Some Habits Must be Broken

There are words, themes, lessons of sorts that have been swirling around my head for quite some time. It has stumped me, unable to move forward in words and thoughts until this is sorted out. I know that God is teaching, transforming, so I search for a quiet moment on this precious Sabbath to process and decipher what it all is. By God's grace, now I sit alone, away from the tugs of little hands and demands of household chores, with people milling all around in laid back, African style, and a welcoming latte resting in front of me. The foam of the drink has been artfully shaped into a gentle heart, wispy and light, reminding of of what it is that God is after. Mine. My heart. The steam rises up as I struggle to offer up these thoughts and words.

Speak Lord. Your servant is listening. God of order and comfort, bring order to the tornado of thoughts. 

God, I hear you speaking.

He speaks healing.

He speaks comfort.

He speaks joy.

He speaks gratitude.

He speaks peace.

He speaks Life.

Anger is a habit, detrimental, devastating, destroying habit, but a habit nonetheless. Learned. Practiced. Mastered. It starts out small. Someone offends, betrays, wrongs in some way. I feel the offense and take it in. I welcome it in to unpack and make itself at home. It dwells, and welcomes its sisters, bitterness, resentment, and rage. They are messy houseguests, but stay for quite some time. They begin to call the shots. 

In a move of protection from further offense, I callously write the person off, shrugging of the hurt as no big deal. Doesn’t bother me. I don’t need that in my life.

So in the name of defending self, in response to a small hurt, a small corner of the heart hardens, blackens, and dies. I don’t feel it because it was small, an inconspicuous death numbed by the sense of justification and gall. It crept in unnoticed and now sits quietly, brewing, waiting to spread.

The first death took a small toll, though ire and disgust glazed the view. But by the third or fourth death, the response is a killer on autopilot, and the funeral is swift and emotionless. The mourners stand on the graves of previous victims, as the cemetery is becoming quite crowded. There is no thanks for things seen, or unseen. Nothing can be offered up, not even condolences for the tragic passing, as the true tragedy lies in the lack of vision for what is happening. The eyes are closed to the divine, and only hurt lingers. Gratitude is dead.

And so the cycle is formed, the habit established. Anger has moved in, as it alone can live in the blackness of a dead heart. Lifeblood cannot pump to those regions. Light cannot dwell with anger. Growth cannot compete with despair. A slow shut down has begun.

And yet He has spoken Life. The heart can only house one feeling at a time. It can only be filled with one spirit at a time. Life and Death will not cohabitate. Light and darkness with not reside side by side. Anger and peace will not live together. Mercy and disgust will not hold hands. Gratitude has no dwelling with such darkness ruling the land. So when He speaks Life, He speaks change, transformation.

He speaks a new thing, just as He is calling His children into a new creation, with a new name.

But then this habit must first be broken. 

To Be Filled

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 

Psalm 1:1-2

I read over these words, and my mind just reels with all that it contains. I like the NLT version of it that says:

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, 

or stand around with sinners, 

or join in with mockers, 

but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.

What this tells me is that we will always, at all points in time, be filled...with something. At all points in time, we are either falling into one of two categories:
(1) we are meditating on worldly issues and seeing circumstances from a worldly perspective, or
(2) we are meditating on the law of the Lord and delighting in its wisdom.

There is no in between on this one, but there is a constant battle for our attention. Which one will get it? The circumstances of the world, or the delight of the Lord?

Oh, mercy, I can say from personal experience of late, that this battle is ongoing, and requires constant attention throughout the day. That's one of the reasons that we are told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Many times throughout scripture, we are told to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, all day long, all night long, every moment of every day, meditate on the law of the Lord.

In Joshua 1:8, it says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." See, when we listen to the advice of the wicked, or join in with mockers, we are allowing our minds to be filled with that which does not line up with the Word of God. It may even sound good, make sense, but it is important to remember that there is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death. If we are not meditating on the law of the Lord at every moment, we can be easily swayed by circumstances or people around us.

Psalm 119 is filled with exhortations to meditate on his word, over and over again.

Verses 97-103 says, "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

Then, take a look at Proverbs 27:7 (I love this!)
He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

Follow me for just a moment. Imagine having gone all day without eating, for whatever reason. You were busy chasing the kids, running errands, working hard..somehow eating took a backseat to your priorities of the day...right up until about 3:30 in the afternoon, when your stomach is just screaming with hunger. You are hearing it, growling like a rabid dog, nonstop.

You open the pantry. Nothing, except maybe some stale crackers and canned soup. Nothing looks very appetizing at all, but you are reeeeaaaaalllllyy hungry. You waver a bit, thinking about the crackers, thinking that the dry staleness could be tolerated for the sake of putting something into the belly.

Just then the phone rings. Your husband has arranged for a babysitter and wants to take you out for a fancy dinner...the kind with candlelight and soft music, tender steak with mushrooms and veggies, fresh, hot bread, baked potato loaded with all the goodies, exquisite dessert that just melts on your tongue. Your mouth is salivating at the plan of it all, and you quickly close the pantry door, determined to hold out for the good stuff.

You have an amazing time out at dinner with your husband. Great company, great conversation, and outstanding food. You savor every bite of it, thinking about how it is just hitting that perfect spot of delicious love. Your stomach is so full, your mouth is so content, your mind is at total and complete ease.

When you arrive home, you begin to pick up the kitchen a bit from the remnants of the kids' dinnertime. You open the pantry and eye the box of old, stale crackers that were tempting you just hours before. You give a slight chuckle, as now, they hold absolutely no appeal whatsoever. You. are. already. FULL.

Our hearts are the same. Jesus said that He came that we might have life, and have it to the full. I love that He said to us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

When it is the teachings of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the ways of the Master that fill us, when we ponder His love and mercy rather than the ways of this world, nothing else seems worth the time or energy to ponder. When we are so filled with the love of Jesus, that is what comes out of us. Because the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. That which has filled him, will overflow into others.

When we are meditating on the Law of the Lord throughout the day and night, we are filled with His ways, His love, His peace, and His mercy. But when we are not allowing ourselves to be filled by Him daily, when we are neglecting the Word of the Lord, when we are not communing with Him, and often, then our souls are hungry, empty, craving anything at all. At that point, anything looks tasty. Counsel of the wicked, words of the mockers, ways of sinners. The ways of man that lead to death.

But when we are full, there is nothing that can entice us, nothing that can shake us, nothing that can lead us astray. We are already full.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God.

What about you? What are you filling yourself with these days?

The Community that Builds Up

In general, the culture of the West is not communal. Now there are certainly places here and there, small breakaways from the norm, such as The Simple Way, or Solomon's Porch, but they are certainly more the exception than the anything else. For the most part, this culture prides itself on the individuality and space, while many other cultures around the world still live in that communal setting, all joined together, working and living together. 

Because we are not a communal people, many of the things written about the early Church can be very hard to relate to. So what I see more often than not in this society, is lots of people who claim to follow Christ, all struggling (or thriving) on their own, individually. Some can pay their bills and are able to afford such luxuries as healthcare, and have extra left over to be able to give; and let it be known that there are many who give generously according to their ability. Many more are not able to pay their bills, have lost their homes, and certainly cannot afford any luxuries, including healthcare and life-saving medications, such as insulin. But because we are such an individualistic people, everyone is doing it on their own. Many of those who are drowning are going down in silence. They are working VERY hard, but are not in the right job that would afford them these seeming luxuries. And many on the other side are, possibly unknowingly, yet callously nonetheless, labeling them a drag on the economy, a casualty of capitalism.

But in community, no one struggles alone. Your problem, your lack, your deficiency, is my problem, my lack, my deficiency. As it says in the Word, “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

2 Corinthians 8:13-15 says this:

"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.'"

Equality was the goal. Simple, divine equality. No keeping up with the Joneses, because they have exactly what you have and all needs are met. For everyone. 

Here’s the real beauty of the Church building itself in that manner: it frees people to be about Kingdom business rather than the business of the world. The early Church was all about spreading, teaching, sharing, equipping, engaging the gospel. Not about surrounding themselves with comfort or building up their portfolios or retirement. For all they knew, they were going to be martyred, so all they had guaranteed was the very moment they were living in, and the blessed assurance that what they had waiting for them was well worth the sacrifice. 

No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own, so all needs were met and the various parts of the body were free to truly live in their giftings and callings. The teachers were free to teach without having to worry about the mouths of their family being fed. Those gifted with hospitality certainly had more than enough room to move and work and love and invite. The apostles were free to come and go, knowing that the needs of others were being met. These men and women knew their gifts, accepted their calling, and then walked in them. Fully. Moreover, they had the backing and support of a community to fill in the gaps that they could not. Their attention was not divided. They were not working day jobs to pay the bills and then serving with whatever they had left over. The fulfillment of the gospel was their day job. All of them.

Look at Acts 6:

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit, and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

         This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

         So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Because we, as a society, have strayed so far from community, there are many, many among the faithful church-goers, teachers, shepherds, apostles, healers, prophets, and those with gifts of administration and working miracles who are waiting on tables to meet the needs of their families. They are struggling to scrape by, to pay the bills, to buy more things, to appease whatever desire is in them, rather than living out the calling on their lives. Because we are not joined together, one in heart and mind, we have lost focus of what it is that we have been called to. We have become enslaved to the duties and responsibilities of the culture rather than the commandment of the Kingdom, so we work to pay the bills and hope that maybe we’ll have something left over at the end of it all to give a little something to the church.

But what if...what if we got radical? What if we sold a house to pay for the medical needs of someone among us? Who would take us in? Where would we live? Would you take a family into your home? What about someone who is homeless? It might get really inconvenient, maybe even tight. Could your kids share a room so that you had a room open to a stranger? A stranger?? What if two or three families were to combine residences? Sell the other homes and pool the resources. It would be tight living quarters, but I bet folks would discover very quickly how to be Christ to each other, or at least the need for it. 

And what if those resources were then used to put together a feeding ministry in a local school, taking over a government-run program? What if the resources were used to buy medication for those who could not afford it, on a regular basis? What if the Church became the healthcare reform that so many are desperate for? And what if the right job that guarantees benefits was simply in the community of the Church, walking and serving in the gifting that given to you? 

What if we just took another look at what we were doing and asked some really hard questions of ourselves? Do we really need all this space? Or could we invite another family in and pool the resources? Don't you think it could be done?

I do.

So did the early Church. 

And their numbers grew by the thousands. Daily.

Life of Service, Part 2

So what does a life of service look like?

This is what Jesus said about it:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

         You know what I really love about that passage? They had to ask the King when they had served him! They said, “Lord, when did we do those things??” Seriously? They didn’t know?? 

No, they didn’t know they were serving the King in their day-to-day acts of service. Service was such a part of their world, of their everyday life, it wasn’t a chore or extra errand for them to check off of a list; it was their passion of life.

What does a life of service look like? I think that in order to fully answer that, we must first understand what God has asked of us. When He calls us to serve, what does He mean?

Isaiah 58 is one of the most powerful passages on this. Starting in verse 7, this is what God has said,

“What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on…

Continuing in verse 9…

“If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

And then in verse 11, for anyone looking for hope, here’s a word for you…

“I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

Seriously, yall! As they say in Texas, if that doesn’t light your fire with hope, your wood is wet!

Further Scripture says this about the topic:

James 1:14-17

         What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

2 Corinthians 8:13

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”

Proverbs 3:27

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.

         I know that many have studied the Proverbs 31 woman, the lady who set the bar entirely too high for us. She frustrates me to no end, but when I went back to read about her again in light of Isaiah 58, one thing stood out to me. 

A wife of noble character who can find? 

       She is worth far more than rubies.

 ¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her 

       and lacks nothing of value.

 ¹² She brings him good, not harm, 

       all the days of her life.

 ¹³ She selects wool and flax 

       and works with eager hands.

 ¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships, 

       bringing her food from afar.

 ¹⁵ She gets up while it is still dark; 

       she provides food for her family 

       and portions for her servant girls.

 ¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it; 

       out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

 ¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously; 

       her arms are strong for her tasks.

 ¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable, 

       and her lamp does not go out at night.

 ¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff 

       and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

 ²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor 

       and extends her hands to the needy.

 ²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household; 

       for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

 ²² She makes coverings for her bed; 

       she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

 ²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate, 

       where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

 ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them, 

       and supplies the merchants with sashes.

 ²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity; 

       she can laugh at the days to come.

 ²⁶ She speaks with wisdom, 

       and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

 ²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household 

       and does not eat the bread of idleness.

 ²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed; 

       her husband also, and he praises her:

 ²⁹ "Many women do noble things, 

       but you surpass them all."

 ³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; 

       but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

 ³¹ Give her the reward she has earned, 

       and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. 

Did you hear it? In the midst of all that she had going on in her life, while selecting wool and flax, while bringing food, while buying a field and planting a vineyard, while spinning clothes and making bed coverings, somehow in the midst of all of that, she did not forget God’s command:

Verse 20 says, She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. This excellent wife, this amazing mother whose children rise up to call her blessed, she did not forget the commands of the Lord. Amidst the whirlwinds of her busy life, she did not forget that first and foremost, she has been called a servant of the Most High God. She did not forget what He had called her to do. 

So if this great woman, this example to us all, should we not follow her lead in the area as well?

More to come...