Matthew 14:23, "After He sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone."
On the way to church this morning this was the passage on my brain. Then I get there to hear a great message from Lance Price about relationship and communication with God.
For me there is hardly a better place to experience this relationship and communication than in that alone place. I find it funny that I enjoy my alone time so much having been codependent for many of my years, unable to cope with my own thoughts in any place of solitary. But today, I not only cope, but relish that time.
Life is so busy, it is hard to shut it all down. To 100% focus on God. For me it can take hours to "wind down" and quiet my mind to the place that I actually listen to and for Him. Rather it usually starts with my mind swirling, problems playing out, thoughts bouncing all over the place. Eventually I will transition to turning those thoughts into prayers. Rather than plot my rescue for the problem I will eventually turn it over to God and ask Him to fix it. I will begin to ask in prayer what God's thoughts are compared to my thoughts. An hour or 2 later I am usually at the place that the real prayer can actually begin.
That place is where I can look into the back of my eyelids and see the blackness. Staring at the blackness my mind quiets. Then when the mind is quiet, and all I see is the blackness... then I can ask, "Where are You?" Where are you God in this blackness? What is Your will? Speak to me. Show me your heart? I'm there all alone, in the darkness of my mind reaching out to the God of the Universe. And He has never failed me or not show up. In that place I see truth. I see that nothing else matters except Him. Oh to live in that place.
I heard the following song for the first time this morning in church. The words are so powerful. They are the cry of my heart today.
1 John 4:8, " The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
I cannot escape thinking about Agape love. It sounds stupid, but the totality of all my life's experiences and thoughts of love are but a fraction of what I see love to be today. It as if God has hung this proverbial carrot out in front of me and said, come and get it. I see something out there I have never fully experienced, nor fully observed in this lifetime. Oh sure, my definition of love has been met and seen thousands of times. But God's definition of love... frankly I have mainly read about it in the life of Christ. Oh there are times when I taste it, but that taste is the little baby spoon for the sample at the ice cream counter. I can see that there is a four scoop banana split of love out there. That's what I want to take a bite of.
What is this love? Oswald Chambers says that it has a degree of spontaneity. That true, pure love is not something that is planned. 1 Corinthians says it is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, not arrogant, doesn't act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never fails. 1 John tells us God is love and if we don't love then we don't know God. Jesus said there was no greater love than to lay down one's life for another.
What fascinates me more at the moment is not what love is, but what love is not. For example, no where does it say love is never angry, or love is compassionate. Both feelings the bible is clear that Christ had. Love is not necessarily giving advice. Love is not even giving a hand out. Though advice and a hand out could be considered kindness, they could equally be unkind if the advice is misguided, or the handout is enabling. There is not an absolute that love is doing what someone wants. It does not say that love teaches... though this could be an act of love. It does not say love is feeding the hungry. It does not say love is giving to the poor. Though Christ clearly gave to the poor, He also did not give when it was suggested by Judas that perfume used on Him should be sold for that purpose. On the contrary Jesus replied, "you will always have the poor with you." So in the reality of life there are a lot of acts, and omissions for that matter, that may or may not be love. What makes them love or not is if God (who is love) is behind them. So love, the love of God, also has an element of obedience to it.
Can we conclude that if we know God through salvation then we will experience His love? Can we also conclude that if we have experienced His love then we will also be able to express that love? Can we also conclude if we are to express love correctly then God will have to communicate what the correct act is?
Now throw into the mix that loving God, and loving our neighbor as ourselves are the only two commandments. And Jesus says that in exercising these commandments His burden is easy and His load is light. Therefore should the acts of love that God commands not be horrifically burdensome? Oh you can be certain that pure love will absolutely confront our egos, and never allow us to be seeking our own. But beyond that beautiful experience of dying to self, of ego being defeated, shouldn't love be easy? Answer... love is only easy for a dead man, an ego-less man.
John 1:43, "The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."
"There are two things at least which are basically wrong and inevitably disastrous from the standpoint of true spiritual value: one is the regarding of the work of God as a set system, just as any commercial, industrial, or professional system is a vocation or calling (So much is heard about "entering the ministry," "taking up Christian work," "becoming a missionary," etc. - and this as static, organized, systematized); the other is going into service on the basis of an external appeal to the senses, the intellect, the emotions, the volition, by reason of a presentation to the ears or the eyes.... Moreover, every man and woman who has come up against spiritual realities in the service of God knows that it requires something stronger than hot air, electric atmosphere, vivid pictures, romantic conceptions, idealistic visions, mental impressions, and occasional stimulants for the will, to make them able to continue indefinitely and to be spiritually effective. No, in every way, the senses are an insufficient basis and a dangerous criterion.
The service of God, being spiritual, will always have an element of mystery about it. The mystery is this: the greater the degree of real spiritual effectiveness and value, and the more spiritually accountable a thing becomes, the less is it a thing that can be seen and handled by the senses and by the flesh - the less the elements and forms of human demonstration and natural appreciation.
Again and again we have marked the grievous tragedy of ministries - personal and otherwise - which were mighty in spiritual significance, that at length took on human significance and assumed forms of natural impressiveness at the expense of that essential value to God. Yes! It has grown big, expansive, famous. Yes! He or she has a name, a reputation, a following, a fame, and a position; but so often... oh, so often... at a cost of accountability amongst "principalities and powers" (This is where spiritual values are judged) which makes it all poor gain... and makes God's heart bleed...
...All-inclusively, only what God does Himself is God's service! This is basic to the entire revelation of the purposes of God in the whole Scriptures...
Only as all service is brought within the limits of this Divine ordering by a positive witness within the sanctified and quickened spirit of the "chosen vessel" can there be "the works of God" which alone count. This, on the other hand, rules out all our works.
Motive, good intent, laboriousness, enthusiasm "in the name of Jesus," "for the Kingdom," "in the interests of mankind," etc. - these do not count in the realm of "the eternal purpose in Christ Jesus" if they are our own activities... with our own natural resources. It must be "God who works within." ... We must be content to have our fruitfulness and spiritual value registered in the unseen... and not be dominated by the scales of values as set up by men on the earth."
T Austin-Sparks 1927
Normally I would not consider such a long quote except for the fact that is so ties into Who are You in the Story? The four talented orphans of that story regarded their talents as a set system to honor God. Not only did they regard their talents that way, they also assumed the audience. That their audience would arrive with pomp and circumstance and outwardly demonstrate fleshly superiority. The fifth orphan with the good heart temporarily tried to go into service of God with what looked appealing to her by asking to be taught someone else's skill. In the end, the fifth orphan was of the greatest spiritual value with an act that on the surface seems to not be entitled to any natural appreciation.
To me, what T Austin-Sparks is saying here is -- it doesn't matter what you do, or how you do it if the motivation is wrong. Jesus said, "follow me." That means getting up day after day, without necessarily a plan or direction and go with Him. On His whims, and on His path. What we do has to be done in obedience to God. Only in Obedience does it have spiritual significance. And if done in obedience, it in fact does have spiritual significance.
Please understand that this is the opportunity for everyone to serve God in every walk of life and profession. Building mega ministries has no spiritual reward unless done in obedience. Mega ministry is not the end all be all. To love in obedience is. Likewise pausing in the business of a day to love on an individual wherever they may be can have paramount spiritual rewards. The obedience to loving the least is where the reward is. The washing of a neighbor's feet in surrender is the service God requires.
What do you have that a person you will encounter today needs? Do you have time, wisdom, money, friendship, an open ear? Perhaps someone needs a meal or a ride. Do you have a word of encouragement or affirmation? Is there someone immediate to you that needs what God wants to give them through you? Respond to that tug on your heart when you feel it. Step out in faith. Don't walk away with the "I should have..." thought. Walk away knowing you obeyed, and who cares about how it looks, or what earthly significance it has. The obedience alone will have eternal rewards for you.
Matthew 25:40, "The King will answer and say to them, 'truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'"
During Iwo Jima ( a men's group) the other day one of the guys read a children's book. It is called Just the Way You Are by Max Lucado. It is a tale of 5 orphan brothers and sisters who catch the attention of the king, and who are to be adopted by him. Four of the five orphans have talents. They include painting, singing, craftsmenship, and intellect. The fifth orphan has no talent other than a good heart. So the four talented orphans prepare to greet the king for the first time by emersing themselves in their talent, I assume to impress the King with a gift. The fifth orphan goes to each asking to be taught by the other so that she too can have a gift for the king. All four reject her becuase they are too busy preparing.
Finally she goes to the gate of the city. A man arrives on a donkey. She graciously cares for the man and his donkey. He then goes into town and like the ophan sister is rejected by the four brother's and sisters because they are too busy. Upon returning to the fifth orphan he reveals to her that he was the king traveling incognito. He embraces the 5th orphan because of her heart without respect for her talent.
So the story is an entertaining tale of Christ as the King set to level of understanding for children. Or is it? Who are you in the story? Are you the fifth talentless orphan just willing to help, or are you one of the other four orphans too busy exercising your talent for a King you couldn't recognize if He showed up incognito? Or worse, are you one of the faceless, nameless bystanders not even mentioned in the story?
Me, I like to believe that I'm the fifth orphan. Unfortunately, if I am honest with myself I must admit there are numerous incidents where I am one of the four distracted orphans, lost in the self-importance of my talents, too good and too smart to associate with the lowly. But now that I am conscious of where I am, perhaps it will keep me from being too busy when the King or one of His adopted children comes calling.
I will close with this. I was in Pensacola at a youth conference years ago. We were singing a song that the lyrics said, "I want to open my eyes and see Your face." As I cried that to heaven I knew God was saying to me to open my eyes. As I looked around that packed arena I asked, where are You? I want to see Your face. It was then He conveyed, that looking into the face of everyone of those young people was looking into His.
Our visitation from the King happens all the time, and it is not with pomp and celebration. It is incognito, through the least of them. The beauty is we don't have to go and find Him. He comes and finds us. We just need to not be too busy in self-absorption to miss it.
Now it took quite an effort to find this song. It is "I Will Search For You" by Mike Motley. I would be honored for you to listen to it.
