4SpiritualSecrets

“… do not be like the hypocrites …” (Matthew 6:5)

When I was a poor college student I saw a sign in a window that read “Shirts Done 20¢.” I gathered up a pile of my dirty shirts and took them into the store. To my utter disappointment I was told, “We don’t do shirts. This is a sign shop. We just paint signs!”

A spiritual heavyweight of another generation wrote that when we read the book of Acts we cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product when He wrote the New Testament. Another great preacher told the story of how a cat crawled into a model house in a new real estate development where it was many degrees below zero. It curled up in front of a fake fireplace and froze to death. He then preached that people are doing that when they come to our churches. Looking for warmth, love and Gospel truths that can set them free from their sins, they “curl up and freeze to death.”

Jesus was even more honest and realistic than these two preachers. He called the spiritual leaders of His day “hypocrites.” This was the word used in that day for the play actors who wore false faces or masks that looked like the characters they were portraying.

Rather than decide that you are the true disciple and be judgmental of those who are not, ask yourself some questions: Are you, and the spiritual community of which you are a part, false or true? Are you authentic disciples of Jesus, or are you hypocrites? Are you seeing God’s grace changing lives?

Are you cleaning shirts or are you just painting signs?

He is risen!

What does Easter mean to you, personally? The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to making Easter personal. To understand that statement, first learn something from a dragonfly. Have you ever watched a dragonfly move like a helicopter from one flower to another with its two magnificent sets of wings?

The dragonfly actually spends the first one to four years of its existence at the bottom of a body of water. In that form it has a respiratory system that enables it to inhale water through its long narrow body and derive oxygen from the water, as many underwater creatures do. This fascinating creature has a second respiratory system that will one day equip it to breathe air when it enters into its second dimension of life.

One day it rises to the surface of the water, climbs up on the land, dries its wings in the sun, spreads those wings and gloriously begins the second dimension of its existence. The dragonfly is obviously designed by God to live out its existence in two dimensions. The message of Easter is that we too have been designed by God to live out our existence in two dimensions-on earth now and one day, in heaven.

The operative Easter word is “Resurrection.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that He is alive. We can know Him and be empowered by Him today. His resurrection is also a preview of our resurrection. God will one day transition us into the second dimension of our existence through our own death and resurrection.

Learn from the dragonfly and let these two applications of the resurrection of Jesus make your Easter 2009 a personal Easter.

“Yea, though 1 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me …” (Psalm 23:4)

The most important relationship we have is our relationship with God. The greatest description of a relationship we can have with God is the description given by David in his Shepherd Psalm. After explaining how this relationship is established, David tells us how this relationship works out as God leads us through the deep dark valleys of our lives.

He tells us that God is with him, goes before him and prepares a table of provision for him in the presence of all his enemies. He tells us that God is like a cup running over within him and God is like oil being poured upon him. He ends his psalm by telling us the goodness and mercy of God will follow him all the days of his life. This Hebrew word for follow could be translated as “pursue.” So David is actually telling us that God not only goes before him, but pursues behind him with His mercy (unconditional love) and goodness all the days of his life.

By application, this means that when you are going through your deep dark valleys you can believe that God is with you, goes before you, pursues behind you, will provide for you in the presence of all your enemies or problems, He is within you, and His anointing is upon you as long as you can say with authentic faith, “The Lord Is My Shepherd.”

“He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness…” (Psalm 23:3)

Failure is one of the most feared and dreaded experiences in life. The fear of failure drives millions of people all day long, every day. There are many ways to fail. We can fail in our work, in our marriage or as parents. We can fail personally by feeling we’re not living up to our expectations or our potential. We can fail morally. When we fail what do we do about it?

The third verse of this psalm gives us a prescription for failure. David knew what it was to fail. When he needed a restoration he tells us how his Shepherd restored him when he wrote “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” He had already written that his Shepherd leads him to still waters. When he uses the word “lead” for the second time he uses a Hebrew word that means his Shepherd “drives” him into the paths of righteousness.

What David is telling us here is that when we need a restoration we should not seek a cheap one or an easy one. Rehabilitation means “to invest again with dignity.” He was implying that his restoration was a matter of being driven into the paths of righteousness for some time-perhaps even for years. His Shepherd used those paths of righteousness to restore his soul or to give him an opportunity to invest again with dignity.

By application, when you fail and need a restoration don’t seek a cheap one or an easy one. Let the great Shepherd lead you into the paths of righteousness that will truly restore your soul.

“…rejoice in your sufferings knowing…” (Romans 5:3 NIV)

Rejoice in your sufferings, knowing what? In the fifth chapter of his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul begins by writing that God has given us access, by faith, into grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ in this world and live a life that glorifies God.

Imagine how it must make God feel when He has given us access to all the grace we need to live for Christ in this world and we never access that grace. According to Paul, because God loves us He permits suffering to enter our lives that we cannot bear without drawing on this grace we can access by faith.

Paul writes that as we receive the grace to endure our suffering God produces mature Christ-like character in our lives such as perseverance. When you ask the question, “How does an orange get to be an orange?” The answer is “By hanging in there.” That is the essence of the meaning of this character trait of perseverance.

When some followers of Christ find themselves suffering, their immediate response is “Lord, deliver me from this, immediately!” He can and sometimes He does. But He often does not. When He does not it may be because it is His will to grow spiritual character in the life of His follower. When that is what God is doing Paul is telling us we should rejoice in our sufferings, access grace by faith, and then grow spiritually.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

These familiar words of consolation and exhortation are found in the context of a great calamity described by the psalmist. Many believe this calamity is prophetic and relates to the great and terrible Day of the Lord. By application these words, and other words of consolation in this psalm, can be related to any calamity we experience as the people of God.

As the hymn writer declares this calamity to be a total devastation, in the midst of this devastation he exclaims, “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in times of trouble.” Since Hebrew is not as precise as Greek, the New American Standard Bible offers helpful alternate readings in the margins throughout this psalm. The alternate reading offered here consoles us with the thought that God can be a very present help to us in our “tight places.”

The helpful alternate reading presented alongside verse 10 is “Relax, let go and prove that God is – and what His will is. He is God and He wills to be exalted among the nations and in the earth.”

When you find yourself experiencing calamity be still long enough to experience these great realities: that God is God, that He is there for you, and that He can help you in the tight places of your calamity. So relax, let go, and prove Him. Then ask yourself how your response to your calamity just might align with what He wills; that He might be exalted among the nations and in the earth through the way you live your life here on earth for His Glory.

“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say ‘who will show us something good?’” (Psalm 4: 5, 6)

David wrote these words in the middle of the night because he could not sleep. Like many of us he was doing the expedient thing and not the right thing. That kept him awake because he was a man of great integrity.

In the middle of the night he had a little “board meeting” with himself. He then resolved to make whatever sacrifices he needed to make to do the right thing. He was doing the expedient thing because he didn’t see how he could possibly survive if he did the right thing. That’s why in addition to doing the right thing he resolved to put his trust in the Lord.

His motivation for this values clarification was that he knew he was governing people who were hoping and praying that their leader would be a man who would do right no matter what it cost him.

In our world of relative morality with no universal, absolute truth regarding right and wrong there has never been a greater need for those who lead believers to resolve to make whatever sacrifices they must make to do what is right-and then put their trust in the Lord.

If you are a spiritual person facing a similar kind of challenge if you would implement David’s resolution it would be an example to a lot of people-and it would glorify God-big time!

“Goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.”
(Psalm 23:6)

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you, so that you, always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Two of the most beautiful words in the Bible are “mercy” and “grace.” The mercy of God, which is the unconditional love of God, withholds from us what we deserve, while the grace of God lavishes on us all kinds of blessings we do not deserve, accomplish, or achieve by our own efforts.

As we thank God for our blessings, at the top of the list we should thank Him for the mercy that withholds and the grace that bestows. The good news of the gospel is that when He suffered on the cross for our sins, everything we deserved that we might have peace with God was laid upon Christ (Isaiah 53: 5, 6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

If you want to grasp the meaning of these two words observe when and why they turn up in the Bible. Try to understand what we deserved and why. That will grow your appreciation of the mercy of God. Then investigate all that is bestowed upon us by the grace of God. As you find these two beautiful words in the Bible you will understand why I have written that when you pray, at the top of your thanksgiving list, you should put “The mercy that withholds and the grace that bestows.”

“The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want…” (Psalm 23:1)

The shepherd psalm of David is loved by God fearing Jews and all those who follow Jesus Christ whatever denominational labels they may wear. One reason for this is that the opening words of the psalm state a philosophy of life that has been, and is believed, by those who believe in God. David goes on to write that when we can say the opening words of this psalm we can say we have all the blessings he presents metaphorically in this ancient hymn of praise.

The psalm could be paraphrased: “When the Lord is my Shepherd I have green pastures, still waters, the restoration of my soul, the comfort that results from knowing He is guiding me and protecting me, a table of provision in the middle of all my enemies (or problems), and a cup that runs over and never empties.”

Even if you have never thought about it we all have a philosophy of life that determines how we live out our life in this world. David is telling us that the opening words of this psalm are an invincible philosophy of life because they lead to the blessings in life we all seek. This has been my philosophy of life for many decades. If you don’t have this mindset I emphatically recommend it to you.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6

The reality that God loves us unconditionally is often described in the Bible by one word: “mercy.” This word is found 366 times in the Bible – that’s one for every day of the year, and it even includes leap year – because God knows we need His mercy every day. 280 of these references to the mercy of God are found in the Old Testament.

My favorite is the last verse of the 23rd Psalm where David wrote: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Hebrew scholars tell us that the word “follow” could be translated “pursue.” This means that David believed the unconditional love of God pursued him all the days of his life. What a dynamic truth. God not only loves us unconditionally, He pursues us with His unconditional love all the days of our lives.

Does that mean He loves us when He is cutting us back or chastening us? Absolutely! The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that if He did not chasten us we would be like illegitimate children and not His sons and daughters. Chastening confirms the reality that He loves us.

When we are experiencing one of those cutbacks, rather than thinking that He does not love us anymore – the opposite may be true. He is pursuing us with His unconditional love.