The Almighty

As he got out of the car Sunday, my youngest grandson, Kai, asked his mom, "Why do we have to go to church every week?" They worship at our church. She gave a typical parent answer about thanking God. Kai, pressed. "Is Poppi (that's me) God?" "No, honey, he isn't." "Didn't think so. He's not up in the air."

How many of us let someone be our God? Coach. Boss. Band Director. Spouse. Child. Celebrity. We do as they say, whether or not the true God thinks it's a good idea. Even if we don't think it's a good idea. We lose the ability to say "No" to false gods instead saying "No," to the God who loved us into being.

God tells us that if we listen to God, luscious fruit springs up around us even if things don't all go our way. In other words, if we let God be our God, we will thrive even when circumstances don't favor us. We know we have shifted gods when we are beat down, stressed, tired, angry, busy on a regular basis.

Who's God of your life? How are you training up the children in your life?

Then God gave the people all these instructions: ² "I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. ³ "You must not have any other god but me. Exodus 20:1-3 (NLT)

⁵ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. ⁷ Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

 Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (NLT)

Fruit

Jesus said this recently in Sunday worship:

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.  John 15:16-17

Three things hit me in this passage. You may find your own insights.

First, Jesus chooses us. I don't know about you, but on many days, I would not choose either of us. We can be selfish, preoccupied, and unreliable. Yet, the truth is, we are choose-able. As is.

Second, our job is to bear lasting fruit. We are to leave behind a yummy life for others as well as ourselves. God wants the world renewed to its Garden of Eden (or New Jerusalem) form. This takes a little sacrifice on our part and a lot of God. But God is up to it. Are we?

Lastly, Jesus wants us to serve each other; to lay down our lives for each other and so become channels of the great fruit God wants to grow in our lives.

How is your fruit crop? What can you do today to make it better, to let God work in and through you?

Friends

This past Sunday, Jesus told me that I was a friend of God rather than being God's hourly worker. I always find that hard to believe.

Friends are important. Friends get to be way nosier into my life. Friends challenge and comfort me. Not everyone gets to do that. Friends can count on me as I expect to count on them. Friends take me seriously but not too seriously. Life is impossible without friends. They are the joys of life and the grease in tough times.

Most people are acquaintances even if we call them friends. Acquaintances know about us but don't know us. Acquaintances are not asked to make the investment in us that friends are asked to make. If an acquaintance leaves, we are fine. If a friend leaves, there is a hole in our heart.

Given that God makes a terrific friend, how good a friend are you to God?

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you

servants any longer, because the servant does not know

what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because

I have made known to you everything that I have

heard from my Father.  John 15:14-15

Sincerity

I was in Dallas last week at a conference. I was struck by a profound insight of @JudWilhite, Senior Pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. He did an excellent riff on 2 Corinthians 5:12.

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again,

but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us,

so that you can answer those who take pride in

what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.

 

Per God, it is not how spectacular your ministry (or work or achievements) is. For God, the measuring stick is the sincerity of our heart.

 

We are a people who salivate over metrics (statistics, rank, measurements of who is ahead,) and outward appearances. We spend countless hours and dollars trying to get approval, applause or awe from others. This is a bottomless pit that we cannot fill (but believe we can.) Exhausted and empty, we wonder if we measure up.

 

Why not back of the gas pedal a little today and embrace God's point of view. The real action is in the heart. Guard your heart. Fill it with good things. Externals may bring fleeting happiness. A sincere heart will bring lasting joy.

Long View

My dad is 93. He recently observed that newer engineers get all caught up in current technology and problems but fail to see the effects of when their little piece becomes part of something bigger.

A recent National Public Radio story was about how ultra-right and ultra-left factions in political parties are making it near impossible for any constructive action to be taken. A middle of the road Republican senator observed that America's future is murky as a result of these ideological impasses.

People in need of mortgage assistance (I personally have dealt with this) are delayed and ignored among other indignities while financial officers make millions in bonuses for fattening the "bottom line."

To be sure, what we do today does matter. But so do the long term effects, which we as Americans, tend to ignore till there is a crisis. We love a crisis. But there are a lot of "dead" bodies littering the landscape as a result of waiting till there is a crisis.

Into the mix, we need to add the long view, the bigger picture. God does.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Revelation 22:13

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

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

God goes on, not willing to give up the long view

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

Where in your dealings today do you need to give more thought to the long term ramifications of what you are considering? How would it fit in God's long view? Would it at all?

Happening

Today, you will

·         Make it happen

·         Stop it from happening

·         Watch it happen

·         Help it happen

·         Or, Huh, is something happening?

How will you decide which? Will you not decide and, merely, default to a comfortable place? Maybe quote some ideology or personality? Will you look for the impact of the happening on people's lives and act accordingly?

God is in the creatively happening business. And God is Love. So, not all things should happen. Love enters all but the last one. Apathy is the antithesis of love. Discernment helps us decide which of the first 4 are appropriate. God's Spirit helps us discern. The Spirit of God wants to love something really good into existence through you today. You up for it?

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8

Peppers

Got home last week to tend my garden. Pepper plant was droopy. Leaves and pepper had fallen off. Pepper died. Other plants are okay.

Fruit doesn't fair well when it gets disconnected from the plant. Neither do we. We were made for connection, with God and each other. We tend to forget that staying connected to our life source, Jesus, does not happen automatically. It is a choice on our part. Hear this from Sunday's lesson.

Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." John 15:1-8

God wants to tend us – always. Jesus cast his vote, he will never leave. That just leaves you and me. Will we abide? Will we stay connected? How do we know we are connected? If life springs up around us even when circumstances would dictate otherwise. If we wilt and burn up in the face of life's inevitable challenges, we know that we stopped abiding.

Abide, dwell, tarry with Jesus today. That means to give up the lead and follow.