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No Whining

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Philippians 2
Meditation: Philippians 2:14

“Do everything without complaining or arguing…”

Shift Your Focus… Christian author Evelyn Underhill writes that a well-trained sheepdog will lay at the shepherd’s feet, looks intently into his eyes, and listen without budging until the dog has understood the mind of his master.  Then the dog jumps to his feet and runs to do it—and all the while, the dog never stops wagging its tail.

That’s really the believer’s call to joyful obedience, as well.  As Paul says, we are to do everything without complaining or arguing; we are to be ceaselessly grateful and boundlessly joyful!

Do you realize how unlike that most of us are?  We’re a grumpy, dissatisfied race of people living in a culture of complaint. We’re the most indulged society in the history of the world, yet we’re the most discontent. The more we have the more we seem to be discontent with what we have and the more we complain about it.

I read some intriguing sociological research recently about this culture of complaint that tied our discontent, particularly among the younger generation, to the trend toward small families.  The thesis is that in a materialistic society where families average two or less children per household, there you will breed self-indulgent kids.

Think about it:  When you have two kids, mom asks them as they’re getting ready for school what they want in their sack lunch. One kid says he wants PBJ and the other says she wants a tuna-salad sandwich.  So mom makes them their made-to-order brown-bag. As she drops them off at school, she asks what they’d like for dinner.  One wants this; the other wants that.

The kids are making the choice.  They’re given a great deal of input in family decisions, big and small:  Not only what they want to eat, but what clothes they want, where they want to go to school, even what church they want to attend.

Now if you were raised a generation ago and/or were in a large family, how much choice and control did you have in your home?  If you were like me, mom gave you two choices for dinner, and everything else:  Take it or leave it.  Do you know what the difference is?  Where you had larger families, the child bent toward the needs and values of the family.  But for 50 years or so there’s been a sea change with small families and family systems that tend to bend toward the needs/wishes of the child.  As a result, child-centered parenting and child-controlled families characterize the home in today’s society!

Social critic Christopher Lasch has observed that “every age develops its own peculiar forms of pathology which express in exaggerated forms its underlying character structure.”  What is our cultures’ exaggerated form?  How about a pathology of Narcissism!  Narcissus, you’ll recall from Greek Mythology, was the handsome youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Narcissism is self-love and self-indulgence—the double-pneumonia of our day.

What happens when the child finally leaves his or her child-centered home into a society that doesn’t bend to that now adult-child?  They find a world where they don’t get to be in control; where they are not indulged; where people don’t bow to this needs and wishes.  As a result, what that breeds is what sociologists call “moody discontent”, a society full of sullen, discontented complainers. That’s our world today!  Just look at the surveys. Poll after poll shows how richly blessed but increasingly unhappy we are—and willing to loudly express it!

Did you realize that few sins are uglier to God than complaining—especially among people who claim to belong to him.  Just read Exodus and Numbers if you don’t believe me. The word for “complaining” here in Philippians, which means murmuring and giving voice to your discontent, is the same word used in Exodus and Numbers of the complaining Israelites.  Do you remember what happened to them?  God punished severely.  The second word Paul uses, “arguing,” actually referred to getting into an intellectual debate with God.  It means to express joylessness and displeasure in the circumstances you are going through.  In reality, that is to call into question the sovereignty and wisdom of the God who allowed you to go through those circumstances for his purposes.  Both arguing and complaining have no business among God’s people.

On the other hand, few graces are more pleasing to God than joy and contentment.  Why?  While discontent and complaint exposes your lack of trust in God’s sovereign control, joy and contentment express complete trust that God is working things out for your benefit and for his glory.

Think about this:  Both complaining and contentment reflect your theology—what you believe about God.  I trust that that your joy and contentment are making the people who watch want to follow your God.  And if you are whining and complaining, call a stop to it right away.  God deserves better representation than that.

So at all times, keep your tail wagging today!

“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”  ~Benjamin Franklin

Prayer… Lord, forgive the whining and complaining that I sometimes fall into.  I have so many reasons to rejoice.  From this time forward, I pray that everything that comes out of my mouth will be only that which brings praise and pleasure to you.

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You Complete Me

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Philippians 1
Meditation: Philippians 1:6

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Shift Your Focus… I really love this verse—it is one of my favorites. You probably love it, too. If you don’t, just think deeply about it for a while and I have no doubt that you will add it to your list of best Bible verses.

So why is this such a fantastic verse? Simply this: God always completes what he begins. He never starts a project without bringing it to a successful close. That includes you—you are one of his favorite projects. And what God began in you when you committed your life to his Son, He, himself, has promised to see that it comes to a glorious conclusion. He completes you!

Several years ago a popular movie called Jerry McGuire came out, and in it was a line that became quite famous and oft quoted. Depending on your perspective, the line was either really sappy—that’s what the guys thought, or incredibly romantic—or so the ladies thought. The line came toward the end of the movie when Jerry, who had been struggling to express his love to his wife, walked into a room full of women and boldly declared to her, “You complete me.”

Sorry to take you down movie lane, but Jerry’s lame line was really stolen from the Bible. But in the Bible, that line is not lame, it’s powerful. In fact, next to God saying to you, “I love you” and “you are forgiven”, you saying to God, “you complete me!” is the best line in the story of human redemption:

God has promised to complete you. And since God doesn’t lie, since He has never broken a promise, since He has never abandoned one of his projects, the truth of this verse should be your source for inexhaustible joy, unshakeable confidence, indefatigable energy and inexpressible gratitude. Likewise, knowing that God will complete you ought to neutralize chronic sadness, vaporize whatever insecurities you may have, and motivate you to get off your duff of inferiority and unworthiness and get on board with the work that God is already doing in you.

Michelangelo, the great Italian Renaissance artist, once said, “Do not fret, for God did not create us to abandon us.” Michelangelo knew something about starting and finishing works of art, wouldn’t you say?

God leaves no work unfinished. The God who saved you, and who began a good work in you, will complete you!

“By a Carpenter mankind was made, and only by that Carpenter can mankind be remade.” ~Erasmus Desiderius

Prayer… Lord, you give me joy unspeakable and full of glory. You have saved me from my sin and given me eternal life. You began a work in me, and you have promised to complete it. What you begin, you finish! I was a mess when you found me, and I still mess it up from time to time, but you are turning me into a masterpiece for your glory. What more can I say except “thank you!”

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If Jesus Were Your Boss

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 6
Meditation: Ephesians 6:7-8

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

Shift Your Focus… What is your attitude toward work?  What does your attitude tell your co-workers, your supervisor, or if you are a boss, your employees about you?  Do you go about your job as if Jesus were your boss?

If who we are as God’s chosen people is to show up in our work—and it should—then there are some important qualities that ought to characterize how we go about our jobs.  Paul speaks to 4 of these qualities.

The very first thing that must characterize you is that you’ve got to consistently demonstrate right actions. Verse 5 says, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters…

The operative word here in this verse is obey.  Grammatically, it’s in the present tense, indicating uninterrupted action.  What’s the point?  Obedience isn’t only to occur when the desire is there or when an employer is fair, generous and reasonable.  Believers are to obey their earthly masters in everything and at all times, except when they’re told to do something that would violate God’s higher law.

When Paul wrote these words, one-third of the Roman Empire was enslaved.  It was a social and economic way of life.  There were doctors, lawyers, teachers and musicians who were slaves.  But most were menial laborers who were nothing more than human tools.  They had no standing or rights. As the Gospel reached many of these slaves, they began to question if they needed to be subject to a cruel, unfair earthly master now that they had been freed by Christ and were submitted to God.  Paul’s answer was that through the message of grace being lived out through these slaves, the pure love of God would begin to transform Roman society…and it ultimately did.  Authentic Christianity killed slavery with love, respect, honor and dignity.  In the upside-down logic of God’s kingdom, obedience always rules the day!

So whether the boss is kind or cruel, believer or pagan, we are to be obedient because it is God’s will.  When you submit to your boss’ authority, it’s a literal and powerful witness of your submission to a higher authority and it releases God’s power to work on your behalf.

Second, you’ve got to display a right attitude.  Verse 5 continues by challenging us to do our work, “…with respect and fear, and sincerity of heart…”

It’s one thing to grit our teeth and obey.  God wants it to come from the heart.  The idea of fear is not of cowering fright and intimidation, but the honor for the position, if not the person you work for. The attitude of sincerity refers to genuineness and thoroughness.  Attitude shows up in reverence, authenticity and diligence.

Third, you are to work with the right motives.  The last part of verse 5 says, “Just as you would obey Christ.” Verses 7-8 go on to say, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

What should motivate your work?  In truth, you are serving the Lord.  You don’t work for Intel or Boeing or McDonalds.  You work for Jesus. That in itself should be motivation to make you the best employee around.

What motivates you?  Pay?  Recognition? Position?  As a Christian, it should be love, gratitude and obedience to Christ!

Fourth, you are to display right character in your work.  Verse 6 tells us, “Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.”

Someone has said character is who you are in the dark.  It is who you are when no one’s looking.

Howard A. Stein wrote in Reader’s Digest of a retired friend who became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall.  Everyday he’d watch its progress, and he was especially impressed by the conscientiousness of a heavy equipment operator. One day he had a chance to tell this worker how much he’d enjoyed watching his scrupulous and skilled work.  The worker was astonished and said, “You’re mean you’re not the supervisor?” 

Character—especially Christian character—is who are you when no one’s watching. Yet Someone is always watching!  And He is depending on you to represent Him well. In a companion passage, Paul wrote in Colossians 3:22-24,

“Obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

In truth, Jesus is your boss!  And He is watching.  And He cares.  And someday, He will reward you for the kind of work you are doing today.  So what difference is that going make in your work from here on out?

“There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in—that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”  ~Mother Teresa

Prayer… Lord, I pray that the people I work with will see the Lord I work for in the way that I work today…and for the rest of my life.

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Yield

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians5
Meditation: Ephesians 5:18

“Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.”

Shift Your Focus… If you are a believer, the Spirit-filled life is not an option, it’s a divine expectation. Spirit-filled living is a Christian essential.

In the New International Version of the Bible, when Paul says, “Don’t get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery (that is, meaningless, valueless, even self-destructive living), instead be filled with the Spirit,” he was speaking to believers who had come out of the pagan culture of Ephesus. One of the idols they worshipped was Baccus, the god of wine and drunken orgies. The pagans believed that to commune with and be led by their god they had to get drunk. In their drunken stupor, they believed they could know Baccus’ will and how best they could serve him. One of the sick bi-products of their out-of-control intoxication was engaging in sexual immorality with temple prostitutes.

Just as depending on wine was a destructive counterfeit to Spirit-filled living in Paul’s day, so we need to be careful in our culture today where alcohol is the drink of choice to help people relax, feel confident, or take away the pain of whatever ails them, and make them feel good, that we don’t buy into that deceptive line.

I am not preaching against drinking, because I don’t believe the Scriptures explicitly forbid it. But unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians today whose drinking habits are no different from unbelievers. The truth is, it is still God’s desire that we depend on being filled with his Spirit to make us confident, competent and joyful rather than a drink, or a relationship or position or a possession, for that matter.

In truth, nothing compares to the Spirit-filled life to satisfy every longing of your heart and enable you to experience the good life. The greatest and longest lasting “high” in this world comes from Spirit-filled living.

Paul is not referring to that instantaneous infilling of the Spirit that we read about in Acts 2, but rather the ongoing submission of our will to God’s work through an active yielding of one’s life to the Spirit’s control.

Spirit filling in the book of Acts was an event, while the filling in Ephesians is an ongoing process. In Acts, it was evidenced by extraordinary, miraculous happenings while in Ephesians, it was evidenced by ordinary, everyday choices that submitted them to the Spirit. In Acts, the Spirit was received by asking in faith, while in Ephesians the Spirit is responded to by yielding in obedience. Both kinds of Spirit infilling are valid, and needed.

Being filled with the Spirit is not a matter of eliminating sinful or unproductive behavior in your life and passively waiting for God to supernaturally fill you, Paul is saying it’s about eliminating those things that grieve him and replacing them with passions that please him. Living the Spirit-filled life is about the daily choices you make to yield control to him—choices to imitate God and eliminate immoral or questionable practices; choices to find out what pleases God; choices to find out what God’s will is.

The great evangelist D. L. Moody went to England for an evangelistic crusade, but was met with some professional jealousy. One pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated and inexperienced. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” One wise pastor pointed out, “Moody doesn’t have more of the Holy Spirit than we do, but the Holy Spirit has more of Mr. Moody.”

Make a decision today to allow the Holy Spirit to have more of you!  In every area of your life, yield control to him—that is what it means to be Spirit-filled.

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” ~Augustine

Prayer… Holy Spirit, take control of all of me—mind, tongue, hands, eyes—all my thoughts, words and actions. Have more of me, I pray.

 

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Some Things Have Got To Go

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 4
Meditation: Ephesians 4:22-23

“Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 

Shift Your Focus… There really ought to be a noticeable difference now that you know Christ as our Savior and Lord. The change in your heart should have made its way outward to your behavior by now. If not, you need to go back and check the authenticity of your salvation experience!  If you are still drinking, carousing, gambling your money away, going places you shouldn’t go and doing things you shouldn’t do, hanging with people you shouldn’t hang with, then you’d better take a second look at your walk with Christ.

I am not judging your salvation, I’m simply inspecting your fruit!

Christianity in our day has, by and large, ceased to focus on the never-ending list of “don’ts” that seemed to be the dominate subject matter of sermons when I was growing up. By the time I had reached junior high school, I was well versed in what Christians don’t do: They don’t drink, dance, chew snuff, smoke, play cards, roller skate (that was dancing on wheels, after all), wear jewelry (that one was for the women), go to movies, and on and on that list went.

To say the least, the list was overbearing, it sucked the life out of your relationship with Jesus, and it gave the false impression that righteousness was something determined by outward behavior. It missed the point of faith.

I am afraid, however, that when we got rid of that list, we threw the baby out with the bathwater. We now live in a time when just about anything goes in terms of acceptable Christian behavior. Using grace as their excuse, the behavior of many believers today is, sadly, not all that unlike their non-Christian counterparts.

But there are a few things that we “don’t” do as Christians, or at least we shouldn’t be doing. And Paul talks about a few of these:

We shouldn’t be dominated by lustful thinking: “Live no longer like the Gentiles do…they have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.” (vv. 17, 18) In the narrow sense, that means we shouldn’t be controlled by sexually impure desires. In the broader sense, “lust” refers to any strong desire other than the desire to please God that controls your thinking and behavior.

Not only must lust go, but deception should not be practiced by a Christ-follower: “Throw off the old sinful nature … which is corrupted by lust and deception.” In other words, there is no room for lying and cheating; no cutting corners on your taxes, no cooking the books at work, no saying “yes” when you really plan on doing “no”. Being a Christian means being a person of honor, a person of your word, and a man or woman of complete and thorough integrity.

Furthermore, greed has got to go: “If you are a thief, quit stealing.” (v. 25) Worshiping at the altar of power, wealth and fame has no place in the Christian’s life. Rather, contentment, hard work and generosity should be our distinguishing characteristics.

Anger has to go too: “Don’t sin by letting anger control you.” (v. 26) There are no excuses for an out-of-control temper. It is a poor reflection of the Christ who lives within you and it is an open door for Satan to work in your life. An angry Christian is an oxymoron—or maybe just a moron.

And, finally, making it on the list of “don’ts” is foul language: “Don’t use foul or abusive language.” (v. 30). If your language hasn’t changed, if four-letter words are still a part of your vocabulary, if you are dropping the F-bomb here and using the B-word there, then you are clearly not being controlled by the Holy Spirit (v. 30). Following Christianity means cleaning up your language.

Paul is not promoting living by a list of “don’ts”. If your life is governed by all that you can’t do, then you will miss the whole point of salvation by grace through faith. You will miss out on the pure joy of walking in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. You will be so focused on the “don’t” that you never enjoy all the good stuff you get to “do”.

All Paul is trying to do is to get us, as followers of Jesus, to live with a constant consciousness that the Holy Spirit has inhabited our lives. Since that is true, then there are some things that we just shouldn’t do anymore—not out of legalism, but out of love. Likewise,  there are a whole bunch of things that we should be doing—not out of works, but worship; out of grace and gratitude.

In reality, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within us, so let us yield the entirety of our lives to him. In all that we do (and don’t do), let us live to make him happy, and everything else will fall into place—including divine favor, spiritual power and supernatural impact.

“A baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.”  ~Duncan Campbell

Prayer… Holy Spirit, empower me to live my life today, even in the smallest details, in such a way that I bring joy rather than grief to you.

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From The Head To The Heart

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 3
Meditation: Ephesians 3:16-21

“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 the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Shift Your Focus… The problem many believers have is a disconnect between the head and the heart. That’s why Paul prays this eloquent and moving prayer for the release of divine power that will move us beyond an experience of intellectual Christianity to an experience of Jesus in our hearts.

Perhaps that’s the thing you need most today—to experience the marriage of Biblical knowledge to passionate love for Jesus Christ. In other words, you need a supernatural connection between your head and your heart.

That’s Paul’s prayer for you. It’s not that you will have more self-discipline, not that you will think more positively, not that you will have a better attitude. He’s not asking for physical, intellectual or emotional power. He is praying that you will receive spiritual power—the power of the Holy Spirit to get done in your Christian life what needs to be done, namely, a deeper faith that allows Jesus to settle in and feel at home in your heart—to take up residence there.

That’s a great prayer! And when that prayer gets answered, you will experience an altogether greater dimension of love where you are “rooted and established in love…” and you “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…a love that surpasses knowledge…” and you are filled with “the measure of all the fullness of God” (Verses 17-19)

Now that’s a pretty tall order, obviously, and you may be wondering how this will happen, if, truthfully, it can happen at all this side of heaven. Here’s the good news: Verses 20-21 tells us that it is God himself who will make this happen: “To him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

Paul is saying that if you simply and humbly open your heart, ask for and align yourself with a release of God’s transforming power, then you will get an experience of God beyond your most sincere requests and wildest dreams.

Do you need that kind of experience today? The love of God that goes way beyond an intellectual understanding and consumes your whole being, mind, body and spirit? That is certainly within the realm of possibilities today, because God wants it for you.

So why not ask for it?

“Our prayers lay the track down which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.” ~Watchman Nee

Prayer… Father, create in my heart a burning desire to love you more than life itself. And lead me to an experience of divine love that surpasses knowledge and fills me with your fullness. And Lord, do it today.

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The Coat-Tail Effect

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 2
Meditation: Ephesians 2:8-10

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Shift Your Focus… These are perhaps three of the most revolutionary verses in the entire Bible, dramatically revealing how our salvation really came about. Basically, Paul is telling us that we are saved totally by the love, grace, mercy, will and power of God. We had very little to do with it—except to simply, humbly and gratefully receive this marvelous gift. And even then, God helped us with that. This is the coat-tail effect: God did all the work, now we get a free ride on his efforts.

So what does this mean for me? Plenty! Among the countless numbers of ramifications, one of the most enjoyable is that I can sit back and simply rest in this wonderful gift of salvation provided in Christ Jesus.

Let me spell out 4 things in from these verses using the word REST that you can try as a response of worship for your salvation:

Reflect: First of all, this week, reflect on God’s grace. Verse 8 says “it is by grace you are saved…” Verses 4-5 say, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead…” You did nothing to save yourself and make you acceptable to God. You were dead! Do you know what a dead person can do to be un-dead. Nothing—except lay there and be dead! It was all up to God—so just spend some time thinking about that…and it will lead to this…

Express: Express your gratitude to God for the gift of salvation. Express prayer of thanksgiving every day up to and including Thanksgiving Day specifically for the gift of eternal life he has given you. Do you realize how marvelous this gift is? Verse 8 goes on to say that every aspect of your salvation “is the gift of God.” Even the faith to believe was God’s gift, according to the grammar of that verse. God has even provided you the ability to believe—how awesome it that!

Stop: Stop working for what you already have—approval! Verse 10 says “you are God’s workmanship…” God does not accept or approve of you based on your efforts—he does so based on Christ’s work. You were “created in Christ Jesus.” You are his masterpiece! So whenever you feel the need to perform for your worth—quit! You’re already worthy. Just take delight in God and what he’s done for you through Jesus. Delighting in God is a very spiritual matter—and it’s appropriate! So stop working for approval and enjoy God this week!

Trade: Trade your ‘to do’ list for God’s. Verse 10 says you were created, “to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.” Once you’re freed from the need to work for approval and acceptance, you can do the works that arise out of grace—those are the “good works prepared in advance for you to do.” What are those good works? I don’t know, but as Augustine once said, “just love God and do as you please,” and I have a feeling you’ll be just fine!

A flea was riding on an elephant’s ear when they came to an old wooden bridge. And as they crossed the bridge wobbled badly and almost collapsed. When they got the other side the flea said to the elephant, “Boy, we shook that bridge, didn’t we!”

Friend, you’ve crossed over the bridge of faith ridding on someone else’s efforts. So quit trying to add to it—it’s already done. Quit trying to get there—you’re already there. Just rest and enjoy the ride. Enjoy who you are in Christ based on what he’s done for you on the cross.

“Delighting in God is the work of our lives. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” ~John Piper

Prayer… Father, I am your workmanship. I am your masterpiece. How marvelous the thought! Enable me to live up to that and honor your design in everything I think, say and do.