Priorities...

As I began to read the Word today, God led me to Luke 14. As I read this I was deeply convicted. Let's look at particularly verses 16-24. This is the parable of the dinner. I would encourage you to turn to this section in your Bible as I am only going to give a short paraphrase. Jesus speaks of a man, who threw a big banquet. Many were invited to this banquet, and many had accepted. But, when asked to come, they started making excuses as to why they couldn't come. The banquet was ready, but they weren't. One man said, I bought a piece of new land and I need to go out to look at it, excuse me please. One man said, I have bought a new ox and I want to try him out, excuse me please. Another said, I just got married. I need to spend time with my new bride, excuse me please. Then the man who had been sent out to tell them the dinner was ready came back to the master of the household. Angrily the master told him to go out into the streets, and bring the less fortunate, the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. The slave said, master, this has already been done and there is still room. So the master instructed him to go out into the hidden places, the hedges and highways and tell those people to come. Because those people that were originally invited didn't come, they shall not have a taste of my dinner, but these people will.
Wow, let's see what happened here. Jesus is speaking of when we are invited to attend to God's blessings, to become like him, to take part in his divine nature. Some of us (and this is where my conviction came in) have accepted this invitation, but when the time comes to attend, other priorities get in the way -- idols. Think about this. We tell God, excuse me please, I have other things that are more important. Yikes! Really? I just said that to God? Yes I did. And so have all of us. It doesn't matter how many times we've put God on the back burner. God's not keeping score of how many times we commit this sin, but that we sinned in the first place. But He wasn't done with me, He then took me further into the chapter. Let's move to verses 26-27. Once again this is Jesus speaking. Before we go into what the passage says, let's turn to a part of a commentary I was reading after I read the passage. This is taken from that commentary.
So Jesus calls for a follower who will hate his mother and father, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life. The point of the list is that no other relationship is first for a disciple. "Hate" is used figuratively and suggests a priority of relationship. Jesus is first. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus, not anyone or anything else. A disciple is a learner, and the primary teacher in life is Jesus. This total loyalty is crucial, given the rejection and persecution that lie ahead. If His followers care more about family than about Jesus, when families are divided under pressure of persecution, they will choose against Jesus. This is what lies behind Jesus' remarks. Discipleship is not possible if Jesus is not the teacher.
Well, the commentary basically paraphrases the passage. As a new Christian, I used to have problems with the word "hate" as it is used here. Now that God has grown me into something more, I see just what this means. This commentary confirms this. In order for one to truly follow Jesus, he must "carry his cross", which means, we put Christ first, and we suffer what he suffered, we bare what he bared, we face the same rejections that he faced. No relationship, not family, not job, not anything must come before him. Our very lives must be thrown down. I ask you readers today. What is your excuse? What is keeping you from the blessings of God? We as the body of Christ need to make sure our priorities are in order. If we really are disciples of Christ, we must repent because we have not put him first, above everything.

When "Love" isn't Love.

Love seems like such a simple word doesn't it? Love! It's what you feel for your family--what you feel for your girlfriend/boyfriend or husband/wife. But... it's more than that. The world tries to make love out to be this magical, almost invincible state of tolerating others actions. If you love someone (according to the world), you'll always try to make them happy and you never say anything that could hurt their feelings, even to the point where punishment is looked at like it's hatred even if it's meant to strengthen the one who receives it. In this little box we believe we've defined love, however, this isn't love at all. So, what is it? For this answer we go to the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says the following: (taken from the NASB, with my emphasis)

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.

What does this mean then? It is so very important to have a correct understanding of love. We must understand how to love others, how to love God, and how God shows love to us. This is so crucial. You can't miss this. The most awesome act of love that God could possibly show us was found at the cross, where Jesus died for our sins. There is no greater love than this.

But... what is the wrong understanding of love? It happens when we enter into a way of thinking that says because we love, we can't correct, we can't hold someone accountable for their actions. Let me remind each of you who reads this (also myself) that Christ's death on the cross saves us--absolutely, but, if we don't accept it, we will be held accountable for our unbelief. There must be accountability in love! There must be discipline. God is the perfect Father. It's very difficult for some of us to think of God as our Father sometimes, because some didn't grow up with a father, or they had a horrible relationship with their dad. Nonetheless, God is our Father, and in some cases when our father isn't an example of what he should really be, God stands as the Father we dreamed we had. He loves us so much that he'd adopt us into his family. But how do we show him we love him? One word, obedience. If we love God, we follow him and keep his commandments. And how does he love us? He is our constant, our comforter, our strong tower. And since he is our Father, he also disciplines us.
Hebrews 12:6 says, "FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." Love means caring enough about someone to not only lift them up, but also caring enough to warn, to correct, to make one humble. Love is not tolerant. Out of grace comes love, which requires accountability and discipline. This is the love I know, God's love for us. This is the love we as Christians must show others. So today I challenge you. Are you looking for love? Or are you looking for someone to tell you everything's ok when it's really not. Having the wrong understanding of love can cripple you spiritually and emotionally. Read this and pray for God's love to overwhelm you. God wants you to love Him with everything, because He gave everything for us.

God! Where are You?

The question we've all asked... Christians ask it when we can't see Him, unbelievers ask it when they see "bad" things happen, and I can not tell you how many times even I've asked it. In the blackest of blackness, we go through trials, we breathe in nothing but sorrow and anxiety, and we ask Where Is God?

My friend and GoFM Founder, Kevin, wrote a post fairly similar in nature to this called, "The Need for Sorrow." The following quote from this article does well to answer this question and, more importantly, how we view our trials.

"First off we have to realize we can't BLAME God for these things. Without free will, love cannot exist. Being that God gave us free will He cannot control our actions without revoking it and forcing us to love Him. This free will of ours also leads to free will of others... You make a decision to go to the store at late hours and a person in the same area makes a decision to rob you at gunpoint. You are not at fault, but neither is God."

And what if we stop... listen... look around for a bit... And what if we take into consideration everything we know about our Father in heaven. He is a soverign fortress. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He cared enough about us to send His Son to die for us. That's a lot of love. He sees your pain, He sees that trial or the trials you are going through, broken homes, broken bodies in need of healing, broken lives. The message is... God is able to bring you through this, not because He has to, but because He wants to. Where is God? Right where He always has been, looking at you no different than He did yesterday... as His beloved, His treasure, His child, His friend.

Depression...

Fear, hatred, anger, sadness, bitterness, distress, suicide? Yes... suicide! All or some of us have felt such things. We've felt like nobody cared, felt like God was just either a crutch people use to make themselves feel better, that He wasn't there, or that if He was, He hated you-- looking down at you and laughing because you were in a pit, a rut, a hole that you couldn't get out of. But at some time in our lives, for those of us that have gone through this depression, we choose to stay in it. We may not have chose to enter in, but we choose it as our comfort... but eventually, even the comfortable becomes dangerous, the sanctuary becomes dark, the mirror breaks and we are left laying at our lowest possible level, looking up, but we can't see a thing. But... there is Someone who can see you. There is Someone that knows who you are, and cared enough about you to send His only Son to die on a cross for you, for me, for all. For ALL!!! This is the focus of Out of the Ashes. To encourage the depressed but at the same time to make known the reality that depression can be a choice. This blog won't always be happy, it won't always be light, it will go to dark places when it needs to, but what are we as Christians called to do? Bring light into the darkness, bring light to the flame that has gone out. This is our call, to stand up out of ourselves, to live for something more than self-pleasure, more than fame, wealth, glory, financial security. But, before we can do that, we must accept the fact that God loves us, that there is a God. As Christians we have accepted this, but those who haven't, it's time to let God in. Let Him lift you out of the ashes of depression.