The Pensive

Matt 7:1-2 “Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. 2. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judgedâ€?. (NLT)

The specific biblical policy on judging others is pretty cut and dry - according to this scripture - Don’t! Followers of “the way� should be non-judgmental people, living with the understanding that we are actually citizens of a different kingdom and live by other rules. The only judgment we should pass is on our own actions and attitudes not on others.

The “Christian� way of living is about lifting others up not tearing them down. It seems that the teaching that Jesus was giving here is more along the lines that actually means to take care of others. When we are about to judge others, the life of the kingdom should kick in and our aim now becomes to find a way to care for them.

Are you afraid of being judged? If you are, then you should realize that others are also afraid of being judged. Do you feel bad about being judged by others? If you do, then you
should know that others also feel bad about being judged by you. No one likes to be judged. If you do not like to be judged, then what about others? You need to take care of them. If you are afraid of being judged, then you must consider others, who also are afraid of being judged. Always take care of others.

James puts it this way:
James 1:27 - Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. (NLT)

Under the principles of “Christian� living, those who claim to follow the way of Christ will be judged with what they judge. If they judge others with righteousness, they will be judged by the Lord with righteousness. If they judge others with mercy, they will be judged by the Lord with mercy. Do not judge others so much, for you will be judged in the same degree that you judge others. If you take care of others, you will not be judged by them.

If you show mercy toward others, you will receive mercy. But if you treat others without mercy, then you will also be treated without mercy. With whatever measurement you use, it will be measured out the same way to you. A true disciple of Christ does not do any measuring. This means that as believers we imposes no requirements upon others. Anything that is a requirement is not of grace and does not show mercy. Mercy is absolutely blind. Why does God treat us so well when we are all so pitiful? It is
because He is a God of Mercy.

Hosea gives us a great glimpse into what is on God’s heart for us as His children and as those who would align ourselves with His kingdom;
Hosea 6:6 - I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that’s more important than burnt offerings. (NLT)

This is how God wants our “religion� to be displayed, not with religious undertakings and pseudo-spirituality. He wants us to be merciful!

I remember a specific incident in Puerto Rico where by the Lord’s mercy, I chose to show mercy towards someone who had deliberately wronged me. Afterwards some of my “Christianâ€? friends, whose eyes were so clear about the situation, said to me, “Are you crazy?, don’t you know how evil this person is? Why were you so good to him?â€? I was good to him because I chose to be blind. My friends, however, were very clear-sighted about the whole situation. To them it was all about right or wrong. But the problem with that position is that when an issue is either right or wrong then those who are so clear- sighted cannot be merciful. We, the kingdom people, must be blind in dealing with others. If so, we shall be merciful to them and always take care of them.

God was merciful to me when I did not deserve kindness. I can imagine God speaking to the angels about showing me mercy: “You don’t know what I am doing. Your angelic eyes are too big and clear. Why did I treat him that way? It was because I was considerate of him.â€?
Psalms 136:23 - Who remembered us in our lowly state, For His mercy endures forever.

This is the principle of believers in Christ in dealing with others. For us to deal with others, we must consider them, sympathize with them, and be merciful toward them. The kingdom people must take care of others in their dealings with them.

2 Cor 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4. who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

I have always loved the way the Apostle Paul refers to God as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort�. I have used this phrase many times in my personal prayers because I always like to remind the Lord of who He is before I confess who I am. (It’s a mental posturing thing!)

The word “comfort� means to “draw near� it can also mean “to encourage or admonish�. The point Paul was trying to bring across was this; God brings us near to Himself and covers us with understanding, He brings consolation, encouragement and rest to our souls so that we might in turn show the same to others who are in need.

I recently talked to my 83 year old aunt by phone in Puerto Rico. She has been a Christian for many years and feels its time to start setting her affairs in order and asked if I would “say some nice things about her� at her funeral. She was always a strong woman, full of energy and fiercely independent, and even though I don’t think she will go anytime soon I told her I would be happy to share at her funeral, Lord willing! As we talked over the phone she said something that stirred my soul. She told me that she never felt loved by her mother, was rarely hugged and never kissed by her. She was left to care for herself as a child and was expected to help around the house from an early age. Her mother was very harsh with her and expected all work and no play.
I sat in amazement as I listened because I thought I knew her so well. I have never seen such a strong woman yet I could see how she had carried this terrible hurt around all of her life. For over 80 years she has been longing to be brought near to her mother, to feel the warmth and comfort that only a mother can give. She hides her hurt well, but it is still in there and it has created an empty place in her emotional life that she cannot seem to fill.

Many of us are faced with emotional struggles similar to hers. I have spoken with a considerable number of individuals in recent years that have opened their heart and shared their feelings of emptiness and loneliness. The fact is I don’t know many people who have had a perfect life and have never felt neglected, cast off, forsaken or deserted. Many of us come from broken homes or dysfunctional families while others have been affected by the evils of human nature and life’s daily troubles. I believe that to some degree, we are all searching for the comfort that comes from others who truly care about us. Our need for comfort may be temporarily satisfied when we feel the love of a parent, spouse or close friend, but at the very core of our being there is a need that only the presence of God can fill.

I become properly related to God when I recognize that I am in need of Him, I confess with my mouth that Jesus is the Lord of my life and believe in my heart that God has come to live within me (Rom 10:9)

God coming to live within me is more than an emotional experience; the scripture says “…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.�(Rom 5:5) This kind of relationship with God can not be taught, it must be experienced.

It is after God’s Spirit takes up residence within us that we understand what Jesus meant when he said “Unless a man is born-again he cannot see the kingdom of God� (John 3:3) When we believe in Jesus and turn our live over to him, our spiritual eyes are opened and we realize that God’s will and eternal kingdom supersedes everything that we used to think was important.

I remember the very day I gave my life to Christ; I felt God’s mercy; His forgiveness and unconditional love overwhelm me. When I took baptism as a born-again Christian and experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, I felt a comfort that I had been searching for all of my life. I can only say that it was a fulfillment and a feeling of being complete.

Jesus said this:
John 17:26 “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

I can think of nothing more comforting than having God’s love and Jesus dwelling IN me.

Life is a struggle. Since Jesus himself said that everyday has its own troubles, we shouldn’t think that we can somehow avoid them. We need to get through them. That may seem like a dismal outlook to some of you reading this but as Christians we have a hope that serves as an anchor for our souls; of course, I am referring to the “God of all comfort�.

One of the greatest lessons I am learning as a Christian is that I will always and continually need to lean upon God’s promises of unfailing love and mercy. I will never be entirely free of my human nature and all the fallout that comes from daily life. The angers and the frustrations of life will never go away but how I choose to respond to them will determine my success in life.

I am reminded of the picture that is painted for us in Song of Solomon 8:5 “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning on her beloved?”

Life is at times unfair my friend; it doesn’t treat all of us equally. Some really good people go through very difficult and ugly situations while some seemingly evil people seem to escape the hardships they deserve.

I need to say this: Life is not about who’s right or wrong or did I get what I deserved. It’s about choosing to react as God wants me to react and choosing to walk the path of the kingdom of God.

I often identify with the words that Jacob spoke to Pharaoh when he was asked how old he was:
Gen 47:9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are
one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life,

Jacob was not saying that HE was evil, but that life had been difficult… can you identify with that as well? So then, Jacob’s life was filled with difficult days yet through it all he learned that God had always been his shepherd and redeemer.

When the Lord is at the root of our existence, we will find comfort even if we pass through the valley of death; as David said in his famous twenty third Psalm:
Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psa 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

What confidence! What hope! What comfort!! King David had learned that all important lesson of focusing on God’s presence and purpose rather than his own circumstances.
Once we know him as the “Father of mercies and the God of all comfort� nothing in life can continually hurt us or scar emotionally, we become “more than conquerors� through Him who has loved us.

Matt 6:9-10 Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

We’re still looking at this scripture as a pattern for prayer. We already touched on honoring the father’s name and praying for His kingdom to become a reality in our lives. Now we want to look at “May your will be done�

What is the will of God? Now there is a loaded question if I’ve ever heard one. I have literally heard hundreds of sermons and read dozens of books on knowing the will of God. There are seminars you can attend and courses you can take on learning how to discern the will of God for your life. Now, without getting sucked into that black hole of supposition and speculation I want to make a few suggestions.

One day, Jesus was approached with this question “what is the greatest commandment�
He answered by quoting from the levitcal law books:
Deu 6:5 - And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Then He said that the second greatest commandment was similar:
Matt 22:39 - And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Then he made another one of those astonishing statements that he did throughout His ministry:
Matt 22:40 - These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Message)

Everything in God’s law is directly tied to and correlates back to these two commandments. The way we treat people, how we treat our family, how we treat people at work, how we treat people as we drive totally matters to God. (Can you tell that God is dealing with me on a particular issue!)

Jesus said that He came to reveal the father to us. He came to show us how to live. He came to show us what was important and what was irrelevant. His ministry is full of lifestyle challenging examples as to how we are to live.
Do you want to know what the will of God is?
Go the extra mile.
Turn the other cheek.
Visit the social outcast.
Be a friend to sinners
Choose to forgive and not get even
Give to anyone who asks of you
Don’t seek recognition from men
Give unselfishly
Love unconditionally
Love your enemies
Do good to those who do you wrong

My God, it’s no wonder that the very next thing he did was to teach us how to pray!

“May your will be done� implies that it is a choice. It may be done or it may not be done. In my own life I know that my first reaction is not to turn the other cheek. I usually make loud and colorful suggestions to the dear soul that just cut me off on the highway. (I have also at times suggested that they were #1 in my book with a visual and appealing hand gesture) I also try not to make eye contact with the street beggars as they approach me. I justify this to myself by assuming they will only use my precious quarter or a few dimes or nickels I may have graciously handed them to get drunk or to get high. I pontificate from my self righteous perch that my money will not be used for such waste. Usually while on my way to Starbucks for my $2 dollar cup of coffee! What hypocrisy! What self serving religious crap! I desperately need to repent and refresh myself in the presence of my Heavenly Father. I need to desperately change the way I look at the world around me and realize that the will of God is for me to be a light on a hill. My prayers have changed from what I need to what I need to be.
“Oh God, let your kingdom come within me this day. Help me be the man of purpose you desire me to be. Help me make the right decisions today, to let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let me see people as you see them and let me love as you love�

I promise you that if all of us begin to pray in this way from a sincere and convicted heart, we will see a revival of godly proportions spread across the face of this nation like nothing we have ever seen before.

We think that the nations will be reached by the demonstrations of power. We want to see the miracles and the dynamic. Jesus said:
John 13:34 -35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In my last blog I started these thoughts on prayer. We were looking in Matthew 6:9-10
Matt 6:9-10 Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

We talked about how Jesus gave us a pattern for us to use in prayer and actually in our daily walk with Him. He started with honoring the Father’s name. Which clearly was a priority to Him as well as it should be to us.

His next expression was “May your kingdom come soon�

Now, Jesus had a lot to say about the Kingdom of God. A lot! The reality is that He came to show us how to relate to God and how we are to live as citizens of a new order. We can go into a lot of things here but I want to stay focused on prayer. Remember, He is telling us how to pray. So one of the things that I need to focus on when I talk to God is “where am I today in relationship to His Kingdom�
This is where that time of reflection comes in. The simple fact is, that we are physically, mentally and spiritually incapable of living the “God-Kind� of life. We just cannot do it on our own. We need help. We need God. I need Him to make His kingdom a reality in my life. Jesus put it this way:
John 15:5 - “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

I think that’s pretty clear – “apart from me you can do nothing�
Now, I am no linguistic expert but even I know that nothing means - no thing!

Prayer opens me up to God and when I talk to Him about my needs and what I am struggling with, He gives me of His own life and strength. He makes His kingdom real to me. He gives me grace – which basically means he gives me the ability to do what I need to do. That is why prayer needs to be an ongoing thing. Paul tells us 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Never stop praying!

Never? This is very hard to do if your concept of prayer is only while kneeling down or involves rituals and incense or candles. This is very hard to do if you need a prayer book or a prayer partner or some form of script to follow.
But when I realize that prayer is just my talking to the best friend I’ve ever had. The one who loves me unconditionally and never judges me or condemns me. Then prayer is something I can do from moment to moment. My very next breath can be a prayer of thanksgiving or a quick plea for help or direction. I can share my thoughts and my frustrations. I can even talk to Him as I drive or I could talk to the other drivers on the road. (You know exactly what I’m talking about!)

Prayer is for you and God. It is something personal, intimate between friends.
Matt 6:6 - Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you.

More Later:

A lot has been said and written about prayer. It is very often mystified and placed into a context of misapplication and misunderstanding. Prayer in its simplest form is having a conversation with God!
Stay with me here;
I am one of those “Starbucks� people. I am there most mornings around the same time and know all the staff and the regulars by name. I get my “venti� cup of heaven on earth and sit with my buddy Pete and catch up on the last 24 hours. He talks sports and current Las Vegas news. I talk about family and the latest tidbits of the political arena. We then get a tad personal, his wife is still in a wheel chair, mine is adjusting well to her new medicine and the kids will be back tomorrow from their honeymoon in San Francisco.
He vents a bit on some personal frustrations, I talk about my current book and interspaced throughout our time we meet and greet other regulars and share bits of trivia and information back and forth with them as well. Approximately an hour to an hour and a half later my cup is empty, I wish Pete a great day and I am off to work on the rest of my “To Do� list.

Guess what? I just described prayer.

It’s the exact same thing and basically the same format. In my case, I get out of bed, refresh myself and then I grab my bible and head downstairs to greet the Lord. We talk about the last 24 hours, I tell him how things are going and what areas I need help with. I read my scriptures for the day and seek His voice in them for direction and guidance. I take some time for quiet reflection and often find some personal issues that He and I need to talk about. These are times of repentance, recommitment or just plain refreshment. Now, as oppose to the “Starbucks� scenario, my cup is now full and I head out to start my “To Do� list for the day.

Jesus gave us a great pattern for prayer in His sermon on the mount. I want to focus on the first 3 requests He starts out with: This is right out of the New Living Translation;

Matt 6:9-10 Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

To me, this is an all inclusive opening prayer line. I say that because it encompasses all three aspects of God as expressed in the Trinity.
“May your name be honored� is mainly related to the Father
“May your kingdom come soon� to Jesus the Son, and
“May your will be done� references the Holy Spirit.

This pattern of prayer is completely relevant to us today and it will continue to be so until its final fulfillment when God wraps up all things and the name of God will be held in excellence and awe in all the earth.

Psalms 8:1 - O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.

Revelations 11:15 - “The whole world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

We need to be a people who will live out this prayer in our daily walk with God and in our relationships wherever we are. In our society today, God’s name is not honored; instead it is mocked and made fun of. Have you ever wondered why one of the most common expressions of anger and profanity is “God Dam itâ€?? Why not “Hitler Dam itâ€? or “Satan Dam itâ€?? Why are we taking the most Holy Being and linking Him and His name to that which is profaned and common? How many times have we heard the name “Jesus Christ!â€? come out as a statement of anger, hatred and bitterness instead of it being held in the holy awe and reverence it deserves?
He gave us the use of His name, to be spoken as a blessing and as an answer and as a refuge not as a cuss word.

So, we need to pray, “O Father, may your name be honored.�

More Later:

We ended our last blog talking about the higher road of willingness. We talked about how God disciplines us like a good father to train us into walking the paths that are best for us.
The military beats discipline into its solders in the same way. So that when they are in harms way or under attack they will automatically respond from that discipline and that reaction will many times save their lives.

But as we said there is another dimension and that is the one of willingness:

Isaiah 1:19 - If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land (NIV)

God is looking for those who want to follow him. He desires those who are making their hearts available to him not just their hands and feet.
Being obedient will always produce good things for us but when we are obedient from a willing heart then we reap the greatest rewards.

There is a great example of this in the regulations regarding a bond servant.
Follow along with me in these scriptures:

Exodus 21:2-6 “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. 3.If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him.
4. “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. 5.But the slave may plainly declare, `I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.’ 6.If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.

This servant or in reality he had been a slave, had been given his freedom and his life was once again his. He was free to go anywhere and do anything but he realized that he really loved his master (that’s the key ingredient here). For whatever reason, he loved being in service to this master and did not wish to be released. If the master was pleased with this servant he would now go before the judges of the land and present this servant and they would pierce his ear with a nail into a door. He would now proudly wear a servant’s ear ring for all to see, wherever he went that he a bond servant. It had been his choice and it had been the master’s decision to accept his service as well. Both parties had to agree to the transaction for him to be considered a bond servant for life. It was an agreement that affected both men intimately. The servant gave up his freedom forever. The master pledged his protection and provision for this servant for the rest of his life.
Remember this neither was not forced labor nor was it paid labor it was voluntarily and willingly given. He was now a bond servant.

I find it interesting that the ear was the part affected by the bonding ceremony. I believe it is a clear illustration of the fact that we are suppose to be ever listening for His voice to speak to us and to lead and direct our lives.

When the prophet Samuel was just a boy he kept hearing a voice calling him and he thought it was his teacher Eli. He kept going into Eli’s room to answer his call but Eli had not called him. Eli realized at last what was happening and gave Samuel some specific instructions that are still applicable to all of us today:

1Samuel 3:8-9 … Then Eli realized it was the LORD who was calling the boy. 9.So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, `Yes, LORD, your servant is listening.’

Sounds so simple doesn’t it? – Yet, I wonder how often God is calling to us and we ignore that call or let the issues of life drown it out.

A bond servant – one who listens!

Jesus was a bond servant. He was the Heavenly Father’s bond servant:
Philippians 2:5-10 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6. who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7. but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10. so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11. and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (NAS) - (Bold & underline mine)

The apostle John in the book of Revelation refers to himself in the same manner:
Rev 1:1 - “[This is] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass in their entirety. And He sent and communicated it through His angel (messenger) to His bond servant John.” (Amp)
So, do we approach God from a life of forced obedience or imposed discipline or have we fallen in love with Him and realize that there is nothing more worthwhile in this life then willing and heartfelt service to Him.
Remember a bond servant was a volunteer. He gave up his life and freedom willingly. It was done out of intense emotion and passion – he loved his master.
It was done publicly. He was brought out before the rulers where he made a public declaration of love for his master.
It was not without pain. His ear was nailed to a door! It was uncomfortable. There was blood and pain involved. It wasn’t just a happy go lucky come what may decision.
And it was irreversible when it was done. He was now a bond servant for the rest of his life.
Thank God for the opportunity to serve a wonderful, loving, caring and compassionate master. What a great Lord we have in Jesus. Do you love him? Do you hear him calling? How will you respond? Out of discipline or out of willingness?

Peter, do you love me?

Philippians 2:13 – “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.� (NKJV)
I love this scripture in the New Living Translation as well:
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.�
Here it is in the Contemporary English Version:
“God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him.�

So many times I look back and am amazed at some of the changes in my life. I marvel at how many things that I thought had such a strangle hold on me are so insignificant today. The temptation is to think that I have accomplished this on my own and through my own effort. Foolish, foolish, foolish.

I am reminded of the law of the Sabbath year in regards to the harvest.
Lev 25:5 - What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap and the grapes on your uncultivated vine you shall not gather, for it is a year of rest to the land.
The Sabbath year, which is an example to us spiritually of coming to an end of our labor, was a year of rest for the land as well as to the farmer and his hired hands and servants. They were to cease from their work and enjoy the benefits of the previous years. (Hopefully, they had been wise and had stored away a portion from each years harvest to carry them through on the Sabbath year)
Those that had not been diligent and careful to plan ahead and store grain and provisions for the Sabbath year would suddenly find themselves in a position of need and lacking the basic provisions they needed. So, they would violate this ordinance from the Lord and run out to the fields and gather what they could find. This of course represents trying to do things in your own strength.

Another example: remember the Manna that God would feed them with in the wilderness? They were supposed to only gather enough for what they needed for that day. If they took too much, it spoiled, would turn rancid and stink, bad! The only exception was on the sixth day, when they would gather enough for 2 days worth because the next day was the Sabbath and they did not labor on this day. For those that did this on that day the Manna would not spoil. Again, we see the spiritual significance of God meeting our needs when we follow his way of doing things.

Ok, without getting sidetracked too much more, what am I trying to say? That everything we do as followers of Jesus has its birth and fulfillment in God himself. He is the one who gives us eternal life. He is the one who empowers us for living with His Holy Spirit. He is the one that is working in us in a myriad of ways to change us into the person that He wants and needs us to become. He is not only giving us the power to change but He is also giving us the desire to want to change.

But how does God produce change in us?

I remember that I once asked my granddaughter Emily to do something and she looked at me and said “I don’t want to� I felt every eye in the room turn to look at me to see what I would do. I said to Emily, very slowly and with clear even tone “Emily, its ok that you don’t want to. You go right ahead and not want to do it all you want. But if you’re not moving in 2 seconds you are going to have an encounter with my paddle� which I then held up for her to see. (Actually it was a red, plastic, toy bat but it made a very effective paddle) She looked me right in the eye and said “No!� before the space of another heartbeat; I’m talking “at the speed of light� that red, plastic, toy bat made immediate and impressive contact with my granddaughters behind! Emily was quickly motivated to do what I had originally asked her to do, even though she really didn’t want to.

God works with us the same way. He uses the paddle of circumstances to direct us into the proper course of action. He is working in us to get us into a place of obedience and He will do whatever it takes to get us there. Why? For our own good. He knows what is best for us and He knows the way ahead of us and He wants to guide us into all that we need to be effective in our own lives and in the lives of others.

That’s why the Psalmist David says in Psalms 23, the “he leads me in the way of righteousness for His name sake�. Followed immediately by “His rod and staff comfort me� God has a rod. I have felt it many times. It was painful at the moment but looking back now I find nothing but comfort in how he has corrected and led me.
Prov 3:12 - because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (NIV)
Job 5:17-18 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. (NIV)
1 Cor 11:32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. (NIV)
Heb 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (NIV)

God works through our health, our finances, our relationships or anything that will get our attention to bring us to a place of obedience.
But wait! There’s more! – Now, how much would you pay….

There is a greater work that God is working to do in us. Not only will he bring us (some times kicking and screaming all the way) into a place of obedience but he will bring us to the higher road – the way of willingness. He is working in the “want-to� of our hearts and minds so that he will no longer have to use the rod of correction but all he needs to do, is lead us with His voice.

More on this later!

Originally, potpourri was a collection of combined/mixed dried flower petals and spices that was used to add fragrance to the air, a room or a drawer. Now a day however it is a much used term to describe a collection of incongruous things. For example, my son Joey has a veritable potpourri of music gather from every imaginable style and time period. It is as eclectic as it is loud. Thank God and Apple for IPods!

All of us have those areas in our lives when we are not content with just one style or just one type of whatever it is. So, we collect and we gather and we combine it together into a potpourri of substance and of tremendous emotional value, if only to ourselves.

I am that way with books. I have my favorite genres like science fiction or fantasy but next week you’ll find me at Starbucks with Grisham’s new legal thriller. I’ll read biographies and tech thrillers, whodunits and good old westerns. From Tom Clancy and Arthur Miller to Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss (I kid you not!). My library can definitely be considered potpourri. About the only thing I absolutely will not go anywhere near are romance novels. (Too many jokes…)

There is an area of life that really cannot become another potpourri collection and that is in the area of spiritual truth. There are so many people who are drinking from so many different wells of spiritual thought that it is a wonder they are able to rationalize at all.

The apostle Paul encountered this on his trip to Athens. He arrived at Athens and found idol after idol set up to honor every conceivable deity of the day. This was a potpourri of celestial proportions! And just in case they might have forgotten or overlooked some god, somehow, they erected an idol to the “unknown god�. Here’s what Paul said to them:

Acts 17:22-31 “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, 23. for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it–`To an Unknown God.’ You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him. 24. “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25. and human hands can’t serve his needs–for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is. 26. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27. “His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him–though he is not far from any one of us. 28. For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, `We are his offspring.’ 29. And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30. God overlooked people’s former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him. 31. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” (NLT)
Paul tells them that even though they didn’t realize it they had been on a journey for truth. They had good intentions and sincere determination but they had been misguided in their pursuit of Divine truth. He tells them something else that is very relevant and profound for us today. God doesn’t need us! He has no needs. He is the source of life and the answer to our needs.

We tend to create gods within the framework of our own limited understanding. We define them with emotions and personal quirks and idiosyncrasies that bring us comfort and that we can use to control others. But God says that the time of mans speculations are in the past. We can try to embrace our own deity and overlay it with the gold of intellect and philosophy but that will never meet the need of our heart. Paul said to the Athenians that they had worshipped God in ignorance. That is what religion is. Religion is mans futile attempt to worship a God they have not yet understood. So we create avenues of approach to our gods. We create schools and codes and laws to further our hold on this worshipping of our own idols. But Paul says that God is now calling us to abandon our idols and turn to Him.

This is what many are experiencing all over the world today. A drifting away from dead works and scripted ideology and embracing a relationship with a living and loving God revealed to us through the person of His Son, Jesus the Christ. The hymnals and the lecterns are no longer relevant to my grasp of Him who is beyond the four walls of churchianity.

There is a cry for reality, a hunger for experience and a longing for relationship that cannot be met in the potpourri of Athenian religion. (This idol for the Baptist, this idol for the Catholics, here’s one for the Charismatics and there’s one for the Evangelical Free)

We have been worshipping a concept based on certain beliefs and imposed standards of living. This concept comes with its own lingo and dress code and consequences for violating the codes of behavior. We have been building our own idols on the hills of denominationalism and have totally missed the point. It was always supposed to be about Him and never about us.

Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day for doing the very things that we have been told we need to do to be in right standing with God:
John 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40.Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life. (NLT)

Let us not get so caught up in the rituals of religion that we do as the Pharisees did and totally missed Jesus when He came on the scene.

There’s more to God than church meetings and teachings!

This is my response to Edwin’s comment on my blog on Integrity:

Dear Edwin,

I am so sorry about the struggles that you have faced in your church situations. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a perfect church. Primarily because the church is made up of people and “we the peopleâ€? are no where near the land of perfect. I think that we have to face the reality that (as my friend and pastor, Bill says) “life is not fair” and I’ve also heard it said that no one gets out of here alive! I think the mark of good character and integrity is what we do in tough situations and how we respond to life’s happenings!

Robert Schuller, pastor of The Crystal Cathedral … (from your neck of the woods) wrote a book called “Life Is Not Fair But God Is Good” The whole premise of this book is how to keep our faith in the good times and the bad. There is no question that ethics and morals are in shambles within the context of the world system. It is unfortunate, that this it is also all too common within the church world as well.

But what will Edwin do? To me that is the most important question.

In the bible we find this issue over and over again. Will I take the straight and narrow way, the difficult way or will I succumb to the conformist pressures of society and seek the cheap and easy way out.

Towards the end of his life, Joshua spoke to the nation that he had led through bloody conquest and through many years of war and struggle and he said to them that they needed to make a choice as to what they will do with the land and the victories that God had given them. He painted them the picture of conformity and compromise then he said to them that regardless of what they did, he was going to follow God. The same question is before all of us today. How will you live your life?

It is easy to look at the mistakes and failures of others and to use those negatives as an excuse to give up ourselves. But that is not the way of integrity.

When it comes to using other people’s materials, we live in a world of so much access and so much technology that it has never been easier to learn and to develop ideas and draft new material for bible study or preaching. There is nothing wrong with using material that is out there and so readily available for any and all to use. But where the issue of integrity comes in is in how I represent what I have gathered. If I am using someone else’s outline or material to gain ideas or to help polish my own research I am not plagiarizing if all I am doing is broadening my personal knowledge base and adding to my thought process. For example, if I read a book and told you all about it, if I described the storyline and characters to you, am I plagiarizing that authors work? Of course not! 

It is so interesting that on “The Today Show” yesterday morning (3/16) there was discussion of this same issue regarding Dan Brown, the author of “The Davinci Code”. Mr. Brown is being sued in London for supposedly plagiarizing another mans work in his book. This issue is going to be in the hands of a judge who will make the final determination in the next few weeks. One of the things Mr. Brown says in his defense is that the book in question was among the “many books” he read in his research.

This issue and your question challenged me so much that I did some research on line and found a very good article on plagiarism and dealing specifically with ministers on the website of “The Christian Standard” Here is the link so you can download the article if you wish:

http://www.christianstandard.com/articledisplay.asp?id=124

Here is one of the points that Dean Christensen who wrote the article says about plagiarism:

The central problem with plagiarism is twofold: (1) it is stealing; and (2) it bears false witness . . . To fail to acknowledge [the source of your words and ideas] is to give the false impression that they have originated with you. Hence, plagiarism steals from another and gives a false impression to your audience.”

My own personal challenge in all of this is to be above reproach:

Job 27:6 - I’m holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my grip–and, believe me, I’ll never regret it. (Msg)

I was looking for a particular Christian worship artist online and came across some of his music on the website of Integrity Music (www.integritymusic.com). While I was there I was impressed by the name of the website and of course what it represents. Integrity!

 I think you would have to have been asleep not to have heard about the author James Frey whom Oprah promoted on her book club only to later have it disclosed that  much of what he claimed to be true was fabricated. (There is a great article on this whole incident by Edward Wyatt in the New York Times, published: January 27, 2006. You can read it online at ww.nytimes.com

In the article, Oprah is quoted as saying “I feel duped,” and also that she told Mr. Frey. “But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers.”

Isn’t that really what a lack of integrity ultimately produces in others “a sense of personal betrayal�?

What I found so insightful about the whole issue is that initially Oprah defended Mr. Frey and said the controversy was “much ado about nothing.” But after more and more information came to light she changed her opinion.

Quoting again from Mr. Wyatt’s article: “But yesterday Ms. Winfrey apologized to her audience for that call. “I regret that phone call,” she said. “I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter. And I am deeply sorry about that, because that is not what I believe.” She added, “To everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right

Wow! I find it amazing that we as a society would have to be challenged on issues of “truth�! Truth and integrity go hand in hand. If I do not speak the truth then I have no integrity. If I misrepresent myself then I am acting without integrity.

Proverbs 10:9 - People with integrity have firm footing, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall. (NLT)

Right now, from the publishing world to the halls of Congress, from the podiums of academia to hundreds of corporate conference rooms there is an explosion of concern and even actual judicial litigation taking place because of a lack of integrity.

Do these names ring a bell?

Enron, Tom Delay, Martha Stewart, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom

These headline stories were on MSNBC last month (Feb-06)
1. American International Group Inc.,(AIG) the world’s largest insurer, is on the verge of settling federal and state charges of fraud and other misconduct for a record payment of at least $1.5 billion.
2. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. will pay $164 million to settle 23 class action lawsuits related to its analysts’ activities and research coverage of Internet companies during the boom and bust of the dot-com era

Ok, let’s forget about corporate America for a moment. How many people did you watch on the evening news ransacking and pillaging the Walmarts and similar stores in New Orleans during the whole Hurricane Katrina issue? Hey now, wait a minute! You might say, they only did that because they were hungry and needed food. Oh really? And how were they planning on eating those DVD players and big screen TV’s they were rolling out on shopping carts? Paint it any way you want to, there was a general loss of control and lack of integrity

I hear David’s prayer in Psalms 101:2 - Please help me learn to do the right thing, and I will be honest and fair in my own kingdom. (CEV)

And I read Paul’s admonition to Titus:

Titus 2:7&8 - In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness  8. and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Set an example – do what is right! Show integrity and seriousness in my representation of the words and character of God.

Search the internet on the issue of integrity and you will find many sub topics like:

Academic integrity, Research integrity, Political integrity, Moral integrity, Artistic integrity, Intellectual integrity, Financial integrity and Personal integrity.

We are a people obsessed by the realization that integrity is sadly lacking and desperately needed

In the corporate world we find the IT department which has as one of its main purposes, maintaining data integrity. There are scores of IT professionals and thousands of pages of computer code written to keep data from becoming corrupted. Bottom line is that once data is corrupted it is often of no further use.

When integrity is lacking the same thing be said of our lives and of our culture.

How about the church? How about the pastor? Are we people of integrity? Are we real in our representation of who we are and of our gifts and talents?

Am I a disciple or am I a groupie? What’s the difference?

A disciple studies, trains and exercises himself in the word of God and makes the necessary changes in his life in response to the guidance and tutelage of the Spirit.

A groupie goes with the flow of the moment and never actually makes any life changes. His decisions are based on emotion and reaction.

Integrity comes from hard work and at times from making difficult decisions.

2 Timothy 2:15 - Do your best to know that God is pleased with you. Be as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of. Teach the words of truth in the right way. (NLV)

In Quakers theology, integrity is a sense of wholeness achieved by listening to the Spirit of Christ within us and being true to Him. Quakers believe that listening to the Spirit within will lead one to practice honesty and fairness outwardly. The “Testimony of Integrity� is one of their core beliefs and practices. This is the belief that one should live a life that is first, true to God, true to oneself, and finaly true to others. (Taken from Wikipedia)

The thundering from Mt Sinai is still as relevant today as it was 4000 years ago;
Thou shalt not steal!
Thou shalt not lie!

Jesus put it this way “do unto others as you would have them do unto you�
The golden rule is the rule of integrity.

I believe there is a priority to life and I believe that in keeping that priority I will maintain my own integrity and live the kind of life that will bring honor and glory to God.

This scripture sums it up:
Matt 22:37-40  Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ 38. This is the most important, the first on any list. 39. But there is a second to set alongside it: “Love others as well as you love yourself.’ 40. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Message)

Love God completely first and love others second. Everything else in life will fall into place afterwards - Now this, is integrity!