Tag: theology

Be Ye Perfect – Genesis 17

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In Genesis 17, before God tells Abraham that He will make a covenant with him and multiply him, He gives him a command. A simple, complex, loving command.

The King James Version words the command this way: Walk before me, and be thou perfect. The New Living translation puts it this way: Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. But I love the God’s Word Translation – it says – Live in my presence with integrity.

The translations reiterate the same command. God is asking Abraham to live a life of righteousness. He is asking him to forsake everything that would taint his body, spirit and soul.

Which leads to a difficult question: Is it possible to live a blameless life?

The immediate answer must be yes… If it were not possible, God would not have asked this of Abraham. It’s heretical when grace is manipulated to meet the spiritual standards of those who think that blameless living is faulty theology and impossible.

Keep in mind that when God told Abraham to live in His presence, to be perfect, and to walk before Him, the Holy Spirit was ‘on’ God’s children – but not ‘inside’ God’s children. Logic would have one to believe that blameless living wasn’t as easy then as it is now because the Comforter hadn’t come.

However, if you look at the entirety of verse one in Genesis 17, I think that a major key to righteous living can be found right before God tells Abraham to be perfect. Before He tells Abraham to be perfect, he says this: “I am God Almighty.”

He revealed who He was to Abraham. God Almighty, El Shaddai!

Holiness can’t become part of a person’s identity until they acknowledge God as Almighty. When you acknowledge God as almighty your are saying in essence: “You are sovereign.” An acknowledgement of God as sovereign (in the heart and mind) strikes fear, reverence and awe of Him.

And it is the fear of God that begets holiness.

Teach a Child to Pray as Soon as He Can Speak

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My child barely uttered a word until he was nearly three. When he was two, I started to panic when I realized that he was speaking in the wrong language. His first word was in Dutch – a vestige of my wanderlust.

“We are back in America now. You have to speak and learn English.”

A piece of me felt like a xenophobic bigot uttering such words. But it was true. We were in America, and he did need to learn English.

“When he starts speaking, he’ll never stop,” was the constant refrain of those around me. They were right. He is four and never shuts up. I’m happy that he can speak because it means that he can pray.

Susannah Wesley (mother of John Wesley) is often commended for her mothering. One of her parenting philosophies (that I’ve embraced for myself) is to teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.

It was over a plate of blueberry pancakes that we first asked our child to bless the food. He said something so simplistic and profound that my husband and I both stopped to look at each other.

His prayer was this: “Jesus you love us. Amen.”

I was immediately ashamed of my long-winded prayers that focused on needs, wants, desires, fears, and worries instead of focusing on the most important thing – Jesus and His Love. This simple prayer continues to be my son’s favorite, and it has become my favorite too.

Walking by Faith and Not by Sight

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Via Flickr - Chris Zielecki
Via Flickr – Chris Zielecki

January whisked by, and February is going just as quickly. So much has happened within the first two months of 2015; including a 3000 mile move.

It seems that when my family starts to feel too comfortable, that’s when we’re pushed out of our comfort zone. However, I’ve noticed that when we are pushed out of that zone, things start to get difficult, unfamiliar, authentic and beautiful all at the same time.

I know that God directs our steps and leads us where we are supposed to go. In this case, it was the Pacific Northwest.

When we arrived closer to our destination, the sun was breaking through the clouds, and I took it as a sign. We were exactly where we should be – In the middle of God’s Will.

But God’s Will isn’t always comfortable. But even with the absence of comfort, there is still His Peace in the midst of it all. And there is an ironic reassurance when you don’t know exactly where you’re going because it forces you to walk by faith and not by sight.

Biblical Meditation – 2 Chronicles 20:32-33

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Jehoshaphat did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But even though he did what was right, and swayed the people under him to do likewise, there was still something missing from Israel to make the worship of God complete, holy, and pure.

The high places weren’t removed.

Detestable places were still standing throughout the land. They were a spiritual and physical eyesore, yet no one seemed to bother to break them down.

Maybe the people thought that the presence of the high places weren’t influencing their devotion to God. Unfortunately, it did affect the nation. The people still hadn’t worshiped the God of Israel with all of their hearts.

How could they, when there were still places for the idols standing in their midst?

Anything can become an idol. A thing, person, place or even an ideology becomes an idol when it supersedes or subtracts from our devotion to the one true God.

When we allow idols to stand in our midst, it isn’t possible to worship God with all of our hearts. Our attention, time, dedication, and devotion is divided between the idols and God. And no one can really, truly serve two masters.

What would Israel have been like during that time if the high places had been removed?

The answer is simple: there would have been whole-hearted worship. And logically, whole-hearted worship precedes an abundance of blessing.

Getting the Heart and Mind to Agree

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How do you feel settled when everything around you is unsettling?

You have to dig deep down in a place that you haven’t reached before and allow God to be in that place. If He is the Prince of Peace then peace will reside in you – and the same peace will eventually permeate the rest of your spirit and soul.

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Philippians, otherwise known as the Book of Peace. There have only been a handful of times in my life when I’ve felt a physical, tangible peace. Not inner peace, but a peace that is both inner and outer – a solid peace that blankets the soul and body. The first time I felt that peace was while reading the book of Philippians.

Scientifically (from a biological perspective) you can’t feel peace unless your heart and mind agree. Researchers have discovered that the heart has a literal mind of its own – a smaller brain. And when your head-brain and heart-brain agree this produces a chemical that runs through your bloodstream producing a ‘feeling’ of peace.

Many people are robbed of their peace. It’s because they are in a constant struggle with getting their mind and heart on the same page. However, it’s not just as simple as getting the brain and heart to agree, but specifically getting them to agree on the right thing, or rather the righteous thing. Because it’s possible for your heart and mind to agree on an evil thing.

Evil can never produce peace. It can only produce darkness, which can only be dissolved by light.

In Luke, Jesus talks about heart-mind agreement when encountering a young, rich man who wanted to know more about holiness and heaven. Jesus’s reply to the man’s question of how he could live a righteous life was this:

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Peace is as simple as trusting God with your whole heart and mind. But it’s as complicated as trusting God with all your heart and mind because you’ve got to get the two to agree first.

Our Daily Bread (The Lord’s Prayer)

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The Lord’s Prayer is complete. It is whole and it is Holy. There is nothing that needs to be added, and there is nothing that needs to be taken away from it. It is the pinnacle of perfection, and the exact words that we need to say to our Father when we bow down to pray.

Give us this day our daily bread.

The verse above lingered in my head, and then crystalized when I meditated on the scripture that tells us that God will not give us a stone if we ask for bread.

However, George McDonald says something curious about this verse – He says that God will sometimes give his children a stone if they are insistent on trying one. And, I can personally testify that I have asked God for many stones…

Sometimes we want things that bring great sorrow, not knowing what the outcome will be. In our blindness and lack of discernment we believe it will bring us joy.

Our desires can be our demise.

But Jesus also knew that our desires can be our demise, which is why He taught us how to pray… Give us this day our daily bread. He knows that it’s bread we need – not stones. And when we ask for bread…. God will not give us a stone.

Bringing a Bit of Heaven to Earth

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Via Flickr

When Abraham left his home to follow God, he did something interesting along the way. The Bible says that he invoked the Name of the Lord. The first time I saw this, I contemplated its meaning.

The consensus among commentators is that Abraham was holding an open church service – sharing God with others and teaching about the one true God in cultures and places where there were a myriad of false gods. In other words, he was teaching theology to the masses.

To put it simplistically, Abraham was bringing light and being light wherever he went.

When God told Abraham to go to a foreign country, He knew what Abraham would do along the way. He knew when Abraham would sleep, eat, rest, laugh – and He even knew when Abraham would call on Him. And I can assure you that anytime Abraham called on God – God was there.

Abraham’s peregrination wasn’t just a physical possession of the land God was going to show him – his journey was also about bringing a bit of heaven on earth in different places along the way. And isn’t this every Christian’s ultimate service? To call on God and share our faith wherever we are – to bring change to the atmosphere, home, city, state or country where we reside?

I’ve moved around quite a bit over the last several years, and it’s comforting to see the example of Abraham and know that a move to a new place is never in vain. Especially If I behave like the patriarch Abraham did and invoke the name of the Lord wherever I go – bringing a bit of heaven on earth.