LifeLines Weblog

Each year in my Bible reading plan, I’m guided to a verse that brings me great encouragement and a new perspective each time I look at it. Has that happened to you? Each year of age seems to bring out another vibrant color in the Word? Imagine what 1,000 years of Gods presence will do when we look at His Word then!

Psalm 139:17 – to memorize

Here is the verse that struck me again today — Psalm 139:17:

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

First Thoughts

The first things that stand out to me in this verse are that God is thinking about me constantly, he’s thinking a lot of precious things for my good, he will never forget me, and his thoughts are for my best interests. His thoughts are guiding, watching, caring, & corrective.

What a delight to be a child of God! What a beautiful ocean compared to my creek of a life!

On Second Thought

Now the application comes closer to home and demonstrates the great difference between God as Father and me as son.

• How much do I think about God?
  
• When do I think about him? Constantly? Frequently? Somewhat generally?
  
• Do I have his best interests in my mind?
  
• How much internal sin would be deterred if my focus was Perfection? 
  
• How much more love would I experience in communion thinking through how HE is love?
  
• How much of the gift of thinking power am I wasting because it is undirected and unfocused?

Could any good thought, directed toward God, ever be wasted on Him?

note: Feel free to share! The comments are now open on the blog and you can respond to this post with your “thoughts” and feedback. If you’re receiving this by email, you can also click to reply directly to this post (although comments on the blog are much more fun).

Idol Demolishing.¹ It ranks right up there in entertainment value with garden weeding. In the last post about spotting idols in your life, we sought for helps on how to identify these life-leeches. So, now that your list has sufficiently grown to the level of frustration because there are so many you never considered before, let’s use some power tools to take these things out!

Remember the First Commandment

In Exodus 20:3, the first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is pretty straightforward and very hard to misinterpret. The beautiful thing about this command is that the Lord doesn’t leave us with just a “do-this and do-that” command. He gives us the reason for this command so that we’ll look at His character. In verse 5, the Lord tells us that He is a jealous God. This does not mean that He has petty rivals and tries to “one-up” these other powers competing for your attention. Rather, it means that He is so purely zealous for His own glory being evidenced in your life that there is NO ROOM for any other being. He is the wonderfully intolerant King! This means there will be a battle for your heart and mind. One author said, “The biblical faith will not tolerate idols…God does not permit rivals, and the idolatries instinctively recognize this.”²

Martin Luther also made an astute point that there is a profound reason why this is the first command. His insight was if you break any of the other 9 commandments, you’ve already broken the first. In other words, if you steal or murder — why did you have to steal or murder? Because another being for worship has come before the Lord. I think the inverse principle is also true. If you seek to obey the first commandment, you will have a much more delightful time with the rest of the commandments.

Call it an I-D-O-L

Idols are little tumors that start small and hide in the walls of the heart. And because they are good things that are taken one-step-too-far at first, our initial reaction is to say, “It’s not that bad, get off my case.” Idols are also lies from the father of lies. And the initial lie is always a falsehood protected by a truth statement. OR, if you want to flip the idea, it’s always a truth that is made to misrepresent a lie to make it look better than or less harmless than it really is.

For example, look at how subtle this one is — “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  Followed up by, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1,4-5

So, the immediate temptation is to misrepresent it so that we can protect it. Take a lesson from primitive pagans if you will. They carve the idol, worship it, and then carry it on their shoulders to save it from the flood destroying their village. They protect it. They think it is greater than it actually is; something they cannot live without. Prophet Jeremiah and Apostle Paul both expose these idols as nothing at all. They’re not gods. They don’t save. And they don’t have power.  Jeremiah 10 & Acts 19:26

Another example of this can be found in Amos 6:10-17. We recently studied this passage in our Church and found that Amos went to prophesy to the northern kingdom about their idolatry and his first stop was in Bethel. This was a city where the wicked king, Jeroboam II, had set up a false center of worship and paid a false priest named Amaziah to run the joint. Amos, the poor shepherd-prophet,  preaches plainly and fearlessly. Amaziah doesn’t like it one bit. So, to protect the whole gig, he sends a letter to King Jero and lies about Amos, God’s truth-telling prophet, and almost has him killed.

The core principle is agree with God and call an idol what it is. You don’t have to misrepresent it to protect it.

Thankfulness

Here’s a deep lesson from Jonah, literally. Just after a swim and during his submarine tour, Jonah prays desperately and humbly to the Lord (ch. 2). At the end of his prayer, he says something fishy, “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.  But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;” (v. 8-9). In this part of the prayer, we get the sense that Jonah brought his idol with him and was dropping it off for the whale to deal with. No wonder the fish had to puke!

This also teaches us something of how thankfulness and giving thanks contrasts and conquests idolatry. When you’re thankful, you’re admitting that there is a greater source beyond the thing you’re thankful for. You’re also agreeing that what could easily be an idol is really a gift — and you’re worshiping the ONE WHO gave it to you. In Jonah’s case he was declaring through thankfulness that idols were empty of hope, continuous love, and salvation. The “I AM” is and remains the only satisfying source of these.

Run Away

1 Cor 10:14 simply says, “flee from idolatry…”

Have you ever noticed that an idol always draws you close — so close until you become one with it? Idols use powerful, attractive words like “love, have, passion, satisfy, deserve, hold, feel, want etc.“  When these words start manifesting or repeating themselves where you find your time, attention, and affections are occupied with the idol, then that is a strong sign you’re turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.³ You might be trying to define your self-worth by it. The best solution here is the biblical one – run. Oh, and one way to help you get away from it is to close the door behind you and guard its point of entry into your heart. Jesus said in John 10:9, “I AM the door…” There is so much to be said for allowing Christ to stand between you and the destroyers.

This has been some idol-chat; not idle-chat. Hope you’ve been blessed and helped.

Minor Prophets with Major Messages

At Serenissima, we’ve been taking a look at one minor prophet of the Old Testament each week. This last week was the shepherd-prophet, Amos. One of the prevalent themes of Amos is his clarion call against idolatry (other loves and loyalties — Amos 5:25-27). Idolatry is all around us and many times found within us. Anything can be made an idol and it doesn’t have to be an image or physical material either. Therefore, idolatry is a major problem for modern man, and it’s made worse by our modern idea that it’s an antique and out-dated practice of ignorant and primitive people.

After teaching this lesson on idolatry and the righteous anger of the Lord against it in His people, one of the young wives in the Church said, “My sincere prayer was, Lord, please show me my idols.” This was an excellent prayer, and with some practice and humble soul-searching, idols aren’t too hard to spot; just difficult to destroy.

uh, where's the idol?

Define Idol

First, start with a couple working definitions of what idols are and then utilize some of the questions below for reflection.

An idol is anything that you believe will fulfill and satisfy the deep need of your heart for security, acceptance, forgiveness, and the complete love that only God can give. An idol takes a good thing in the creation (ie. relationships, recreation, money, performance, work etc.) and turns it into “an ultimate source // ultimate hope” of providing for the inner aches and needs of the heart. An idol is anything that you feel you must have to be “better”, to be satisfied, or to be somebody. Idols always start small and only end up as statues and the other yada after they’ve grown. They will always lead you to destruction. They will always fail you or cause you to fail them. And one final thought, if you have to find ways to protect it, then it isn’t sovereign and it’s probably a good-ole’, garden-variety i-d-o-l.

Investigating the “I” word

Second, here are 10 questions that might help us start to spot these wicked warts:

1) Do I “have” to have this?

2) Do I have to have this to be somebody or feel significant or secure?

3) What is it that I consider more important that it would keep me from God’s Word, my time in prayer, and serving His people?

4) Do I find myself regularly resentful, complaining, or angry? About what?

5) Is my practice of religion a delightful means of worship or more of a way to build up “credits” and “get ahead” with God?

6) What am I buying?

7) Who do I think is great?

8 ) Am I satisfied with my culture so that I’m indifferent to other peoples?

9) What’s the one thing in my life that if it were taken away from me, I would consider my life ruined, wasted, destroyed, worthless, or stolen from me?

10) What pet thing do I keep going back to and nurturing at every little turn?

You can share your comments and thoughts about this on the LifeLines blog or discuss this in a similar post that can be found on our Discussions Tab of the Serenissima Ministries Facebook Page.

In the last couple weeks, I’ve been asked a very similar question (or two) on four separate occasions. Among Italians and Americans¹ the question has been Where did Cain get his wife? Who was there for Cain to marry? Did the world start in incest and isn’t that wrong?

This topic wasn’t new to me, but it was a surprise to get asked numerous times in one week after relative silence on the topic for years.

So, the Answers in Genesis website has a very decent article on the subject. And, if you’ve never contemplated the questions or researched for some answers — now’s the time.

You can find the article here — and if you would ever need it in Italian, it can be trovato qui.

There are two kinds of people who are both rare to find
and delightful to be around.

1) The poor person who is happy.

They don’t always have to get.

They’re content.

2) The rich person who is generous.

They don’t always have to have.

They’re humble.

Yesterday,  while teaching on the doctrine of rest from Matthew 11:25-30, it escaped my mind (and I knew I was forgetting something) to share a little more of the Hebrew background to Jesus’ use of the words yoke and burden.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
~ Matthew 11:28-30

Sharp Contrast

It is unavoidable in the context of Matthew 11 to notice that Jesus wanted to present Himself as the total contrast to the heavy, restless burdens of the religious leaders of His day. Jesus presented Himself as rest.

As a youth-driven movement,¹ social networking has taken a predominant role in people’s on-line time. Facebook is one of the giants, and quite simply, it seems like you can find almost everybody on there.

I’m a regular FB user and connecting with friends is great. I’m also fascinated with the sociological aspect of how much FB & technological networking is changing how we interact. Below, I’ve shared some thoughts on communication, our culture, and provided a number of links from other authors who have written about the Christian and FB (so skip to the bottom for the links if you’d like – there’s some good articles there.)

Published just a few months ago, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Pastor Timothy Keller is worth everybody’s read. I’m calling the title of my post “an afterword” because I don’t feel that I’m in any place to write a critiquing review. The book was a wonderfully rich blessing to me. And how do you become a critic of something that just schooled your heart? You don’t critique, but rather, you praise and appreciate and encourage more writing  like this. So, I’m not a critic nor a consumer because a consumer too often sets tastes and pleasures as the standard above the gift they’ve been given anyway. In other words, I think we have a Christian classic in the making here and I don’t want to approach this book as “above” this author or his writing by picking and choosing what I like or don’t like.

Briefly then, I’d like to summarize what I saw to be the core of this book and how it was a valuable challenge to me and can be a spiritual check-up (and possibly a transformation) for you too.

Pay attention to the kids

We have been blessed at Serenissima with a lot of kids. Children are great. But having a bunch of kids around also means that we have a lot of added responsibility on our parents to raise these munchkins in a godly way.

Along the parenting way, there are some make or break lessons and choices to learn for mom and dad regardless of age or experience. One of those lessons comes in the consistent choice of spending time with our children or just having them around. Here’s a fact for every parent: kids are inconvenient – and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. And, they’ll remain inconvenient until they can manage life on their own. Children are dependent on us, and we can’t turn them into adults before their time or we’ll be checking-out on our parenting responsibilities way too early (even though the kids are still under our roof).

Each year, we challenge and encourage all the folks in our Church to have a Bible reading plan. I don’t know about you, but I need something that helps me 1) know where I am in the Word and 2) tells me where to read next. Any one of these plans integrates nicely into the First Steps discipleship plan too. Reading plans are so helpful to the Christian life — quantity and quality — it’s a “both-and” principle folks.

So, below, follow the link to 10 of them — digital, email, RSS, print-out, bookmark, catch-up days — one of these is bound to be “great for you.”

Between Two Worlds: Bible Reading Plans