Time for Jesus

"Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

'The kingdom of heaven is like a king

who prepared for a wedding banquet for his son.  

He sent his servants to those who had been invited 

to the banquet to tell them to come,

but they refused to come.'"

Matthew 22:1-3

Have I been invited to dine at the table of the King?  God lures me to Jesus in many ways: Through the love of His people, by the provision of His hand, or in His attentiveness to my life.  There is no doubt He is pursuing me and wants my full attention, complete devotion and undying love.

But am I heeding, or am I too caught up in the details of my life, or the pleasures found in the flesh, or in the pursuit of worldly success?

If I am, I may miss out on the banquet.  I need to make time for Jesus.

The Masterpiece

"Teach me your ways, O LORD,

that I may live according to your truth!

Grant me purity of heart,

so that I may honor you.

With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.

I will give glory to your name forever,

for your love for me is very great.

You have rescued me from the depths of death."

Psalm 86:11-13 NLT

I have never understood gun-control laws.  I am not a gun enthusiast or a hunter.  In fact, I have never fired a gun in my life.  What I don't understand, however, is the concept that guns kill people.  If that were the case, I would be all for banning guns from the face of the earth.

The fact of the matter is that people kill people, and even if guns did not exist, people bent on killing will find a way to kill.  The problem is not the weapon . . . the problem is the heart.

It's the same with God's ways.  If I try to do what I think I should do according to His Word, I will probably fail.  As Joni Eareckson Tada said, "No tool, in and of itself, has great importance.  But placed in the proper hands it can create a masterpiece."  

If I allow God to teach me His ways using the tools he chooses to use in my life (trials, tests, difficulties. . . ), then He will create a masterpiece.  

When I am frustrated by the lack of progress in my spiritual walk, the problem is not the truth I find in the Bible. . . the problem is my heart.

Purity of Heart

During the refining process, gold is subjected to high temperatures and caustic agents in order to remove impurities.  God does the same thing with my heart so that He can remove everything that gets in the way of focusing on Him: Pride, lust, selfish ambition, envy, jealousy, etc.

To discover the location of my heart, I need only figure out what is important to me.  Jesus said, ". . .where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  (Luke 12:34)  Do I value making myself look good?  Am I concerned with defending my position?  Is rising to the top of the corporate ladder my goal in life?  Or do I strive to obtain all the things I ever wanted so that I can live comfortably, thinking that, after all I deserve it.   I've worked hard my whole life!

The New International Version uses the phrase "undivided heart" in Psalm 86:11.  My heart is constantly carved up between different desires.  Sure, I want to please God, but I also want to have what my friend has, or enjoy a comfortable life that satisfies my desires, or be the best in my field.  My heart is divided.

The only heart that honors God is a pure, undivided heart.  And the only way my heart will be purified is if I put it in the Master's hands for purification.  As David said in Psalm 51:10 NLT, "Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me."

How is God attempting to purify my heart through circumstances in my life?  Am I submitting to His purification process?

Wholeheartedness  

The Pharisees, Sadducees and Teachers of the Law during Jesus time were always trying to trip Him up, testing Him time and again.  One smart little fellow tried to trap him with this question.  "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" (Matthew 22:36)  He was probably snickering to himself as he thought of the impossibility of answering that query.

Then Jesus blew his mind while revealing the crux of the Law.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (v37)

Wholeheartedness leaves no room for insincerity.  A heart wholly committed to God is open, truthful and not at all hypocritical.  If I truly want to worship God in the way I live my life, I can't hide things from Him.  I can't pretend everything is okay when in reality I am struggling.  I can't hold back my feelings from Him, thinking that it will anger Him or that He'll be disappointed.  He wants my whole heart. . . scars and all!

There's no sense hiding things from a God who knows me better than I know myself. . .and loves me anyway! 

Tender Heart

In order to enjoy a tender and succulent steak, some tenderizing is necessary for most cuts of meat.  The meat fibers can be broken down physically, by using a mallet, or chemically with a marinade.  Either way, tough muscle fibers need to be broken apart so that the finished product will turn out juicy and tender.

This is not much different than my heart.  Even though I cannot take a meat mallet to my heart, I can work to break down some of the muscle fibers; the things that make me think I'm pretty strong in myself.  

Some of these "muscle fibers" include my pride which makes me want to be right all the time, or my sense of independence, or my desire to look good to others.   Holding on to these attitudes and desires can drive me to try to impress God with a holy life instead of laying myself before Him as a broken and contrite offering.

David said it well in Psalm 51:16-17 (MSG).  He was at a place in his life where he had realized the great sin he had committed against God and he was suddenly aware of the hardness of his own heart.  He said, "Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.  I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.  Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice."

Just as a tenderized steak is juicy and succulent to the taste buds, so is a broken and contrite heart a joy to our Father.  Only then will I be able to truly receive the great love God has for me.

A hardened heart cannot receive the gift of love God has bestowed upon me.

I can try to do what I think I should do on my own, or I can place myself in the Masters hands and allow him to purify my heart, give me the courage to be completely open and honest with Him, and tenderize my heart.  Only then will His love saturate my being, changing my life forever.  

God can create a masterpiece out of the most hopeless of lives. . . if only He is given the chance.  

As I begin this day, it is my prayer that I will trust God enough to give Him my heart.

How do I hold feelings back from God, mistakenly thinking He won't love me anymore if He knows the truth?

What divides my heart and keeps it from being completely devoted to God?

 

A Choice to be Made

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you,

then choose for yourselves this day whom

you will serve whether the gods your forefathers

served beyond the River,

or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household,

we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15

There are so many things vying for our attention in this technologically advanced 21^st Century.  There’s the smart phone we can’t leave home without, the Facebook account that can’t sit unchecked for more than 6 hours, the twitter account that seems so important to keep updated, the blogs that must be followed and the games that must be played.   There’s no doubt that we Americans love our technology.

I may not think I serve these things, but when they demand my attention, how much control do I actually have over the time I spend with them?  If I feel I can’t set it aside for one day, who’s serving whom?

I must fight to keep God in the number one place in my life, otherwise everything else will drown Him out.  But these “things” are not the only threat. 

Family Tradition

We do things out of tradition without a second thought.  I remember hearing the story about the young woman preparing a turkey for her very first Thanksgiving feast.  She defrosted the enormous bird in the sink, just like mom, and carefully covered it with the dish drainer turned upside down.  Her husband asked her why she did that, but she replied, “I don’t know.  That’s just how mom always did it.”  Turns out, her mom perfected this technique as a way to protect the poultry from her nosy cats.  Living in a pet-less home, this step was unnecessary for the daughter, but she did it anyway out of blind tradition. 

What traditions do I continue without a second thought as to whether or not this is glorifying to God?  Some families worship at the altar of the television, keeping it on at all times, never giving God a chance to speak in the quiet, still times of the morning.  Other families have always attended a certain church even though the pastor doesn’t really preach the Word and its more about being seen then being challenged and trained for service in a fallen world.  A number of families follow certain traditions at Christmas time that distract from bringing honor to the Christ Child, but are fun and build lasting memories.

What do I do out of sheer habit, blindly doing what my parents and their parents before them have done for years? 

Choosing to serve the Lord means letting go of practices done out of family custom, and intentionally choosing only those things which glorify Him and put Him in the highest place in my household.

The World

I live in a world that is focused completely on my comfort, entertainment and well-being.  It is easy for me to get sucked into his kind of thinking, focusing on myself as the number one priority.

As a believer, however, Jesus has called me to, “Love the Lord (my) God with all (my) heart and with all (my) soul and with all (my) mind.” (Matthew 22:37) This is kind of hard to do when I’m more concerned with my rights, my comfort and my happiness than I am with loving God.  In this passage, Jesus continued with, “’Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (v 39-40) I can’t go wrong if I keep loving God and others at the center of my attention.

It takes no effort at all to slip into the culture of this world.  The music, movies, television and other forms of entertainment are so readily available and are all around me, ready to amuse me, educate me, and to quench my fleshly thirst.  But as a follower of Christ, I have a choice to make.  James warned us to, “keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

I don’t need to serve the gods of the culture I live in. 

Instead, I can choose to live in a way that sets me apart from the world while protecting the hearts and minds of myself and my family from taking on the beliefs of this world.  In this way, I am showing God honor in my home.  I am telling Him in a tangible way that His ways are more important to me than my comfort, my happiness, or my fitting in.

Jesus reminded me that, “. . . you don’t belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” (John 15:19) 

Choosing to serve the Lord means only letting things in my home that honor Him, and not getting drawn into the culture around me. 

Choose the Lord

My computer has default settings that are automatically set.  If I don’t intentionally change them, these preset conditions are programmed to exist.  It is the same with me.  My default settings are my fleshly desires, my natural way of doing things, my selfish point of view.

If I want to follow God, I must intentionally change these settings, choosing instead to do things God’s way.  Paul taught in Galatians 5:16 to “. . .live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  It takes effort to buck my nature, but if I truly desire to do so, I am able to “. . .keep in step with the Spirit.” (v25) I am not powerless against my nature, for I have been given, “a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

It is possible for me to choose the Lord, but I must choose.  Giving Him the first and most honored position in my life is not going to come naturally.

Choosing to serve the Lord means making an effort to give Him the highest place in my thoughts, in my heart and in my home.

There are many things competing for my attention in this world.  If I want to give the Lord my utmost for His highest, I must let go of ungodly traditions, turn my head away from the culture around me and give Him the highest place in my life.

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can put more value in honoring God than in pleasing myself.

How do I put my own comfort and happiness above pleasing God?

Where do I look just like the world around me instead of being the salt of the earth?