The Foundation

This week at church we started a new program: 40 Days in the Word. It is designed to get everyone – our pastor is praying for 100% participation – into the Scriptures everyday.

Great idea. No kidding. I have for a rather long time, 33 years, understood the importance of the Bible and have made it my personal goal to read, meditate, memorize, and apply its teachings to my life on a daily basis. I’ve had periods when it seemed impossible to fit into my busy schedule. I’ve had times when it seems I cannot function without its daily guidance. In the last few years, I have found that it is not a forced practice. I want it. It’s more like a longing. When I don’t fit it in somewhere in my day, something is just missing. It’s kind of like not saying, “I love you,” each day to my husband. I need to maintain that one-on-one contact with Jesus. Like I get in reply from my husband, I need my daily boost of Jesus’ reply to me. He says, “I love you, too.”

There are people I’ve come across in my life who place prayer in the center of their relationship with God. Prayer is one of the vital skills or tools for maintaining a relationship with Jesus. It’s the talking part. But, I need the listening part to come first. I can, and have, talked all around stuff with Jesus. I’ve yelled at Him. I’ve argued with Him. I’ve pleaded with Him. I’ve whispered in desperation to Him. But, my words do not change my life. His Words to me change my life. I need to hear Jesus’ suggestions commands on how to apply His Word to change my behavior. His Words change me. All my talking ever does is convince me my poor ways of thinking and behaving are okay.

Of course, reading the Bible like it is a nice storybook, does not change me either. After listening to the video devotion for today (available to all at www.40ditw.com), I read in Luke 6:47 out of The Message:

“These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on.”

Here it is! Jesus tells us that His Words are not just for renovating our broken down lives. It is a place to begin anew to build new lives on firm, solid foundations. Lives built on the foundation of Jesus’ Words – of all of Scripture – are full of hope and healing. Hope and healing is a different life from the doom and gloom my own thoughts, feelings, and words give me. I want that foundation of hope under my life.

So, this week I begin the 40 Days in the Word program and I invite you to join in. Check out the link above, listen or watch the devotion, and open your Bible to learn why and how to listen to Jesus.

Truth or Popular

Conviction is coming from reading the Gospel of Luke. It started as an academic exercise. Deciding to review my acquaintance with the life of Jesus, I thought reading through the Gospels (the Biblical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) would remind me of Who Jesus is. What it is doing is reminding me of whom Jesus wants me to be.

I recently wrote in an email to a friend:

Today I read a few verses in Luke 6. Then I stopped and just focused on 3 verses, 24 - 26. Verse 26 was enlightening:

"There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular." [The Message]

This reminds me of the saying I've heard around the youth group before: What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right. I like this. It talks about how doing what is right, what is true and what is honoring to God, is not necessarily what is comfortable to hear or do. The effect of making people uncomfortable usually means we are not popular in the common meaning of the word popular (liked, admired or enjoyed by many people). I don't want to be unpopular or put people off, but I do want to proclaim and do right and truth. I must do that – but I can strive to do it out of love and in as loving a way as possible. Sometimes it actually feels like it is burning inside of me, a pain deep within my heart for those who do not know Christ and are far away from a meaningful, honest, and accurate encounter with Him. There are so many falsehoods and lies people believe regarding Who Jesus is and what He asks from us. It is up to us to give witness to the truths, leaving personal agendas and politics out of it, especially to those who so desperately need our Savior. It is up to us to preach the Truth -- not some manmade version of the truth. It is up to us – ME – to share the hope and love and life of Christ to those who need Him – to those who need a healer, a physician, a Savior; to those who, like us, need Christ for an eternal hope and a better quality of life right now.

As I write this, I hurt. I fall so very, very, very short of what is needed. I am not the witness Christ would have me be. I can only ask for forgiveness, ask for guidance, ask for wisdom, and try again. Do you feel the same longing to meet people's needs, to bring them to a place where their desperation leaves them, and in the place of the desperation, put in the peace of Christ?

Then, it passes. I don't think I can live there all the time, but I don't think I let it burn strong enough or often enough to be of use to those who so desperately need a Savior. But, I do the best I can. I work to do better. And, God uses what I give. For His glory.

For another take on this concept, see article posted one minute before this one.