A Purposeful Life

“And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire” (I Samuel 30:1).

As David’s exterior world collapsed, he returned to his interior, rebuilt his primary identity, recovered his base. David had escaped Saul, duped the Philistines, now endangered by his own men, and God brought David back to Himself and reliance upon Him.

What do you do when your world collapses? You return to your interior, the interior of where God lives. God allows trouble to bring you to where we belong. We are united and in planted in Christ. Allow God to work. Allow His discipline to take hold.

Christ is capable of living the Christian life, for the obvious and simple reason that He is the Christian life. Allow the grace of God to work in your bad situations and good situations.  As David faced much we are grateful that the Christ who lives in us is more than able to face anything and conquer

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  • A Crazy Kind-Of-Love

    “…Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad” (Acts 26:24)

     

    Francois Fenelon said, “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?” Is the church missing what God intended her to be? In many ways, and I’m nervous about it, the church is not doing so well.

     

    It used to be that “Good Christians” avoided drinking, drugs, sex, swearing, and fought their desires in order to please God. That is the way many were brought up during the Christian culture of the day. In reality and hindsight, I don’t believe the church’s teachings were incorrect, just incomplete.

     

    If we would get into the Word of God and think Biblically instead of conventionally, it would change our paradigm. Our thinking would explode and it would be exhilarating. We have all we need. We have all of Jesus we need. What we don’t have is to want Jesus more.

     

    Are you bored with American Christianity and that which it offers? Do you want to rise above the plateau of the American style of doing church? Would you want to get to the place where you would rather die than let go of your convictions in Christ?

     

    “More God” and “more life” follows. Not to be immune from self-giving is to realize how wonderful God is. To not hold back anything but to give all is the utmost way to live. To be totally abandoned is to be totally absorbed.

     

    God wants to lead a group of comfortable people into lives of risk and adventure. He wants us to love people like we never have before and to go to extremes to do just that.

  • Moving Away

    “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved” (Phil. 4:1).

    We as a society have been conditioned to believe in the big, the fast, the expensive and the far away.  Whatever is big, fast, expensive, and away is the life of joy and happiness.  I am convinced that if you have to move ten inches from where you are now in order to be happy, you never will be.

    Paul was in prison for Christ, yet he was content.  Joseph was indeed in a mess down in Egypt, yet he was aware that God was working.  John the Baptist had stumbled over the timeline that God had for him, but he was learning.  The Lord Jesus operated by faith and not by feelings, and never moved from where His true peace was located.

    One can live with joy in their present circumstances and still live with expectation.  Life becomes more precious and more special to us when we look for the little everyday miracles and get excited about the privilege of simply being human.

    There is a powerful story of a young man who was seeking God.  He sought out a wise man who lived in a nearby beach house and posed the question:  “Old man, how can I see God?”  The old man who knew God at a depth few experience, pondered the question.  At last he responded quietly:  “Young man, I am not sure that I can help you–for you see, I have a different problem. I cannot not see him.”

  • Overflowing to Empower

    “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
    Paul places two images before us–drunkenness and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

    There are certain things that drive people to drink. The pressures of life, the demands that are severe that lead to some type of stimulation to overcome it. There are some things in life that causes one to take a drink to undergird, to give confidence, to help, and to give strength. There are a lot of situations that stir people to drink.

    In contrast Paul says that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  For He will stimulate, strengthen, subdue the human failures and feelings and satisfy us with His workings. There is no shame to feel the sense of need. We were not made to be self-sufficient, independent creatures. We need Someone to help us feel adequate to face life; do not be troubled by that.

    Herein is the real and great secret of Christianity. It is the possibility of being filled with the Spirit of Christ. Each child of God has the Holy Spirit living in them, but many are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They have the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit does not have them. The Holy Spirit is present but He is not president. He is resident but He is not residing. He resides in you but maybe He does not preside through you. He is our inner supply for every need.

    Christianity is not just about coming to church, getting a blessing, and then going away to live in the light and warmth of the blessing until it leaks away. No, we have much more than that. We drink {believe} into Him and “Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water,” John says, “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:39a). That is the strengthening that comes from within, and He is plenty for the situation. So drink in and drink up, for by Him we live and move and have our being.

     

     

     

     

  • An Unclouded Day

    “And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain” (2 Samuel 23:4).

    The political parties are at extreme odds with one another. One is considered to be dark while the other is considered to be light. One is negative while the other is positive. The Democrats say our country is up. The Republicans say our country is down. We are living in a clouded day, a day of confusion.

    The Lord Jesus was neither an optimist nor pessimist but a realist. He saw things as they were and one day we will too. There is coming a day when there will be no more clouded days and heaviness of heart. God will take away away the clouds and the rain and the Light of Day will forever shine without clouds in the sky.

    We are going to a land of unclouded day and it is not just a pie in the sky mentality. It is God’s forever provision for His people who may weep through many a dark day but who are bound for the world where not only darkness is not present but even tears are passed away.

  • Repentence as Gentle Rain

    “Then she arose…that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard…how the Lord had visited his people in giving them food” (Ruth’s 1:6).

    Naomi left the Promise Land, the House of Bread, Bethlehem.  She, along with her husband and sons, only planned to stay for a little while in Moab, but she ended up dwelling there in the land that is half-washed.  She lost her husband and her sons to death.  She was a broken woman who was living in a barren and pagan land.

    Repentance can be dramatic, but most true repentance is like a gentle rain, slowly and surely softening the hardened soil of our hearts.  In Psalm 23, the Lord “restores my soul” (v. 3).  The Hebrew word for “restores” is shun, which means “turn” or “return.”  When Naomi returns to Israel, to the house of the Lord, her own soul is restored.

    If you a part of the group that is “weary and heavy laden“, return with your depression, anger, and withdrawal.  You can come back complaining, but “come back.”  Come to Jesus with your mess, grumpiness, loneliness, and your self-centered heart.  He will clean you up.  The point is to come back! He loves you with an everlasting love!

  • Affair Matters

     

    “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?  Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

         When I was a kid, I used to go the fair. It was a big deal in those days. We would have a great time eating cotton candy, riding the little Ferris Wheel, playing games in the arcade, and walking on the sawdust. When you went to a fair, you left all the responsibilities of normal life behind, at least for a little while. Life was lots of fun at the fair.

         Maybe that is the reason why some call an adultery an affair. It’s leaving behind your responsibilities. Real men do not leave their places of responsibility. Real men do not have affairs with other women. Nor do real men have an affair with the world around them. They know it is the cause of being at hostility against God.

         What is an affair? It is an escape from reality, or a search for meaning outside of marriage, either to your mate or even to Christ. God said do not become an adulterer or adulteress with the world. Do not join up with the things of this world. Do not have an affair with the world and leave your responsibilities behind.