Tag: believer

Beholding God's Glory
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Beholding His Glory

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“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” – Psalm 19:1

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” – Revelation 4:11

On our first trip to the island of Kauai my husband surprised me with a helicopter tour.  If you’ve ever visited Kauai, you’ll see a continuous stream of these whirlybirds as they circumvent the edge of the island.  Besides the “average” beauty of this lusciously green island you’re flown over the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific.”  After cresting the top of the mountain, you find yourself perched for just a moment as the helicopter begins its descent into an impossibly breathtaking amphitheater-shaped valley which falls into the azure, blue seas.

We were fortunate that upon reaching that crest, the skies cleared.  The view laid out before me literally took my breath away.  I could barely speak as the glory of God’s creation burst out in front of me in full technicolor.

God Revealed In Glory

In Romans 1 Paul exhorts Christians to not be ashamed of God and His glory.  In fact, he says no one, not one person, has an excuse to not believe in God.  Why?  Because He has been revealed throughout all time in His creation.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

This revelation of God’s glory became a regular topic between my father and I while we sat waiting for medical appointments.  He wanted proof of God’s existence.  I would point outside any window and remark, “There’s your proof.”  And he would scoff.  I would point out the beauty of the human eye, the statistical probability of a baby coming out just about perfect millions upon millions of times, the fact we have all we need to survive and then some.  And he would still scoff.

Even knowing all this, and walking in a relationship with Jesus, I still forget at times how glorious God truly is.  I question His decisions.  I give Him advice on how to solve problems.  I idolize things other than Him.  Then the Holy Spirit taps my shoulder to remind me that I’m speaking to the great I AM, not just any Joe Blow.

“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Isaiah 42:8

Our Big God

When my last church went astray with unbiblical teaching, I approached one of the pastors to gain understanding about their thinking.  We had a lengthy conversation about a particular topic and then he asked me a curious question.  “If I asked you why you believe what you believe are you going to just say, ‘because God said so?’” he inquired.  I stood there stunned for a second and then firmly responded, “Yes.”  In that moment, I realized how easily even spiritual leaders can shrink God to something manageable.

Last year I read a great little book called, “Your God Is Too Small, A guide for believers and skeptics alike” by J.B. Phillips.  He addresses how believers fall into traps of defining God absent the truth of His glory.  We make Him into a god of the familiar and every day. For example, we’ve probably heard people (like my father) smirk at the idea of Jesus being resurrected.  “There’s no such thing as bringing someone back from the dead!  That’s impossible!”  Yet, that is exactly what God did.  

Phillips discusses 11 types of “God” we create in our minds and in our prayer life.  One might think of God as a policeman, always watching and searching for the evil we do.  Or as a meek and mild Jesus who, according to some Super Bowl commercials, just wants to be loved and love in return.  Others pray as though God never sees what we need – a hands-off god.  While others worry He is a micromanager.  

But all those are not the real God.  The God of majesty and glory.  Of power and might.  The God of Revelation who commands the winds and seas.  Who sends His angels to fight heavenly battles.  The God of Daniel 7 whose throne is ablaze with flames with a river of fire come out before Him.  The God who has 1,000s upon 1,000s attending Him in the heavens.  That God can do the impossible.

Friend, is your god too small?  Have you forgotten He is the God of sunrises and sunsets?  He has intricately woven every animal, human and plant for His purposes.  He is beyond time and our full understanding.  And yet, He has invited us to be heirs to this glory through His Son, Jesus.  What a glorious gift!

“We have seen that the Son of God created the world for this very end, to communicate Himself in an image of His own excellency. … When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous (rain)bow, we behold the adumbrations of His glory and goodness; and in the blue sky, of his mildness and gentleness.” Jonathan Edwards

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The Coat of the Holy Spirit

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Hagiasmos — To be made holy or separate 

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we  have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:1-4

As I’m writing this my BSGs (Bible Study Girls) are working in the book “Now and Not Yet,” by Ruth Chou Simons.  We’ve just completed a week long study on Joseph’s life found in Genesis 37-50.  Joseph’s story is one of those known by believers and non-believers far and wide, mostly because of that coat.  You know the one – of many colors that his dad Jacob made for him.  That coat became a visual reminder of Joseph’s favored son status amongst his brothers.

You’re probably familiar with the story but here’s a quick re-cap:  Joseph’s brother’s get angry when he shares a dream about ruling over all of them.  They plot to kill him and instead sell him as a slave to some passing folks heading to Egypt.  In Egypt, God puts him into one of Pharaoh’s official’s homes as a servant.  He’s quite successful there managing the household.  But Potiphar’s (the official) wife lusts after Joseph.  When he rebuffs her, she lies and says it was Joseph trying to have his way with her.  So, Joseph gets thrown in jail.  But God puts his favor on Joseph in jail and he becomes the second- hand man of the jailer.  Eventually, news of Joseph’s dream interpreting skill reaches Pharaoh who asks him to interpret a dream.  Joseph tells him about a coming time of plenty then drought.  Pharaoh then puts Joseph in charge of saving the Egyptian people from starvation.  Eventually, Joseph’s brothers come to him asking for food, not realizing it’s their long lost brother.  A happy reunion ensues when Joseph forgives the brothers.

Whew!

When asked at the end of the study week what three things stood out to me, I answered with this: 1) Even in the worst, he made it the best.  2) We don’t hear of God telling Joseph what to do.  And 3) Joseph’s walk with God just seemed a part of him.  

I pointed out to the ladies that the first time you even hear Joseph speak God’s name is when he rebuffs the wife.  He said it would be wicked and sinful thing against God.  After that even in jail while interpreting dreams, you don’t get Pauline-like statements about suffering and perseverance for God.  But when asked by Pharaoh if he could interpret the dreams he said, “I cannot, but God will give Pharaoh the answers.”  And when Joseph finally revealed who he was to his brothers he made the amazing statement, “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” Genesis 45:5

From favored son to dropped into a well to die.  From slavery to Pharaoh’s trusted servant.  From betrayed to forgiving.  Joseph had God embedded so deeply in him that each trial, each good thing, was of God.  It was as though he wore God as a comfortable, favorite coat.

You have to think as the years went by while in Egypt, he thought of the brothers who tried to kill him.  As he sat rotting in jail for years, of that beautiful, multi-colored coat.  We now can read the full story, but Joseph himself never knew what was to come.  He only knew God was with him.  

Raise your hand in all honesty if you would be plotting your revenge or how you would turn your backs on your family (or friends or neighbors or fellow church members) after being treated so terribly.  All the while waiting to hear God’s voice telling you what to do or how to feel about it all.  

When the time came to stand face to face with his brothers it wasn’t anger and bitterness that he expressed.  He could look back at the betrayal of Potiphar’s wife and how it led him to years in jail all to be worked out by God.  He saw how God, through his slavery, used him to save hundreds if not thousands of people.  God didn’t have to reveal some new great truth to him.  He slipped easily into wearing God’s goodness in the trials.  He saw that God was sovereign, and he trusted Him.  God was teaching him to persevere, leading him up to redeeming his family with forgiveness.

That’s sanctification.

We’re the fortunate ones to have the entire story of the Bible laid out in front of us.  We get to see the work of an even greater Joseph – Jesus.  We see how His Father asked Him to wear a different coat – one lined with all the blackness of our sins.  His suffering and perseverance redeemed all humanity.  His gift to us?  The Holy Spirit residing in us for our time here in this world.  So like Joseph we too can wear the living God each day.  A majestic, wise and powerful inner coat.  Having Him be a natural way of life for us – obeying, trusting and persevering.

Friends, we were sanctified by the blood of Jesus.  Giving us justification to stand before God in peace.  He has clothed us in white, having removed that dark punishment of death.  We are being sanctified right now by the Holy Spirit guiding us through the hatred or lack of love we experience, the lies told about us, the tragedies and trials.  He bathes us each in God’s glorious light that we might shine it out to the world!  And what is all this for?  We will experience our final sanctification when we are glorified and the purple robes of kings are placed on our shoulders.  When we face our LORD and He says to us, “Welcome home, good and faithful servant!”

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2.

Until then, God purifies us.  He is making you holy, “hagiasmos” or set apart.  Walk like Joseph through your day, wearing not that shiny, sparkly coat of the world, but rather the coat which envelopes you inside and out with the Holy Spirit.  He will make you more valuable than any favored, earthly treasure.  He will clothe you in something more precious than gold.

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
    but people are tested by their praise.  Proverbs 27:21

This week’s question: What’s been the most confusing or challenging part of your Christian journey?

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Day 29 Good Day

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Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:1-5
“The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lordturn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26

I’ve heard a famous Christian teacher tell audiences this profound truth: “It’s one thing to see a miserable sinner but a miserable Christian is a tragic thing.”  While we all, believers and non-believers, have heartbreaking or difficult events in our lives, we have to acknowledge that the majority of our lives run from fun and exciting to dull and average.  Yet throughout it all Jesus followers should emulate the apostle Paul and be always searching and living gratefully for God’s ever presence in our lives.

This truth really hit home for me when I read Corrie Ten Boom’s famous book, “The Hiding Place.”  Her sister Betsie could find joy in God’s provision even in the darkest moments of a Nazi concentration camp.  Corrie, more of a like-mind with me, would roll her eyes when her sister would make joyous declarations such as, “Give thanks in all circumstances.  It doesn’t say ‘in pleasant circumstances.’  Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

As lights of the Lord reflecting out God’s love and goodness to the world, we need to be especially mindful of our outward attitude and appearance when events go awry in our lives.  Showing the world who we trust and who is working for our good. And when events turn to joy we need to give it all up to God in His bountiful mercy and glory.

I first heard this song about having a good day when I was visiting and caring for my two-year old grandson.  My daughter had shared with me Owen’s Spotify playlist so we could listen to his pre-school songs in the car.  You know, fun stuff like “icky sticky bubble gum” and the “wheels on the bus” played on repeat.  When this bright and joyous song came on in the car he exclaimed, “Mommy’s song!”  We sang along with vigor.

I asked my daughter about it later that day.  She explained they play this song every morning on their way to work and daycare to set the tone for the day.  To remember that with God in our lives it can always be a good day.  Because while the Lord has blessed us with breath and we acknowledge that the creator of the universe knows our very name, we can have a great day in every single way.  

Friend, I once thought this view of life was blind to the realities of the world.  Until the scales were taken off my eyes and the truth was revealed.  Emmanuel, God with Us, shines His beautiful light on us in all circumstances.  So play it loud and sing it like ya mean it. Because today can and will be a good day.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Good Day 

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Day 5 Gratitude

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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  Ephesians 1:3-4
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens…. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8: 1 & 3-4

Have you ever had someone do something for you that was unexpected and thoughtful?  A few months ago, I was so sick with the flu I could barely walk from my bed to the bathroom.  A friend of mine heard how sick I was and that day left a care package of healing teas at my door.  It was a loving, unsolicited gesture — wanting to help nurse me back to good health

When I hear this beautiful song by Brandon Lake I am overwhelmed by God’s unwarranted love and care for me.  I’m a sinner from way back.  I’m a backsliding sinner.  I will probably manage to say or do something today that I shouldn’t.  Yet, the God of the universe, the Almighty One, still loves me and sees me and provides for me.  He loves you too, fellow sinner. 

His love is freely given.  His offer of salvation is crowned upon us without us having to lift a finger.  We need only to believe.  No trying harder.  No paying a fee.  No list of things to accomplish.  No shame.  Just a heart that says, “I believe you and I want to have you as my Lord.”  After that He infuses Himself with us through the Holy Spirit.  The free gift of an ever present counselor, comforter and guide who reveals God’s will for our life.  

How can we not get emotional over something so staggering, so loving, and so unexpected?  We throw up our hands and praise Him over and over for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ who died to cleanse us of the stain of sin.  We shed tears knowing how much we don’t deserve this love yet are showered with it each day.

All I can say to that is Hallelujah and Amen!

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Day 4 Your Love

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This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

In God’s Big Book of Life He constantly demonstrates He has a plan, an order of all things. All one needs to do is picture the cosmos, see the structure of our solar system, recognize we have everything we need here on this Big Blue Ball to sustain and enjoy life. He loves His creation so much that He promises to never leave us, never forsake us. He sent His son to bring us back into a relationship, bringing order into our lives.

He created an order for marriage, for our sexuality, roles for both genders, for how we treat others and so much more. It’s all there in that big book called His Word or the Bible. Yet for 1,000s of years we humans take our gifts of a free will and a big brain and buck against His order of all things. We are the only created beings that do this.

A tree, as a tiny seed, doesn’t decide if it wants to become a tree. It doesn’t decide where it will grow, or even what type of tree it will be. No, its very essence is to live according to how it was made by God. The same for all plants and animals. A bird doesn’t stress and ponder how to make a nest or even if it wants to lay eggs. It seamlessly moves to God’s plan and rhythm.

Believer or not, all humans seem to instinctively know when they aren’t in sync with God’s plan. Some of us may recognize we push to the limits of the natural order. While others may blame everyone else for not conforming to their plan for the world. But we all feel that friction when our marriages struggle, when we act sexually immoral, or when we are constantly unkind and ungenerous. That friction is God reminding us He is the creator; He is the keeper of the order of all things.

It’s taken me awhile but I finally decided I want to stay right in the middle of God’s love at all times.  I want my life to be ordered such that I never leave the comfort, joy and peace that He promises when we stay close to Him.  Because the thing about God is if you want to live outside His order, He will allow you.  And you will experience a friction that maybe you just can’t understand.

No, I want to be right in the middle of His love.  Not following my own will but His.  Not sitting on the fence straddling between two worlds.  Right in the middle.

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Day 2 Fresh Fire

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Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:2-4
 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out. Leviticus 6:13

Where I live, the threat of devastating fires is always with us.  During certain months I feel my mind and body change in alertness to puffs of smoke on the horizon or that distinctive smell of vegetation burning somewhere.  But fire in all its frightfulness offers so much goodness in its flickering flames.

It’s fire that changed man’s way of life by providing warmth, a new way to eat, and a comfort in throwing light out to scare away all that darkness brings.  Fire is a powerful, God-given element – both dangerous and life sustaining.  

Throughout the Bible we see fire used by God to consecrate covenants, protect the people of Israel at night, to burn up sacrifices, and to pass judgment.  The New Testament refers to God as a “consuming fire.”  

For non-believers they face the lake of fire.  But for believers we are given the fire of the Holy Spirit.  This fire doesn’t consume but rather refines.  On the day of Pentecost, the fire placed in the disciples just days before by the resurrected Jesus draws a huge crowd in Jerusalem.  And because of the power of that fire, thousands were saved and also given that fire.

I want to live with God’s ever-burning fire in me.  Not a tiny spark or a flame but a wildfire.  A fire that speaks with the confidence of knowing the Holy Spirit is really doing the talking.  A fire that hungers and thirsts every single day for the Lord’s will.  

This song is one I heard a few years ago and inspired my series aptly called Fresh Fire.  Not too long ago it was also recorded by Brandon Lake and Maverick City Music.  It brings you to your feet saying “Yes! Me too!”  I especially love the line – “A man on fire doesn’t care what he looks like, what he sounds like.”  As daughters and sons of God we don’t need to fear man, only God.  And God calls us to be full of fire with His message of love and salvation to those all around us.

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Enjoying the “Enough” Life Part Two

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Did you miss part one of Enjoying the Enough Life? Click here!

Enjoyment without God is merely entertainment.  

Warren Wiersbe

No one on this great blue planet is without sin.  Without sinful desires and thoughts.  Without sinful emotions.  So, if we seek contentment, or unconditional wholeness solely from within what do we find?  Our sinful selves just like I did when I embarked on my happiness journey a few years ago.  And we turn back to the unfulfilling emotion of fleeting happiness.

What guides a person to being truly joy-filled or content in every situation? How do we achieve that “unconditional wholeness” researcher Daniel Cordaro mentioned after visiting that Himalayan tribe?  It requires something outside us to guide us through the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of life.  It’s easy to enjoy a new car.  But what about when it breaks down?  It takes no effort to enjoy the birthday party at the park you so expertly planned but what happens when it rains?  Does your happiness bucket completely empty and you turn into Attila the Hun, raging at others?  Or you weep and sulk feeling the cosmos hates you?

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me."  Philippians 4: 11-13

That strength to endure a peasant life that Tolstoy witnessed, a life of labor and toil, a life of disappointments and tragedy, and yes, even a life full of wealth comes only from God.  (Ecc 5:19 & 6:2) Through the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell in us when we say, “Yes!” to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  It’s the fountain from which we draw on every single moment of every day to guide us and strengthen us.  Because my friends, you cannot find wholeness without Him.

Deep-seated in the American mind, for example, is the disastrous idea that we should pursue happiness. But what is happiness? And what are the realities through which one could achieve it? And how, practically speaking, does one pursue happiness? One might pursue happiness on the carpe diem principle. But that can be understood in many ways. It could endorse a sensuality of the present moment or endorse devoting the present moment to improvement of one’s character, to serving others, or to serving God. Usually in our times, however, it is some form of sensuality. Our choice between these options will have profound implications for our efforts to become a genuinely good person and to live harmoniously with reality, with how things really are.

Dallas Willard

My Bible study ladies are currently studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount by Jen Wilkins.  In the first week we read and discovered the messages behind the first 12 verses, also known as the Beatitudes.  Jesus’ goal in this sermon was to re-define for the disciples what not only the Kingdom of Heaven looks like but what its citizens look like.  The first four beatitudes describe the character of its citizens:

  1. We Are Poor in Spirit: accepting we are weak and sinful in need of a strength outside ourselves
  2. We Are Mourners: we recognize our sinfulness and weep over it daily.  Asking God for forgiveness for each time we act, speak or think (even feel) in opposition to God’s will for us.
  3. We Are Meek: in modeling Jesus’ submission to the Father in going to the cross for humanity’s sins and therefore suffering a terrible death, we too seek humility and submission to God. 
  4. We Are Hungry and Thirsty: not for earthly glory, praise and wealth but for our hearts and minds to be daily cleansed.  We constantly seek His will for our life so that we can glorify Him.  We cast off our old selves and thirst for the new bodies and New Eden to come.

These citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven?  They will be abundant with fruit and content in all situations.  The fruits of love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, patience, self-control and faithfulness can be seen by all around them.  They spread that fruit and His Word throughout our families, communities and the world.  We achieve the ultimate peace in the face of persecution.  Peace with God.  Our friction between us is gone.  We are made whole because He breathes the Holy Spirit into us, making us one with Him.

"And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one… 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." John 17: 11 & 22-23

One with the Creator of all things seen and unseen – Elohim, Jehovah.  What more could a tiny, sinful human want for all eternity?  All other pales in comparison!  No self-help book without God can help you achieve such gloriously contented status. King Solomon discovered that our sinful toil without God is usually for our own gain and our appetite is never satisfied on our own (Ecc 6:7).

"The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
    there is none who does good." Psalm 14:1-2

I once saw an interaction with a non-believer and a street preacher.  The young, unbelieving woman stated, “How can you say I won’t go to heaven (which as a non-believer why would she care?) when I’m a good person.  I’m better than most Christians.  I don’t lie, cheat or steal.”  Yet, as Jesus reminds us further in the Sermon on the Mount if you even let your heart yearn to do any of those things you are guilty.  And I would bet all that I have she has, in fact, actually lied.  She has probably stolen something – maybe someone’s dignity by gossiping about them.  And cheating?  She might have thought that little deed or breaking some municipal law wasn’t that “big of a deal” but it’s still cheating.  She is at odds with God, broken and not whole.

It is only through the gift of reconciliation for our sins, no matter their size, of which Jesus Christ paid for, that we can come upright before the God of the Universe.  Where we receive mercy and forgiveness so we don’t have to live in shame and hurt, grasping for pleasures to dull our pain.  No, instead He brushes us off and clothes us in white garments.  He brings us into His family and calls us His sons and daughters.  He pours out His love and gives a piece of Him to live in us so we can have that “unconditional wholeness.” He gifts us with “enough” each day so that we may be satisfied.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  James 1:2-4

We are made perfect and complete, meaning made whole, when we face life’s trials and rely on the God who gives us strength and hope.  We are honed and shaped into the image of the only being that walked this earth who was sinless and fully content — Jesus.

Friend, if you want to get off the roller coaster of seeking “happiness” and then being brought low by trials, look to our All Mighty God and His Son.  He is our provider, our protector, our armor, our joy, our hope.  He has never broken a promise and He never will.  He promises you a new life at the end of the rainbow – not a pot of gold.  And with that promise and hope we can live a contented, meaningful life of “enough” in a world of chaos.

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Enjoying The “Enough” Life

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In 2014, researcher and founder of the Contentment Foundation Daniel Cordaro, took a team of researchers to the remote area of the Himalayas in Eastern Bhutan.  Their research subjects were a group of 200 nomad families with which no outsider had previously contacted.  It was to be the final look into a 5-year, cross-cultural study of how people identify and react to a long list of emotions.  Upon showing the villagers dozens of facial and vocal expressions, even having been cut off from the rest of the world, they recognized the vast majority of emotions with accuracy.  However, it was one emotion that elicited a different response to the norm.  That emotion was contentment.  Their guide, Dr. Dorji Wangchuk, stopped for a moment when they reached that word.

“In our culture, this emotion is very special. It is the highest achievement of human well-being, and it is what the greatest enlightened masters have been writing about for thousands for years. It’s hard to translate it exactly, but the closest word is chokkshay, which is a very deep and spiritual word that means ‘the knowledge of enough.’ It basically means that right here, right now, everything is perfect as it is, regardless of what you are experiencing outside.”

This explanation by Dr. Wangchuk brought chills to Cordaro who goes on to say in his story of this experience, “No matter where I went on planet earth, all of the cultures I interacted with revered contentment as one of the highest states to cultivate in life. Yet in the West, we were obsessing about happiness—and feeling more anxious, depressed, and stressed.”*

While Mr. Cardaro may have decided through his research that “happiness” rather than contentment is a relatively new goal which rears its head mainly in western society, I would argue it’s actually been around for a very long time.  You only need to turn to Ecclesiastes 6, indeed much of Ecclesiastes itself, to see pleasure seeking or happiness sits atop many people’s motivation in life.

"If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he…even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity.  Do not all go to the same place?"  Ecclesiastes 6:3 & 6

King Solomon would relate to this prosperous man; it might even be a reflection of the King himself.  A man who gathered riches, property, wives, children, slaves, food and wine with abandon.  Yet was drawn to study the meaningless life.  A life much the opposite of those Himalayan nomads.  

A 2016 survey by YouGov asked Americans whether they would rather achieve great things or be happy.  81% said they would rather be happy.   Despite the universalness of happiness as a goal, it was hard to know how to define it or how to achieve it.**  And I ask you, on a daily basis are you seeking happiness or contentment?  Are you seeking to feel the emotion that pleasure provides or resting in the peace of enjoying “enough?”  

"Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."  Ecclesiastes 6:9

The “I need to do and seek out what makes me happy” hasn’t really worked out that well for us humans.  It’s a life led by self-fulfillment and fleeting emotions.  Back a few years when I decided to seek happiness, I went about it working hard at changing myself.  I needed to be less, I suppose, like me and more like people who appeared happy with loads of friends.  The problem was I was still me.  I was still filled with sinful thoughts and behaviors, most of which I couldn’t see or didn’t want to.

"You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."  James 4:2-3

Through study of God’s Holy Word, I finally had my “ah ha moment.”  I was seeking with the wrong motive.  What I needed to seek was joy and contentment, not how to be happy.  Why? Because desiring happiness didn’t mean to love others, rather just myself.  It meant getting what I wanted, not what God wanted of me.  It led me to covet and be jealous of those who seemed “happier.”  

In the late 1800s, Russian author Leo Tolstoy experienced his own profound revelation when seeking the meaningful life.  Born to aristocrats, he had all that wealth could provide.  He ran in highly intellectual circles debating the politics and issues of the day.  And for all that upper-class privilege he once stated, 

My life came to a standstill.  I could breathe, eat, drink, and sleep, and I could not help doing these things; but there was no life, for there were no wishes the fulfillment of which I could consider reasonable… had a fairy come and offered to fulfill my desires I should not have known what to ask.”

In the course of events Tolstoy became involved with a group of Russian peasants.  What he witnessed was a hard life.  One with heavy, daily labor.  And they were content.  They, he said, knew the meaning of life and death and labored quietly.  They endured deprivations and suffering.  They lived and died seeing the good.

So how do we achieve this state of contentment?  Must we cast off all our hard earned wealth?  Sell our homes and become Himalayan nomads?  Become like John the Baptist and wear rough clothing and eat bugs?  

Enjoying life is a matter of character, not circumstance.

Booker T. Washington

Like so many lessons gifted by God, the hard won path to contentment is not about our outward appearance.  If it were, the successful business person would be doomed.  Yet success, from a wealth perspective, is not seen in the Bible as something to be disabused.  It is only seen as causing potential difficulty for the believer.  It wasn’t the prince’s wealth that caused him not to be able to follow Jesus.  But rather his clinging to it for his happiness. (Matt 19:21-22).  His character was filled with greed and pride.

In the completed study by Cordaro he found there were two views of what people think makes for a contented life.  The first he called the “More Strategy.”  It’s that view of the western happiness mindset.  More money, more stuff.  The problem, he found, was once you got more, that feeling of happiness drifted away like the mist.

The second approach is the “Enough Strategy.”  It’s when people look inward to find the happiness.  He poured through thousands of years of ancient wisdom traditions and found that the ancients almost never used the word happiness.  More than 90 percent of the time, they used the word contentment, and described it as a state of “unconditional wholeness,” regardless of what is happening externally.

The unfortunate diagnosis by Cordaro however, is that somehow we can become whole all by ourselves.  It’s the same mindset of modern, secular psychology and 1,000s of self-help books,  He didn’t research which ancient wisdom traditions were successful at this goal and how.  If he had, he might have discovered Jesus.   

Enjoying The Enough Life Part Two now available! Click here.

*Excerpt from Greater Good Magazine, May  27, 2020 What If You Pursue Contentment Rather Than Happiness?

** BBC’s Nat Rutherford

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Enjoy Being Set Apart Part Two

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Missed part one? Go to emboldened.net/2024/03/25/enjoying-being-set-apart/

I recently was listening to a teaching on the Good Samaritan.  It’s such a popular and well-known parable that it’s become an axiom. In some cases, even the title of laws. In many states in the United States, “good samaritans” are protected from lawsuits if they’ve provided physical aid but an additional injury may have occurred as a result of that help (ie a person giving CPR fractures a person’s rib). For many believers and non-believers this story represents “being nice” or acting kindly to others. Jesus, however, throughout His time on earth spoke basically about only two things: God and His Kingdom.  So, it’s important, however familiar we may be with the parable, to know why the story was told.  It starts with this interaction:

"On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ "Luke 10:25-27

Now let’s look at what was happening.  This lawyer was testing Jesus.  Maybe he wanted Jesus to say, “Follow me.”  This would have been heretical for the Jew.  Instead, Jesus points him back to God’s Word.  Notice the man fully counts himself a wonderful, loving person in his own eyes.  He believes he uniquely and fully loves God with all his heart, mind and soul.  There’s apparently no chance he has failed at this overwhelming task. Instead, he wants to parse out the requirements by then asking Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”  

 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly….“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19: 17 & 33-34

The Old Testament religious Jewish leaders had come to define (erroneously) their “neighbors” as those in their own circle.  People exactly like them.  That allowed them to hate anyone else — other Jews who they deemed unworthy such as tax collectors and then gentiles. They turned “love your neighbor as yourself” into “love your neighbor and hate your enemies.”

Some might say they were justified. I mean God did call on them to eliminate entire groups of people. But biblical scholars will clarify those particular groups actively hated God and sinned in abominable ways against Him. Murderous cultures, child sacrifices, rampant sexual immorality, pillaging and raping innocent people year after year after year. God also had warned them for hundreds of years. They all knew of the God of Abraham and Jacob — as witnessed by the likes of Rahab from Jericho. (Joshua 2:9-13) So, when Israel was directed to take action it was God’s justice, not personal justice. Each man was directed throughout Deuteronomy and Leviticus to treat the foreigner as themselves. Personal vendettas were against the Law. And still the religious leaders contorted God’s Word.

Jesus upends their well-worn, twisted morality by exposing the lack of compassion by the “righteous” versus the godly love by an “outsider” or even enemy.  This parable wasn’t about acts of kindness, rather it highlights our sinful tendencies to divide and hate those on the other side of that divide.  That hatred and the distortion of God’s Word leads us in the opposite direction the Jewish lawyer wanted to go. It’s not heaven he will find with a dark heart. Jesus allows the lesson to sink in; the lesson of reminding believers that He sets us apart from the world to do something unthinkable and difficult.  To love others and show mercy as God loves us. 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”  Luke 10:36-37

Friend, in God’s world, the world of eternal life, envy, hatred, greed, and jealousy, have no place.  It didn’t during King Solomon’s time seen in Ecclesiastes 4 and it doesn’t now. True justice for the oppressed and downtrodden is not equity or retroactive punishment or even self-flagellation.  It’s love.  It’s the kind of love that looks different than the world.  It says, “Let me help you out of sin.”  It gives all that it can and doesn’t hoard the blessings we’ve been given.  It looks hatred in the eye and says, “God loves you too.”  It stops and, without care for itself, gives compassion.  It protects the weak and helpless.  It overflows with mercy and forgiveness. It’s a love that hates only one thing — the hatred of God — yet still prays for that person. It helps us see we are all needy sinners who disobey the Lord regularly and we thank God He abounds in mercy.

 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.  But if you show favoritism,you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it....Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,  because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.  James 2: 8-13

We are all, no matter our worldly status, guilty of not loving enough.  Not forgiving enough.  Not being people of grace.  It’s not just to the faceless who we think have wrong us but to those in our church, in our home, in our neighborhood.  It is our constant striving for the one and only thing that makes life meaningful that will bring us eternal life – our joyful obedience to the God who loves us.

When we seek personal justice or vengeance let’s remember the Apostle Paul. Remember the evil that lived in him and the terrible acts he oversaw. Then look to your Bible and see not only God’s mercy but the mercy and forgiveness he was granted by his fellow Christian Jews and gentiles. There is always hope in God’s plan for someone (like us) to turn their meaningless, oppressive life into something oh so meaningful.

When I was researching Ecclesiastes 4, I was led to reflect on my experience with Tom. You remember him? The one who hated women.  The Holy Spirit convicted me.  I have long, quietly harbored ill-will toward him.  For making my life difficult during a stressful time.  For hating an entire “type” of people.  Suddenly I realized I was just as guilty.  I was not loving my enemy, my oppressor.  That realization brought me to tears of joy.  Knowing our good God is constantly working in our hearts to prune us in ways we didn’t realize needed work.  That act, alone, made that day so meaningful.

Ask Him today to reveal any hidden sins, especially of hatred, envy, oppression, vengeance, and jealousy.  Then thank Him for the revelation and mercy.  Enjoy the moment where you have been set free once again.

For more on Pastor John MacArthur’s sermon concerning the dangers and false teaching in our churches on social justice, go to https://www.gty.org/library/articles/45SJ

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Enjoying the Cycle of Life & Death

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I had a dream the other day that I had died.  I didn’t die in the dream; I was already dead.  In the dream, I was aware of my death and now “living” in an idyllic New England-style bay village.  The whole situation seemed a bit quirky and yet normal.  There was the typical mom and pop breakfast and lunch café, an ice cream shop on the corner, and even a small inn with a welcoming lobby bar featuring wine nights.  My death-fellows walked about in full acceptance that this was their final destination.  They were friendly and colorful.  It all was so normal yet I kept saying, “surely this can’t be it?”

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die,” Ecclesiates 3:1-2

Ecclesiastes 3 might be one of the most well-known chapters in the Bible simply because in 1959 singer-songwriter Pete Seeger wrote the song, “Turn Turn” or “To Everything There Is a Season.” Made famous by the 60s band, The Byrds, throughout its lyrics the song repeats eight verses found in chapter 3.  

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain that which is to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time of love, and a time of hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

Seeger’s motivation was to emphasize the last line in King Solomon’s list of cyclical life – peace.  But Solomon’s goal was to remind us again that the world keeps spinning round and round and at times may seem so meaningless.  He reflected on wickedness and judgment – a judgment that would be sought out at each of our deaths.

Death, my friends, comes to us all.  We may want to dance around that truth with familiar colloquialisms such as, “If I die….”  But the truth of death stares us in the face each year when we reflect on the people we have “lost.”  “Lost” as though we don’t know what happened to them or where they went.  Maybe they’re wandering around in some idyllic New England town.  Maybe they are in a fiery furnace.  Or maybe they are “with the Lord.”  

As a Christian, I know there’s two roads to take toward death: 1) the way of the world and sin which leads to terrible judgement and hell or 2) the way of Jesus, leading to the glorious New Eden in which love abounds.  For the non-believer they may have chaos in their mind when they ponder death. If they’re atheists, like my father, they might believe that when we die we just disappear into nothingness. Others might hope for something better — like free ice cream for life, surrounded by Golden Retrievers. Many might imagine a walk up to the “pearly gates,” standing before an angel with a book of “infractions and do-goods” hoping the balance sheet is in their favor. For the atheist or confused, none of what they believe has as solid a foundational truth like the Bible.

For the Christian, we can look at Solomon’s list of “this and that” with comfort.  By trusting in God and His promises, we can seek Him in every circumstance, both the seemingly good and bad.  Because each of the times he lists have an element of both.  

“Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:6-7

The disciples were facing the truth about life.  We will die.  Jesus was the only one to ever know the exact day and hour.  In that death notice, however, Jesus gave them the preview of the blessing to come – the gift of the Holy Spirit. They still grieved mightily, but when the Holy Spirit descended upon them, they remembered His words and were healed.

Join me this Wednesday for Part Two of Enjoying the Cycle of Life & Death where we discover there are no “ordinary people.” Click here for part two.