An undivided heart.

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There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like Yours.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship before You, O Lord,
and shall glorify Your name.
For You are great and do wondrous things;
You alone are God.
Teach me Your way, O LORD,
that I may walk in Your truth;
unite my heart to fear Your name.
I give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify Your name forever.
For great is Your steadfast love toward me;
You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
—Psalm 86:8-13, ESV

 

Excited.

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What do you get excited about?

Here someone famous is giving away tons of free stuff.

Do you know anyone with this kind of joy about their salvation?

(What if the most Famous One ever gave away His life for us? Could we get excited about that?)

 

The Secret Power of Time

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On a snowy morning (in Portland), the following sped-up video is worth your time and attention. Enjoy.

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.

 

The goal.

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In all areas of life that involve working and striving towards a goal, we must define the ‘win.’ Had some interesting conversations with people recently about what does it mean to ‘win’ in the Christian life. Perhaps the reason some of us are frustrated in life is that we’ve made something our goal that may not be attained in this life. Or tomorrow.

Here’s my simple take:

The goal of Christian spirituality is Christ-likeness and restoration of the image of God (2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Peter 1:4)

To that end, let us welcome God as He introduces anything into our lives that leads us towards Christ-likeness. Any circumstance that makes be depend upon God and lead us towards Christ-likeness can be received by faith as in keeping with His will. As we are being restored into the image of God, we will be less of our own ‘self.’ At least less self-concerned, and more consumed with Him and His will — loving people. It’s a journey. In the end shall be like Him (1 John 3:2).

 

Getting boys to read

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Is the best way to teach boys to love reading by pandering to their tastes? (Like a book about all things gross: Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty.)

Is it by bribing them with video games?

Thomas Spence writes in the Wall Street Journal (9/24):

When I was a young boy, America’s elite schools and universities were almost entirely reserved for males. That seems incredible now, in an era when headlines suggest that boys are largely unfit for the classroom. In particular, they can’t read.

According to a recent report from the Center on Education Policy, for example, substantially more boys than girls score below the proficiency level on the annual National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test. This disparity goes back to 1992, and in some states the percentage of boys proficient in reading is now more than ten points below that of girls. The male-female reading gap is found in every socio-economic and ethnic category, including the children of white, college-educated parents.

The good news is that influential people have noticed this problem. The bad news is that many of them have perfectly awful ideas for solving it.

Read the rest here including a very good strategy for getting boys to read.

(Could the reading gap have more to do with competition for boys’ attention than with their supposed inability to focus on anything other than outhouse humor?)

 

Free and content — in His promises.

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Yesterday I re-read the last chapter in the letter to the Hebrews. Here’s a command that won’t let go of my mind:

“Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5

The things we love captivate us. It takes wisdom and diligence to keep those things from capturing our affections in ways they were not meant to. How many of us have possessions that in actuality possess us? (Searching my own heart here.) The path to true joy is to repent of trusting in these things and turn to God who supplies all our needs. Repentance is more than a one-time act; we get to trade one short-lived pleasure for a greater one, for when we repent, we turn from one thing to the One who is much greater, more pleasureful, and longer lasting.

When we are content with what we have, we say to God in effect, “You are enough!”

As this Scripture reminds us, God’s promise of His presence with us will sustain us through any circumstance. Being with Him is the great promise of eternal life, which for we who trust in Christ has already begun.

 

Everyday Justice.

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A promo video for the upcoming Justice Conference in Bend, Oregon (Feb. 11-12, 2011).

A mark of a maturing believer and follower of Jesus is a growing awareness of the true needs in the world, and a love for those people with a passion to help meet those needs and build bridges for the Gospel message. We see the inequity in the world and are not content to wait on governments to move solely for the sake of the marginalized, needy, poor, and destitute. We give up personal comforts so others can have the basic necessities for health and life.

Justice is about reconciliation, which is rooted in love. We who have been reconciled with God, get to see His reconciling work spread to every area of our lives and all of creation. What began as a personal relationship with God adds a public dimension that becomes a transformational relationship with the world. One day the universe will be set right (final justice), though we don’t have to wait until then to meet the needs that are within our control today. The love of Christ compels us.

(On a side note: World Relief did a tremendous job on the video, shot in Drake Park in downtown Bend. As I grew up there, I remember walking, riding, running and skating through the park hundreds of times. Good times.)

 

What Drives us? Protection?

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Time for installment three of our What Drives Us series looking at why we do, think and feel the way we do. The core idea is this: we either make our decisions based on God’s promises in the Gospel, or on something else.

We’ve looked at Preference and Perfection. Now it’s time for a dominant purpose here in the comfy West: Protection — safety at all costs.

Does Protection drive you?

Let’s look at how this may play out in life.

Situation … response:

  • When all is well in my life … I feel secure (and probably depend upon God [and pray] less).
  • When trials enter my life … I pray more, for safety, for life to steady (to control my surroundings).
  • When I am criticized, I … Get defensive or run away to a safe place, avoiding the pain.
  • My relationship with God … Helps me find shelter from the battles of daily life.
  • Motivation: Insecurity and fear.
  • When I sin … I don’t want anyone else to know and guard my reputation tightly.  (I may be prone to shift blame to others who threaten my peace of mind.)
  • I trust … in people who can keep me safe from any stress or harm. Who will protect me?
  • My greatest strengths/ weaknesses are … my strength is that I see dangers others neglect; my weakness is that I live a boring life.
  • My identity is found in … being safe and comfortable, in having a good reputation.

What is the antidote?

The Gospel shows a God who is willing to forsake His own comfort, and endure pain and shame on our behalf (Hebrews 12:1-3). Why? Because it is worth it; God the Father and the reward at the other end is of far greater value. For that reason when we come to God through Jesus we can be assured that everything we forsake is of lesser value than Him.

When we learn to love God for who is He, more than what He can do for us, we are beginning to grasp that our comforts will fail us and He will satisfy. As we grow in endurance through suffering and dependence, we will become better (not bitter) and learn how to truly love ourselves. Self will no longer be the abiding center of our lives; God will be, and others will be higher on our radar. This is the beginning of what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself,” as Jesus taught. We love what we think about. And we think about what we love.

While our desire for protection is good, it simply cannot be ultimate. Otherwise our trusting in Christ would be the end and not the beginning of an amazing adventure, full of risk and reward, with dangers on every side (2 Cor. 4-6, esp. 4:7-12) and joy in risking everything for our Savior. In the day to day pressures of life, turning over our worries (our cares and anxiousness) helps us flee the idol of comfort and find security behind the walls of His power and love (Philippians 4:6-7).

Paul states it decisively:

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Are you willing to forgo your protection to find refuge in Him?

 

In pursuit of piety.

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“The most important part of Christian piety is taught by him who inflames men with a love for it. A wise king, in educating his son for true wisdom, spends much more time on motivation than on information, as if the love of wisdom were almost the attainment of it.”

—Desiderious Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), from a letter to Paul Voltz, dated August 14, 1518, later published as the preface to Erasmus’ Enchridion.

 

What about the rest of us, the other 99% ?

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We need churches that help people integrate their faith with their work. That let the Gospel inform everything about them, including where they invest most of their time.

Consider what Tim Keller says below at the Lausanne conference earlier this month in Cape Town, South Africa. This point is brought up at about 5:54 in the video (with a key question at 7:05).

One hope I have as a pastor is that I could be the kind of leader who helps followers of Jesus make the connection between God’s worth and their daily work. That is one oft-neglected aspect of what it means to make disciples.