Proverbs 13:4

The desire of the lazy is strong, but they get nothing, but desire of those who work hard will be satisfied.

This is true of the spiritual life.

We have as much of God as we want to have and dedicate time to.  We are as filled with the Holy Spirit as we choose to be.

If you’re time with God consists of reading a “One-Minute Devotional” while on the can, then that is what your spiritual life will reflect…

However, if you make concentrated time to focus on Him during your best hour of the day, if you make it a point to think about Him every moment, you will reap the tremendous benefits that even the honest attempt at those practices bring!

Mark 16:7

He is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You’ll see Him there, just like He told you.

Jesus is the ultimate keeper of His word!

I mean He tells these dudes (in 14:28) “Yeah I’m going to be killed this weekend, but after I defeat death and Satan, I’ll rise up and hook up with you all in Galilee.”

[Record Scratch] WHAT???  Who does this?

No one.

Except Jesus the Messiah.

Think about this for a moment today, or for many moments today…

What if I tell you, “So I’m gonna be killed in a car wreck this weekend, but no worries, I plan kicking death in the throat for a few days, then let’s meet up at Boogie Burger, say, Monday for lunch? I’m guessing I’ll be famished.”

ONE–You’ll think me crazy.

TWO–You go to my grave site, only to see it opened and a dude there in shiny white saying, “He went ahead to Boogie Burger just like he said he would.”

THREE–After freaking out for a good thirty-four minutes, you actually go to Boogie Burger if, for nothing else, out of sheer the-opposite-of-morbid curiosity and actually see me there totally annihilating a Buffalo Breaded Bird with bleu cheese.  And would you not listen uber intently to every single word I had to say about my weekend? About EVERYTHING! Everyday!

FOUR–Yes, you would, because I have control over death and the universe.

We can trust Jesus.  That’s what we’re really trying to say here.

You can hear the stories from people, like some did after the resurrection, but when you actually encounter Him via the Holy Spirit, you are a changed person and you share it with everybody authentically because you don’t just believe it, you KNOW it is all true.

It is one thing to hear the message and quite something else to meet the risen Lord personally.

-Warren Wiersbe

Proverbs 12:15-16

Fools think they are right, but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 12:23

Wise people keep what they know to themselves, but fools can’t keep from showing how foolish they are.

Proverbs 12:25

Worry is a heavy load, but a kind word cheers you up.

Encourage 3 people everyday.  Make the world a better place with this simplest of actions.  Intentionally express your appreciation for someone this day.  Far too many times we think of what somebody means to us, yet hold back from expressing it for some reason.

To know you are seen and appreciated is one of the greatest and most life-giving of experiences.

Mark 15:38

The Temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

The barriers we put up between people of different races, nationalities, economic conditions, and other external distinctions are torn apart, rendered useless, in Jesus Christ, as surely as the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom.

-from The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible

Jesus fulfilled the promise of YHWH to bless all the nations of the earth thru Israel.  Access to the presence of God has been paid for all people He has made.  It is no longer our sin that keeps us from God, for that has been decisively dealt with.  Rather it is our decision to trust in ourselves that keeps us from the full, joyful access to the presence of God in heaven

The Holy of Holies, which the priest could enter only once a year, was the ultimate symbol of God’s dwelling place.  God’s rending of the veil meant that He was now available apart from the Temple system, and that the old Temple order stood judged and abolished.

-from The IVP Bible Background Commentary

Do you see how we still require people to depend on someone to enter the Holy of Holies for us?  And to worship at the Temple?  And to follow the Law?  Even, dare we say it, the Bible?

Do you see how small this is?  How limiting?

We follow Jesus Christ.  The living person who is the revelation of God, who it all was pointing to.

He gives life and freedom, unlike any of those other things.  We need the Bible as our guide, but do not ever exchange it for the larger than life person of Jesus Himself.  We are called Christians, not Bibleians, or Churchians.  The term someone used was “Churchianity.”

Now, following Christ, you will then naturally want to dig into His words, as well as spend time communing and sharpening with others who are following Him.  And when you follow Jesus first, this will be freeing and life giving to the nth degree!

Again, Scripture and other believers help us from making up our own version of Jesus and following that concoction, but we must remember, always, to seek after and pursue and rest in the actual person Jesus.  He gives us life.  He is the Vine to which we are to be connected if we want life.  He did not say Scripture is the Vine, or people are the Vine, or church is the Vine.  In fact He told some religious leaders that they were mistakenly looking for life in the Scriptures when Life itself was standing right before them!  C’mon people!!!

We all want to be known, seen, heard, cherished, and loved unconditionally.  If you’re human, you want this.  You crave this. Yes, you do.  And this comes perfectly from only one Source, and that is God thru Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  And it’s pure awesomeness…!

Proverbs 11:2

It is wise to be humble.

Working with the kindergarten thru second grade kids in Sunday School one day, we were talking about humility.  One of the main points we tried to convey to them was that we are all on the same level, all having disadvantages and opportunities provided for us.  God does not love me more than anyone else, even those who reject Him, for we are both (all) made in His image, are we not?

We all have the same access and opportunity to be close to God.  No one has a better or quicker way to God, for it is all thru Jesus and what He accomplished.  It is nothing we can attain ourselves.  So how can you possibly think you are better than anyone else?

Maybe you have taken advantage of what God has provided to live the abundant life.  If we are not watchful, we can start to feel, and then act, as tho we are superior, forgetting who got us there.

Any one of the other 7 billion people on the planet can also take advantage of the life God has provided, because Jesus made the same offer to each one of them.  You’re no better or more loved than anyone of them, just more joyful for accepting what someone else provided that you in no way on your own could have done.

Mark 14:36

“Daddy, Father, all things are possible for you.  Please take this extreme suffering away from me.  But-not what I want.  But what you want.”

This is probably the most honest and mature prayer ever.

God can do anything.  So why not ask to take away the bad and give the good?

Many times He does just that…if we only but ask Him.

However, if He does not answer that prayer affirmatively, the maturity is in trusting that He is infinitely good and knows what He is doing.  Then we comply, doing the good that is right in front of us to do, only ultimately wanting what He wants because we know it is best, no matter how it may look to us.  This is another level of trust that will bring forth immense joy and abundance of life.

Look where Jesus’ suffering took Him.  The Father knew what He was doing, tho it looked bleak and awful…

Oh the joy of ACCEPTANCE.

Proverbs 10:17

Those who guard discipline are on the way to life, but those who abandon correction wander aimlessly.

Guard discipline.

Whatever you do everyday is what you are heading toward.  Those practices you protect and make habit lead to a life characterized by said practices.

What do you do everyday?

Who do you want to be?

What do you need to be doing everyday to become that person?

Who is someone you admire?  What do you think they do everyday?  What is their rhythm of life?

Mark 13:11

And when they put you on trial and hand you over, don’t work out beforehand what you are going to say, but say whatever is given you at that moment.  It won’t be you speaking, you see, but the Holy Spirit.

We have also found this to be true for us here today.  As we trust the Holy Spirit for the words to say in the moment, we find that then the best and most life-giving words come out, because they flow from the Holy Spirit and not our own finite minds.  We are not to be the nervous salesperson desperately needing to say the exact right words in the right combination, but rather the calm, dependent apprentice who relies on our Teacher’s words and life to give life to others.

Working out all your words before speaking with someone, or even a group of someones is limiting and can take you away from the present moment and from actually listening.  It can fuel agenda instead of a listening presence which is what Christ offers us each moment.  And which is more healing–set words, or Spirit-inspired words appropriate to the moment?

Sure, there is preparation, but could it be that all the preparation we need is done in our daily bonding with Jesus?  Like proverbs tells us, The horse is made ready for battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.  Make yourself ready.  Yourself.  Not your necessarily your presentation.  Then, when called upon, you will be ready since the Spirit is flowing thru you.  You will be so attuned to the moment and the needs right before you.

Reliance.

God desires our reliance on Him.  For He is all-wise and gracious, wanting to help us in time of need, wanting to give us words of healing and power for the moment.  As we consciously grow in our dependence on him each moment, let go, and trust Him to come thru. We will be amazed and encouraged at what He will do in our life and others we commune with.

Trust.

Only trust Him.

Only trust Him.

Only trust Him now.

Proverbs 9:13

Woman Folly is boisterous; she is simpleminded but does not even know it.

To be ignorant of your ignorance.

What a horrible state to be in.

How do you know you’re there?

Many times we don’t know of our ignorance because of the chaotic call of Folly that drowns out the voice of Wisdom.  And we are always talking ourselves, unable to hear, always staying near the surface, not even aware of the greater depth that is underneath everything we experience.  This ocean of Life is far from shallow, yet we may remain at the surface for its duration, never experiencing the awe-inspiring grandeur of what lies beneath.

Folly is boisterous.

Jesus is calm.  Still.

It is in the quiet, calm stillness of our soul where we  find what matters most.

Pay attention to what you’re thinking.

Pay attention to what you’re feeling.

Pay attention to what you’re paying attention to.

Pay attention to what Jesus Wisdom is saying to you right now.

And also now.

And now….

Mark 12:18-27

Resurrection.

Jesus clearly affirmed the resurrection of the dead.  And He was the first-fruits of this resurrection in which we will partake.  Early Christianity taught that there will be a bodily resurrection of the dead.  This was the emphasis for quite some time, yet later took somewhat of a backseat to the crucifixion with its passionate meaning and call to devotion.

Have we Christians lost a little hope over the centuries due to this change of emphasis?  Are we morbidly focused more than hopefully focused?

Remembering where we come from is vital, but it should not overshadow or suppress where we are going.  The Gospel is a story about hope, not just pain.  And our joyful hope flows from the promised outcome of all there is–the redemption of the cosmos.

Resurrection is about the Creator God reclaiming, judging, and renewing the created world.  The Christian who believes in resurrection should also believe that working for God’s kingdom in the present is therefore “not in vain.”  -N.T. Wright

So, my dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakeable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work.  In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.  I Corinthians 15:58

Maybe we need to counter balance all the crosses and crucifixes with some empty tombs, or road to Emmaus, or Jesus cooking fish on the shore pictures.  Just a thought.

Proverbs 8:1-11

We believe Jesus is calling to all people from every nook and cranny of life everyday.

It is we who do not look for Him in everything around us.

It is we who are not listening to Him and what He might be saying to us in everyone and everything.

We see what we want to see.

We hear only what we’re trained to hear.

What if we opened ourselves up to genuinely listen–listen in the sense of laying aside all preconceived notions so that we may actually hear something we’ve not heard before..?  To hear the voice of YHWH.

If we only listen to humans and seek their wisdom, how will we recognize God’s voice directly, for it is always filtered?

While following someone, that someone is our ceiling.

Why not follow the Holy Spirit directly who has no ceiling?

Key to this listening is emptying yourself first so that you may be able to actually receive.

Here’s an excerpt from the book Fierce Conversations I’m reading right now:

I am reminded of the story of the man who visits the Zen master.  The man asks, “What truths can you teach me?”  The master replies, “Do you like tea?”  The man nods his head, and the master pours him a cup of tea.  The cup fills and the tea spills.  Still the master pours.  The man, of course, protests, and the master responds, “Return to me when you are empty.”  The lesson here is that we need to empty ourselves of our preconceived beliefs in order to be open to a broader, more complex reality.

During fierce conversations we are more likely to get all our answers questioned than the other way around.  Before we can learn, we must unlearn.  Empty the cup!

Before reading Scripture, empty the cup.  Then you can listen to the Ruach Elohim and hear Her beautiful voice.

Mark 11:25

If you have something against someone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

We must forgive always if we are to have any peace in this life.

This is yet another law of the universe set in place by YHWH.

You cannot succeed against it.  You cannot fight it and win.

Forgive.

Proverbs 7:4,5,23

Without wisdom and understanding, you will be like a bird caught in a trap, not knowing the moves you made would end up killing you.

Jesus said to watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation. Don’t fly by the seat of your pants. Your pants will get you killed.

Mark 10:17-22

It’s interesting that this rich young dude got down on his knees before Jesus. He was sincere, to some degree, at least. Yet he was unwilling to relinquish all, to go the whole distance. He held back and, therefore, it held him back from the kingdom of God.

We think we’re willing to do anything, then Jesus shows us what we love more than Him. And it’s proven true when we refuse to release it. We tighten our grip on what we feel will give us more life than Jesus.

How many times do I do this?

I have that area or two that I hold on to and won’t give up. Yet I am sincere in wanting to follow Jesus wholly.

Wanting…not willing?

Your quality of life is directly proportional to your level of surrender.

And remember, the reward outweighs the cost by a hundred times. That’s a promise. We either believe that and act upon it, or we don’t act on it because we simply don’t believe that it’s true, or perhaps do not fully grasp it.

When you really believe something, you act on it as if it is true, whether your mechanic’s advice or a minister’s words…

Mark 9:5-6

Sometimes we need to stop thinking of what we can DO for God, and just sit and BE with God.

Sit with Him and soak up His presence.

Listen to Him.

Really listen.

It’s so much better than anything you can do for Him.  For out of that will flow whatever it is He would call on you to fulfill.  Doing without listening is just senseless.  It’s like going out and buying clothes for your kids just because you want to do something special for them, yet you do so without having ever listened to them or paying attention to what they prefer to wear.  Sure, it’s a nice gesture, and maybe they’re “really nice clothes” (in your mind), but you bought something they would never dream of wearing, in fact what they would be embarrassed to wear.  Great job, Parent of the Year!

How can you know what God wants from you without listening to Him?  In Scripture–thru others–in the quiet stillness of your heart?

And the task of listening to God is so not burdensome.

Sitting with and listening to God is easily the best part of my week.

He speaks.

He loves.

Proverbs 6:19

YHWH hates those who cause conflict among brothers.

Proverbs 5:8

Proverbs 4:18

The road the righteous travel is like the sunrise, getting brighter and brighter until daylight has come.

The more right decisions you make, the easier it becomes to make the next one.

The more temptation you say no to, the easier it becomes to turn down the next enticing, self-pleasing, life-stealing offer.

Mark 7:1-23

Jesus could not be any clearer on what it is that makes us unclean.

It is obviously not the failure to keep traditions.

“You put aside God’s command and obey human teachings.”

So why do we still judge and condemn those who fall short of what we have culturally deemed important?  Even in our “Christian” cultures…?

The only thing that really makes us unclean is our hearts.  Only God can judge the heart, for only He can truly know it.  Stop judging others, if for no other reason, than the fact that it is utterly impossible to do so anyway.

Our message therefore should be simple and repetitive: Cultivate your heart to love Jesus, to pursue Him with your whole being.  Sell everything you have to buy that field with the treasure in it!

ONLY THEN will even the beginnings of evil intentions start to dissipate from your inner thoughts>>>>

Lying to someone will become unthinkable because of your love for Christ.

Using someone will become repulsive because of your love of Christ.

Anger at drivers will disappear because of your love of Christ and them.

Love of money will be stupid because of your love for Christ.

Sex with someone you are not in covenant with, even the thought of it, will lose its appeal because of your love for Christ.

Envy and jealousy will be so dumb because you see you have all you need or could ever want in Christ.

This is not to say that the world, the flesh, and the devil will not tempt us the rest of our lives. But it is to say that the desires of our heart do (supernaturally) change as we turn more and more toward the love of Christ. For as we more deeply experience the love of God, all other things we have found to be pleasing or useful are seen in the new light of the risen Christ, and are rendered silly at best, life-threatening at worst.