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Get With It!

Just Do It Already

Synopsis: Proverbs reminds us that motivation is a holy thing; it is a state of being that will energize you to do the hard—but right—thing. And, as we see throughout Proverbs, the Lord highly values and honors it. One of my favorite motivational gurus, the late Zig Ziglar, said, “Motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” I agree: Just do it already! And Walt Disney gave us some free advice that we would do will to apply to our own lives: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” So, what is one area in your life in which you would need up your motivation game? Identify it, and my friend, just get after it! Again, quit talking and do it already!

Get With It

Moments With God // Proverbs 26:13-15

Loafers say, “It’s dangerous out there! Tigers are prowling the streets!” and then pull the covers back over their heads. Just as a door turns on its hinges, so a lazybones turns back over in bed. A shiftless sluggard puts his fork in the pie, but is too lazy to lift it to his mouth.

Motivation! It is one of the major themes in Proverbs—praising those who have it and admonishing those who do not. Proverbs does not offer an intricate explanation for why people are not motivated, or a detailed plan for how they can get motivated. It just says they need to build a fire in their life and get with it.

Speaking of motivation, I love the story of the guy who worked the swing shift in a factory, and every night when he walked home from work after dark, he would go a great distance out of the way just to avoid a cemetery that was smack dab in the middle of his route. One night, wanting to save some time, he worked up the courage to walk through the graveyard>. Well, lo and behold, it wasn’t so bad after all! So, he started walking right through the cemetery every day, to and from work.

However, on one of his walks home, a fresh grave had been dug right in the path he now walked by habit, and he fell into a deep, dark, damp open grave. For some time he scratched and clawed trying to climb out called—to no avail—so he then started calling out for help, but it became apparent that he was going to get neither help nor out of his tomb. So, he sank down into the bottom of this pit, pulled his coat up around his ears and prepared for a long night until the grave diggers came the next morning and could help him out.

After some time had passed, another man came down the same path, and he too, fell into the open grave. The first guy just sat there with a smile on his face watching this second guy, who was so preoccupied with getting out that he didn’t notice the first guy.

After a while, the second guy grew tired and he, too, gave up his clawing and scratching and yelling and sank down into the bottom of the grave. At that point, the first guy said, “You’ll never get out of here, boy!” Guess what? On hearing that eerie, disembodied voice from the other end of the grave, the second guy did! The disembodied voice from the grave was all the motivation he needed—and he was out in about two ticks.

Proverbs reminds us that motivation is a holy thing; it is a state of being that will energize you to do the hard—but right—thing. And, as we see throughout Proverbs, the Lord highly values and honors it. Consider these verses from this book of practical wisdom:

The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. (Prov 13:4)

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. (Prov 14:23)

The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. (Prov 15:19)

Speaking of motivation, one of my favorite motivational gurus, the late Zig Ziglar, said, “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” I agree: Just do it already! And Walt Disney gave us some free advice that we would do will to apply to our own lives: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

So, quit talking and do it already!

Now if you are a committed Christ-follower, and if you are motivated, God has promised honor to you. If you are not, however, then you will get no psychological explanation or motivational pep talk from the Bible—only a swift kick to the seat of the pants and a warning: Get with it or get left in the dust of those in life who are motivated.

So, get with it already! God stands ready to bless you!

What is one area in your life in which you would need up your motivation game? Identify it, and my friend, just get after it!

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Holy Heartburn, Batman!

When You Find Your Heart Burning Within You

SYNOPSIS: The two disciples who were walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the crucifixion were in a deep funk—their hopes crushed, their dreams dashed—until the resurrected Jesus showed up and gave them a case of holy heartburn: “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us?” they said to one another in retrospect. Maybe you are in that kind of funk today. Perhaps your hopes have been dashed, your dreams have died, your circumstances are not what you had expected, and the life you imagined life has not turned out as you had hoped. Let Jesus give you a little heartburn today. Take heart my friend, when the Great Resurrector resurrects your hope, you will catch a case of holy heartburn and you will never be the same.

"Christ is risen!" isn't just for Easter Sunday!

Moments With God // Luke 24:31-32

By this time the two disciples were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Heartburn isn’t usually a good thing, but when God shows up and gives you heartburn, it’s a good thing.

Two disciples, perhaps a man and his wife, were walking the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, discussing the devastating news of the past few hours. It was the very first Easter Sunday, but they didn’t know yet that Jesus had risen from the tomb. As far as they were concerned, he was dead and gone—and so were their hopes.

Then Jesus showed up, although his identity was hidden from them, and gave them an incurable case of holy heartburn. It was the heartburn of hope, and it was just the cure their broken hearts needed in those post-crucifixion moments.

That’s the beauty of the resurrection. No matter what you are going through, the empty tomb stands as a constant and certain reminder that there is always reason for hopefulness. That’s why the psalmist, David, said, “Why are you hopeless? Why are you in turmoil? Put your hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5) Resurrection hope is not just wishful thinking or a pie-in-the-sky kind of attitude that says, “Oh well, things will turn out okay someday.” It’s not the breezy kind of optimism that Mary Martin sang about in South Pacific when she said “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.”

The kind of hope Jesus will burn into your heart is first of all, a reliable hope. Marx said that hope is the opiate of the people, but Christian hope is built on the foundation of the Bible and supported by the reality of the empty tomb. Verse 27 says, “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Second, resurrection hope is a relational hope. The resurrection is not just a story from the pages of history. “Christ is risen” isn’t just a theological incantation that clerics pull out of their bag of tricks every Easter. It is hope that arises from an experience with Jesus himself, not just a dream or a fantasy or a phantom. Verse 29 says, “So he went home with them.” Jesus walked with these two disciples. He ate with them. He listened to them, inviting them to pour out their hearts. And he revealed himself to them. Resurrection hope is a real person—an intimate relationship with the living Lord.

And third, the kind of hope Jesus wants to give you is a radical hope. When you encounter the risen Lord and put your complete trust in him, it will be nothing short of life changing. Verse 31 says that after they had spent time with Jesus, “suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” These two disciples were headed back to Emmaus to pick up the pieces of their shattered dreams, if that were even possible. Instead, they encountered Jesus, and their plans were radically altered. Actually, it was their lives that were radically altered from that moment on.

Maybe you are in the kind of funk these two disciples were on that first Easter Sunday. Perhaps your dreams have been dashed, your circumstances are not what you had hoped for, and your life has not turned out as you expected. Get ready! If you start to get a little heartburn, it could be that the risen Lord is resurrecting your hopes.

By the way, when Jesus resurrects your hope, you will never be disappointed! (Romans 5:5, NLT)

Take A Moment: Surrendering to God’s total control means giving him your dashed hopes and broken dreams. Have you done that? If you have, perhaps you’ve taken them back out of his hands and are clinging in bitter disappointment to things that have not turned out as you had hoped. Surrender—or re-surrender—them to the One who specializes in resurrecting dead things!

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Too Much Stuff

Don't Measure Life By What You Have

SYNOPSIS: One day, sooner than you think, you will stand before God. None of the things you have collected during your earthly journey are going with you. The only thing that will go with you into the next life that will do you any good is what you have done for God. Jesus said of the rich man in the parable, “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?” As the poet said, “Tis one life, will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Too Much Stuff

Moments With God // Luke 12:15

Then Jesus said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

We don’t use words like covetousness or greed a whole lot these days, but we should. We Americans are a pretty greedy lot—me included. Our whole economic system is predicated on the hopes that you and I will grow dissatisfied with what we’ve got and go buy something newer, better, and bigger.

For instance, since Jesus told the story in Luke 12:16-20 about a man who thought his property was too small, let’s just take a look at our insatiable thirst for bigger homes. Did you know that the average home size in the United States was 1,000 square feet in the 1950’s, and while the average number of household residents has shrunk since the 1960’s, home size has grown to 2,467 square feet by 2015.

It was a whole different picture when I was growing up. My mom, dad, three other siblings, and a couple of family pets all lived comfortably in a home that was 1,200 square feet, if that. We shared bedrooms, bathrooms, clothes, didn’t have a garage to park our car in, and only one TV—with no remote control! We actually had to get up and walk across the room to change the channel, if you can imagine that.

And we didn’t think anything of it. We didn’t feel poor or cheated or even realize what we didn’t have. We were content! We spent a lot more time together as a family. We ate together. We all drove together in the same car, even when we were teenagers—a family of six crammed into an AMC Gremlin! Or was it a Hornet? Whatever—it was a really ugly car that should have never been made. My point is, we were happy as a lark—we didn’t know what we didn’t know.

We were content—and emotionally healthy. We had discovered what G.K Chesterton said, “True contentment is a real, even active virtue—not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.”

As a society, we Americans would do well to read Luke 12. It is a tough one, but what Jesus had to say about the deceitfulness of wealth, the debilitating worry over stuff, and our ultimate accountability before God for the stewardship of what we possess is much-needed medicine for the greed that ails our society these days.

One day, sooner than you think, you will stand before God. None of the things you have collected during your earthly journey are going with you. The only thing that will go with you into the next life that will do you any good is what you have done with and for God through faith. Jesus said of the rich man in the parable, “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?”

As the poet said, “Tis one life, will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Take A Moment: Here is a novel idea: Give away some of your stuff this week to someone who really needs it—and don’t replace it!

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Breaking You Down To Build You Up

There is No Testimony Without A Test

SYNOPSIS: The place of testing is where every supporting prop in your life gets removed. It’s where you end up when you thought you were going to do big things for God, or have a great family, or have a successful career, and it becomes clear that things are not working out the way you’d dreamed. It will likely be the most frustrating period in your life—but in hindsight, it will turn out to be the most fruitful. That’s because the place of testing and removing is also the place of forging and rebuilding. As an unknown poet said, it is the place where you are, “pressed into knowing no helper but God.” And there is no better place. So, with that in mind, if you’re going through a place of testing, it may be a good time to simply say “thank you, God” as an act of trust and faith.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 21:10-14

David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath. But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) That is the fun part of being a Christ-follower.

Jesus also said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) That is the not-so-fun part of being a Christ-follower. But it is the imminently rewarding part of walking with Jesus.

Before the Son of David spoke those paradoxical words, David went thru the process that Jesus described. You and I will, too. Like David, we must allow Jesus to break us down so he can build us up, that is, to build us into the kind of people he desires us to be. Going through that process means he will strip us of every misplaced dependency.

You see, the good things in life can be a barrier to the great things God has for us. So God removes them. Deuteronomy 8:3 goes on to say, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from God’s mouth.”

In David’s case, it took ten years of tearing down as one-by-one all of the good things he’d once relied on got stripped away. Over the course of several chapters in 1 Samuel, God stripped David’s of just about everything:

  • David lost his position. Overnight David went from Israel’s most popular figure to national pariah.
  • David lost his wife. He had married King Saul’s daughter, Michal, but when David fled, Saul married her off to another man.
  • David lost his mentor. About the time all this upheaval took place, Samuel died. So David lost his job, his family, and now he loses his spiritual mentor—the one who’d anointed him and guided him.
  • David lost his best friend.  If losing his job, wife, and mentor wasn’t enough, he lost Jonathan. He was the one who had stood up to his own father, King Saul, risking his life to protect David. He warned David to flee, but since Jonathan was bound by loyalty to his troubled father, he could no longer see David. So these spiritual soul-mates parted ways, never to see each other again in life.
  • David lost his country. At the end of I Samuel 21 David’s so desperate, with nowhere to hide, that he flees to Gath, the capital city of Israel’s arch-enemy, the Philistines, and home to the now-dead Goliath. That’s how bad it got — David’s now seeking refuge in Gath among Goliath’s people.
  • David lost his dignity. Finally, there in Gath, he reached rock bottom: “When David realized that he had been recognized, he panicked, fearing the worst from King Achish. (1 Samuel 21:13)

While the Philistine officers were looking at David, he pretended to go crazy, pounding his head on the city gate and foaming at the mouth, spit dripping from his beard. Achish took one look at him and said to his servants, “Can’t you see he’s crazy? Why’d you let him in here? Don’t you think I have enough crazy people to put up with as it is without adding another? Get him out of here!” (1 Samuel 21:14-15)

So David, expecting to be king with a kingdom ends up on the lam with no position, no people, no pastor, no partner, no pride—and no prospect that it would ever be different—stripped of every dependency.

Testing—the place in your life where every supporting prop gets kicked out from beneath you. It is where you end up when you thought you were going to do great things for God, or have a great family, or have a successful career, and it becomes clear that things are not working out the way you’d dreamed.

For David, it was the most frustrating period in his life—but in hindsight, it turned out to be the most fruitful. That is because the place of testing and tearing down is also the place of forging and rebuilding. As an unknown poet said, it is the place where you are, “pressed into knowing no helper but God.”

Pressed into knowing no helper but God—that’s what happened to David. Through the discipline of that difficult season in his life, God was instructing David that God was his true source, and that was the one thing David would need to be a great king.

Guess what: God is teaching you how to “king it” too! Not very fun…but it is incredibly fruitful. And though we wouldn’t choose it for ourselves, thank God he tears us down to build us up!

Going Deeper With God: Are you going through a season of stripping? This may be a good time to simply say “thank you” as an act of trust and faith.

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Beating Death to Death

So far, the death rate is hovering around 100%, but there is a day coming when death will be beaten to death. Jesus said it, promised it, and proved he had the authority to deliver on that promise by rising from death’s grip. Death is the last of God’s enemies—and ours—to be done away with, but that day will come when the children of the resurrection are no longer required to feel its sting.

The Journey: Luke 20:36

“And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection.”

So far, the death rate is hovering around 100%, but there is a day coming when death will be beaten to death. Jesus said it, promised it, and proved he had the authority to deliver on that promise by rising from death’s grip. Death is the last of God’s enemies—and ours—to be done away with, but that day will come when the children of the resurrection are no longer required to feel its sting:

And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15, NLT)

Did you catch that?  “Death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire” from which there is no escape.  At long last, that which sin conceived in the Garden of Eden is forever buried at the Great White Throne judgment, and the children of God are finally and fully free to enjoy life unending—a return to the original plan of God before the fall of man. There will never again be a mournful tear shed or a restless night of worry over sickness unto death or a bedside vigil or a funeral service:

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:3-4, NLT)

Wishful thinking? Pie-in-the-sky preaching? The opiate of hope? Not a chance! This is bedrock theology, promised by the Resurrection and the Life himself:

“Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”  (Revelation 20:5-7)

That day is coming, friend, perhaps sooner rather than later, when death will be beaten to death. And since you’re a child of God—and of the resurrection—you have a lot to be happy about today!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, you have promised eternal life to all who trust in your Son. I believe in Jesus; he is the resurrection and the life. So today, I gratefully reclaim your promise of life without end.
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The Issue Is What Possesses You, Not What You Possess

What Has You? God or Money?

When Jesus spoke of how hard it is for the rich to enter heaven, he wasn’t making a statement about the inherent evils of money. Wealth itself isn’t the problem. It’s our attitude toward money; our over-dependence on it! This is really a very simple thing Jesus is saying: Through your own efforts, whatever those efforts might be, you cannot be truly satisfied or eternally saved. That was the original question that led to Jesus response: “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus says that the wealthy can’t be saved through money any more than someone can one be saved by skills, talents, intellect, good looks—or even by living a good life! Jesus’ real concern is this: What possesses you—not what you possess. If God’s grace possesses you, you’re good for all eternity.

The Journey: Matthew 19:16, 21-24

Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Twice in his conversation with this rich, young man, Jesus said how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God—as hard, in fact, as it would be for a camel to slip through the eye of a needle!

Now that is a little intimidating, and bothersome, too, in light of this stubborn conviction we seem to have that money will make us happy! It bothered the disciples, too, so we’re in good company. They were so shaken they asked, “Then who in the world can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25) They were unnerved because popular Jewish thought had it that wealth and prosperity were a sign of God’s blessing.

Here’s the deal: Wealth itself isn’t the problem. It’s our attitude toward money; our over-dependence on it! This is really a very simple thing Jesus is saying: Through your own efforts, whatever those efforts might be, you cannot be truly satisfied or eternally saved. That was the original question that led to Jesus’ response: “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus says that the wealthy can’t be saved through money any more than someone can one be saved by skills, talents, intellect, good looks—or even by living a good life!

Wealth is not the overriding issue here. As you can see, it would be just as dangerous for an underprivileged person to think that his poverty gave him spiritual piety and eternal favor. In truth, anything can lead us from the path of righteousness: not only wealth, but drink, food, television, leisure, entertainment, or any number of things available to us in this world. In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul writes, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” What caused this close friend and ministry companion, Demas, to leave Paul and walk away from Christ? He loved the world; the particulars aren’t divulged.

Whatever it was, the simple fact is that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle, and someone who loves the world more than God, whether rich or poor, forfeits the approval of God. 1 John 2:15-17 says,

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Again, the point is that we do not achieve salvation through our own efforts, nor can we gain lasting security and satisfaction by worldly means; those are from God alone. So the real issue Jesus is addressing—back then and right now—is about priorities, not possessions. He isn’t teaching that wealth is wrong… it’s not money that’s evil…it’s the love of money that’s at the root of all kinds of evil. (I Timothy 6:10)

Jesus’ real concern is this: What possesses you—not what you possess.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I want you to possess all of me. Deliver me from the deceitfulness of wealth, or any other thing that I have substituted for you to bring me earthly happiness and eternal security. Bring me to that place where I am ready to let it all go in complete obedience and full devotion to you in whatever way you should ask.
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Unbelief

Stay Open To Jesus—Expect The Miraculous

What was it that limited either the divine power or the divine will of Jesus, Son of God, Savior and Messiah and kept him from doing any significant miracles in his hometown? Matthew’s gospel points out  that it was the unbelief of his friends and family. Their limited expectations disqualified them from experiencing the very visitation of God that had been the passionate longing of their hearts for generations. I sure hope that never happens to me—or to you! So stay open to Jesus and his miraculous power. Expect the unexpected in the routine of your daily walk with him. Perhaps he will write a new Kingdom chapter through extraordinary language of the miraculous in your life today!

The Journey: Matthew 13:51

And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

I wonder what those “few miracles” were that Jesus performed in his hometown of Nazareth. Perhaps he healed a couple of headaches or lengthened a shortened leg or two. But he did none of the sensational stuff that had been getting the attention of the Jews in that day: delivering the demonized, healing the lame, opening the ears and eyes of the deaf and blind, and even raising the dead.

What was it that limited either the divine power or the divine will of Jesus, Son of God, Savior and Messiah? Matthew says it was the unbelief of the folk in his hometown. They knew Jesus well. They had been his neighbors, had gone to school with him, had sat next to him in synagogue services. They had watched him grow up, shared meals with his mom and dad, bought furniture from the carpentry shop he and his father operated. They were so familiar with the Jesus they thought they knew that they missed his unique standing as the one and only Son of God. To paraphrase S.D. Gordon, God was spelling himself out in language that men could understand through Jesus, but the people of Nazareth didn’t bother to open their eyes to the greatest story ever told.

Sadly, limited expectations disqualified them from experiencing the very visitation of God that had been the passionate longing of their hearts for generations. The Joy of Man’s Desiring was right in front of their eyes, yet they failed to behold him.

I sure hope that never happens to me—or to you. I hope that we don’t become so dulled by the ordinary and routine of a daily walk with Jesus that our limited expectations prevent the very Jesus we long for from breaking into our world with the extraordinary.

Stay open to Jesus! Expect the unexpected in the routine of your daily walk with him. Perhaps God will write a new Kingdom chapter through extraordinary language of the miraculous through Jesus Christ in your life today!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I believe—now help my unbelief!