A Heart Prepared

As believers, we are called to set apart Christ as Lord in our heart. We are called to live for his glory no matter what our circumstances are. Peter reminds us of these truths in 1 Peter 3:13-17. In this passage, he gives us a brief field manual for this rough and tumble world.

• We must live righteously. Righteous living is a combination of faith and action. We can call it faithful obedience or obedient faith.

• We must adjust our definition of harm. From a human perspective, harm can be categorized as anything that brings pain, discomfort, or displeasure. From a divine perspective, harm is that which separates us from God's mercy.

• We have to accept suffering as a blessing. I don't mean we enjoy the suffering. We rejoice in the suffering because it means God is treating us as his children. God blesses us in suffering (see Mt. 5:10-12).

• We must not fear. Peter tells us not to fear what they (opposition) fear or he could be telling us not to fear the opposition itself. If he is speaking about fearing what they fear, what would that be? Death, rejection, humiliation, etc. We are not to fear those things because we have Christ. Nor should we fear people because they only have the power to harm our bodies, not our souls.

• We must be prepared to give answers to any one who asks us why we hope in Christ. It doesn't we have all the answers, but that we are able to express the gospel clearly.

• We must be gentle and respectful. The gospel message can easily offend someone who does not believe they are a sinner. However, we should not seek to offend them with the way we present the message.

• We have to keep a clear conscience. We do this by living what we proclaim. We acknowledge our weaknesses, but strive to live obediently. 

Peter's words where meant to comfort a struggling people. They were also meant to encourage them to rise to the challenge. Sometimes, suffering for doing God's will is his will for us. When he permits hardship to enter our lives, we can trust that he has a good reason. In times like those, we cling to him knowing that he is worthy of our trust.

Pay Attention to Wisdom

"My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge" (Prov. 5:1-2, HCSB).

Although wisdom is a highly valuable commodity, it is rarely sought after today.  Gold may be more expensive and easier to attain, but it is much less valuable.  Solomon urges his "son" to take heed to his words.  They are words that aid in the navigation of life.  But they are more, they are life itself.

Wisdom, in the biblical sense, is the guide to walking in a way that pleases God.  Being wise is part science, part art, part hard work, and all of faith.  Wisdom knows that the guidelines enable freedom, when foolishness sees them as a loss of freedom.  Wisdom knows that our knowledge is finite, and it rests in the infinite wisdom of God.

The human heart is like a garden.  Left alone, it will bear little fruit because it quickly becomes overrun with weeds.  An undisciplined heart is a jungle of confusing motives and jumbled passions.  This overgrowth endangers the fruit the Word can produce.

We must be diligent in the garden of our hearts--carefully weeding out all selfish ambition, pride, malice, etc.  By faith, we must labor diligently to put the Word into practice in our lives.  Solomon says, "pay attention," and "listen closely."  These things we must do, but he is not calling us to the mere use of our ears.  No, he is calling us to listen as one who will be quick to respond.  We listen in order to make certain that our actions will be the very ones our teacher would have us to do.

This kind of listen is fitting for followers of Christ, because in order to be a follower one must first believe and then obey Christ's commands.  Without obedience there is no hope of salvation.  Some might object, "Don't you mean, 'Without faith there is no hope of salvation?'".  No, I mean what James meant.  Faith that doesn't produce obedience is not saving faith.  And true obedience to Jesus will always be driven by faith.

If we pursue wisdom, or to put it as Jesus did: if we will build our life upon the teachings of Jesus, then we will learn discretion and our lips will safeguard knowledge.  That is to say, we will know how to please God and be able to teach others to do the same. 

Are you paying attention to the wise?  Do you listen carefully to the Word of God with an obedient heart?  Do you consider yourself wise?  Do others?  If you feel like you lack wisdom, keep reading the Bible and combining what you read with faithful obedience.

Lead Your Heart

"The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" (Prov. 16:9, ESV).

There is a line in the movie, Fireproof, that says something like, "You can't follow your heart, because your heart can be deceived.  You have to lead your heart."  We want to believe that our heart is unaffected by the Fall, that it wants what is best for us.  But the human heart has been affected by the fall, and has its own interests at heart.

If we follow the plans of our heart, without serious reflection, we can get into deep trouble.  I'm not saying that we cannot trust any of our desires, but that we need to be cautious.  When we plan, we need to ask ourselves to what end we are planning.  Are our plans about self promotion and self interest? Or are they about glorifying God in our lives? Or do we say they are about glorifying God, so he will bless us?

He's not fooled by our clever tactics.  He sees through our charade.  It is wiser to turn to the Lord, and to ask him to establish our steps, to allow him to show us the plans he has for us.  His plans always turn out for his glory our our good.

Sit down with the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand it.  Read it. Study it. Meditate on it.  Pray it back to God.  Read it again.  Study it more.  As you do these things, allow the Word to form you, to shape you, and to challenge you.  Allow the Word to teach you God's plan, and then make it your plan.  Otherwise, the plans of your heart will come to nothing.

The Lord is ordering your steps, so step wisely.  Step up, and lead your heart.  If you don't, your heart will lead you, but not always to the place you want to go.

Here I Am, Send Someone Else

"But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else'" (Exod. 4:13, ESV).

This quote is not one of Moses' greatest moments.  He is standing at the burning bush receiving his call to ministry, and all he can think about is getting out of it.  Right before Moses utters these words the Lord promises him, that he would be given the words to say.  The Lord says, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  Is it not I?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak" (Exod. 4:11-12, ESV).  Moses' "slow of speech" excuse had been rejected, and his only response is send someone else.

It really boggles the mind.  I imagine this scene over and over in my mind.  I envision the bush ablaze with flames.  My mind hears the voice of the Lord as a pounding thunder.  I see Moses, amazed and cowering, at the awesome display of God's might.  And each time I get to this part, I can't image how Moses works up the courage to ask God to send somebody else.  I can't seem to get into his head to figure out how he could do such a thing.

Then the Lord brings back to my mind other scenes.  In these scenes, I recognize myself as the main character.  I watch as the Lord speaks to me through his Word, but I refuse to listen.  I hear him prompt me to go and share the gospel, but I see me asking him to send someone else.  And I wonder where I got the nerve.

Who am I to judge Moses?  His fear no less noble than my own.  If anything, his cowardice was more justified than mine, because he hadn't seen the whole plan of God laid out in Scripture.  He had seen the faithfulness of God demonstrated in the life of saint after saint, in both the Old and New Testaments.  He had heard of the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but until this moment he had probably never heard him.  His fear was both natural and irrational.  It was natural because man struggles to comprehend the will of God.  It was irrational because he was receiving revelation from God that assured him success.

But when we doubt the Word, it is unnatural and irrational.  It is unnatural because as believers in Christ we are indwelt by the Spirit who confirms the witness of Scripture to our hearts.  When we ignore that witness we are not acting in accordance with our nature.  It is irrational to doubt God's Word, because it is God's revelation of himself to us, and we are assured success if we obey it.

What we must remember about this episode in Moses' life is how God responded to his request.  Moses records, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses" (Exod. 4:14a, ESV).  The Lord became angry with Moses, because Moses did not trust him.  The Lord had given Moses several signs, but Moses was unwilling to obey.  We can draw a lesson from this event, namely, when the Lord calls you to do something, do it quickly.  To delay is to disobey.  We must remember that whatever task God calls us to, he will equip us to do it.  It is the Lord's to command, and ours to obey.  Let us not say with Moses, "Here I am, send someone else."  Let us say with Isaiah, "Here I am, send me."

Are You Searching for a Sign?

"He said, 'But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you , that I have sent you:  when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain'" (Ex. 3:12, ESV).

It seems to me that the sign given to Moses is the sign of completing the task.  He would only know for certain that the Lord had really called him to the task when the task was complete.  He could not know apart from the doing.

Faith is never saving faith apart from being obedient.  To put it another way, faith without works is dead.  Thus, we demonstrate our trust in the Lord by obeying his commands.  The Christian life is one of obedient faith where on knows as one does.

Let's examine Moses' situation in this passage.  He gone to investigate what appeared to be a bush that was on fire, but not being destroyed.  As he approaches this anomalous sight, he hears the voice of the angel of the Lord commanding him to remove his sandals.  As the Lord speaks to him through the burning bush, Moses becomes acutely aware that he is hearing a message from God.  Why doesn't God say to Moses, "This burning-yet-not-consumed bush is a sign unto you that I have called you to bear my message."?

The reason the Lord doesn't have to Moses that the bush is a sign is because Moses gets it.  What Moses can't make out is how he will be know if he is man enough for the task.  Therefore, God confirms to Moses that the sign he seeks will only be found when his journey is complete.  If Moses really wants to know if he can succeed, he has to get to work.

Likewise, many of us want a sign to know if we can handle what we think God is calling us to do.  However, we will never know what we are capable of until we do something.  Waiting for a sign might be a humble thing to do when we are uncertain as to what the Lord would have us to do.  It may also be a sign of a wicked lack of faith (see Matt. 16:4).

Uncertainty is not the lack of faith.  One might be confused as to what he should be doing for the Lord, and yet be obediently trusting the Lord.  Case in point, a person is asked to teach a Sunday school class.  The feel reluctant to teach, because they don't think they are worthy of such a task.  Although they are uncertain as to the outcome, they seek the Lord's enabling and guidance.  This uncertainty is not caused by lack of faith, but a lack of clarity of one's role.

We will not know what tasks we are up to (through God's enabling) until we actually attempt to do them in his strength.  Nor will God excuse us.  When he calls us to a task, the sign of our success is only seen after we succeed.  Just as the Lord told Moses, "Here is how you will know you can do this: one day you'll be here worshiping me," he tells us the same.

If you feel called to a task, you should know that tackling that task is the only way you will know that you are called to it.  It is only by persevering through the grinding pressures of every day service that we get a sense of our calling.  When you endure hardship, and know that it was not your strength that one the day, but the strength of the Lord working in and through you, only then do you know that you are living your call.  That isn't to say that everyone's call is equally successful (by human standards).  Remember many of the prophets (though successful in God's eyes because of their obedient faith), never experienced seeing their audiences come to repentance.

When you served the Lord with all you have, do you worship him for his kindness?  There is a sign in that.  The sign says he called you and equipped you for the task.  It also says he forgave you for your failings along the way.  But, most importantly, it says his grace is sufficient.  If you really want to know if God can use you, get to work.