"Whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it" (Jesus in Matthew 16:25).
"True love is like quick-silver," said Ann Landers, "if you hold it in the palm of your hand, it will remain. If you try to grasp it, it will slip through your fingers." Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever will save his life will lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it."
Some parents never let go of their children even when they are adults. Out of their own insecurity they cling to their offspring and smother them. In so doing they drive them away and the thing they need the most-love-they lose. As the saying goes, "If you love someone, let them go; if they come back to you, then they are truly yours. If they don't, they never were."
In other words, when we cling to life to live for ourselves or cling to someone else for our own sake out of our own need, we lose what we need the most-love. This is because we have mistaken need for love. Only as we let go of clinging are we free to love and live life to the full.
When we do this and truly love, we give love without strings attached. In so doing we receive more love to give.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, as we come to the close of another year, please heal the deepest wounding of my heart so I am set free to truly love others and you without strings attached and be a clear channel through whom your love to others will flow. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
THE POWER OF BELIEF
Paul the Apostle wrote, "For...the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:6-8, NIV).
Down the streets of Portsmouth more than a hundred years ago," said Lt. General Ira C. Eaker in a speech given some time ago, "walked a sailor with one arm, one eye, and a persistent state of nerves and unable to tread a ship's deck without being seasick. Indeed he would probably have been in a home for incurables were his name not Admiral Lord Nelson. The man's spirit drove the flesh."
Born in 1758, Horatio Nelson, the son of a pastor, was a small, frail child who loved sailing. As a young teenager he joined the British navy and, while journeying to the East Indies, caught a fever that seriously damaged his health. But he never allowed this to hold him back. At age 18 he was appointed a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and by the year 1802 was made commander-in-chief of the British fleet.
Two years later, at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets. This was the greatest naval victory in British history and left the British in control of the seas for the rest of the 1800s. Unfortunately, Nelson was mortally wounded during Trafalgar but lived long enough to know that his fleet had won the battle. His last words were, "Thank God I have done my duty."
Nelson was a man of fearless courage and devotion. He believed in his country, in his cause, and in himself. He proved this with his words and more so with his life. He once said, "I am of the opinion that the boldest measures are the safest." Nelson was a man greatly admired by others who said about him, "His frail body housed a great spirit."
John Stuart Mill would agree. He said, "One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who only have interest."1
No matter what your limitations or your handicaps are, God has a plan and purpose for your life. Believe it and you will receive it. Act on it and you will achieve it and like the Apostle Paul you, too, will be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, help me to so believe and live that when I come to the end of life's journey, I too will be able to say, 'Thank God that I have done my duty.' Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
What a paradoxical era we live in! Never before people lived so closely together - crowded and jammed as we are - yet never before we suffered so much from loneliness.
The sixteen-year-old lad will look for a girlfriend to save him from his solitude. The married man, who lives with his wife but still feels lonely, will go off for the weekend with his secretary, hoping that she will make him forget his loneliness. The student, feeling very much alone among the ten or twenty thousand young people of his university, will get involved with a female student just as lonely as himself. Thus the longing to escape from our solitude is combined with our sex drive. That is the reason why today's world is so highly conscious of sex.
Where does this distress come from?
This distress arises from the fact that we no longer know the difference between right and wrong. We pretend to have new ideas about morality. But don't forget this: sin is not a myth. Every time I sin, and do something wrong, a weight falls upon my conscience. That is a reality! Unfortunately, we no longer know exactly what is right and what is wrong. Let me ask a few very pointed questions: Is it right or is it wrong to indulge in sexual intercourse before marriage? If your marriage is unhappy, is adultery a need or an evil? And is homosexuality (gayness, lesbianism and also child abuse) sinful or legitimate? Is it right or wrong to masturbate? Or to ask for a divorce?
Who has the right to decide what is good and what is evil? If there is a living God who is the ruler of this world, then it is for Him to decide what is good and what is evil. He also has His say regarding sex. You have to make up your mind. You can push God out of your life. But then you will die according to your own choice. But remember what the Bible says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found."
And I tell you that God does exist, that He is alive! If you ask me how I can say this with such certainty, my answer is, "Because He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ." Since Jesus has come into our world, all indifference about God is only due to ignorance or to ill will. - And because God exists, it is He who decides what is right and what is wrong. In His word - the Bible - He states it very clearly.
What does God say?
God created us with our sexuality. God created me as a man, and you too, all you male readers. So let's be men - and not mere puppets! And you ladies, He made you women. Be women, then! The desperate efforts of some women to be like men - or of certain men to be like women - are no doubt symptoms of an illness. You can be real men and real women. God meant it to be like that.
But we live in a fallen creation. The world is no longer as it was when it came out of the hands of God. Our sex life, so important and yet so delicate, is particularly threatened. God, therefore, took steps to protect it.
God approves of sex and protects it by marriage. Marriage is not merely a social contract, but an institution of God. According to God's plan, marriage is supposed to deliver you both from solitude.
Some very touching remarks about the passage in Genesis, "... I will make a helper suitable for him." He said, "Not a despot to rule over him. Nor a slave to fall at his feet. Nor an object that he can put aside. But a helper to lavish her love on him."
Many young people say to me, "I am not considering getting married for the moment. What do you think about it? Can we do whatever we want?" I say this: God wants youth to be pure. A psychiatrist once said to me, "I am sure that deep down in her heart, a young girl can only love once. She gives her love to only one man. If she has had a dozen lovers, she is - like ‘lost' for marriage. She may marry the seventh one, but she will always think of her first love." I replied to him, "Well! What you say is extremely interesting. It is as the Word of God says."
Jesus forgives our sins
Your impure thoughts and all the downfalls are irreparable sins. They will go with you into eternity right up to the judgement-seat of God, unless beforehand you have found Jesus, confessed all your transgressions to Him, and have been pardoned by Him. Jesus is the only one who can grant forgiveness.
So draw near in your mind to the cross of Jesus and say, "I come to lay down all the sins of my youth. I confess to you all my questionable love affairs. I don't want to hide anything from you." Then, lift up your eyes to the cross and say the words of this hymn,
I do believe, I now believe That Jesus died for me; That on the cross, He shed His blood, I now from sin am free.
"The blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7). What a liberating word!
"We proclaim Him [Christ], admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete [mature] in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me."1
We don't have to be good for goodness sake!
In fact, being good may be our worst enemy. It was for the Pharisees! Their external goodness was a cover-up used to avoid facing what they were on the inside. Jesus did not approve of their external religiosity! In fact, he opposed it vehemently.
It can bring a great sense of freedom to realize that God isn't into rules, but rather relationships. And his goal isn't to make us good, but to make us whole; that is, to heal us from the inside out. The end result will be goodness but goodness that comes from a healed heart, and not from adhering to external rules and regulations dictated by legalism.
This is not an excuse to act out in sinful or destructive behaviors or to ignore God's laws which are for our protection. Never! As the Apostle Paul said, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means...."2
What it does mean is that I need to grow towards wholeness and maturity by recognizing my inner brokenness, my weaknesses, and my unresolved character issues and bring them not only to God, but also to a trusted friend and/or counselor for healing and recovery. As a general rule, we got damaged (emotionally) in damaging relationships and we get healed (emotionally) in healing relationships. As James said, "Therefore confess your sins [and faults] to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."3
Again, God's goal is not to make us good, but to make us whole. It's the heart that counts with him, not the externals. If all I have is external goodness, I am no better than the Pharisees. Rea lize too, that only to the degree that we are made whole will our lifestyle, our attitude, our actions, our behavior, and our relationships be "whole-some."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to see my broken parts so I can bring them to you for healing. Confront me with my reality, make me whole, and lead me to the help that I need to do this. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Have you ever felt like God is ignoring your prayers? Or when you share your hopes with others, they tell you not to bother God with the request? Or when God does answer, it's not really the answer you're looking for? Or possibly worst of all, have you ever poured out your heart's desire, only to be rebuked so sharply that you wished you had never asked at all? If so, I want to encourage you not to give up on your prayers too quickly. God may still have something in store for you. Take a look at a real live woman who came to Jesus with a request in Matthew chapter 15. This woman must have heard or seen some of the miracles that Jesus had done, for she came pleading to Him to heal her daughter. She cried out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." But look at what Jesus did next. The Bible says, "Jesus did not answer a word." Wow! Not a word! This is pretty shocking, considering all that Jesus did for so many people. Yet it looked like He was just going to ignore the woman completely. But as shocking as that was, look at what Jesus' disciples did next. The Bibles says, "So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.'" Wow! As if it weren't bad enough to be ignored, the ones who claimed to be followers of Jesus came and told her to get lost, too. So Jesus finally breaks His silence. But when He does speak, it's hardly the answer the woman was looking for. Jesus says, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." She was a Canaanite, not a Jew, not one of the "lost sheep of Israel." What? Jesus, of all people? Not being willing to help someone, regardless of who they were? Imagine the thoughts that could have gone through her mind, thoughts that might go through our minds too if we were in her situation: "I should have known better. I don't know why I thought Jesus would ever want to help someone like me. I'm sure He does love some people, but probably not people like me." Had the woman given up there, the story might have ended very differently. But she didn't. She persisted in her faith. She came to Jesus and knelt before Him: "Lord, help me!" she said. Then came what could have been the worst blow of all: Jesus replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." I don't know if Jesus was just testing her faith here, or trying to teach something to the disciples, but whatever the reason, she may have been wishing by this point that she had never asked at all. But she didn't. She had a daughter that she loved, a daughter that desperately needed healing. She tossed aside whatever feelings she may have had, had held firm in her faith. She knew she could trust Jesus' heart. She knew she could trust His character. She knew she could trust Jesus to do what's best. She replied: "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." And Jesus honored her persistent faith. He answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Jesus is trustworthy, even when He's silent. Jesus is trustworthy, even when others may tell you to go away. Jesus is trustworthy, even when you may not like the answers. Jesus is trustworthy, even when your hopes are dashed and you wonder if you should have ever asked at all. Persist in your faith, especially on behalf of those you love. As you do, I pray that you'll eventually hear Jesus say to you, too: "You have great faith! Your request is granted." ----------------- Prayer: "Father, increase my faith so that it persists even in the face of silence, frustration or discouragement, all so that I can see Your will done here on earth. In Jesus' name, Amen." ----------------- Today's Scripture: Matthew 15
. . . to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Mark 12:33
If we seek God diligently, we will find "worship" to be one of our lifelong challenges. Even when our desire is to improve the quality of our worship, it is not easy to get the emphasis in the right place and keep it there. We tend to lose our balance.
One mistake we often make is presuming that God will be honored by anything that we choose to define as worship. Unfortunately, our age is characterized by a bold, self-centered approach to worship, one that feels free to offer God whatever is currently fashionable in religious circles, however devoid of scriptural precedent that may be. But God has always retained the right to say what honors Him and what does not. It is urgent that we regain the kind of reverence that will bow before God and wait for Him to tell us the actions by which He desires to be worshiped. True worship centers on the perfect glory of the King, not on the changing tastes of His somewhat rebellious subjects, and we dare not try to create God in our own image.
But having said that, we must hasten to say this also: even the scriptural actions by which God has instructed us to worship Him mean virtually nothing if they don't proceed from a heart of true love. And here is where we quite often fail, despite our sometimes scrupulous attention to the details of worship. We see worship simply as a set of respectful motions God has required us to go through, and we forget that it is our heart that He is really after. If our hearts are not warmed by gratitude and love, then our worship will fall short of real reverence.
Even in our human relationships, we understand that the highest kinds of honor are those where respect is combined with love. We may appreciate the respect of casual friends, but we're much more deeply touched when it comes from the heart of those who know us best and love us most. In the case of God, He not only loves us, He desires to be loved by us. What He seeks from us is perhaps best described by an old word that we don't hear much anymore: adoration. Our praise grows toward perfection when the King before whom we bow is also the Father whom we love.
