Being and Doing

If you are like me, you probably have had times in your life when you are at the point where you say to God, “God, whatever you want me to do, I want to do it!” I have said that a lot, actually. I want to do things for God.

A lot of us want to do things for God. He has done so much for us, and so we want to do things for Him. But what I am finding more and more as I walk through this journey of life is that God is not really interested in us doing things for Him. He is more interested in us doing things with Him. He is more interested in us being His child than in us doing the work of His servant. Yes, we are His servants. But yes, we are His children. It is a dual truth.

If we are not careful, Christianity can become too much about doing and not near enough about being. Steve Brown, an author, theologian, and long-time Christian points out this dangerous truth in his latest book, What Was I Thinking?

"A friend of mine says that much of the evangelism and
witnessing done by Christians is a pyramid scheme. The
purpose is to acquire the product (i.e., salvation), sell it to
others, and then train those others to sell it. The problem,
my friend says, is that nobody ever uses the product. We
just sell it."

This is a painful truth. And how often is it true in our own spiritual lives? Jesus Christ has purchased new life for us. It was expensive. It cost Him His very life. Are we using the product, or just trying to sell it? I honestly believe that we can do both, and that is when the lost world around us will actually see the value in the product itself.

Consecrate Yourselves

Consecration is one of those words that we have in the Christian Dictionary that, when spoken it makes us feel both holy and wholly confused. What does it mean, anyway? What did it mean when Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3: 5)? He was telling them to make or declare themselves sacred, to set their own lives aside for a specific purpose. And when they did consecrate themselves, God did in fact do amazing things among them.

But what about us? Does the act of consecration apply to us today?

Absolutely.

The consecration of the Christ follower is something that seems to be lacking more and more in the body of Christ. It seems like church-goers want to be “filled up”, but with no real focus or purpose. There is rarely and attitude of setting aside their lives and desires for the cause of Christ, rather, there is merely a setting aside of Sunday morning for the sole purpose of being filled –or even worse, of filling the pew.

I think of the popular song on Country Music radio today:

Sunday morning, at the church,
and my shoes and my back and my neck-tie hurt,
but I’m in the pew,
and she don’t tell me to…

Is that really what church is all about? Pew filling? How about people filling? Is that what the church is all about?

Absolutely not.

We are to be a people who declare ourselves sacred, and completely set aside our own lives for the cause of Christ. Through us the Kingdom of God is to be made known. Through us God’s will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We are not to be like the followers of Jesus who, after He had filled their stomachs with miraculous bread and fish, “went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6: 66). We are to be a people who would follow Christ to the very end. As Simon Peter pointed out, “Where else would we go?” Jesus has the words of eternal life. He is the Holy One of God (John 6: 68-69).

It is time to get serious about our faith. It is time to get serious about the Kingdom of God. Consecrate yourselves, people of God. God is longing to do amazing things among you.

Consecrate yourselves.

The Lost Art of Meditation

We live in interesting times within an interesting culture. Interesting is not always a bad word, but it sometimes can be. Nearly every culture or moment in time could be described as interesting or unique. Nearly every culture or moment in time has strengths and weaknesses. While this culture and moment in time certainly has plenty of strengths, I can see at least one glaring weakness. We have lost the art of meditation.

We want things now. Right now. Later is too late, and there is far too much time separating right now from later. We are a fast-paced culture. That is how it is and that is how we like it.

However, I have a word of warning for the Christian of this time and culture…

Slow… down… and… take… time… for… God…

Not that God is slow in the way that we understand slowness; however, He is not interested in competing for our attention. In our fast-food society, we have lost the art of Biblical meditation. We want someone else to explain the Bible to us and to do it quickly because we have to be somewhere else, soon.

Even on Sunday mornings, we are a culture who would rather look up to the overhead projection screen (where the preacher had better project the Bible verse that he is talking about) instead of taking the time to locate it in our very own physical, touchable Bible. Then we want the preacher to tell us the revelation he got out of the verse (in short form, please) so that we can move on to another verse and move on with our lives.

But look at what the psalmist says in Psalm 119: 97, “Oh how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long.” (NIV) The one hundred and nineteenth Psalm is a beautiful Psalm in which the author portrays his understanding of God and salvation. And over and over again he talks about meditating on the word of God.

When is the last time that you just sat down with your Bible, just you and God, and spent time meditating on the word of God, seeking wisdom from the Holy Spirit?

Unfortunately, if we were to write a Psalm today, it would probably read, “Oh how I enjoy your book! I flip through it Sunday after Sunday…”

Meditate on God’s word. Let it infiltrate your heart. Let it change you.

Co-Pilot

I was recently coming home from a quick trip to Nashville, Tennessee, when I saw something that inspired this thought for the week. I had actually stopped to get myself a McDonald’s coffee (which was richer, bolder, and more robust, by the way), when I noticed a sign in the window of a parked car. It said very simply, “God is my co-pilot.”

I was sick.

In my mind, that is the absolute worst mentality that you can possess as a Christian. The heathen at least have the mentality that there is no God, but this “God is my co-pilot” mentality actually says, “I know that there is a God, and I am he.”

God is not interested in being your co-pilot. He is either your Pilot, the Lord of your life, or you are fooling yourself. You will never be the Lord of His life. You are finite. He is infinite. He may be your Parachute, your Savior in time of great need, but never will He be interested in being your co-pilot.

We would do well; however, to adapt the mentality that we are God’s co-pilots… that He is in control and we are just along for the ride. The co-pilot status may still be a bit much for us, though. Slave would be more accurate. Yes, Jesus calls us friend, but He never asks us to take the wheel.

In the message, Eugene Peterson does a beautiful job of paraphrasing the words of Jesus on this subject:

“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat –I am” (Luke 9 23).

God is not your co-pilot. The very thought is an insult to His righteousness. Would a co-pilot lay down His life on the cross? Would a co-pilot shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins? As the old saying goes, only the Captain goes down with the ship.

Amazingly, this Great Captain that I speak of did go down with the ship of our sin, and He rose from the grave. Do not insult the One who was victorious over death by claiming that He is your co-pilot. I would advise you to acknowledge His supremacy, acknowledge your great need for Him, and ask Him if you can get on board with what He is doing in the world. You’re not in the driver’s seat –He is.