Is Your Blade Sharpened?

Mark 1:12-13 - At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

 

It is assumed that Jesus was aware of his mission long before his ministry officially began.  However, with his baptism, his anointing by the Holy Spirit, and the verbal announcement of God the Father from the heavens, this mission has not been made public.    His public ministry is about to begin.  So what does Jesus do?  He withdraws into the dessert for forty days. 

It should be mentioned that 40 is a very significant number in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.  It is mentioned nearly 150 times.  This number is usually associated with a time of testing, trial, and/or preparation.  Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai on two separate occasions.  Elijah fasted 40 days.  Jonah warned Nineveh for 40 days.  The Hebrews spent 40 years in the wilderness. Noah’s flooding rains lasted 40 days and nights.  The list goes on and on.  On purpose, Jesus evokes this “holy” number with the time he spent in the desert to begin his ministry. 

 

The time in the desert IS ministry.  It is not what happens BEFORE ministry.  It IS ministry. Purposeful time alone IS ministry.  Being sent somewhere by the Spirit IS ministry.  Addressing temptations IS ministry.  Being attended to by God IS ministry.  What Jesus does in the desert makes what he does after more effective and focused. 

 

We all a ministry/service to which we are called.  My question for all of us is this: does our ministry/service include the elements of spiritual direction, intentional solitude, addressing personal temptation, and submitting ourselves to God’s care a part of our service or are those things attended to “if we have time?”  Stephen Covey called these kinds of activities the habit of “sharpening the saw.” Using a saw with a dull blade takes exponentially more time to cut than one that has been sharpened.  The time spent sharpening the blade is way more than made up for by the shortened time it takes to cut.  Jesus’s service is “sharpened” by His time in the desert.  If Jesus needed to do that, how much more do we?  That takes me back to today essential question.

 

Question:  Does our ministry/service include the elements of spiritual direction, intentional solitude, addressing personal temptation, and submitting ourselves to God’s care a part of our service or are those things attended to “if we have time?”

 

Prayer:  Master Jesus, help us not to be so preoccupied with constant activity that we forget the activities/disciplines that drive our most effective service and remind us that our service is always to You.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time actively seeking God’s guidance on a specific issue in your life right now. 

 

Song:  Take Time to Be Holy – David & Steven Au

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WblkcQYxdp8

Forgiveness Does Not Minimize the Seriousness of Sin(s)

 

Psalm 38:3-4, The Message

I’ve lost twenty pounds in two months

    because of your accusation.

My bones are brittle as dry sticks

    because of my sin.

I’m swamped by my bad behavior,

    collapsed under an avalanche of guilt.

 

                I encourage you to read all of Psalm 38 today even though I just included a couple of verses of it above. It is a poignant description of how devastating sin can be upon a soul.  You can sense David’s pain as he reflects on the effects his mistakes have had upon his life and well-being.  This brings up another important clarification concerning forgiveness.  Forgiveness does no in any way minimize the seriousness of our sin.  God’s forgiveness of us does not instantly make the sin in our life not so bad.

                Forgiveness is not an excusal, minimization, or justification of a wrong.  It is not calling a wrong right or even okay.  From time to time, people have apologized to me for something they did that was hurtful and my minimizing response is “it’s okay.”  That’s not forgiveness.  That’s me trying to eliminate the uncomfortable feeling between me and the offender. I am guilty of bringing out this imposter of forgiveness often because I want the discomfort to go away.  But all too often, the offense continues to hurt me after I have said that “it’s okay.”  In fact, I have noticed that sometimes, it’s even worse because now I have told the offender that their offense was “okay” and they may even feel forgiven.

The problem is that no forgiveness has actually taken place.  The offender believes she is forgiven and yet, I am still holding onto the offense. It is precisely because something happened that was not okay that forgiveness is needed.  Forgiveness is the technology we use to move through and beyond the wrong that has occurred.  Forgiveness makes a healed and restored life possible after the offense.  Even after we have received God’s forgiveness, God does not look back at what happened and say, “that was ok.”  Because it was NOT okay, God chose to forgive. 

God has forgiven your sin.  That promise is made dozens of times in scripture.  However, the expectation is that, as we accept God’s forgiveness, we also accept God’s help in moving away from the sin that entangled us.  Forgiveness is given so that we may be free and we have a role to play in our freedom.  We work to replace the unhealthy habits in our life with life-giving habits that God teaches us.

 

Questions:  Have you been able to accept God’s forgiveness for past mistakes?  In what way are you moving away from those mistakes?

 

Prayer:  Like David Lord, our sins have caused us and are causing us pain.  Help us accept your forgiveness and help us know what steps we can make to move toward life as you have taught us. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the families of people who have committed suicide.

 

Song:  Take Time To Be Holy – Mormon Tabernacle Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYLpkRT5Nzw

Working the List

Working the List

 

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:12

 

“For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.”                       St. Alphonsus Liguori

 

Yesterday, I asked you to come up with a short list of “some unhelpful or unhealthy patterns of behavior in your life.”  If you missed yesterday, think about that list now.  What are some patterns of thought and/or behavior that you know aren’t good for you or others around you?  This is the step one of confession; AA calls this a “fearless moral inventory.”  The goal is to be brutally honest with ourselves about where we fall short. 

Usually, this leads to regret, or sorrow.  We find ourselves wishing things could have been different.  We often feel very sorry.  It’s important not to skip over this, but it’s also important not to get stuck here.  My experience and things that people have shared with me over the years tells me we often get mired in the sorrow.  The “recordings” of the wrongdoing keep playing over and over in our head and throw us into an endless spiral of shame.  Perhaps, even those who we’ve hurt are committed to making sure we are reminded of our sins on a regular basis.  Shame, however, is no basis for a restored relationship, whether it’s with God or with other people.  It’s important to move to the next step, which is a determination to do better.  Where this determination is absent, we ask God to nurture it in us. 

The desire to be on a better path is necessary, but we must not confuse that desire for things to be different with the power to make it so.  That power comes from God, not us.  We have to want that power to work in our lives though.  Once we are at the point where we are convinced that “things have to change,” we invite God to do the surgery.  We ask for forgiveness and for “deliverance from evil.”  And then as Paul states in the scripture above, we “work out our salvation” trusting that God’s redemptive power is doing the work along with us.  We also trust in God’s forgiveness which frees us not only from the sin itself, but also the spiral of shame.  We exhibit this trust by moving to stop replaying those recordings of self-condemnation and replace them with reminders of hope and deliverance.  It is rarely instantaneous, but be must commit to this crucial transition.

Today, we remember, among other things, that Jesus spent some time in the Garden of Gethsemane in fervent prayer.  I invite you to do the same working with your list and asking for God’s will to be done, not your own.  Until tomorrow.

 

Prayer:  Search me God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:24)

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for health care workers and teachers today.

 

Song:  Take Time to Be Holy – Islington Baptist Church Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFApbg-wcmE