people-fishers

And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Luke 5:10b-11

Jesus called His first disciples to leave all the familiar hard work of commercial fishing and come follow Him. He made only a cryptic promise: He would make them into people-fishers. These men knew the long days of fishing the Sea of Galilee. It had been their lives since they were boys. They chased the schools of fish. They mended nets and maintained boats. They cleaned their catch and brought fish to market. These kinds of men were not the first choice on anybody’s list to lead anything significant. But Jesus wanted hearts that would follow Him. He got these men there by quickly giving them the best day’s fishing they’d ever known. That miracle astounded them and they quickly lost all interest in fishing and gave it up to learn more and follow Jesus.

Jesus is better than the best day of anything else. For Simon Peter and crew, Jesus was easily better than a small fortune in fish. He had just shown them the best that their efforts might give them. And they chose to leave it all behind... nets, boats, fish and all... and then found in following Jesus all that they ever were looking for. And Jesus made them into different men. They became the “people-fishers” He predicted... men who preached the gospel and built His church.

Jesus did this to common fishermen in Galilee. He will do the same to anyone who will believe Him to be better than any other thing. He will make of sincere, hard-working, committed disciples men and women in whom He works His change, and through whom He can change others. He will make disciples who make disciples. The journey of discipleship with Jesus changes lives. It begins when we step out in a little bit of fear of the unknown, and a whole lot of faith in Jesus... done with anything and everything else.

deep heritage... deep reward

Your testimonies are my heritage forever,

for they are the joy of my heart.

I incline my heart to perform your statutes

forever, to the end.

Psalm 119:111-112

Scripture can provide both a rich heritage and an abundantly rewarding future. And as I meditate on these two verses in reflection upon my life, I too am struck with the wonder of realizing how scripture has powerfully influenced the timeline of my life. I am grateful for what God is doing.

First, the gospel truths of the Bible are my heritage. They have made me what I am as much as anything God has done in me. It all started 48 years ago when my family first truly heard and believed the gospel. And since then I have sat under and sometimes tried to pay attention to countless sermons, (that’s around 2400 weekly sermons... but who’s counting?) a few hundred of those sermons God has led me to preach. For 38 of these years I have sought the daily discipline of reading, thinking upon, and journaling the Bible. I try to average 5 out of 7 days, leading to 103 recorded journals and about 9,800 daily reflections. That’s a joyful heritage, and I’m not done yet!

But all that past doesn’t guarantee a thing unless I DAILY incline my heart to obey what God’s Word and His Spirit show me. And that takes effort because my heart still sinfully leans away from doing this. And that is where faith keeps me moving forward. I want the prayer of this psalm to keep guiding me every morning that I am blessed to awaken to a brand new day: “I incline my heart to perform Your statutes forever.” God’s Word will not let me down. I will keep His voice the first I want to hear on my daily agenda so that I might listen to Him in holy conversation all day. God’s Word has never let me down. People have. My pride has. My goals have. Jesus hasn’t! Jesus’ saving and redeeming work is all through the pages of God’s Holy Word, ensuring that I will find rich reward always. This will reward me, redeem me, and keep me to the end... and then forever into eternal life.

with love incorruptible

Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Ephesians 6:24

Calvin said of this verse: “...to love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity is as necessary as ever.” What was true five centuries ago for the Protestant reformers must be true today! We have so many temptations to corrupt our hearts from purely loving Jesus. But again, as Calvin comments, “...when the heart of man is free from all hypocrisies, it will be free from all corruption... But let there be no hypocrisy; for most men, while they are not unwilling to make some profession of religion, entertain exceedingly low notions of Christ, and worship Him with pretended homage.” 

What Paul is praying for Christians to do, and what Calvin was aware of as well as a need in the church of his day, is for us to be Christians who REALLY love Jesus like we say we do. It isn’t just a Sunday head nod. It isn’t just some kind of crowd-induced, “happy clappy” moment. We will know grace when we love Jesus from a heart that is undivided in its attention. Jesus battles those who see religion as self-effort and a way to get noticed. But for those who obey and worship Him because they love Him, grace pours out and over all that they know!

Lord,

You know how many ways I am tempted toward even seeing Christian faith as a path to self-promotion. Spirit of God, convict me when I head that way. Turn my heart. I want to love You, Lord Jesus, free from hypocrisy, untainted by my selfishness, with the highest and purest love!

Amen

The Word gives life.

In your steadfast love give me life,

that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.

Psalm 119:88

By the grace and mercies of my Lord, I live so that I may glorify Him by faithfully following His Word. That is the way that true spiritual life works. The Word of God employed by the Spirit of God captures my heart, moving me to life change, so that I can do the things that God says. I can live a life pleasing to God by obeying and enjoying what His Word shows me to do.

When I open the pages of scripture I encounter the life changing grace of God. Through Jesus and the gospel good news of His death and resurrection, a fountain of mercy and enabling grace pours out of my Bible and into my life. I am strengthened, encouraged, empowered, and equipped in this way as I read, study, listen to, and apply the Word of God. It is the source of all the wisdom that I need.

I thank God for the privilege to have His Word active in my life in this way. May I never take it for granted.

faithfully afflicted

I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous,

and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Psalm 119:75

This is an attention-grabbing statement of trust in God. The first part of it is pretty standard fare for the 119th psalm. God’s rules are revealed in His Word as righteous. Yes... I agree. No problem with that one. But that second observation is eye-opening to read first thing in the morning! I want it to read... “in faithfulness you have cared for me.” But that isn’t the point being made. The straight up truth is that God will bring affliction to His people. And since He is a God whose ways and words are right, this good God will bring difficulty and pain. And God is still good, still righteous, still loving, and still faithful when that affliction is brought to us by Him. Difficulty does not mean that God has abandoned us. Rather, it is quite the opposite. It is a chance for us to powerfully experience God’s faithfulness. 

As a pastor and as a counselor, I am always standing with Christians during difficulties. I know their losses. I know their pains. I’ve been at dying bedsides and have had to help people process the unexpected and the unthinkable. I’ve seen the painful problems that living in a broken world will bring. I’ve seen shattered relationships and pain-filled moments that people know with loved ones. And I have seen God faithfully pour His grace powerfully into the pains of people who will humbly open their arms wide to the faithful love of Jesus! Life has hard parts. But God is faithful Who provides a way so that we “may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Faithful God,

You know the afflictions I face with Your flock. And You faithfully bring personal difficulties into my life so that I will humbly seek Your righteous ways. This I will do. I don’t have it together. I will not pretend to be affliction free. I will accept my hardships and pains as part of Your faithful work in me. Thanks for Your faithful, steadfast, powerful love in all the afflictions Your people will face. You are good! In faithfulness you have afflicted me!

Amen

What drives our relationships?

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

These apostolic commands are meant to drive relationships Christians have with other people. They make good sense as they are the moral expectations we all have for how we want people to treat us. We like it when people are kind to us, understanding of us, and forgiving of us. The hard part of the command is for us to have the same moral expectation for our own actions to other people. It’s easy for me to want you to be kind. It’s hard for me to be kind to you. It is all very complicated when hurt feelings or perceived offenses get in the way. And unfortunately, this is often the case. That’s why we need to pay attention to these words.

I can think of no better social medicine that kindness. It can prevent offense. I have yet to hear of someone upset that a person was “too kind”. Kindness creates harmony. This is a great thing.

Along with kindness, compassion is true concern for another person, and it also goes a long way to enhancing our relationships. Tender hearted people will see a person instead of a problem. Compassion will lead us to actively care, not just make a comment and move on. Tender hearted Christians put hands and feet to the love of Christ as the gospel gets very real in true life situations.

And of course forgiveness is the one thing that the church has that no other institution can truly claim. We forgive by one standard only —- the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! That’s really high. He is why and how we can forgive one another. The highest standards possible drive the way that Christians relate to people. Do we really live that way?

thinking and turning

When I think on my ways,

I turn my feet to your testimonies.

Psalm 119:59

The more I know about me, the more I know I need to be attentive to following Jesus by obeying God’s Word! My ways are almost entirely problematic. I make some selfish choices. I can turn my life catastrophically bad in just one wrong choice. And I’ve done some personally stupid stuff in my days on planet earth! I need direction, wisdom, and defining purposes that all are bigger than me regularly in front of me. God’s Word gives me all of this and more.

But as the psalmist is careful to picture here, it must go beyond just knowledge and be borne out in obedience. I must “turn my feet” to walk in a new direction. God’s truth changes me and I must also change. Choosing to live by the eternal, life-giving principles in scripture is a regular, daily lifestyle. I think on my ways as God’s Word and His Spirit confront them, and I turn to follow Jesus.

O Lord,

You know I fail when I apply no scriptural thought to my ways. Keep me in Your Word, with truth close to my heart, informing my will. Keep me true to You. Show me Your ways so that I may know You well and pay attention to the ways I would take that need to change. And as I think about my choices, give me insight for the life You want me to enjoy in You!

Amen

in the house of my sojourn

Your statutes have been my songs

in the house of my sojourning.

Psalm 119:54

I’ll readily admit it. I’m at a place in my life where I can look back wistfully at more youthful times. I’ve got maybe two or three decades left in me at most. And as I look back, I can see that life is truly like a sojourn in a foreign land. The longer I live, the way I see this broken world continue to decline,  and the more I live with the restraints mortality brings, the more I find a clear longing in me for what C.S. Lewis called “another world”. And that longing logically leads to the conclusion that I was made for something more than this. We are built for eternity. We only sojourn briefly with mortality.

And the poetry of this verse is perfect. I live in the house of my sojourn. It is starting to weather and creak from the effects of over a half century of living. But the strength and conviction of scripture are my songs in this house! God’s Word and God’s Spirit keep me humming with joy. The outer man may be wasting away, but the inner man is powerfully ready to always be with Jesus in a new body... in a new heavens and a new earth!

There is much I must still do while I sojourn in “this old house”. And there is much more delight for me to experience.... delight in sharing life with family and friends... delight in the sheer enjoyment of the world God has made... delight in following Jesus and seeing His kingdom come... delight in the gospel renewing me and others even as mortality’s physical degrading keeps chipping away at me keeping me humbly delighting in God. I’ve got lots of songs still to sing in the house of my sojourn until I get to my real eternal home! I’ve got joy to be known that will carry me beyond all my present pains and sorrows. I’ve got God’s Word and His Spirit as faithful companions furnishing me the lyrics and the tunes as I follow, obey, and await the day when all will be made new again.

praying too small

...and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:19

This is a powerful thought to wrestle with as you are waking up in the morning! Paul’s deep prayer for the Ephesian church to have a full, rich, intense relationship with Christ is very unlike my typical prayers. Paul wants them to know the riches of his glory (Ephesians 3:16). He wants them strengthened with power through His Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). He prays for Christ to dwell in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17) so that they are rooted and grounded in love. And then Paul prays they would know Christ’s love in a way that surpasses knowledge so that they might experience lives filled with God to the brim. It is all quite glorious. And it makes me cognizant of my often “glory-less” prayers.

I read this prayer and I realize that I am guilty of very small praying in deed. I don’t think it is wrong to ask for “daily bread” sorts of things as Jesus taught. But even Jesus ended His model prayer focusing on God’s great kingdom, glory, and power forever! Great and grateful praying should fill my heart with the majesty of the Almighty!

Lord,

Forgive my sometimes petty, and rather selfish prayers. They lack luster when they focus on me. I want the vision of prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians... in awe of the wonder of Christ, flowing with the power of Your Spirit, expecting the wonders of the gospel to keep transforming my day to day! Help me to pray with a bigger theology and a praise-filled vocabulary.

Amen

turning my eyes

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;

and give me life in your ways.

Psalm 119:37

So much stuff vies for the attention of my eyes. For over two decades now, the onslaught of digital demands has clamored for my attention. It is incessant. It makes me think back almost wistfully to my early adulthood when the only choice was to turn on or turn off a television. But now so many things, and many of them just “worthless things” are grabbing for my attention in a constant barrage. David’s call to God in this passage to help him “turn from looking” is an even greater prayer today... at least it should be.

So seriously... digital demands are now creating physical problems in our world. Doctors report that smartphones have created serious posture and bone spur problems in people’s necks and skulls. Young people are getting texting related carpal tunnel injuries. All this incessant looking is literally hurting us and our bodies are trying to tell us to get it under control. The Christian response is to turn to God’s Word, to prayer, to silence, reflection, and self-control as spiritual disciplines to bring balance.

And I haven’t even mentioned the glut of constant and worthless porn now accessible “free” on smartphones, tablets, and screens worldwide. This is the great spiritual and moral deadener, a destroyer of real relationships, a worship-killing monster idol for many, many men and now even many women. It is the ultimate, alluring, worthless thing that we can put in front of our eyes, often thinking it is a private matter, but it bends and shapes us mentally and spiritually in a destructive way.

It is ironic that this is a blog post, sent out into the world to my network of friends and followers. Yes, not all digital communication is worthless. But if anything replaces what God has made for us to enjoy in holiness, we have a real problem from which we must turn. 

Lord,

Worthless things solely for my entertainment can often be so very destructive. Help me turn from them and turn to You. You will give me true life. Your ways will bring me real joy... not the false temporary pain-killing of digital diversion. I want to always know the rich reward of knowing You, and I do not want to be deceived by worthless things!

Amen

no longer strangers or aliens

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone...

Ephesians 2:9-20

Jesus came to make the world right through salvation and renewal in His life, death, and resurrection. The preaching of the gospel results in what we see described in Ephesians two: once “banished” groups of people are united together through faith in Jesus. In the case of this passage, the unity is between pagan Gentiles who now worship Jesus, and the early church that found the Messiah of the Jews in Jesus. No longer is there an ethnic barrier. Both are one in Christ.

The church that Jesus began should still look this way. It is a place without ethnic barriers. And this message is much needed today as the divisions between ethnic, economic, and generational groups seems all the more splintered in this age of screaming loud social media controversy. The gospel addresses this. In the church there are no strangers, aliens, outcasts, illegals, or pariahs among those who have truly repented and believed the gospel. All of those who are Christians are one in Christ!

Lord Jesus,

Help me to celebrate the beautiful work You are doing all over the world by building Your church. Jesus, You are the solid cornerstone holding together a truly diverse edifice of people that are the household of God worldwide. May the church reflect this diverse beauty of Your glory so the world may know Your saving love!

Amen

my counselors

Your testimonies are my delight;

they are my counselors.

Psalm 119:24

One consistent, constant stream of thought has been poured into my life. It began when I was seven years of age and my parents came to faith in Christ. Since that time, the Bible has become a primary source of life wisdom. Later, in my teenage years I made a conscious decision myself to take following Jesus quite seriously. I know it meant getting to know the Bible well. And I distinctly remember a morning in 1981 where I walked down to the corner drugstore, bought a couple spiral notebooks, and determined to begin journaling my way through regular meditations upon scripture.

My life has now been filled with the counsel of the Bible. God’s Word has been my constant companion, my warning when I’ve been often off course, my sustainer when I’ve felt alone, my coach when I’ve needed improvement, my comfort in loss and sorrow, and the great revealer of Jesus to me. As such, the Bible is by far my most passionate delight above any other source of life direction.

The precepts of the Word of God have directed me in my choices. They have often corrected me when those choices have been sinful or selfish. God’s truth has encouraged me, helped me, condemned sin in me, corrected me, and built me up in God’s restorative grace! Thank God that His book can be plainly read, understood, and followed. I have no regrets in doing so, for His testimonies are my delight! God’s Words have been my dearest and most trusted counselors.

All the Money in the World

In the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

Psalm 119:14

All the money in the world

could not buy me wisdom

to match that found

in God’s Word.

All the power in the world

could not match the strength

I have found in following

God’s truth.

All the celebrity of this world

is not enough applause

to equal the greatness

of what Christ has made known.

All that is in this world

will one day pass away

but not the enduring

forever true Word!

All the riches of this world will tarnish and be lost.

All the power of this world will be overturned.

All the fame of this world is fleeting.

But the Word of God lasts forever!

confidence in God’s Word

Then I shall not be put to shame,

having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

Psalm 119:6

I’ve done a lot of things that I am ashamed of, but trusting Christ, loving Him, and following God’s Word are not among them. There is freedom in obeying and following scripture. God’s truth leads with confidence. Because God does not lie, I can rest in absolute trust that whatever it says, I can do. And I am sure it will not lead to shame, but to joy as I delight in what God says.

Psalm 119 is an epic song all centered on scripture... its benefits and rewards. And I believe the Bible provides the best foundation for my life. I have trusted this since I made a very conscious decision to be serious about scripture when I was 16 years of age, and I am not disappointed now nearly 40 years later. I am disappointed, however, in me when I have made choices contrary to God’s Word. I am disappointed when others have done the same. But scripture as the driving motivator and philosophy for my life has not let me down. People may let me down. Worldly notions have always let me down. My own sin has definitely let me down. Praise the Lord... His Word has never let me down!

Lord,

I will rejoice that the longest song in Your Word is about Your Word. I worship You in it. I will treasure Your Word. I will seek to fix my eyes steadily on what Your Word says so that I may be blessed with a true and careful course through life that leads always to You, Lord Jesus!

Amen

daily crucifixion

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14

A Christian lives with very changed affections. The power of the world system is supposed to no longer have attraction. It is dead. The cross of Jesus is now central in the Christian mindset and not the desires of the world, the desires of the flesh, or the pride of life. That stuff is to have been crucified with Christ as the Christian is raised to walk in new life.

That is what is SUPPOSED to be. But the reality of life is that we do still live in the world. Although all that past stuff died in Christ, we do still live, and so the second part of this little verse is also a reality for the believer. We must dies to the world as it has been crucified to us. We must kill in us any desire for that which pride, materialism, and sensuality may still stir within in us. Anything “not Jesus” needs to be brutally crucified. Jesus and and our sin guilt with Him. Yet in order to know the new life in His resurrection, we must also die to this world.

Lord Jesus,

The world has been crucified to me. This I know in Your cross. I must also be crucified to the world. This I must do by taking up Your cross and following. Help me then to live this way... seeing both sides of my daily crucifixion in Your cross! That shall be my goal. That shall be my hope. That shall be my only boast.

Amen