The Nudge

Jeremiah 10:23-24 NKJV
O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
O Lord, correct me, but with justice;
Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

Dear God,

I cannot know my own heart or motives apart from the discernment of Your Holy Spirit through Your revealed Word.  I cannot discern my path or even my next step, apart from You. Neither do I wish to do so. 

I want you to guide my feet to a plain path. I want Your Holy Spirit to discern my heart, my motives, my deepest intention, and lead me in a path of holiness within and without. 

Please correct my errors. I prefer to be corrected before I err. Check me with Your divine prompts to my heart. A flinch, a sigh, a nudge of intimacy. Help me to live close enough to You that I can sense the beating of Your heart of love for me. Tune the ears of my heart and conscience to hear Your softest whisper. Restrain me from resisting, ignoring, or overriding Your voice to take my own course of action.

But in those moments of disobedience, those occasions of haste when I ignore Your gentle prompt, correct me. Jeremiah prayed, "Correct me, but with justice. Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing."

I want to learn of You. I want to hear and obey Your voice. I want to feel Your nudge.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Get Your Eyes Off Others

Isaiah 5:20-23 

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine,
Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away justice from the righteous man!

Isaiah 6:1-5
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”

Dear God,

I acknowledge my harshness toward others. I see their failures and judge them as sinful. All too often, I am unwilling to submit to Your examination and await Your pronouncement of me.

Isaiah pronounced judgments on everyone else. But when he saw You he cried out, "Woe is me." After his encounter with You, Your prophet was forever transformed. 

Change me. Shape me. Remake me in Your image. 

Pronounce whatever "woes" You need to pronounce over me. Just don't leave me in my woeful condition. I want to know You, be like You, and live in relationship with You. I want to hear You send me forth to do Your bidding. "Go!" 

You did it for Isaiah. Do it for me. I get my eyes off others. I look to You.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Saint Valentine Tells His Own Story

“Let me introduce myself.  My name is Valentine.  I lived in Rome during the third century.  That was long, long ago!  At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius.  I didn’t like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn’t the only one!  A lot of people shared my feelings.  

“Claudius wanted to have a big army.  He expected men to volunteer to join.  Many men just did not want to fight in wars.  They did not want to leave their wives and families.  As you might have guessed, not many men signed up.  This made Claudius furious.  So what happened?  He had a crazy idea.  He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army.  So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages.  Young people thought his new law was cruel.  I thought it was preposterous!  I certainly wasn’t going to support that law!

“Did I mention that I was a priest?  One of my favorite activities was to marry couples.  Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies--secretly, of course.  It was really quite exciting.  Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself.  We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

“One night, we did hear footsteps.  It was scary!  Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time.  I was caught.  (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.)  I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

“I tried to stay cheerful.  And do you know what?  Wonderful things happened.  Many young people came to the jail to visit me.  They threw flowers and notes up to my window.  They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.

“One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard.  Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell.  Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours.  She helped me to keep my spirits up.  She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages.  On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty.  I signed it, ‘Love from your Valentine.’

“I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s Day.  It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D.  Now, every year on this day, people remember.  But most importantly, they think about love and friendship.  And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh--because they know that love can’t be conquered!"

St. Valentine’s story from http://www. pictureframses.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm       January 13, 2000

A Valentine Veteran

Jimmy and Helen were workers at Mount Carmel High School when I was a boy.  Jimmy was a maintenance man and Helen was a cook.  They were both hardworking, industrious people.  Jimmy was not the brightest man, but he worked hard and he loved Helen.   One day Jimmy noticed the letter “V” marking a holiday on the calendar.  Jimmy thought to himself, “I need to get a Valentine for Helen!”  
So the next time Jimmy was in Jackson shopping, he looked for a Valentine for Helen   To his surprise, he could find none.  Jimmy saw a red cardinal with pretty feathers, so he decided to buy that for Helen   On the special day, Jimmy presented his valentine cardinal to Helen  and said, “Happy Valentines Day.”  Helen was mystified, and thanked Jimmy.  Suddenly she realized what had happened.  “Jimmy, it’s not Valentine’s Day.  It’s November and the V on the calendar is for Veteran’s Day!”

Are You Taxing Your Canaanites?

Judges 1:28 "And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out."

It is easy to develop a tolerance of sin. We excuse our pet sins. We even "sanctify" them as a benefit and blessing in our lives. We label them "coping strategies." We depend upon them for stress relief. And we hit the "Repeat" button in our souls.

The Hebrews struggled with the same thing. God miraculously delivered them from Egyptian slavery. Moses led them through the Red Sea, toward the promised land, gave them the law of God, and brought them to the portal of Canaan, the land of promise. Then Moses died.

Joshua was God's chosen leader for the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. God performed another miracle clearing a path through the flooded Jordan River. Circumcision at Gilgal, victory at Jericho, and the conquest began in earnest.

At the end of his life, Joshua praised God for fulfilling every promise and granting the Hebrews occupation of the entire land of Canaan, just as He had promised.

"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. 44 The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." (Joshua 21:43-45)

But there was a problem. The Hebrews failed to drive out all of the Canaanites. In doing so, they disobeyed God. The sex and religion cults of the Canaanites worship had caused God to declare that the Canaanites had so defiled the land, that they no longer were entitled to occupy it. Rather than exterminate them as God commanded, the Hebrews confined their Canaanite neighbors to villages and taxed them.

"Why obey God completely when we can turn these folks into a revenue stream?"

But the Canaanites were influential. They influenced the Hebrews with sex. The Canaanite gods, Baal and Asherah, demanded sex for worship. Sex with priests. Sex with priestesses. Sex with other Canaanites. Even sex with Hebrews. Everybody knows that "Sex sells." It did then. It does now.

The Hebrews taxed the Canaanites so that they could profit from the sex trade. The only problem was that the sexy Canaanite worship would destroy them.

They taxed the Canaanites.

Are you taxing the Canaanites of your life? Are there areas where God has said, "Exterminate these practices." Rather than occupying the land of promise, you are preserving enclaves of carnality. You may even be turning these enclaves into a revenue stream. 

Obey God. Taxing the Canaanites has never worked out very well. 

Expand Your Borders!

Joshua 19:40-48 NKJV  40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 41 And the territory of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Jethlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the region near Joppa. 47 And the border of the children of Dan went beyond these, because the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it; and they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it, and dwelt in it. They called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father. 48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.

My Lord and my God,

I want to be a man after Your own heart. A man who hears Your call and obeys. I want to obey without reluctance, hesitation, or argument. I want to accomplish the task that You put before me, by Your grace and for Your glory.

The Hebrew tribe of Dan took an ambitious and aggressive attitude toward Your call to possess their portion of the land of Canaan. Joshua apportioned their land to them and gave the mandate of conquest. The children of Dan conquered the city of Leshem, the greatest city of their promised land. Upon conquering it, they renamed the city Dan, after their forefather.

But Your Word describes a spirit among the tribesmen of Dan that went above and beyond the call of duty. “The border of the children of Dan went beyond these.” Dan’s fighting men pushed their border beyond the promised allocation. Their ambition drove them farther.

I love the spirit of the tribe of Dan. I love the attitude to excel, to do more, to achieve, to push harder and go farther. Unvarnished and selfish ambition is dangerous. Sanctified ambition is beautiful.

Lord, grant me a spirit of ambition and achievement to accept Your mandate for my life and run with it. Give me courage to expand my borders beyond the limits. Grant me strength, boldness, and enthusiasm for the task.

In the Name of my Lord Jesus,

Amen.

"I have to find myself"

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer felt stripped bare in a German prison. It was late in World War II when your servant was suffering in bondage, eventually condemned to death by hanging.  Prison gave him countless hours to think, write, and reflect. Certainly, your presence sustained him in those unending hours. 

From prison, Bonhoeffer wrote: "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

I can only imagine the self-reflection, personal insights, and psychological explanations for one's own identity, thoughts and behaviors that could be pursued in isolation. But it could prove utterly maddening. Yet, Bonhoeffer was not alone. You were with him. His writings expose his soul, his worship, and his surrender to your cross.

It seems that the individualism of the Western world has poisoned our thoughts with a narcissistic reflection that the individual is the center of the universe. The result is that billions of egocentric universes ridiculously revolve on the orb of our planet, each insisting upon its own veracity and authenticity.

But Bonhoeffer, a man of extraordinary self-knowledge and insight, proclaims: "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

The ancient Greeks proclaimed: "Know thyself."

The 1960's marked an era of American Baby Boomers seeking self-knowledge in an elusive quest to "find" themselves.

But, "There is something more at stake than self-knowledge."

Ultimately, my quest to know myself is a quest to find myself, and proves to be a wasted effort of self-definition. Definition demands an external point of reference.

You, alone, are that point of reference. You are my Creator, my God, my Savior, the One who knows me best. You know my failings, my weakness, my sin, yet You love me and seek to redeem my life. You seek to inform my identity at a depth that You alone know and understand. You seek to redefine my very perception of myself, not by looking at me more, but by turning my eyes to look upon You! Only in right relationship with You, may I discover who You intend me to become!

Hallelujah!

What hope! What joy! What promise!

So I turn afresh to You, Designer of my life, Master Architect of my purpose. Fulfill me in You.

In the Name of the One who knows me best, Abba Father,

Amen.