Clutter Control

Just ran across a link to an article written earlier this year for "Reflections." Enjoy!

[Clutter Control]

Pastor's Apples

The following poem was written in honor of Rev. Marvin G. Walker, my pastor, for pastor appreciation 2010. This is not an "I wish you could be this kind of pastor" poem, but a "thank you for exemplifying this kind of pastor" poem.

PASTOR'S APPLES

Apples of gold in silver baskets—
That’s what my words should be
The beauty and light of Jesus
Indwelling, reflecting in me

Guard my thoughts and tongue, dear Lord—
Only life-giving words outspoken
Mercy and truth met together
Restoration for that which is broken

Something New Under the "Son"

You may have heard the saying, "there's nothing new under the sun." I have news for you...God is still doing new things! (Isaiah 43:19)

It's a new season...planting season... and if we'll take the time to prepare the soil of our hearts, there's no telling what will spring forth in our lives.

First, we may need to "turn over a new leaf." If you haven't started Spring clean-up, dead leaves and debris are likely hanging around your "yard." Clean 'em up and clear 'em out!

"Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD,
Till He comes and rains
righteousness on you"
(Hoseah 10:12).

* Break up the clods,
* Remove the rocks,
* Burn the thistles, and
* Pull up the stumps of things that grew before but are now obstacles in your field.

"Fallow ground" is land that could be productive, but is not usable because it lacks preparation. Be proactive and prepare yourself for fruitfulness.

After working in the "dirt" (1 Corinthians 3:9), we need to break out the Word for a good scrubbing (Ephesians 5:26). Don't forget your fingernails. Stuff can get lodged in places that need some extra attention at times. And check behind your ears, too (where we don't see, but still need maintenance).

"Create in me a clean heart, O God;and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

What to plant? Well, my friend, God is the Husbandman, the owner of your "land," and He chooses what He wants to plant. Regardless of the seeds sown, here are some cultivation tips to make sure your new crop grows.

* Take on a new attitude (Ephesians 4:23).
* Put on your new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness(Colossians 3:10).
* Live the new life God has for you (Romans 6:4).
* And then sing a new song to Him (Psalm 33:3).

Now it's time to get a breath of fresh air...

"May the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy
Spirit" (Romans 15:13, NIV).

"Let my teaching fall like rain and my
words descend like dew, like
showers on new grass, like
abundant rain on tender plants.
(Deuteronomy 32:2)

Now let the Son shine on everything, and see what will grow in your life! Cultivate the seeds of promise He's given you. You have a field to tend and dress, and God has a crop to bring forth in its season. Something new under the Son!

My goal for today...

Breaking through the mundane
Reaching a higher spiritual plane
Letting go of the every day
Seeking Him in a new vibrant way

Living above and not below
Releasing faith in me to grow
To be all that God's called and appointed
With power and authority--His anointed

Speaking, creating on the plane of faith
Equipped, called and chosen by His grace
Believing, obeying, seeking His ways
Following His leading all of my days

Reflecting Holiness in a Darkened World

The following article was written by request for the January/February 2010 "Pentecostal Herald." Since their new issue is coming out, I thought I would post it here for those who don't have a subscription.

When spiritual perception is distorted like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, the resulting confusion can create an unstable and sometimes crippling mindset. Dizzy in my personal cycle of blunders and bloopers, I’ve wondered if holiness is an unrealistic ideal. Is it reasonable for a perfect God to demand holiness when He knows our human frailty? A loving Father wouldn’t set His children up for failure, always reaching for the unreachable in never ending frustration.

Without vision, divine revelation, God’s people languish in hopelessness and ultimately perish (Proverbs 29:18). Spiritual understanding is our stabilizer. To break the cycle of perceived failures, we must understand this truth: In order to thrive spiritually, we must first learn to accept the limitations of our humanity. This does not discount God’s call to holiness, but factors His grace into the equation.

God’s beautiful gift of grace does not excuse poor choices and lack of effort while we rest on downy comforters of heavenly love. Instead, grace is God’s response to our hopelesness. Grace empowers us to do and be all God had in mind when He made us uniquely for His purpose and pleasure. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Holiness may seem to be an unachievable abstract, but it is a core concept of our faith and part of God’s master plan. The Hebrew word for holiness, kedushah, means “separateness.” We are separate because God called us out of the world. He took what was common, our lives, and united them with Him. Everyday people, places and things are holy when they are separated from the world and dedicated as sacred unto God (Deuteronomy 14:2). We are holy when we are His.

A holy life is not the result of conquered wills, but transformed desires. In ourselves, we cannot generate holiness. Holiness is something we receive from God – His nature and essence that we reflect to the world around us.

A mirror reflects only when light is present. When we look at a mirror, what we see is light hitting its surface sent back to our eyes as an upside-down image that rotates in our minds. As we grow spiritually, we receive deposits from God’s Word and Spirit. Through the lens of our lives His divine character and concepts transpose from the spiritual realm into the natural world around us. God grants forgiveness to us; He asks us to extend forgiveness to others. God is faithful; He expects us to be faithful in our relationships. God is kind; He teaches us to offer kindness to those around us. God is holy and dedicated to us; He wants us to live holy, set-apart lives for Him.

When God made man, He made him in His image, clothed in light (Psalm 104:2). Think about a light bulb. We don’t really notice the glass when a light is turned on, but when the light is off, we see the bare bulb. July 22, 2009, Charles Q. Choi of www.livescience.com reported recent studies prove human bodies emit low levels of light. Choi’s report backs up the Genesis account. God made men as light bearers. Although sin diminished the brilliance of man’s light, and Adam and Eve were no longer covered in glory, God’s original design remains intact.

Jesus, the Light of the world, entered humanity in a stable – God without the glory. Through faith in Him, we will one day be fashioned "like unto His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). For now, we live connected to the natural and the supernatural, the holy and the common. As followers of Jesus, we are called to light our world, to reflect the moral attributes of God’s holy nature in our words, attitudes and conduct.

God doesn’t ask for anything He hasn’t provided. His call to holiness is not an unrealistic intimidating edict. It is a promise from a holy God to His people. “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY" (1 Peter 1:15-16 NASB). When we are called and set apart for God, “you shall be holy” is just as sure a promise as “you shall receive the Holy Ghost.”

One word of warning: we must never misappropriate that which has been consecrated as holy. To do so is to commit a grave sin (Daniel 5; 1 Corinthians 3:17). It’s a sobering thought, but keep in mind that when we stand before the Lord in judgment, our works on the earth will continue into eternity. “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still…and he that is holy, let him be holy still (Revelation 22:11).

Throughout Scripture, purity and holiness intertwine. Sören Kierkegaard, a 19th Century Danish theologian said, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” Holiness is simplicity – one thing, one desire. Only by drawing near to God can we achieve purity and holiness (James 4:8): when we purpose or will “only one thing” – to live in the presence of God. True holiness is the result of being plugged in to an intimate relationship with God 24/7, set apart for Him and granting Him access to every part of our lives.

Through life’s slip-ups and hiccups, God’s grace covers our human failings. He knows our hearts, and that’s a comfort. Achieving a holy walk is not pretending we are flawless, but being what we are, His. God doesn’t want us to live fake lives of contrived perfection. He knows, like every parent, that children don’t just go through life, they grow through life. By God’s grace, as we grow spiritually we will choose to embrace His will over ours, even when we make mistakes. Then we will understand that flawed people can still be holy people

"Don't have a perfectionistic world view. It makes things harder on everyone. Offering acceptance encourages others to be their best." M. Walker

“Adversity is not optional, but be of good cheer. God has overcome the world.” J. Haney

Unlocking the Gate to the Path of Peace

If you are looking for more peace in your life, in your home, in your heart, there’s one sure-fire way to get it. God has given us the key that unlocks the gate to the path of peace. The KJV puts it this way: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165). Other versions read:

• “Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble” (AMP).

• “You give peace of mind to all who love your Law. Nothing can make them fall” (CEV).

• “Abundant peace have those loving Thy law, And they have no stumbling-block” (YLT).

There’s so much to learn from this verse. In it God reveals a life-changing principle: Gaining and maintaining peace are directly related to loving God’s law. In this passage, according to Gesenius's Lexicon, the word translated love means to desire, to breathe after, to delight and to be inclined to. It implies longing—something that comes from deep within and persistently craves more.

When I first became a follower of Jesus, I devoured the Word, took discipleship classes and went out for coffee with folks just to talk about the Lord and the amazing things I was learning about Him. Over time I attained a certain level of scriptural knowledge, but I think somewhere along the way I came to a place where I subconsciously thought, “Well, I have enough now. I know the basics, and that’ll do. I’m in church at least three times a week. Surely that’s enough to keep me going and growing.” But, oh, the treasures still waiting to be mined in the depths of the Word and in His presence.

As we pass through the seasons and events of our lives, we often experience an ebb and flow in our hunger for the Word. For me, for right now, and perhaps for you, too, it feels like it’s time for the tide to turn, rise and fill the beach once again. Something keeps pressing into my spirit and I can’t shake the thought that if I’m lacking in peace, perhaps the root of the problem is a lack of love for His Word.

Of course, understanding the Word is critical, but more than simply gaining knowledge, Psalm 119:165 talks about loving the law in its entirety. The word law in this passage not only includes Mosaic law and prophetic teaching, but also custom and manner. In our New Testament relationships with God, we are not required to keep Old Testament rites or ceremonial laws, but we are mandated by Jesus Christ to keep the moral law—and then some.

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, He upped the constraints of the moral law. He said we should no longer live eye for an eye, but we should instead turn the other cheek. He taught that if we are compelled to walk one mile, we should offer to walk two. There’s an above-and-beyond principle at work, and the cool thing is God applies this principle in His dealings with you and me. He gives us above and beyond anything we could ever offer Him.

To have peace in our lives, we must love, long for and incline ourselves to instruction and to the customs and manner of living outlined in the Word beginning with all those “be” attitudes Jesus gave that follow after the heart and principles of godly living. When we do this we will reap two outstanding benefits.

First, we will have no means or occasion of stumbling. According to Strong’s Concordance that’s what “nothing shall offend thee” means. When we love the law, we will lack the methods, resources, time or opportunity to stumble. We won’t slip, hesitate or blunder as we walk through the days of our lives, and we will face no stumbling blocks, hurdles or barriers.

That inspires me to investigate further. It seems God must have one of His awesome spiritual principles buried in this passage, and the more I dig into it, the more excited I get. Let’s look at the second benefit. According to Strong’s, the Hebrew word translated peace also means completeness, soundness, and welfare. A further breakdown of the word includes things like safety, health, prosperity, quiet, tranquility, contentment, friendship, peace of human relationships, and peace with God in covenant relationship. OK. I’m signing up right now. I want all that like yesterday.

But wait! There’s more! We don’t just get all that excellent, wonderful stuff—it all comes SUPER-SIZED—in great measure! According to Gesenius’s Lexicon the root word for great means one continuous thing. A continuous outpouring of all that good stuff sounds mighty fine to me, yes, indeed. Strong’s expounds further saying great also means abundant, stronger, and enough. Wow. Think about that. My peace—my great peace—is in abundant supply! It is not just strong, it is stronger—stronger than the influence of things that might take that peace from me and greater in strength than the things I wrestle in my flesh, mind and spirit. The peace God gives me is enough. Enough for what? Enough for anything and everything that comes my way. There is simply an abundance of God’s great peace available for those who love His law.

It’s possible to obey without loving, but that is not the way of peace. We will live in peace when we love, when we breathe after, when we desire, delight and incline to God’s ways over our ways. We have access to the path of peace when we understand this key concept: Peace is God’s rich reward for those who hunger after His Word. I pray God’s peace be with you, my friend, or as I’ve heard my teenager say, “Peace out!”