Rest

August has been a month of sabbatical rest for Andy & I.  Our first. It’s the smallest church we’ve served—but they have big hearts and broad minds.  We love them!

I can’t wait to share about our sabbatical.  But I first wanted to write about rest.  It’s so elusive!  We decided to spend our last week of sabbatical at home.  You know why?   It’s where we rest the best.  

Hebrews 4 talks about rest. It says God entered His rest on the 7th day—after working/creating for 6 days.  We have the promise of rest—which is ahead of us.  So…while we’re still here, we have work to do.  Maybe that’s why it’s so elusive even though we should live with our souls in a continual state of rest—and get alone often, like Jesus did.  

We have work to do. Let’s be busy sharing the good news of Jesus Christ!  Let’s work hard (with our souls at rest) knowing our rest is ahead of us.  

Time is short.

Ephesians 3:20

I've been meditating on Ephesians 3:20...

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,"

1. We have to empty ourselves of US and what we're able to do.  

2. We have to be filled with the Spirit--controlled by & submitted to him. 

3. We have to listen to the Father and do what He's doing.  

4. We must ask the Spirit to breathe and expand our spirits with His power.  

5. We need to receive everything the Spirit has to offer--His fruit, His gifts. 

6. We must ASK and believe for the impossible!

7. We need to walk controlled by the Spirit.  The minute we do or say anything in our flesh, we start over.  But we start from a place of expansion.  (Think of a balloon--after you blow it up and it's deflated, it's easier to blow up the next time--it's been expanded!  It retains the “memory” of where it’s been.)

Meditates=Roars

Meditates=Roars

Psalm 1:2 says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law he meditates day and night.”

I’ve heard this verse as long as I can remember and here’s what I heard, “But he delights and enjoys the law of the Lord and thinks on the verses in the Bible all the time.”

The original language is a little different.  Delight means delight—or pleasure, longing, or purpose.   The law of the Lord is Torah (the first five books of the Bible).  It’s probably all that was written when David wrote this psalm.  So we are to take pleasure in and find purpose in God’s Word.  

But the most interesting part to me is meditate.  It does mean “to think on.”   But it also means “to roar like a lion!!”   I’ve learned a few things about a lion roaring.  It only roars as it matures.  It roars over prey.  It roars when it’s ready to mate (how great would it be to find a mate by hearing him roar over the Word??).   It roars to claim territory.  It roars to instill fear.  And its roar is so loud (114 decibels—as loud as a rock concert), that it shakes a human’s chest!

What if we’re to meditate on the Word of God by speaking it out loud?   And what if it’s the roar which brings fear into Satan’s kingdom as we claim territory for the kingdom of God?   And just what if it’s the very declaration that the enemy has become our prey?

Wow!!!   Meditate means so much more than just “think on!”  Speak the Word of God as you mature.  Rattle those vocal chords.  And strike fear in the heart of your Enemy!!

Fruit

I recently bought some amazing peaches!   I can’t get enough of them.  I was thinking on those peach trees when I read this verse:

“He (the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly but delights in the law of the Lord) shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.”  Psalm 1:3

The picture here is of a tree which has been transplanted to be beside a canal of water.  The tree has no work to do.  It’s job is to “be.”   It can’t create its own sap—it’s lifeblood.  It can’t provide water and nutrients—it just absorbs what’s provided for it.  It can’t grunt and grow fruit.  All of those things are a natural process built in by the Creator.  

God is saying when we abide in Him and delight in His Word, He’ll do the rest.  He transplants us at our new birth to be right beside the water (a picture of the Holy Spirit).  And then it’s the work of the Spirit to provide the water and nutrients we need  which creates life and fruit.  Did you catch that fruit is seasonal?   There’s a time for growing and maturing before fruit is produced.  You can’t make it happen any sooner.   He promises to take care of everything—water, sap, fruit, healthy leaves...LIFE!  Just be.   Just abide.   And let Him do the rest.  He’ll create beautiful fruit in your life—in due time—which will delight others.

**By the way...there may be heaps of “fertilizer” piled on our lives at times—but don’t despair!   It’s needed for good fruit!  😉

One-Upmanship

In the last days, people will be proud.  

Actually, the Blue Letter Bible has some pretty descriptive explanations for the word “proud” (hyperephanos):

•showing one’s self above others

•overtopping

•conspicuous above others

•pre-eminent 

•with an overweening estimate of one's means or merits

•despising others or treating them with contempt, haughty

…One-Upmanship.  That’s what it all boils down to.  “Someone who does or says something to prove they are better than someone else.”  

Think of this verse like this:  In the last days, there will be plenty of people practicing one-upmanship.  They will be trying to prove they are better than everyone else.  They will put themselves in a better light to be noticed. By doing this, they will try to prove you are “less than” them and that they have greater credentials and should be noticed and patted on the back. 

God says he resists these people.  

“God resists the proud (hyperephanos), but gives grace to the humble.”  James 4:6

No Vagrancy

Imagine this…

Imagine you own a million dollar home and vagrants set up camp in your front yard.  They’ve moved in with their tent, a grocery cart with all of their belongings…and trash.  Not only that, they’ve built a fire on your lawn to keep themselves warm and to cook their food. This all happened right as you’d planned an elaborate dinner party and your guests were arriving.  As each guest entered your home, they told you that these vagrants had boasted to them that they owned this million dollar home—and that your guests had no right to traipse through their yard!   

Of course, you and your guests would know that this was empty boasting.  These vagrants had no rights.  It wasn’t their house or their property.  These people were wandering and setting up camp in a new place each day.  They were empty pretenders.  

That’s what Jesus told us to expect in the last days.  Boasters.  But the root of that word is “vagrant”—people who wander and even claim ownership of things or places not rightfully theirs.  Empty pretenders.  

Have you met an empty pretender lately?

“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy…”

II Timothy 3:2

Who Owns Your Heart?

When you casually observe people in our world today, it’s easy to see a world obsessed with money.  We either see people working hard to give themselves—but more likely, their children—everything.  Or we see others who’ve completely quit working and are living off of a free handout.  Either way, they’re serving money.  

But let’s bring it closer to home.  How much of a hold does money have on your life?  Are you consumed with fear because you don’t make enough money to live comfortably or don’t have enough money to retire? Are you always thinking of the next thing to buy—a bigger house, a better car, newer technology, every activity your child can imagine? Does money consume your thoughts—even though you know God has told us not to love money?

Years ago, God showed me how to break the hold (or fear) money had over my life.  I would write a check for 10% of our income to take as a tithe to God to our church. I would wave it in the air before I left my home and declare, “I will serve God, not money!!” That 10% grew larger as my income increased.  And soon, I was giving offerings beyond my tithe.  As I would see a need, I would quickly help—without thinking of other ways I could use that money for myself.  Soon…money had no hold over my life.  I became a giver.  It’s a life I cherish because I was consumed with fear when I served money. 

In the last days, people will be lovers of money.  That breeds greed, fear, control, fightings, selfishness, haughtiness, conceit, and climbing ladders propped against the wrong wall. 

You will either serve God or money.  Not both.  

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  

Matthew 6:24