⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.

These are some of my favorite verses. I love the truth that is found here.

And sometimes I HATE it. I want to KNOW, I want Him to act as I want Him to act. I want things to work out as I see fit.

And yet, referring to the Scripture above, that is evidently WAYYYYY above my pay grade.

God has deigned to reveal Himself to us. Jesus is God, and through Him we come to know the One that loves us, if we wish to know the Father, we look to Jesus.

And yet, once again I refer you to the aforementioned Scripture. He is still above us, His ways seem to always run contrary to ours (at least mine do more often than not ), or when they coincide, they result in things other than what we might wish.

And make no mistake, He didn’t get it wrong if it works out opposite of our wishes, He always works to our good.

How do we relate to Him? We seem to forget sometimes Who He is, especially when we are struggling against something He is trying to fix in our lives (trust me, I know this one WELL ). He is GOD, the LORD Almighty, our Creator. He is holy and righteous, good and wonderful. He is the I AM.

And you, and I, are not.

He has plans for us, things that He wants us to do, and He speaks to us about them. Through His word, and through the conviction of His Spirit, He is constantly speaking to us that we will move forward towards His goals for us. And they are always right and good, despite our interpretation of events.

How often are your ideas, of what He should or should not be doing, tainted by your own self-interest, or your desire for an outcome that you already know is not the one that you should be receiving? How often do we try to coerce Him into allowing us to fudge it a little, and when He won’t, we deliberately rebel and SHOW Him?

Sounds pretty petty, huh?

He is indeed our Father, He is our Lord, and He is our friend. But never forget that He is GOD, and as such, His ways are better, His ideas are perfect, and the results of His actions or inaction, are always right in SPITE of our opinion.

Something He wanted to tell me this morning, and wanted me to share.

Grace and peace,

Tony

¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…

The Roman soldier used his belt as the basic foundation of the armor, it attached the breastplate and other pieces together, and was the place that held his sword and his dagger. Truth is critical to our walk with God, truth is a counter agent to the one that is called the father of lies.

John 8:44

⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Here Jesus was admonishing the jewish leaders because they did not believe the truth of who He was. He points out in no uncertain terms that those that do not believe in him have no truck with the Father, they follow another.

Jesus Himself is the Truth:

John 14:6

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is an increasingly hard truth for many more and more it seems today. They place the tag of intolerance and hate on it, when it is simply the truth and the answer for all their woes.

We must me gird about with the belt of truth because when a soldier went into battle, if he was not honest with himself about his ability or the lack thereof, he would quite easily end up dead and perhaps take many of his fellows with him.

We have GOT to be honest with ourselves, with each other, and more importantly with God. We will try to shine on the One that knows our heart and every thought, and trust me, He sees through it, and if necessary, He will get the truth from you the hard way.

If you are not honest with yourself, how can you begin to get past the things that He will inevitably be trying to fix in you? If you pretend that everything is okay, put on your good Christian face when others are around, how is the truth of your steps towards sanctification, the proof of God in your life, going to help someone else see the truth of the transforming power of Christ?

If you are not honest with yourself, you may find that you will be doing and saying things that push you further and further from God, trying to follow the things that YOU think are right instead of the things that God has set before you.

If you are not honest with yourself, you may find yourself in positions in the church that He hasn’t actually gifted you for, and that can cause mayhem. He has gifted us all  so that we will fill our part in the body, but if you try to fill a spot that you aren’t gifted too, maybe because it seems more glamorous, you will not just be doing a poor job at that, you will be denying them your gifts in the area that He has called you to.

Truthfulness with each other as Christians should be a given, we are a bunch of dirty sinners brought together through the grace of One who deemed us worth dying for. We have ALL been forgiven much, we have ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we are ALLstill works in progress. And yet, we are the biggest bunch of phony, back-stabbing, judgmental, and lying knuckleheads sometimes.

I know I can be those things, anyway. But being truthful about it doesn’t excuse it, however.

Telling the truth does not allow us unfettered blasting privileges on one another. You don’t get extra point for lambasting someone and couching it it “telling the truth”.

If you are not honest with God, you can’t learn to fully trust Him. If you can’t be honest with Him, which I can understand the difficulty (I have it too), then you won’t be able to come to Him with EVERYTHING. You will try to categorize and prioritize the things that you give to Him. He does NOT want that. He doesn’t need a sanitized list of things that you think are appropriate for His consumption, He wants it ALL. He wants us to let go, because He is sufficient to everything, especially the things we try to hide.

Truth is crucial, without it everything else gets tainted and warped.

Homework- Spend a bit with God today, and tell Him the truth about something that you have kept from Him; something you thought was too bad, or something you thought was too trivial. And when you have let Him have it? Let it go.

Grace and peace,

Tony

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Usually, the pastor will preach about the verses that follow these, about what love is in and of itself, and I also love that as well, but today I want to look at what it avails us if we don’t HAVE love. Let’s take a look at the verses…

If I speak in the tongues…regardless of what you say or how you speak, if it is not first and foremost spoken in love, it is simply sound, and not just any sound, an ANNOYING sound. How often do we prattle on about this or that, about this person or that person, or we offer up advice to another, and quite simply do not have any loving intent behind it? You know what they hear? BLAHBLAHBLAH Or worse yet, they hear derision and accusation, a smug superiority that, let’s be perfectly frank here, you have absolutely NO business in having. You are JUST as fallen as anyone else, and to bear some sort of superiority towards another is not just unloving, it is ridiculous. Trust me, I’ve been there and done that. How many folks are chased from church by condemnation and back-biting, I don’t mean honest attempts at correction and guidance, those are good and proper, but I mean the whispers behind the backs or the looking down the nose diatribes. People that are messing up usually have a pretty good idea that they are, and while they may need a bit of reproof, if it is not first and foremost because we LOVE them and are concerned for them, then you are simply using up valuable oxygen.

And if I have prophetic powers…This one seems to me to be a bigger point for we preachers than maybe we usually like to focus on. I don’t care how much knowledge you have, or how long you went to seminary, or how long you’ve stood in a pulpit, if you don’t have love in you, you will simply be feeding information one to another, not feeding spirits and that is simply wrong. Today there is such a price laid at the feet of knowledge, and it is vital, don’t get me wrong, but when you take that knowledge and use it as a bludgeon to beat someone down, it can actually do more harm than good. If all I can tell a woman that is grief stricken from the loss of a pregnancy is that there are multiple words in the greek for pain or some such thing, and don’t offer a shoulder to cry on or shed a tear myself, what does that accomplish? If my faith is so strong that I may as well be the model for FAITH INC., but I cannot share the love that the One that graced me with that faith had for me AND for the one I speak to, then I may as well have none.

If I give away all I have…If I sacrifice and share for accolades and praise, or as part of some sort of competition, or as a bribe to God. If I throw myself forward, ever the martyr for the church; making sure that everyone KNOWS what a great and humble martyr I am of course, it does nothing, it counts for nothing. Give because you WANT to, because you desire to share from your heart the blessings that God has shared with you, no matter how small. If you are driven to sacrifice of yourself, do so because the One that sacrificed for you did it out of love and may call us to do the same.

Love is crucial to us as Christians, it should be the fuel that drives what we do for and with the LORD. How we treat one another should first and foremost be covered in love, even if we disagree, shoot, ESPECIALLY when we disagree.

Husbands, without love, all the stuff you are doing is simply a duty, not a gift, something that you do for the one you love BECAUSE she is your love.

Wives, without love, the same goes for you.

When you use words as weapons, you damage at a level that blows are sometimes hard pressed to match. When you withhold intimacy, words of praise, acknowledgements of successes; these things are not currency, they should just part of how we treat one another EACH AND EVERY DAY!

Love…it seems hard sometimes. For some of us, maybe we didn’t have enough of it, or worse yet had a corrupted view of it, so that giving back the real deal is hard for us.

THEN GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY!!!! Ask God to help you to find the truth of His love and make it a part of you.

Love…

It’s critical for us to get this point.

Grace and peace,

Tony

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those that rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Some Scripture this morning, no expansion on my part. I noticed a few things for me to further reflect upon. Hopefully you might too.

Grace and peace,

Tony

…the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And that same breath is what fills our lungs today. And what are we doing with that breath?

God likes to poke at me, and there by poke at those of you that may come by here . And this morning as I was driving to work, I came to one of those breaking moments, you know the one, it usually involves tears and a bit of an ego deflation, and out of it came the question of what am I doing with the breath He has given me.

With my breath do I choose to form words of uplifting and positive intent, or do I form words of anger and derision? Do I whisper gossip and slander or do I speak in kindness and care?

The tongue is all the things James calls it to task for (Homework- James 3:1-12), yet it gets most of its steam from the breath that drives the words and their intent.

We only get so many breaths, God knows exactly how many, we have no idea when we will breathe our last. With that in mind, how much time have you spent wasting yours?

I know my answer, and it fit in pretty well with the tears and such this morning.

Try something…

THINK before you use your breath today, before the breath goes across the vocal cords and the tongue moves to shape the sounds, THINK about what will be the result of that breath you are using.

Breath is precious, a gift from One who loves us beyond measure.

Let’s try and get the most out of every one.

Grace and peace,

Tony

Choose joy.

Be joyful, especially if you’re a Christian. I am tired of seeing (and being) Christians looking like someone stole their joy from them. We wander about moping and whining, and it gets tiring. Both for us, and for those lucky enough to have to hear about it.

So stop. Choose joy.

Quit blaming your spouse for whatever it is that you’re blaming them for.

Quit over reacting to what your kids are doing or not doing and remember that they are a gift from God, not an inconvenience.

Quit finding the bad side in everything and stop and realize that God loves you and that is enough.

Simple and direct, I know.

Sometimes straight to the point is a good thing, and I needed to hear this.

And so do you.

So, to sum up. Choose joy, let the rest go. Be full of joy today.

It may be hard, you may not “feel” like it. You may be in the midst of something horrendous, and being joyful may seem to be sacrilegious or something.

It’s not. God has called us to have lives full of joy, and He will help us through whatever we are in the midst of. Notice I didn’t say that you should giggle and cavort; although if you feel like it you certainly can; I said that you should choose to be joyful, and you CAN have joy in the midst of sorrow.

The things is, sometimes, heck, MOST times, joy is something we need to seek out. Because let’s be honest, for many of us, doom and gloom is the default setting for our day, and coming to the truth of the joy we have in Christ is something that we either need to be reminded of, or we somehow randomly stumble across it in the midst of our daily grind.

To me, walking in joy is an exercise like any other; you only get better at it as you DO it. And by the way, I am speaking to this like the fat PE coach, I need to PRACTICE what I preach .

So, with that in mind, let’s get to it, the first step is the hardest. But remember, just like with exercise, there will be things that try to keep you from it, both internally and externally. And when you least feel like it is probably when it will benefit you the most.

Grace and peace,

Tony

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Be strong in the LORD and HIS mighty power, how often we miss that (I know I have at least ) when we preach on this subject. We go into great detail on the armor and its components, but I think we spin right on by that most crucial point. We are putting on the armor of GOD, not some things that we have decided will work.

If you try to put on armor that you have decided will work, it will be equivalent to using tinfoil to stop a hurricane; the devil will blow through your tiny little defenses like they aren’t even there.  It’s also very easy to tear down your own defenses from the inside if they are made of fluff and dreams instead of being rooted in God.

Paul entreats them to put on the FULL armor of God, not a couple of items, the entire thing. If you come to battle without being fully prepared, you may last a while, but eventually you will fall. And when you are in a battle with others by your side, which hopefully you are, when you fall, you may leave a hole that cannot be filled and put others at risk of falling as well. Preparation is key, as is honesty; both with yourself AND with God. If you are not prepared, you are setting yourself up for disappointment, failure, and quite possibly suffering that could have been avoided, or if not avoided, at least handled more readily due to your preparation.

The intent of the armor is simple, to stand against the devil and his schemes. To be ready and able to take what he brings our way and to stand firm. Standing firm nowadays seems a bit out of vogue, we are constantly bombarded by folks either giving ground on Scripture, its veracity or applications for today; on the idea of God and His actual place in the universe, and many other ideas besides. People by the thousands are running hither and yon looking for those words that will tickle their ears, for quick answers to their doubts and fears.

And Lord help us, we preachers are right in the midst of it, clawing and fighting with each other over things that do not keep us from the fellowship of the believers, things that are quite simply not worth fighting over, debating maybe, but not fighting as we do.

And the best way to defeat an enemy is by inspiring infighting, by reducing their trust in one another and their acceptance that when battle comes, they will be there for one another. Satan gets such a kick out of our incessant need to have every jot and tittle figured out, and when we shed the blood of our fellows over whether or not something tertiary is worth disavowing another group of Christians, I imagine he gets an immense feeling of satisfaction.

Paul reminds us that the battle isn’t one of swords and shields, of troop movements and conquering, but it is a battle in the spiritual realm against foes that are not weak and funny, no little pitchforks and funny red suits, these enemies are real and they are strong. We far too often discount the things that go on in the spiritual realm, and I think that is one of the reasons we seem to be getting our hats handed to us so routinely, some folks out there come to the battle in the right frame of mind, but too many of us “smart” folks today discount that there is even a spiritual aspect to the battle at all.

Paul continues on, after pointing out with whom we are battling, by relating once again the reason for putting on the armor

¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

When the day of evil comes, not if, not it might possibly come, WHEN. We have got to be prepared for those days, for those instances where the battle will come to us, and far too often there will be absolutely NO warning so if you aren’t prepared in advance, you will not have time to GET ready.

Note here that we are not called to advance against the enemy, simply to stand our ground. When we stand in God’s army, there is no need to march further; all we have to do is retain the space that He has given to us. His kingdom is for Him to expand, and as He does, we simply need to stand our place and hold what He has claimed and given into our care. We can pursue His call on us, evangelism and such, but when the battles come, we just need to stand and hold what is ours to defend and hold.

And all of this is in His strength and in His mighty power, when we remove ourselves from the equation, it should make the butterflies that we get at the idea of a spiritual battle a bit easier to manage.

I will start on the individual pieces next week.

Grace and peace,

Tony

3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us.

Rejoice in our sufferings? Hmmmm….

I think that sections of Scripture like this one are used far too often to place a burden on the flock that was never intended. We (pastors, teachers) try too often to use this as a way to get folks to try and see their sufferings as something almost bright and shiny, a great opportunity to show everyone else how easily and almost joyfully a Christian handles adversity.

And while there is definitely something to be said for having better tools in our arsenal to cope with suffering and pain (when we make use of them) than the world does; prayer, study of Scriptures, other Christians, etc.; the truth of the matter is that suffering sucks, plain and simple.

This Scripture speaks to me today of one that has endured, and is probably in the midst of enduring, suffering, reaching out to help others understand what he has discovered about God’s provision in the midst of it. He is not calling out for us to be somehow superhuman in our responses, but to realize that there is a pathway that winds through the midst of suffering, and at the end of that path is God and ultimately His love for us.

Merriam Webster defines perseverance as such: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.

Persevering is hard, continuing to go forward when all that comes at you is more and more actually goes against our natures, our natural response is to turn our backs to the difficulty and let it push us back and away. Sometimes we can push for a while, we can “keep our chin up” or “keep smiling” or whatever thing that someone has said to you in an attempt to try and help you “buck up”. But if the struggle continues for too long, we buckle, we grow so tired of trying and hoping.

Note in the definition above the word opposition, I think that we forget that we are in a battle from the moment we accept Christ and choose to call Him Lord.

Ephesians 6:12(NIV)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the spiritual realms.

Satan has a vested interest in seeing us crumble; in watching us fall away and prove to the world that we have nothing of substance to help us through our struggles. Just as they don’t.

Does that mean that every instance of our suffering is a direct attack by the devil? No, sometimes I think it’s just part of our time spent here in a fallen world until He comes again to fix it all (nice pat answer there, huh?). But by the same token, I think we discount the attacks of the enemy far too often, we rationalize and trivialize the facts that we are at WAR with the enemy and as such we will find ourselves in battle.

And when we come to battle, how often are we prepared? Do you run into a war zone with a TV remote, a game controller, maybe a copy of the latest tabloid magazine?

Or do you come to the battle prepared, ready and willing to do serious battle and to answer the call of the One who has equipped you?

Your homework for tonight: read Ephesians 6:10-20. God has called us to be equipped to the battles that He will place us in, and He has promised to give us the very best equipment to use. And best of all, He Himself will stand with us, He grants us the strength to persevere, His love and His Spirit grant us the ability to hope, and once again:

5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us.

Grace and peace,

Tony

And to counteract this influence what do we Christians have in our arsenal?

An hour or so on Sunday? Possibly, and I stress possibly, one bible study during the week?

And, hoping against hope, maybe a teeny tiny bit of personal Scripture reading or prayer?

It’s not enough. We have got to better equip ourselves for the battles, the battles for our minds and our hearts.

The world has found so many venues for keeping our attention; TV, computers, PDAs and “Smart” phones, movies, etc.

How much time do you spend soaking your mind in one of these things, or multiples thereof?

Sadly, I have to say WAAAAAYYYYY too much.

And the time I spend in reading Scripture, praying, studying? (Insert cricket noise here)

Honestly, I find myself with little to no desire to do the latter, and an obsessive NEED to do the former.

And the fact that I am fessing up to this is probably going to mean that I am going on a bit of a fast here shortly…especially once Mickie reads this post…

Would you go to a race without your shoes?

Would you get in your car to drive without your keys?

Why do we seem so surprised when we are confronted with adversity and crumble under the weight when we simply aren’t prepared, and worse yet we are trying to do it all by ourselves?

He is there; make no mistake if there has been any movement away it has been on our part.

He is ready to be our Rock, to grant us the strength to persevere.

The world? Not so much. The world is hoping that you WILL fail, so that when you try to speak to them about God’s transforming grace they can tell you don’t believe it and are simply repeating what some dude told you on some Sunday.

Equip yourself. Study. Pray.

I know I am gonna give it a go, and I welcome any and all of you to join me. We can help keep each other on track.

Grace and peace,

Tony

That’s ultimately what it’s all about.

His love for us….

And we are supposed to bring that love to others as He gives us strength in His Spirit.

Think about that. He has decided to use us, in SPITE of us, to show others that don’t know Him that He DOES care and He DOES love them.

It’s humbling to say the least. And He knows that I will stink at it, He is never surprised.

And yet….He still calls to me to do His work.

I have been absent from here for quite a while. And honestly I have been playing hooky, indulging myself in self pity; using the opportunity that reacquainting myself with my family and its re-flash of angst and worry, to do as I know full well He would not have me do.

Sigh…and, as is always the case, when I finally stop and listen, I hear His voice calling softly, “Tony? Are you done? Are you ready to do what I have called you to do?”.

Yes…yes I am.

We went back to church (GASP!!!) on Sunday, and it was good. Pastor John gave a message that God evidently wanted him to deliver specifically to me , a message about what we are to be doing, realizing that we fail and WILL fail, and yet knowing that in His strength we can accomplish what He has set before us.

Sigh again…

Ah well, I guess I’ll get back to it. Mickie is worried that I will get caught up in the cogs again and burn out, she hasn’t said so, but I know. And while it is a possibility, I would be lying if I said otherwise, I think that I have a bit more realistic idea of what I can do and what I cannot.

If you hear Him calling, take a moment and listen. He will have direction for you, and even if it seems like direction you might not want to take; trust me; it will be for the best. His directions always are.

Grace and peace,

Tony