Appearances

"The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b"

We get 24 hours a day. What are you doing with yours? Sure, we sleep and have to stand in lines (forever.) But for most of your waking hours, what are you doing with the time God gives you?

Every activity and even our inactivity points primarily to building the heart or promoting the self. Selfish or selfless. Examining our life (for me, an end of the day recollection and reflection on the day helps) helps us be good stewards of time, a commodity we claim to have too little off and a commodity that God doles out in "just enough" quantity.

Are our questions more often than not , "How will this look?" or "What will they think?" or "Will I be liked?" Or are they more "What would God want?"  or "How can I serve others in a godly way?" or "Will this matter 10 years from now?"

Appearances play to the world as audience. The heart plays to God.

Examine your valuable currency, time. Is it spent wisely? Is it spent on appearances or on building the heart, on loving. Love outlasts time. It will not wear out. Building hearts is eternity work.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

Windows

Windows let light in. Mirrors reflect light. Today, I can be a window and let the Light of Christ shine on me and expose what needs change as well as warm my soul. Or I can be a mirror, deflecting Christ's light, thereby saving myself from needed change but, also, denying myself his love. Windows give me hope. Mirrors imprison me in my fear.

Which will I choose today?

The true light that shines on everyone was coming into the world.  John 1:9 (CEV)

Who’s Your Customer?

Business guru, Seth Godin, wrote in a recent blog about identifying your customer. Who are you courting? Who are you playing to? It matters. He ends with this. "If you can only build one statue, who is it going to be a statue of?"

Okay now, who is your customer? Spouse, boss, teacher, coach, neighbor, child, your image, escape? Who do you try to impress, placate? Who's opinion shapes your day? Think about it. Your #1 customer.

I hope it is God. Definitely worth it.

³² The people who don't know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. ³³ Seek first God's kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well. ³⁴ So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:32-34 (NCV)

What If God Is Right?

Our main Gospel is the Gospel of ME. God is a great "ace in the hole," insurance policy. But who is God kidding? I think I can run my own life, thank you. I know it better. Besides, God, you just don't understand. You don't get money (you want too much.) You don't get sex (you want too little.) You have this quaint idea of Sabbath as if life weren't 24/7. And what's up with "Take up your Cross?" I'll serve others when I finish taking care of myself. Honest.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

Maybe God knows me because God made me and I cannot make God. Maybe God loved me into existence and wants nothing but the best for me.

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  Jeremiah 29:10-12

In the midst of turmoil (in this case exile for the Israelites,) God is still active. God knows a bad day, even one we caused. And God wants to make it right. Resurrect it.

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Job 38:4

Quite honestly, I had no hand in creating me. My job is to steward me (a steward is an asset manager. I am God's asset.) Since God is the original manufacturer, God determines the recommended service schedule. God know me better than I know me. In fact, I am blind to so much of me.

Maybe God is right. And maybe it is I who needs to know God better.

Mad

I'm mad. Yes, priests get mad. I'm hanging onto it. I might even sublet. Rotten things have piled up as they sometimes do and I don't like it. I don't want it. Why, Lord?

 

God replies, "Are you done?"

 

Easy for God to say. He/She is there. I'm here.

 

Loads of folks say, "God will never give you more than you can handle." But is that scriptural? Even if it is, I want what I want, not what I can handle.

 

Yet "mad" changes nothing and it is a terrible state to be in (it turns to depression if we let it marinate too long.)

 

Here is what God says,

 

Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (TEV)

 

Okay, my way doesn't work. I'm with you, God. Let's move on. I know you are there.

I'm not concerned about the very poor

Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, made this comment recently. He may be aristocratically out-of-touch as some say. The context seems to shows he was trying to care. But I want to push further.

We who claim to follow Christ (we can worship Christ and have a cross necklace and not follow Jesus BTW) are to be concerned about the poor. PERIOD. The question is; are we? Actively?

God overwhelmingly sides with the poor and expects us to do so. If the plight of the poor does not find its way into our days in thought, word and action, we have missed something important. And it may be our very soul.

Listen (the NIV has "poor" mentioned 176 times.)

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Deuteronomy 15:7

^{(God speaking to his people)}

I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
   your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
   I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
   I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
   I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
   righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:21-24

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Luke 4:18

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? James 2:5-6

It is not that we are to favor the poor. God suggests otherwise. We are to have equal concern for the poor as we do for ourselves or the people we revere.

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Leviticus 19:5

Where are you with those who are poor? How?

Exceptions

My daughter has moved to China. I have assumed running her life here in the U.S. till she returns. This means that I have to do a lot of explaining and fixing and such with all her financial and legal dealings.  I have power of attorney but that does not work well with people I must talk with on the phone. All these are very professional if not a bit sterile, lacking any discernible feelings.

Sometimes I hit the "wall." By wall, I mean that I can proceed no further without actually being my daughter (I have not figured out that one yet.)  I cannot prove my worth as a stand-in without actually having my daughter with me to vouch for me. Bureaucratic logic I guess. "No exceptions, Mr. Liberatore."

I am glad I worship a God who makes exceptions for me. Christ looks at me from the Cross and says, "Whatever the price, I'll vouch for him." Thank you, Jesus.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

2 Corinthians 5:21

Today, let's cut someone for whom Christ died some slack. After all, He made an exception for us.