How then should we live?

Every morning for the past 4 years I've read chapter or portion from four sections of the Bible. Usually, it is a chapter in the OT, one in the NT, a Psalm and something in Proverbs. It has been very helpful to me to read this way and see the overarching themes throughout scripture. Over the past couple of months, I've read through Genesis and part of Exodus. This morning, something struck me: The people of Israel "looked" a certain way. They stood out from the other people around them.

Israel was a people, a nation, a culture. They were set apart by dress and practice. What they ate and did not eat, what they wore, what they did each day, when they rested and how they worshipped their God was seen by and set them apart from others.

Their faith wasn't just in the tent or temple, it wasn't just about rites and feasts on certain days, it was what defined them as a people. And they were a decidedly peculiar people.

It doesn't seem to me that it would have been easy for them to "blend in" without seriously compromising their faith.

But Christians today tend to look like everyone else, sound like everyone else, and do what everyone else does. We are at the same schools, restaurants, movies and malls, we drive the same cars, live in the same neighborhoods, wear the same clothes, talk about the same things and observe the same holidays. Unless we are wearing a big, bold Jesus T-shirt, no one can really pick us out in a crowd, or in our office or classroom or family gathering.

Certainly, the balance has shifted due to Christ's influence. The people called the "children of God" is no longer limited to 12 tribes, but now includes people from every tribe and tongue and nation. But is it OK that we can blend in so easily and go virtually unnoticed? Is it OK that our faith isn't always the first thing people know about us?

If you see a devout Muslim on the street, you will know. Sit next to a Hindu at a restaurant, and you will know. The Mormon, Jehovah's Witness and Scientologist will let you know right away who they are and what they believe.

What about us?

We are called to be a peculiar people, but it seems mostly we are just like everyone else. It seems the average Chrisitian lives and moves and seeks after the same things as the world, struggles with the same issues, makes the same choices - the only difference, it seems, is that we have a something to keep us from completely dispairing.

We are gluttons, sexually immoral, entertainment hounds, fearful, angry, selfish, lovers of self, just like everyone else. We use drugs, drink, fornicate, get divorced, mistreat people, lie, buy, and fill our minds with the same things the world does.

How is this peculiar?
How is this right?
How is this so?

These were the questions ringing in my head after my quiet time this morning. And, I think I got an answer to the last question from Carolyn McCulley's recent blog post Daughters of Hope.

In it, she shared a little bit about a book she recently read titled, Daughters of Hope: Stories of Witness and Courage in the Face of Persecution, and includes this excerpt:

In India we had just listened to a group of Dalit women tell of the harsh persecution they had endured because of their stand for Christ. Before we parted I asked our usual question: "Is there anything you would like to ask us?"

They looked at me curiously, shyly. Before we came, none of them had ever seen a North American woman.

Finally, through the translator, one woman said, "Did you ever go hungry because you're a Christian?"

"No," I said. "I never did."

"Did you ever have your house taken away?" asked another.

"No," I said. "No, I didn't."

"Did you ever lose your job because you're a Christian?" inquired another.

I shifted uneasily in my seat. "No," I said.

"When people find out you are a Christian, do they throw rocks at you?"

"No. No one throws rocks."

"Has anyone ever thrown you in a fire because you are a Christian?" It was the first woman again, and she was leaning forward eagerly awaiting my answer. I did not have to ask the source of the scars on her own dark brown arms.

"No," I said. "You see, in America those things don't happen. In America it's against the law to throw people out of their houses or take away their jobs or stone them or throw them in the fire because they are Christians."

The women stared at us uncomprehendingly. Then one said, "But if it doesn't cost you anything, how do you in America know what it means to be a Christian?"

As I was thinking about how to answer, the first woman asked, "If you in America did have to suffer, would you still be Christians?"

I took a deep breath and answered her honestly: "Some of us would and some of us wouldn't. We need you to pray for us that when we face persecution, we will have the strength to stand up under it as you do."

Here in America, and in most other parts of the world, we don't face persecution. We just don't. Our faith doesn't cost us more than a few awkward moments and sideways glances, most times. The faith which we claim cost God His Son, Christ His life, and the lives of countless others. It should have a weight to it. We should feel that. It should also have a look, an aroma, a differentness which is immediately noticeable...and I don't mean T-shirts and bracelets and big heavy crosses around out necks. I mean that we, as believers should live in a way that leaves a mark, a noticable, palpable mark on us that is evident the moment someone meets us.

What does that mean exactly? How will that look? How then should we live?

I don't know. But I believe the Lord does and pray He reveals that to His church soon!

Some thoughts on sin and holiness...

In the final analysis our greatest problem with holiness is not that ourconcepts of holiness are feeble, but that our hearts are rebellious. We areselfish, that's our problem. And the fact that we often won't admit ourselfishness shows how deep the pride goes. -- Floyd McClung


"If the spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct our course" (Gal 5:25 NEB).
It is only reasonable that He who gives and sustains our life (the Source) should be the One we would want to follow (whose Course we would choose). But we are not very reasonable creatures, I'm afraid.

Which side am I on--the self or the Spirit? I don't always know. But I can check myself out by studying the list of the kind of behavior that belongs to the lower nature (fornication, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, quarrels, contentious temper, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, party intrigues, jealousies, drinking bouts, orgies) and comparing it to the list of the "harvest of the Spirit" (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, self-control). If I pinpoint from those two lists what characterizes my behavior today, it's easy enough to identify the source. -- Elisabeth Elliot


Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)

A Yielded, Believing Vessel

But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. (Daniel 11:32)

...Have you not read how I could not do mighty works in their midst because of unbelief? It is no less true today...I can accomplish great things through even one yielded, believing vessel...Move on and never entertain the thought of retreat...Keep your eyes on me. (Frances J. Roberts from "Come Away My Beloved")

One yielded, believing vessel. Whew! There's a lot in that one phrase. I don't think yielding is possible without belief. When I am driving and have to yield to oncoming traffic, I have to believe a few things about my situation. First, I have to believe that oncoming traffic will not or cannot stop. If I didn't, I would just keep going in the direction I was headed. I have to also believe that insisting on my way and not yielding will likely have grave consequences...and I don't just mean a ticket. If I stubbornly refuse to yield I could cause a wreck which could injure or kill myself and others, if not just tie up traffic and delay other drivers. I also have to believe that these are good reasons to yield. If I don't care about my life, my property or the safety of others I will not yield.

The same is true with yielding to the Lord. If we do not believe that His way truly is the best way and that refusal to yield will bring us or those around us trouble, harm, or unnecessary inconvenience, we will not yield. If we do not believe that God is truly always working out His best for us, that he cares for us, and will never leave us, we will not yield. If we do not believe that He truly knows what is best, we will not yield.

But the truth is that this is all true...and yield we must! We must serve His Truth, not our thoughts, feelings, or past experience.

However, our yielding is not meant to be a forced thing. It is meant to be a joyful thing. In his devotional, "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers encourages us to Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief...

Sometimes "launching out" is yielding, if not it is almost certainly preceeded by it.

I Met Someone...

I met someone last night.
Well, that's not exactly right. I actually "met" him back in 1994...and had known of him all of my life. But last night, I saw him with different eyes. He's always been a faithful friend, ready to listen or talk, at times (many times) he's patiently waited for me to break long silences and reconnect. But what I saw last night was humble, yet determined pursuit. All these years, I've yearned and longed for other men to pursue me and still he pursued. He's been available to me in the middle of the night when fear gripped me and in the wee hours of the morning when I just needed to hear a kind voice. He's also been faithful to speak words of truth and correction to me...and his words of reproof have broken me more than the harshest words from anyone else, though not as much as his words of love and encouragement despite my fickleness and ingratitude. In everything, He has been with me, supporting me, encouraging me, giving direction and guidance, and knowing he was there made even the most difficult ordeal not nearly as difficult as I anticipated. When there have been no comforters to be found and my tears have been my food, he was there to comfort me and speak peace to my soul...even when I ached for the comfort of another. In my pride and self-worship, I have accused him, doubted him, and resented him, yet as he looked upon me, his countenance never changed. There is always love in his eyes.

Last night, as I met with him...as I went to him hurting and missing another...I saw this. I saw his faithfulness in light of my unfaithfulness. I saw my Maker as friend, lover and husband in the purest sense of each word and rather than being crushed by my adultery and lack, I was lifted, as by the hand of my Beloved and brought into His familiar, yet strangely new embrace...and I was at rest.

"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. Isaiah 54:4-6

Shut in

The Lord shut him in. Genesis 7:16
Noah was so shut in that no evil could reach him. Floods did but lift him heavenward, and winds did but waft him on his way. Outside of the ark all was ruin, but inside all was rest and peace. Without Christ we perish, but in Christ Jesus there is perfect safety. Noah was so shut in that he could not even desire to come out, and those who are in Christ Jesus are in him forever. --Spurgeon

Oh to be shut in like Noah. To be so hemmed in by the Word and Truth of God, the knowledge of His character and goodness, the testimony of His faithfulness in times past, that no storm, no wind, no frightening or hurtful thing can shake our confidence in the Lord. Wind and storms and floods and frightening and hurtful circumstances are real...very real...but the One who commands them is even more so, and even more powerful. Is not the Master more powerful, and ultimately in control of, the servant? These climactic, devastating, and difficult things are but servants of His will and will only shake or destroy that which stands in the way of His glory...that which needs to be cut off and cast in the proverbial fire.

Oh to be shut in like Noah. To be resolved like Job that even death would not stem the tide of his praise, to be content like Paul to suffer for the sake of knowing Christ and Him crucified, to be like Him who died, who endured far more than we ever will for the joy set before Him.

Houston update

Well, I made it home!

The plane ride was very bumpy there for a while...so I just sang. :) The whole "fearing for my life" thing was a good distraction from the thoughts which wanted to take full command of my brain, heart and tear ducts. I didn't need to let them...so I was grateful for the bumps in the sky.

The night before, I took the e-mail issue before the Lord, not so much looking for a peek behind the veil of my friend's motives or intentions, but seeking help, seeking a shelter from the storm of emotions threatening to overwhelm me.

I found that...and a reminder that I walk by faith, not by sight. I walk by the Truth of His Word, not circumstances or what I believe to be facts. He is my stronghold, my maker, my husband and all I truly need. Pleasing Him...not my flesh or another person...should be my main priority. On the plane, He showed me, it should also be my joy.

I confess it has not been. It was not a joy to end my friendship with this man. It was not a joy to conclude that if I responded to this e-mail - which was neither personal nor an indication that anything has changed for him - I would be denying what I'd previously said was the Lord's leading and word on this situation...and that I couldn't do that. The time between these two events has not been a joy, either. It's been hard. It has been painful...mercifully, not every day, and not overwhelmingly so...but enough to make me not like it.

This should not be. I should count it all joy when I am called to do or give up or suffer anything for Christ. It should be a joy to please Him, to do the righteous thing and bring Him glory, to say "no" to what He says "no" to, that He might say "yes" to righteousness and holiness in me.

Many tears were shed the night after the e-mail and on the plane ride home...but few of them were over the continued denial of a relationship with this man. Some were, to be sure...but mostly, I was shown the true state of my heart, and it grieved me. More often than not, I want what I want when I want it and though my tendency is to submit to His word and His ways, my submission to Him is not joyful.

This is a sad thing indeed. But today, the tears are mostly done. I am reminded that His mercies are new every morning, that I've not been consumed by grief or sin because He is faithfully my shield and stronghold, and that "the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us.” I don't know what is going on with my friend, or what tomorrow will hold, or what God's will is for either of us, or how soon I will see the end of my battle against gluttony and self-indulgence, or anything like that...but I do know what Has been revealed and that is that I have been rescued, bought with a high price, and am now a slave to righteousness...and that it should be my joy to be so.

I also know that He knows the plans He has for me, plans to prosper and not to harm me, to bring me a hope and a future.

Lord, sear this into me and make it my only reality!

In Houston...please pray

I am in Houston today and will return home tomorrow evening. It's a quick trip for work...I am training some folks in our office there. The reason I'm even bothering to write a post about this is because I need prayer. Regular readers will remember that a few months ago, I had to end a friendship. It was a friendship with a godly man. I fell in love, he didn't and I was struggling with my emotions. The Lord directed me to cut off the friendship because my response to it was an offending thing, and that is what we are to do with offending things...cut them off and cast them into the fire. I cut it off, knowing that God could purify it and return it to me...or burn it all up. I believed it would burn and I would never have contact with this man again.

Today I got an e-mail from him. It was a group e-mail and nothing personal, but given the fact that our last conversation involved a very clear explanation of why we could no longer correspond, I can't write it off as nothing either.

My heart is still a bit in my throat and I don't know what I want to do...or what I should do. I plan to have a nice chunk of time with the Lord this evening but don't want this small issue to consume the whole time. If you read this, please pray for wisdom, direction and a calm and quiet (non-obsessing) heart.

Thanks!