Take Up Your Cross Daily

The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, and that quote came to me the other day as I was considering the day-to-day actions in my own life. How often do I consider why I am doing this or that thing? The majority of our lives are filled with routine actions that we do automatically because that's the way I've always done it, that's the way others do it, or that's the way it's always been done. Now in one sense, this is good for us because it would be impossible to consider deeply every choice we have to make. We would end up being paralyzed by trying to figure out which cereal to choose for breakfast. But in another sense, if we never stop to consider what our lives are about and why we do things, we might very well end up doing things that are meaningless or even outright harmful, just because we want to or just because others are doing it.

In Jeremiah 7, God admonishes the Jewish people for engaging in very sinful behavior such as oppressing the poor and even sacrificing their own children in pagan religious practices. They were doing it while still worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem which was supposed to be Yahweh their God who had explicitly commanded them not to do these things. So how did they, over and over again, end up doing the opposite of what God had told them to do? They almost certainly did not intend to end up evil. Rather it started with ignoring God's Word and not spending time examining their lives in comparison to it. Day by day they would have just gone along with whatever happened and slowly but surely started to take on the practices of other nations around them. Furthermore, humans are naturally inclined to be selfish and not to care for others, so the less they examined their own lives, the more their lives would trend toward loving themselves and not loving others.

This is not just a problem for the ancient Jews, this is the problem of being human in a fallen world. This problem of moral decay is widely seen in our society today. Why do marriages and families fall apart? Why do kids not respect authority? Why are drug use and other crime rampant in many areas of our country? No one intends to end up as an addict, criminal, abuser, neglectful parent, or simply a depressed person who has trouble managing their own life. We take little steps day by day giving in to our desires and going along with the flow of society. If we never consider what our life or society is really about, we will simply start to waste away morally. 

Our character is formed or misformed in the little choices we make day by day, and if we intend to have good character we are going to have to stop and consider what actions are the right actions. Then we need to regularly remind ourselves of our commitment to do these right things. Jesus commanded His followers to "deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23) As a follower of Jesus, I need to daily make a commitment to Him and choose to sacrifice my own desires so that I can love Him and love others well. I need to regularly look to Jesus for His example, guidance, and strength to become the man I am supposed to be. Unfortunately, I also regularly fail to live up to that standard, but because He took up His cross, I can keep coming back day after day, and He keeps helping me. Therefore, we do not have to just accept the decay of the world around us. Rather, with Jesus' help every day, you and I can be renewed and be part of the renewing of the world.

To Whom are You Thankful?

Hopefully this week you will be able to gather with family and consume way too many calories! I know at three family meals that we have scheduled, I will definitely be eating too much! As I do, I will almost certainly be able to look around the room and find much to be thankful for, from the food, to the family, to the homes, and cars. Even coming and going from the different relative's homes, I will be able to see the harvested field, herds of cattle, barns of animals, various industries and shops that have helped to make all this bounty possible. In the process, I will be thankful for the many people who have added greatly to my life such as my wife, my kids, my extended family, my friends, my church family, and the various communities that have added so greatly to my life. When people live sacrificially and give to others they deserve our thanks, not just at one time a year, but regularly.

But many blessings in life cannot be tied to a specific person, such as life itself, health, natural beauty, and our own gifts and talents. As a Christian, I know who to thank for these blessing. Many places in the Bible let us know that we should be thankful saying, "Give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Other passages let us know to whom we should be thankful saying, "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever" (Psalm 107:1). When we reflect upon the world, we see that blessings are all around us every day and that many of the best parts of creation, from the intricacies of a leaf to the smile of a baby, if they are to have any meaning at all must come from somewhere or more specifically someone else. Upon reflection, we can see that, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17). 

What if I do not believe in God or at least do not make God a regular part of my life? Where then do all these blessings come from and to whom should I give thanks? Around this time of year, I often hear people declare that we should be thankful for the good things or that we should live thankful lives. But if they do not know where the blessing comes from, who are they thanking? The universe? The world in general? Nothing? Thankfulness untethered to a deeper reality feels hollow because giving thanks should be tied to a relationship with the person who gave us the blessing. Our conscience tells us that being thankful is the right thing, but if God is not acknowledged as the origin of the blessing then our internal desire to thank someone is left empty. We end up thanking a void, which makes us feel like the emotion itself is meaningless. Conversely, our very desire to give thanks is one of the evidences that there is someone to thank!

Therefore, I encourage you this Thanksgiving time, to yes, pay attention to and even list the many blessings in your life, but also to make sure you spend time reflecting on who gave you those blessings. Pray a prayer of thanksgiving to our good God who gives us all good things.

What's the Desire of Your Heart?

What do you want in life? Are your goals realistic? What if you never got that thing? Would your life have been a waste? For instance, when I was young I wanted to be rich, and I've heard the same thing from my kids at times, namely a desire to be a millionaire. Now, for me, it wasn't necessarily that I wanted money, but there were things that I wanted that I couldn't get because I didn't have enough money. So, therefore, I wanted to be able to buy whatever my heart desired.

For others, their heart desire might be that someone would love them or that they would have a relationship with their dream man or woman. Another person's heart desire might be to be famous, to have thousands or even millions of likes on their Instagram post or Tiktok video. Heck, I can understand that, because even in writing articles or blog posts, I wonder how many people I can reach.

What I've realized as I've lived a little bit of life now is that, money, things, people, fame, pleasure, etc., are only temporarily satisfying. They break, get lost, go away, get forgotten in history, and/or die. They don't, they cannot, really fill my heart and keep me satisfied.

So this morning as I was reading in the book of Psalms 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart," I was contemplating how the first part of the verse connects to the second part of the verse. God can give us the desires of our heart, but he doesn't promise to give us just anything that we might want. Rather, He will give us himself if we delight in Him. When He becomes the desire of our heart, He gives us Himself. 

But is God worth it? Can He really satisfy our hearts and keep us satisfied? In the Psalm right before this, it says, "How priceless is your unfailing love. Both high and lower among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house. You give them drink from your river of delights, for with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light" (Psalm 36:7-9). 

But how can we know that this is true? I mean, sure, God is saying this about Himself, but is he really telling us the truth? In this case, there really is only one way to find out. As Psalm 34;8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."  Honestly, you can go through the process of trying everything out, like the teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes did, to see if those other things will satisfy you, but I would recommend starting with the one true God, who is eternal and wants relationship with us. 

We know this because he reaches out to us in the person of Jesus Christ who came to repair a broken relationship so that we could delight in the Lord. We could experience His love. He actually gives us a new heart and helps us understand how to delight in the Lord so that the desire of our heart, the eternal desire, the hole in our heart can be filled. 

The Bible Works

 

Last week, I got upset with someone, or more accurately, someone became upset with me, which "caused" me to become upset with them. I was feeling quite emotional at the time (I had knee surgery last week, so I was tired and sore), so I didn't handle my emotions very well, and I had to exit the conversation. After leaving, I began to reflect on some of the biblical principles of conflict resolution that I have often taught to others. Using these principles, I began to assess the situation and my emotions.

I realized that my identity needed to be grounded in what God says about me, and that my life and actions needed to begin with a willingness to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), which is the first biblical principle of reconciliation I have learned. Then I needed to examine myself to see if I had a log in my eye, even though in my spirit, I wanted to remain resentful and blame the other person. In this reflection, I was able to recognize that I had sinned in my attitude and response. Before blaming the other person, I needed to repent to the Lord (1 John 1:9) and then ask the other person for forgiveness (Matt. 5:23). Therefore, it became clear to me that I had to seek reconciliation with my Christian friend (Romans 12:18). After a few minutes of more rational conversation and some apologies exchanged, we were reconciled. Our friendship was renewed, and we both learned more about reconciliation and how to love each other better.

Because I had specifically studied what the Bible had to say about repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation, I knew what God wanted me to do in this type of situation. At that point, it was not a lack of knowledge but a decision of the will, whether I would obey or not, and whether I would truly trust that God knows best about how I should live my life.

God has laid out many truths in His Word about salvation, about what is right and wrong, about how we are created to live and love Him and others. When we know these truths, believe these truths, and act on these truths, our lives are better because, as our Creator, God knows best. Following His Word helps us have confidence in our eternal relationship with Jesus, have better marriages, be better parents, learn to honor our parents, be better citizens, be better friends, find and use our spiritual gifts, be more honest, be more humble, be better church members, be better employees, or students. In these and many other ways, if we spend time learning God's Word, then believe its truth and act upon it, we will be better humans.

If you don't believe me, I challenge you to read some of the Bible daily and find one truth to meditate upon, and then try to apply it in your life. Test God's Word and see if it contains both the big truths of life and eternity, but also truths that help you live from day to day.