual concentration on God to do it."

I have been time and time again trying to understand the difference between my natural life and my spiritual life and how I can live in the spiritual all the time. According to the dictionary, "disposition" is 'a person's inherent qualities of mind and character.' It's my mind and my character that need to be devoted to the obedience of Jesus. But at so many times, I am stopped by my sense of self, by my commonsense.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount and studying it is a tough task for sure. Diving into what Jesus is really talking about and how it relates to my relationship with him, always stirs in me a frustration with myself but also a complete LOVE for His teachings. (And I hope when you read the Scriptures, you also fall more in love with it.) I begin to understand the Why, which motivates me to the figure out the How.

And today it's my battle with my commonsense. It's thinking "Am I acting out of my own thinking, or am I thinking out of what Jesus wants?" It's not just "What Would Jesus Do?" It must be what would Jesus Say, what would he Think, how would he Act and how would he Love? He had a reversal of thinking to the world. And he asks us to think like him. It's the world versus Jesus. The world - our commonsense - says we should look after ourselves, think about how we're going to live and what we will save and that that matters.

But look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 25:
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

Do you see what he's doing? He making a stark difference from the commonsense to how we need to think. Look at those who you work with or go to school with, see what "carries" them day by day. The daily grind is all about self-preservation, especially today. Think about it. And I have to ask, are we really like that? Are we anxious about our clothes, our rent or mortgage, our money? Jesus says a few verses before that we cannot serve both God and money or mammon. But what is mammon? The Greek word mammon is a Semitic word for money or possessions.

But Chambers says it quite well: "It is the system of civilized life that organizes itself without considering God." We as believers consider God. Right? We are to organize our thoughts, actions and character WITH considering God. Although our commonsense tells us not to. And that is the battle (for me at least).

I'm struck with the image of Jesus standing on the edge of the Sea of Galilee looking up the hill to all his listeners and saying to them "If you want to follow me, you must disobey your commonsense. The way you think you ought think is not the way you should think at all. Come, let me show you how to think and live your life according to my Father in Heaven."

He teaches a doctrine of division, a doctrine of detachment. I am getting that. I am floored by it. I am now looking at the rest of today as a way to align my disposition to be altered and changed by God. To his character. I will look today to be in total concentration of God - not in my commonsense but continue my steady process of obedience. I will ask "Is this the kind of thing that Jesus Christ is after or the kind of thing Satan is after?"

The Supremacy of God

Today is a different day. Most of you probably have something tragic going on. It may be news of cancer, or the loss of a loved one. But today is different isn't it? For some reason we wake up and find that our economy is collapsing, our jobs may be on a thin wire, our family is drifting away or lost and yet we get up and do what? For some it is to "be normal," to ignore it or to fight it. We wake up and do the same 'ol thing. But does that satisfy our hearts or our souls?

I'm struggling with all that's happening in this world too. Struggling with how to pray. Struggling with how to cope, how to grieve, how to mourn. When life is snatched out of our hands do we feel "the sting of death is taken away but the sting of loss still hurts"? Loss is the hardest part. We hold tightly to what we have and yet when it's gone we realize we didn't have it very tight do we? We are filled with regret, filled with anguish. With all these emotions filling us, is it possible to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us as well?

Today I am being brought back to the supremacy of God. That is rolling around in my heart and in my mind. I think of John Piper's voice saying those words: "Is God supreme in your life?" I'd rather ask is God supreme today, since today seems to be so different.

I don't have the right answers for you who know that today is different. All I do know is that the teachings of Jesus are supreme and his Holy Spirit comforts those who are heavy laden. But how do we feel comforted? How do we feel loved back from Jesus? Simple. Through others. Through those closest in your circle. Christ's love is always felt through the love of others.

Maybe today you take on the heart of thankfulness. Thank your loved ones one more time today. Thank teachers or professors. Thank your Mom. Thank your Dad. Thank the Lord who IS supreme and IS also sovereign over all your life. Thank him for your breath, your vision, your sense of smell and your soul. He has bought you with a price and it's the Holy Spirit in you that is stamp of guarantee.

I don't know what I'm writing. I'm trying to figure all this. But I do know that Christ must remain on top, he must be in the forefront of our minds, our lips, our prayers. He must remain supreme in our lives.

Are We External?

I had a realization the other day while sipping my hazelnut coffee - sitting alone at Panera studying the Bible and reading Dallas Willard - that I have been too concerned with my outward acts of the disciplines. I keep thinking of what I must DO, what disciplines I must "perform" to be "where I want to be with Jesus." And in turn - my goal is - these outward disciplines would then emerge a Christ-likeness in my character. Willard has called this a focus on the "external manifestations of Christ-likeness" and they should not be the focus at all.

I need to pray more, read more, give more, praise more, fast more, etc. But for me - currently - I am too focused on the doing. On the external. I think because I'm desiring to do these disciplines for the sake of doing them without taking to heart & mind what the purpose is: TRANSFORMATION. I need to be in "progressive inner transformation." Seeing that when I discipline myself to pray to my Savior, read His word, that the outcome is not that I've "done" them, but that I am transforming my heart/mind/soul in union with Jesus.

We have this desire for Knowledge, for knowing God (speaking of...J.I. Packer's book is a must read). But isn't knowledge an "interactive relationship" like Willard says? I believe it is. That interactiveness is the disciplines. Seeking those times with Jesus, those times serving Jesus, giving to him, etc.

I have a desire to know God. To know Jesus of Nazareth. My Savior, the author of my salvation. But what keeps me from knowing him? (well, that's a loaded question) Not knowing His Word. I was reading Psalm 119 the other day and verse 11 completely floored me:

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

Whoa.

Am I seeking?
Am I storing up His Word?

"This seeking is driven by the desire to be inwardly pure before God, to be wholly for Him, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Inseparable from that desire is the desire to be good as Christ himself is good: to love our relatives, friend and neighbors as he loves them and to serve them with the powers of God's Kingdom."

"This seeking is implemented though the discovery of the state of our own heart and inner world by study, reflection, prayer and counsel and then through the taking of appropriate measure to change what is not right within, as well as in the visible, social world of which we are a part. We find what God is doing in us and in the visible world and merge our actions into His. This what Jesus described as constantly seeking 'first for the kingdom of God and his kind of righteousness' (Matthew 6:33)" [Willard]

I know I quote Willard a lot, but he is what is really moving me right now. "Taking appropriate measure to change what is not right within..." That is what I need. That is what is going on inside my heart. I am need of seeking Him more and more and more. To seek and be transformed.

To seek and be transformed...that is my new motto.

Know Your Poverty

We know our bodies wage war against our spirit. We know we're "in" battle constantly, and that we conform more times than not. But how do we have total "conformation to Christ" in our bodies?

We also know that the Spirit is willing but the body is weak (Matthew 26:41). How then can we move and use our "body" to interact with God for his glorification? This something I've been reading about from all sorts of literature. I try to grasp it, yet my grip is loosened almost immediately. And that is why I write about this topic...

I was reading in Luke today about Jesus' first great big sermon to the mulititudes who follow him. He said Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry, who weep and who are spit on you for the sake of Me (Jesus). Poor, hungry, weep. Those aren't exciting words. But they are words of poverty, the emptying of "self." Jesus then gives the "woes." Woe to you who are rich, who are full, who laugh now and speak well of yourself. Woe to us who think we are self-relient and who are self-glorifying. It makes so much sense that he says these right after one another. We must be poor, self-emptied before we may follow him.

Oswald Chambers wrote: "We are apt to say that because a man has natural ability therefore he will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge and experience - all that is of no avail in this matter. The only thing that avails is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made his comrades. The comradeship of God is made up out of men who know their poverty."

For me as of late, it is going back to the first "beatitude": blessed are the poor in spirit. I have to start there. I have to wake up everyday and know that I am not capable - in my carnal flesh - to bring glorification to God. I actually "need" God and have to be God-reliant, not self-reliant. Do we have this attitude when life goes well? I tend to forget to tell you the truth. But it is imperative that the first of the beatitudes is implemented daily. We already are prone to evil... that is why we need to start at the bottom, to re-prioritize and re-plan our days.

Dallas Willard says the habit of self-indulgence can be broken if we train our thoughts by appropriate disciplines of study, meditation and service. Once we start there it will be a "place where faith meets grace to achieve conformity to Christ."

He also states: "In our fallen world this life is prepossessed by evil, so that we do not have to think to do what is wrong, but must think and plan and practice - and receive grace - if we are to succeed in doing what is right."

I have to end with this because it is so good...

"Learning Christ-likeness is not passive. It is active engagement with and in God. And we act with our bodies. Moreover this bodily engagement is what lays the foundation in our bodily members for readiness for holiness, and increasingly removes readiness to sin - so that "Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain" (Philippians 1:20-21).

I will continue in striving to know my poverty. Knowing who I am to Christ, but knowing who I am IN Christ as well. I want to be Christ-like. I want to be active, not passive. I want to have that comradeship that Chambers speaks of. I want to wake up everyday and be Christ-reliant. I have to relocate and reorient my body in this world to achieve that. I need to participate in these disciplines so that I will finally conform to Christ.

My goal, may it be yours as well...
Blessings.

Why Would He?

There comes a time in life when we ask why hasn't God shown me His answer. That time for me has been now. I have been discussing with my wife and with my covenant brother why God hasn't "shown" me what to do with my life. I mean, I know what I'm supposed to do daily, but there are specific things in my life I want answers for...for the future. I know others who are struggling with the questions: "When and how will I know this is from God?" or "What if I missed that opportunity?"


I do wonder these at times, I do. I wonder why God doesn't "speak" to me more often. Then it hit me. Why would He? Why would he if I am not actively seeking Him in his Word and in prayer? Seriously, here I am asking (in my stupid self-righteousness) the God of the universe to speak to me about my life when I'm not committing my everyday to him. How can I hear him if my ears aren't tuned to his voice? Then I remembered I need to be meditating on his Word day and night... And this is where scripture comes in:

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." - Psalms 1:1-3

I don't think I walk in the counsel of the wicked or sit in the seat of mockers. BUT, blessed is you and me when we delight in the law of the Lord. Read it again. It says we will prosper. Our fruit will be IN season. Our future, God has ahold of. Being IN season is about being in his perfect timing.


The bible has all the answers. I have been asking God for insight, wisdom, knowledge which I know he gives freely. I just need to "tap into" it more often, I need to MEDITATE ON HIM DAY AND NIGHT. Oh, think of the blessings. Think of how grateful we'd be for everything we already have.

Be Blessed. Be meditating...
And that's why he would...