Category Archives: Personal Growth

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A Person After God’s Own Heart

What Does God Love About You?

Why did God see two no good, terrible, rotten sinners like King Saul and King David so differently? David was called a man after God’s own heart but God rejected Saul? Simply because David, though thoroughly flawed was authentically humble and quickly repentant; Saul was not. You see, the true condition of David’s heart revealed that he deeply cared about the things that God cared about. That’s what it means to have a heart after God’s own heart: not that you are perfect and never fall into sin, but that your heart is tender toward the Lord and quick to repent when you have violated his command. That is a heart God can bless!

Moments With God // 1 Chronicles 21:8

God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it. Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing.”

Have you ever wondered why King David was called a man after God’s own heart but King Saul was a man rejected by God? On the surface, it seems that David’s sins were equal to, if not more grievous than Saul’s. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed to cover it up, and now, he had taken this census of Israel’s fighting men—a sin that demonstrated a lack of trust in God’s protection and pride in David’s own military prowess.

When you look at Saul’s sins, it seems that he had merely failed to follow the prophet Samuel’s advice to the letter (1 Samuel 13 & 15). Obviously, both kings made mistakes, but adultery and murder versus disobedience? Shouldn’t we give Saul more of a break than he gets in the history books?

The difference between these two men was in how they responded to godly conviction. When a distressing spirit came upon Saul (1 Samuel 17 & 18), he would send for his young assistant David to soothe his chaotic mind by having him play the harp. The problem was that Saul was only seeking relief from feeling bad rather than repenting for acting badly.

On the other hand, when David experienced a guilty conscience, he would fully own up to his wrongdoing and seek the Lord’s forgiveness. David didn’t make excuses, he didn’t blame, he didn’t hedge—he would always come clean. He recognized how deeply wicked his flawed heart was prone to be.

When caught in wrongdoing, the true condition of Saul’s heart was revealed by his justification and minimization of the sin. Saul made excuses. He blamed—his men, Samuel, and even God. Saul’s heart grew darker and darker as time moved on, but he chose to remain aloof to it.

The true condition of David’s heart revealed that he deeply cared about the things that God cared about. Immensely flawed, David was also intensely humble and quickly repentant.

That’s what it means to have a heart after God’s own heart: not that you are perfect and never fall into sin, but that your heart is tender toward God, passionate about the things of God, and quick to repent when you have violated the commands of God.

That is the kind of heart God can bless!

Take A Moment: Here is a David-like prayer you may want to offer today: Father, as David prayed in Psalm 51, so I pray this morning: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—and my sin is always before me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” O Lord, give me a clean heart, a heart after Your own heart. Help me to passionately care about the things You care about—this is my deepest prayer. Amen!

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Unholy Fire

God, Make Me Holy

SYNOPSIS: Thankfully, we live in an era where God, in his grace and mercy, has made a way through Jesus for us to approach his throne with confidence and boldness. Jesus, our High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us, bore in his body the brunt of God’s holy wrath for our sin and our perpetual un-holiness. And by his sacrifice, we can stand before God and not be consumed. Thank God, by Christ’s blood, we are made holy.

Unholy Fire

Moments With God // Leviticus 10:1-3

Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.” Aaron remained silent.

I imagine if we had been front-row witnesses to this terrifying scene, we would have done as Aaron did: Nothing! He couldn’t speak. All he could do was stand there in stunned silence, trying to comprehend what had just happened to his sons. Imagine in the twinkling of an eye seeing your loved ones incinerated by the holiness of God. Imagine trying to come to terms with a loving God who had just revealed his holiness in the most dreadful way imaginable; who had just demonstrated in reality what he had been warning his people about verbally: not to take his holiness lightly.

As I read this story I realize how much I long to behold the glory of the Lord—but only on my terms. However, this sobering story makes me wonder if could I really ever gaze upon God’s holiness and not experience the Nadab and Abihu effect. I seriously doubt it. This cautionary tale is an unforgettable and sad reminder that God is holy and demands holiness from his people—especially from those who minister before him in particular as representatives of his presence to his people.

Not only is it a sad reminder, but it is also an unforgettable reminder: We must not take God lightly or treat the holy as common. To anyone who saw what happened to these two priests, this would be an object lesson they would never forget. When God chooses to make a point, he truly makes a point!

Thankfully, we live in an era where God, in his grace and mercy, has made a way that through Jesus we can approach his throne with confidence and boldness. (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus is our High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us. As our priestly representative, he bore in his own body the brunt of God’s holy wrath for our sin and our perpetual un-holiness. And by his sacrifice, we can stand before God and not be consumed. By his blood, we are saved. By his stripes, we are healed.

God help us, short of the Nadab and Abihu experience, to never forget the undeserved privilege of knowing Jesus and the inexpressible honor of being the receiving end of his sacrifice when he was made our sin offering. God made a point in Jesus’ death, and what an unforgettable point it was!

Now even though through Christ’s substitutionary death we are invited to come boldly into God’s holy presence, let us temper our confidence before God’s throne with humble gratitude that we are standing in a place that in all reality should seal our death sentence to receive grace instead of fire. We don’t deserve to be there; we deserve the punishment of Nadab and Abihu. Yet through Jesus, we are declared holy and thereby approach the throne of a holy God as his holy people.

Truthfully, for reasons polar opposite of Aaron’s, all I can do is stand before God in stunned silence—but not in terror and grief, but in thankfulness and gratitude.

Take A Moment: Holiness is a very big deal to God. Though he may not deal with our un-holiness the same way he did with Nadab and Abihu, thankfully, it is no less important to him that we walk before him as his holy people. Here is a prayer that I am offering today—you may want to join me in it: “Almighty God, you are holy. That’s what the angels around your throne cry day and night; the citizens of heaven who fall before your throne offer up a continual cry of “holy”. The essence of your being is holiness. But I confess, I don’t come close to comprehending your holiness; I take it for granted; I affirm it in the “Christian-ese” that I have learned to speak. But I really don’t get it. Father, help me to develop a greater appreciation for the truth, “Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy.” I am aware that I tolerate some unholy things in my life—and I want to rid myself of those—but I’m also sure there are some things I don’t even realize that are unholy. I suspect that Nadab and Abihu didn’t deliberately violate their calling—most likely they were just too casual in approaching you. I don’t want to be too casual, to treat sin lightly, to take my relationship with you and my calling to stand as a priest before you flippantly. Father, teach me to be holy; destroy in me anything that could destroy me. Purify me and make me holy to the highest degree in my daily, hourly, moment-by-moment walk with you.”

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Job Description For Jesus’ Disciples

Reflecting and Replicating the Master

SYNOPSIS: Are you a true disciple? The answer is easy: If you are reflecting and replicating the life of the Master, you’re in pretty good shape. If you aren’t, you need to go back and have a serious conversation — should I say, “conversion” — with the Master.

Discipleship is a journey.

Moments With God // Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

What do real disciples do? Two things actually: They reflect and they replicate.

First of all, authentic disciples become like the Master. They fully devote themselves to his life and they fully obey his teachings. They become like Jesus in thought, word, and deed to the point where his very being is reflected in the essential quality of their being. The Master becomes the sum and substance of their lives. Only by the kind of transformation where the Master is fundamentally reflected from center to circumference in their lives can Christ’s disciples in turn “go and make [other] disciples.” Only then can they teach others to “observe all that [the Master] has commanded.”

That is what it means to be truly Christian. Being truly Christian means being an authentic disciple. One cannot happen without the other—Christianity means discipleship; discipleship means Christianity. Being either is not just in name, it is in the reflection of the Master in the life of the disciple. Calling oneself a disciple is simply wishful thinking without doing the things of discipleship and being in essence the reflection of the Master. Call it what you will, anything less is nothing more than inauthentic discipleship, non-Christianity, a false religion.

Second, authentic disciples replicate the life of the Master through their lives in the lives of others. In other words, they reproduce. Barren discipleship is non-discipleship. True disciples go with the message, bearing the life of the One they reflect and persuading others to follow Jesus.

Disciples don’t just win converts to Christianity; they make other disciples in the way of the Master. To convert a soul to Jesus simply begins the process of discipleship. Conversion is the first step; discipleship is the journey. True conversion begins the journey of authentic discipleship; the convert requires the same full devotion to the Master’s life and the same full obedience to his teaching that took place in the proto-disciple. The Master’s life is replicated in the disciple, who in turn replicates the Master’s life in the convert, who then, in turn, replicates the Master’s life in still others.

That is when discipleship comes full circle and is proven authentic.

Here is the real question in all of this: Are you a true disciple? The answer is easy: If you are reflecting and replicating the life of the Master, you’re in pretty good shape.

If you aren’t, you need to go back and have a serious conversation — should I say, “conversion” — with the Master.

Take A Moment: If you are serious about being a true disciple of Christ, let me suggest that you offer this prayer: “Jesus, you said we cannot truly call you Lord unless we do the things you said we should do. With all of my heart, I want to be authentic when I call you Lord. Help me to give you my full devotion and complete obedience. Make me a true disciple.”

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The Beauty of a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

God Is Never Without A Purpose; God Is Never Without A Plan

If there’s a test in your life that‘s stressing you to the point of cracking, even if you have to “faith it ‘til you make it,” just know this: God is at work! He never allows a test that is not without a purpose and a plan. God’s purpose is to show you that you cannot do life apart from Him—and knowing that is the greatest form of knowledge. God’s plan is to bring you to a place of humble dependence on His immutable goodness and constant provision—and there’s no better place to be. So if you’re having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, stop and thank God for yet another building block to a better testimony!

Moments With God // Deuteronomy 8:2-5

Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.

Like Alexander the Horrible, have you just come through a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? Maybe it’s not just the day, it’s the season you are in that makes you feel like you are on a losing streak—with no end in sight. Perhaps the weight of an unwanted burden is straining your capacity—and if one more thing is added, you will break. It might be that personal failures and shortcomings are constant reminders of your incompetence—you just don’t measure up. Maybe it’s not just your day that is really bad, horrible, and no good—it’s your life, it’s you!

Or so you think. But there’s some really good, terrific news for you! If there is a test in your life that is stressing you to the point of cracking, even if you have to “faith it ‘til you make it,” just know this: God is at work! Moses reminds you that God never allows a test that is not without a purpose and a plan. The purpose is to show you that you cannot do life apart from Him—and knowing that is the highest knowledge a human being will ever attain. The plan is to bring you to a place of humble dependence on His immutable goodness and constant provision—and there is no better place to be. So thank God for tests!

Slowly read and absorb these verses again from the Message translation:

Remember every road that God led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Your clothes didn’t wear out and your feet didn’t blister those forty years. You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child.

Whatever the test you are enduring, stop what you are doing, set aside your raw emotions, fears, frustrations, disappointment, and anger to reframe your thinking so that you are focusing on God’s purpose and plan for you. Realize how privileged you are that God has allowed, or even caused, and always uses what you are going through for your gain and His glory. Use your test as a building block for our testimony. Think of these wise words from Hebrews 12:7-11,

Endure hardship as discipline. Remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

So you see, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is really not so terrible, horrible, and very bad after all. Reframe your hardship, or your test, as the discipline of your loving Father, because “God disciplines those he loves, as a father the child he delights in.” (Proverbs 3:12)

Got a test? Congratulations, it means you are incredibly loved.

Take A Moment: What is your current hardship? Embrace it as God’s discipline, which you are to embrace as love. And the best way I know to do that is simply to say “God thanks!”

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Somebody Save Me From Me

Learn To Lean Into The Great Rescuer

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should, and like the Apostle Paul, we cry out in exasperation, “O wretch that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” That’s the question, isn’t it: who will rescue me since I don’t have much of a track record of self-rescue? The answer, Paul discovered, was the Great Rescuer: “Thanks be to God—it is through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Moments With God // Romans 7:15,19,24

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do… For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Huh? Did you catch that? Paul had a convoluted way of saying something pretty straightforward, which was simply this: “I do what I shouldn’t and I don’t do what I should—man, I’m in big trouble!”

Can you relate to Paul? I sure can. He was in a wrestling match with sin, and sin was smacking him around. It was frustrating because Paul knew what he shouldn’t be doing—yet he was drawn to sin like a moth to the flame.

Let me ask you this: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your moth-attracting-flame? Maybe it’s a whole container of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey®—perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe you are a sucker for anything that says, “Red Tag Sale”—perhaps you are an over-spender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet—perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Perhaps it’s alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping.

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. “What a sicko I am! Who will rescue me from the Chunky Monkey®?” That is the question: who will rescue me since I don’t have a track record of self-rescue?

Jesus will! That’s what Paul said in Romans 7:25, “Thanks be to God—it’s through Jesus Christ our Lord!” When Jesus died, he broke the power of sin, so it no longer has a hold on us. Through the power of the resurrection, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God has provided a way out from under every temptation:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Did you catch that? Your battle with temptation is winnable. The last part of the verse says, “But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out.”

That’s good news. There’s always an escape route—always. When you’re tempted, God himself will provide a way out; He will make a way. God has provided a door! But here’s the deal: you must look for it and walk through it!

So, just what are those escape routes?

One way of escape is to immerse yourself in Scripture. Psalm 119:9 & 11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

That’s how Jesus battled temptation in the wilderness. Every time the tempter came at Jesus with something that would tear Him away from the Father, Jesus came back at Satan with the truth of scripture. There is no more potent weapon against temptation in your life than in reading systematically, meditating daily, and memorizing strategically God’s Word.

Another escape route from temptation is to become accountable to another believer, especially for your particular weakness. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We need to bring our temptation into the light of accountability to other people—as difficult as that may be.

Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” You would do yourself a huge favor by finding someone with whom you can be accountable for your weakness.

And yet another way out is to ask God to deliver you daily from the tempter. Jesus taught us to pray a daily prayer that acknowledges both our weakness and our need for divine power in this area: “Deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) As simple as that sounds, the amazing thing is, God hears those prayers. And He provides a way out.

Who will rescue you from this body of death? As Paul says in Romans 7:25,

Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.

Take A Moment: Memorize Romans 7:24-25, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

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Get Good At Letting Go Of Offenses

True Love Never Keeps Score

SYNOPSIS: If an altogether holy God, who cannot tolerate sin in His glorious presence, can forget our sins, then certainly we flawed human beings can forget the sins of our fellow sinners. In fact, if we want to be a conduit of God’s love on earth, we have to get really good at forgetting, as God does. Now, can an omniscient God truly forget our sins? No, but what He can do is choose not to remember them. And He does! How does He do that? He creates an unbridgeable chasm between us and our sins, according to Psalm 103:12. So, if God does that for us, then we cannot continue to be record keepers with those who are in our lives—we must become good forgetters.

Love Keeps No Record

Make Love Work // 1 Corinthians 13:5 (LB)

Love does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.

Are you a record keeper? Do you tend to hang onto past offenses, slights, and oversights? Are you one to nurse a grudge? Stop and think about how harmful that is—and not just to the one who has offended you, but to you. Unforgiveness is toxic. As someone has humorously but accurately put it, not forgiving another is like drinking rat poison … then waiting for the rat to die. Christ-followers are to be good forgetters. You see, true love learns to let offenses slip away like water off a duck’s back.

If an altogether holy God, who cannot tolerate sin in His glorious presence, can forget our sins, then certainly we flawed human beings can forget the sins of our fellow sinners. In fact, if we want to be a conduit of God’s love on earth, we have to get really good at forgetting, as God does. Now, can an omniscient God truly forget our sins? Of course not, but what He can do is choose not to remember them.

How does God do that? He creates an unbridgeable chasm between us and our sins, according to Psalm 103:12,

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Now if God does that for us, then we cannot continue to be record keepers with those who are in our lives—we must get good at letting go of those offenses, slights, and oversights. And one of the most helpful and motivating things we can do to achieve this impossible task is to think early and often about God’s forgetfulness when it comes to the sins for which we have repented. Slowly, meditatively, and gratefully read through these verses on God’s forgetfulness.

  • I will be merciful to them in their wrongdoings, and I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12
  • I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins Isaiah 43:25
  • I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Hebrews 10:17
  • If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
  • And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:34
  • Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Isaiah 1:18
  • Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. Acts 3:19
  • Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
  • Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
  • There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
  • He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

That last verse from Micah led to the Jewish tradition that thought of God as casting our sins into “the sea of forgetfulness.” While there is no mention of that in the Bible, it certainly is an appropriate and beautiful image of what God does for us. And that would be an appropriate and beautiful image of how we should treat the offenses of those who have sinned against us.

So, in light of that, if you are one to hold onto offenses, then stop. It is not the way of Christ! And for sure, it is impossible to be the source of God’s love to people while holding past offenses against them.

Remember, love keeps no record of wrongs!

Take A Moment: Your assignment today is to release those who have offended you and choose not to remember their sin from here on out. If you still struggle to do that after reading the verses above, then reflect on one more: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt 6:14-15)

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Confidence In The Un-Random God

God’s Always Working His Plan

SYNOPSIS: There’s nothing random about God; He leaves nothing up to chance. That means for the believer, coincidence is simply God choosing to remain anonymous. As sovereign Lord of the universe, He is ruling over the details of history to bring about His flawless plan. What may seem like happenstance or fate, God has foreordained, caused, or permitted in His perfect will. Coincidence is simply a sovereign act for which He chooses to remain unseen, a miracle for which He prefers anonymity. Yes, He is in control of all things — and that includes your life. So today, and every day, put your confidence in the unrandom God!

Confidence in the un-random God

MOMENTS WITH GOD // Claim Matthew 2:5,15,18,23

For thus it is written in the prophets…

The birth and life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world, was not the product of random events. It was the direct result of prophetic fulfillment. Thus the phrase linking Christ’s life to Old Testament prophecy is repeated four times in this second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Those details of Jesus’ life had been laid out in the mind of God from eternity past and had been written down in the inspired utterances of the prophets of old hundreds of years before Christ was born. The fulfillment of scores of prophecies in minute detail of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus leaves us with a pretty amazing track record of prophetic accuracy…leaving no doubt that those prophecies detailing His second coming will most certainly be fulfilled, too.

There is nothing random about God; nothing is left up to chance. The God of the Bible is the sovereign Lord of the universe and is ruling over the details of history to bring about His flawless plan. What may seem like happenstance or coincidence, God has foreordained, caused, or permitted in His perfect will. Coincidence is simply a sovereign act of God for which He chooses to remain unseen, a miracle for which He prefers anonymity.

God is in control of all things, and that includes your life. David wrote in Psalm 139:16,

You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

God’s Word invites you to live with amazing confidence today, knowing that He is in control of all things, including even the smallest details of your life. Therefore you can say, “all things will work together for my good and His glory.”

Take A Moment: Offer this prayer of confidence to God: Lord, I will live confidently and expectantly this day, and this year, knowing that my life is a part of Your greater plan. Take over my life completely and may every detail of my existence serve Your purposes perfectly and bring great glory to Your great name.”