Distracted

 

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

—Luke 10:41-42

Trisha was one of those children: always busy, but always attracted to the wrong things. On one visit to her classroom, I observed her moving from pencil sharpener to sink, to closet, back to her desk to play with her crayons and erasers. She did all of this in just a few short minutes of time. In the hallway one day, I watched her stop, for several moments, to stare at a piece of fuzz on the carpet. In my classroom, I required that she sit next to me in the front of the room, so that she could have a reasonable chance of paying attention to the music lesson I was sharing with her class.

Trisha usually kept quiet. Yet, her distractibility would keep everyone’s eyes on her. She seemed like such a happy child—but thoroughly happy for the absolutely wrong reasons. She allowed things to interfere with the place where her attention should focus. Not surprisingly, we can have this problem, too. Said another way: “How often do we behave like Martha in the Scripture passage above?”

Like me, have you sometimes sat down to meet with the Lord in the morning and before long found your mind on something else? Usually, when I get distracted at such times, I remember something I need to take care of in the kitchen, or an email I forgot to send. Or, worse yet, I worry about something that turns my mind away from the right and proper spiritual matters—the very purpose of my morning quiet time.

Jesus wants us to sit at His feet and listen to Him. As students ourselves, God justifiably wants us to give Him our complete and undivided attention. If we neglect to focus on Him, from where will our strength, wisdom, love, patience, and the true satisfaction of our needs come?

In Colossians 3:1-2, the Apostle Paul tells us that we have this responsibility:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

If we have difficulty concentrating on God’s voice in the morning, when we spend time alone with Him, how can we hope to hear His voice during the busy day ahead?

 

 

Searching and Finding

 

“God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

—Acts 17:27

What child doesn’t enjoy a good hunt? From Easter eggs to a game of “Hide and Seek,” children delight in the fun of searching and finding. Frustration only sets in when the pastime becomes too difficult. Even “Where’s Waldo” ¹ can become discouraging if the red and white stripe shirt and the big round glasses don’t appear in a reasonable amount of time.

God delights in lovingly creating a sort of “Hide and Seek” game for us. God wants us to seek Him, to hunt for clues that He has written all over creation, all over our lives, and in His written Word, the Bible. He wants us to know the joy of finding Him. God has promised that if we earnestly seek Him, we will find Him. In Matthew 7:8, The Apostle Matthew quotes Jesus as saying:

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

As another illustration of the sincere desire He looks for in seekers, Jesus told a two verse parable, as recorded in Matthew 13:45-46:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

God wants us to seek Him and He wants us to find Him. Searching reveals our earnest desire and finding reveals our greatest joy in Him. From an old gospel hymn: ²

All my life long I had panted for a draught from some cool spring that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfied my longings; through His blood I now am saved.

Much like it would disappoint a parent to have a child look hard for something and never find it, God waits and watches us to see if, with the sincerity of a true seeker, we hunt for Him until we find Him. Oh the joy!

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1 Handford, Martin. Where's Waldo? Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2007. Citation of Copyrighted material is made on this blog post for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder. 2 Williams, Clara Tear. “All My Life Long I Had Panted.” Hymns of Faith and Life. Winona Lake, Indiana: Light and Life Press, 1976. Citation of Copyrighted material is made on this blog post for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Plans Disrupted!

 

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

—Proverbs 19:21

Mary and Joseph were planning a wedding. The initial approval of parents and the pledge that would forever bind them together had taken place. Now Mary could prepare for that important date they had ahead of them. But, the angel Gabriel, came to her with an unheard of announcement that completely disrupted the wedding plans. As a virgin, Mary would have a Baby by the Holy Spirit. Not only that, Mary and Joseph would have to travel to Bethlehem, some 90 miles away, just about the time the Baby would be due. Plans disrupted!

After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph were planning a trip home to Nazareth from Bethlehem. They must have been excited about introducing their families to the Newborn, and getting into a “settled” life as newlyweds. But, an angel of the Lord came and told Joseph that, in order to protect his family, all three of them would have to go to Egypt for awhile! Plans disrupted!

In all of these events, Mary and Joseph responded to God’s plans by obeying and adapting their schedules and dreams to what God had provided for them. From the very beginning, they seemed to submit willingly to God’s mysterious will for their lives. As recorded in Luke 1:38, Mary even responded to the angel:

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”

I must admit that I have much more trouble adapting to disrupted plans than Mary and Joseph seemed to have. If the weather gets bad, and friends are unable to make it for dinner, or cousin Jake gets sick at the last minute and the family can’t get together for pizza and games, I’m disappointed. If I felt assured that I had the new job for which I had applied, and then I heard that someone else got it instead, it would take me several days to move on from my disappointment. Maybe you respond to disruptions in the same way that I do.

When we stop to remember that we, like Mary and Joseph, no longer should live for ourselves, but rather for the God who has called us, we can begin to live in the place of His blessings, protection, and usefulness to the Kingdom. I think of these verses in 1 Corinthians  6:19-20:

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Responding to these marvelous verses prompts me to pray:

Lord, please help us to realize—like Mary and Joseph did—that since You have called us to belong to Yourself, our lives will never be our own again. Please help us to understand that we have a new loyalty and a new responsibility to do Your will above our own. Please place in our hearts a gladness and eagerness to obey, in order that You will be glorified. May Your will be done on Earth, in us, as it is in Heaven. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

 

 

Naughty or Nice?

 

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

—Romans 1:17

I imagine you recognize these song lyrics:  ¹

You better watch out, you better not cry,
Better not pout, I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.

He’s making a list and checking it twice,
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.

He sees you when you’re sleepin’,
He knows when you’re awake,
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake.

With stories like the one in this song, and the use of the well-worn “Elf on the Shelf,” we try to persuade our children to “be good,” so that Santa will bring them the gifts they want for Christmas. While it all seems harmless enough, I wonder if our tales of Santa have somehow crept into our theology of God at Christmas and the rest of the year, as well.

The culture in which we live seems to hold that God, if He is even real, somehow acts toward us as a “Santa.” He knows everything and sees everything about us. He makes judgments as to our fitness for His Kingdom based on some kind of “naughty or nice” quotient.

Now, it should not surprise anyone who truly believes in God that He is omnipresent—always present in all places at all times—and omniscient—possessing a complete knowledge of all things. However, the theological concept of “grace dispensed according to merit” raises a completely different point.

Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that we can do nothing to gain God’s favor:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not of works, so that no one can boast.

But what about punishment—the “lump of coal” so to speak? The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:1-2:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We see that neither our good deeds, nor our transgressions of God’s law, have any effect on our salvation or our place in God’s Kingdom. Jesus, and He alone, took care of that. If we acknowledge His gift of grace through faith, we do not stand condemned. Instead, we have all the gifts that He paid with His lifeblood to give us.

So, let’s rejoice in a perfectly just, all-seeing, Sovereign God, whose gifts come to us without anything we can give to Him. Rather, He freely and lovingly provides us with all things solely through the Gift of that Baby born so long ago. That kind of favor should cause great gratitude to well up within us and result in lives of grace and compassion to others.

Our expectation to see our Savior, bringing incorruptible gifts to us, should energize us to do good deeds far beyond the supposed eyesight of one “Jolly Old Elf”!

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1 Coots, J. Fred, and Haven Gillespie, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. New York: Leo Feist, Inc., 1934. Quotation included for Educational Use only. All rights reserved by the original holder of the copyright.

 

 

And, He Shall Reign Forever

 

“He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

—Isaiah 9:7

The Prophet Isaiah’s word promised a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords—forever! We sing about it, we say we believe it, and yet, we find it so very hard to live in the truth of it!

All of us are born with the compunction to create our own mini-kingdoms—places where we have control of our comforts, conveniences, desires, happiness, schedules, career paths, and more. Just notice how we respond the next time we have to wait in a line of Christmas shoppers! As confounded as we sometimes are about the condition of our world, Psalm 99:1 reminds us of God’s eternal place:

The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake.

Jesus often spoke about His Kingdom, and set patterns for life in His Kingdom that turned on its head the methodologies of the natural world and turned on its head our natural inclinations controlled by our sinful bent. Here’s how author Paul Tripp explains it:

Jesus had to rescue us from our bondage to our little kingdoms of one and usher us into his kingdom of loving authority and forgiving grace. He came to destroy our self-oriented kingdoms and dethrone us as kings over our own lives. In violent grace he works to destroy every last shred of our allegiance to self-rule, and in rescuing grace he lovingly sets up his righteous rule in our hearts. In grace he patiently works with us until we finally understand that truly good rule in our lives is his rule. ¹

I return to Psalm 99:5:

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.

Here, we can clearly see our place. In modern jargon, “He’s God and I’m not.” Or, in the words of “The Lord’s Prayer”:

Your kingdom come, your will be done. —Matthew 6:10

This Season of Advent, as we hear the beautiful text of Handel’s Messiah, please allow those words to remind us of His place and ours. Let us determine, once again, to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all of our lives, and bow at His footstool in worship.

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1 Tripp, Paul David. Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017. p. 56.

 

 

It Came a Flower Bright

 

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

—Isaiah 11:1

“I am a rose of Sharon.”

—Song of Songs 2:1

You may recognize the words of this Christmas Carol sung by many people from as far back as the 14th century. The images portrayed in this hymn give us a sense of something unexpected, welcomed in the coldest and darkest time of year.

It came, a Flower bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night. ¹

This beautiful meditation reminds us that in our most sinful and hopeless state, Jesus came to us with salvation. This coming also quietly and largely unexpectedly appeared in the most undesirable of locations, in a most unconventional way: the birth of a Baby to a peasant, unmarried teenage girl, into poverty, and in a stable.

That night still surrounds us. But, we can continue to welcome the Light of the World. Even in our darkest hours, He comes to us with His beauty and shocking favors, through that same Flower of long ago.

Meditate this season on the ways Christ has come to us in the dead and cold of night with His light and His fragrance, as a rose blooming in winter. Read and rejoice in these words:

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load. ²

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1 German Carol. Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming. Public domain.

2 Ibid. Verse three.

 

 

Dressed for Christmas

 

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

—Jude 1:24

How many mothers and grandmothers take pride in dressing their children in matching, festive, adorable Christmas outfits? Most, I would say. They want to show the world, through their holiday greeting cards and long-kept family albums, the pride of their lives: their children.

Never have I seen such pictures of children showing their runny noses, dirty or torn shirts, or their sagging dirty diapers, or with the children squirming and crying for the camera. Even though, from time to time, these same adorable children can look this very un-adorable way, moms always work to put their little ones in the right light for others to see.

Our God does this with us! He brags about us, dresses us in spiritual finery, and speaks of us in glowing terms, even while He knows, all to well, our defects and ugly secrets. Even at creation, we find that God dressed us in the image of His very own spectacular splendor. Psalm&mnbsp;8:5 says of Jesus:

You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.

Now that outfit comes complete with a crown! Since we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we, too, become dressed in His glory by our loving Father. Jesus wants us to look perfect, so He provided a way through His death. Colossians 1:22 tells us:

Now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

Jesus presents us to the Father as perfect in Him. Not only did He wash and cleanse us, dress us in His glorious righteousness, but He has seated us for our portrait in the heavenly realms to show off His riches that we now wear! Ephesians 2:6-7 reveals:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in the kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Our enemy, Satan, may accuse us day and night (Revelation 12:10), but our Savior and God, the Lord Jesus Christ, claims us as His own. Having put our faith in His work, He showcases us like a proud parent and presents us to all of heaven and earth as His beautiful children. May the knowledge of this kind of marvelous grace cause us great joy as we dress for this Christmas season!