God's Secret Family Recipes

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord..." Isaiah 1:18

When Jesus commands us in Matthew 18 to go to our brother if he has sinned against us and tell him his fault that he might listen and you may gain a brother, that isn't some new way of dealing with people...its been God's way since the beginning.

God is the first example to us this. He has just listed off all the people's wrong yet he does not pour judgement first. No, first he says let's get together and talk reasonably about it and not continue in ignorance of where we stand with each other. He then promises forgiveness and blessing if the repent and turn back to Him. He comes to us and says, "Hey, here is what you have done, lets see it as it is and move forward in grace and forgiveness." Which is exactly what we are to do with each other. To come together and see ourselves and our actions for what they are (not what we want them to be or how we want to see them) in relation to each other so that we can acknowledge, repent, forgive, and move forward together in love and grace. 

When God asks us to do the same in Matthew, remember that he exampled it first. He is not asking us to do something cause he decided its what is best for us (which in theory would be a good enough reason), but actually he lets us in to his world, into his secret family recipes, and says "Hey, let me tell you my secret to reconciliation...it works every time."

Honesty...is such a lonely word.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

God, knowing all that we need even better than we do, still has us ask him. You do not have because you do not ask (James 4:2) Clearly, we do not ask because God needs to know what what we need but because it is how he designed us to be...to be honest. Asking is honesty, its admitting to ourselves and to someone else what we need. This is the way God wants us to be...

So if God asks us to ask in order to receive, how much more do we need to ask each other when we need something? We so often expect that people should just know what we need and expect them to answer our needs, even God who knows all and can do all says thats not how it works, yet we expect it of each other who are so far less knowing and able than God almighty. We need to learn to ask each other, to be honest with each other and with ourselves when we have needs.

God can promise that when we ask anything in his name we can receive it because he can do all things, and though we cannot promise that of each other, I think we would find if we asked more, we would have a lot more...and judge a lot less.

Forget lies, Remember.

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Psalm 40:4-5

 "Who does not go astray after a lie" - everything in this world that promises something better than God is a lie. Happy is the man who makes the Lord his trust...who ONLY trusts in the Lord. There is no certainty in anything else in this world, everything here is fleeting and will come and go, but not the Lord. Verse 5 is a reminder of why the psalmist trusts in the Lord, because he has been faithful more times than he can even remember or say!

 We must remember his faithfulness, speak it to ourselves everyday, remind ourselves of all that he has done as often as possible. God knows our minds forget easily which is why he instructed the Israelite people to write his words everywhere and remember what he did in Egypt from generation to generation. We must tell people of the great works that He has done in our lives not only for their sake, that they might trust in Him, but for OURS...that we might remember the truth of who he is. If we can remember the truth, we will be able to pick out the lies.

 There are lies all around us trying to get us to follow them and forget about God. But we must see them as they are....lies. They are nothing but lies. Lies. Everything that is not of God is a lie. Satan is the father of lies. We must be adamant about seeing them that way and not let them convince us that they might be ok. "You won't surely die...." Lies.

 Remember who is the truth...Jesus. Forget lies, remember.

Dare to worship?

Do you dare to worship?

Most of the time we show up Sunday mornings not ready to sing praises to God. We probably don't feel like clapping our hands and jumping around in praise to our King. Why? Because life is hard. More often than not our weeks have been hard, our months have been difficult, our years have just been one broken family, friendship, attempt, after another. The enemy works overtime to make this world a terrible place to be and then gets us to believe that the only way to find some happiness in it is to look after yourself alone. Yet we continue to show up to church with a mask on that tries to say "I got it all together." But you don't, I don't, you don't, no one does. Just take off the mask because true worship is even greater with the mask off...

Many people living in this reality think that those who worship God do so only as an escape. To pretend for a moment that things are ok, an effect similar to drugs, and the truth is that many probably do worship in this way. But that's not what true worship is. Worship is defiance. It is daring to proclaim a truer reality than this world offers, that Jesus Christ is Lord and in him is found life. That in him is found refuge, strength, peace, because greater is He who is in me than who is in the world! Do you dare to worship the almighty God amidst a world trying to erase him? Do you dare to look into the eyes of the enemy amidst your struggling family, finances, and friendships and declare "Jesus has saved me and you have no hold on me!"

Let us no longer dream to worship, let's dare to worship.