The Second Most Important Person

We unconsciously categorize people we know and don’t know. Oh, it’s not intentional but it’s what we do.  We seem to have these criteria:

Family = I love them and they love me. They are very important.

Friends =I like them and they like me. I have degrees of importance for them.

Co-workers =They’re OK, but I could live without them unless they are friends.

Acquaintances = My effort to develop relationships is dependent on what they will do for me.

Strangers = They are not important in my grand scheme of things unless they benefit me.

   

People I don’t like = Avoid! Avoid!

 If I’m being honest with you, I’d have to admit that the importance of a person is based on how valuable they are to me. Some people give me unconditional love and security. Some people give me acceptance and stroke my ego. Some people will further my career. Some people will fulfill my need to be philanthropic and make me feel like a better person. Some people will encourage me.  And if you don’t fit these categories, well, avoid, avoid. I put my wants and desires first before I’m even aware of it.  As I said earlier, “If I’m being honest with you…” Most times I don’t want to admit that about myself. I’d like to have spiritual and altruistic motives but it doesn't always get to the subconscious level. Maybe you can admit that to. I think it goes back to our original sin nature which is; me, me, and more me!

Jesus said that it all comes down to two overriding life philosophies. (Matthew 22:35-39)

The first life philosophy is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind. Love God without putting conditions on Him. Love Him because He is. Love Him with all of your emotion. Love Him with all your inner self that no one sees but God and you. Love Him with all of your conscious and unconscious thoughts. There is no room for you in this command. Jesus said that it is the greatest command.  Your love for God takes priority over everything.

The second life philosophy is to love everyone around you with the same affection you have for yourself. There are no degrees of how much more you like one person over the other.  There is no subconscious categorization.  There’s just the command to love.

Now, I did say that these are overriding life philosophies. If we just go to “default,” we’ll go to loving ourselves every time.  We have to submit to the Holy Spirit and let Him push the “override” button. We have to look at every one through Jesus’ love-colored glasses.

I like the way my Sunday-School teacher said it.

“The most important person in your life is God.

The second most important person is

the next person you see.”

If I'm Breathing, I'm Praying

I’m a proud Liberty University grad. In my honest opinion, it’s a wonderful place to get a Christian perspective career education. Yes, I am biased. I just like everything about this university. I keep current with what is happening. I contribute as an alumnus. I just love L.U. Go Fames! This is an endorsement.

Recently in the Liberty Journal (yes, I’m happily on the mailing list) there was an article about the Director of Spiritual Development for the Liberty Flames football team, Dr. Ed Gomes. The article began by saying that Dr. Gomes usually starts conversations with the individual players by asking, “How can I pray for you?” The players call him coach. I think that’s great. The team considers him their prayer coach. Wow, I’d like to be on that prayer team. I’d like to have a prayer coach. I’d like to cheer in the stands for that prayer game. I’d like to be first string in the upcoming prayer playoffs.

This article made me run to my Bible and study the ministry and work of prayer.

We are to be praying servants of God. (2 Chronicles 6:19) “Listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer your servant is making in your presence.”  As we serve the living God, we can come into His presence with our requests. He hears His faithful servants.  We are prayer servants.

We are to be fervently dedicated to prayer. (Colossians 4:2) “Devote yourselves to prayer, with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” We need to have a continuous persistent intense prayer life. That’s what devoted means. We are to be ardent enthusiasts of prayer. Just as we sit in the stands and cheer as a fan for our football team, we should be that fanatical about prayer. We are prayer fans.

Oh, and we do have a prayer coach. The disciples went to their leader Jesus and said, “Teach us how to pray.” Jesus is our prayer coach too. He said in Luke 11:2-12 that we are to pray:  praises to God, for Him to set up His kingdom on earth, for our daily needs, for forgiveness, for others, and for help living the righteous life. He told us to ask and seek about anything and everything as a dear child of the Father. We are to have a lifestyle of prayer. We are on the prayer team under the leadership of Coach Jesus..

I like how Oswald Chambers puts it. (He was the author of MY Utmost For His Highest  in 1935.) “Think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood in our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues without ceasing…Prayer is not an exercise; it is the life of the saint.” He was praying while doing all the things in his life. I guess he was multi-tasking before multi-tasking was cool. He was living praying or prayerfully living.

That’s my goal now.

Dr. Gomes may not be my prayer coach but I’ve got a good one.

 Jesus is my prayer coach.

 He’ll help me get prayer breathing as my lifestyle if I’ll be His servant. So I can say:

If I’m breathing, I’m praying.

Do We Worship? Here is a Test

Our Associate Pastor of Praise and Worship asked the choir to participate in a Bible study for the month of July. It was 30 days of lessons on effective worship. Well, I just finished 75 days later. It must take me awhile to assimilate. I guess I’m a slow learner. The study ends with the challenge of evaluation and goal setting to make sure that a change in one’s praise life has really happened. The teacher in me has to make and take a test to verify any learning. That’s just how I’m used to assessment. So I’ve got my #2 pencil ready. Get your pencil ready too.

Do I Truly Worship? Test

 Psalm 96:1-9, Psalm 105:2, John 4:23, Hebrews 13:15

Scale 1-5      

1 = always, 2 = mostly, 3 = working on this, 4 = new concept to incorporate, 5= further study and practice required

1.       Do I worship?  ______

                                Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.

2.       Do I conduct my worship correctly? ______

                                True worshippers will worship in spirit (holiness) and in truth (sincerity.)

3.       Do others know I worship? ______

                                Praise His name.  Declare His glory. Tell of all His wondrous works.

4.       Do I worship constantly and consistently? ______

                                Proclaim His salvation day after day.

5.       Do I expand my worship to include the entire world? ______

                                 Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among the people.

6.       Is God pleased with my worship? ______

Through Him, Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing well and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

I won’t tell you my scores so you don’t have to tell me yours. Let’s just say worship is an ongoing work we all must practice. The more we worship the more we glorify our awesome creator redeemer God.

The authors of the study say to set goals for continuing effective worship using the acrostic; SMART (a G.T. Doran management concept.) I have made my own words for SMART worship. Sorry Mr. Doran.

S – Spiritual Worship 

      (Make sure I am spiritually attuned to God’s word, work, and plan through prayer.)

M – Mature Worship  

        (Make sure I am growing in the knowledge of Christ through Bible study.)

A – Aggressive Worship

       (Make sure everyone who knows me knows that these things are my daily priority.)

R – Real Worship 

      (Make sure I keep my feelings balanced with the truth of God’s character.)

T – Theological Worship

      (Make sure my worship is confirmed by comparing my actions to the Bible.)

If our worship is spiritual, mature, aggressive, real, and theological then God is pleased with our praise.

We are practicing SMART worship.

And we get an “a” on the test for today.

Put your pencils down.

But the test is not over.

There will be a pop quiz tomorrow.

Be Strong. Who me?

My sister says I shouldn’t tell people that I used to be shy. She says no one would believe me. But it’s true. Sometimes I still feel that old insecurity raise its ugly head.  This week I’ve had to revisit the “be strong” sections of my Bible because I wasn’t feeling too strong. Psychologists say that each individual has a crisis response of “fight or flight.” Well, I’ll pick flight as a first response in every time of crisis. And I recently had that run away feeling that I had to conquer. I just don’t want to stand strong. I want to hide. I don’t want to charge hell with a water pistol. I want God to not place me in those threatening situations. I don’t want to grow in Christ. I want to stay where I am. Yes, I’m a whiner. Yes, I like to be a protected princess. But that’s not reality. That’s not the Christian life. And that’s not where God wants me to be. He wants to show me victory; to do that I have to be in the fight.

My go to places for the strength pep talk is Deuteronomy 31:7, Joshua 1:6-9, 1 Corinthians 16:13, Ephesians 6:10-19, and Matthew 28:16-20. 

In Deut. 31:6 Moses tells the people this from God, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread. For it is the Lord Your God who goes with you He will not leave you or forsake you.” It’s time to cowboy up and git-er-done. It’s time for me to overcome. This should inspire me. But..

I should step up to the challenge. I’m still not feeling it.

In Josh. 1:6 God Himself came to Joshua with this discourse on bravery: “Be strong and courageous”, verse 7-“Be strong and courageous”, verse 9 – “Be strong and courageous.” That was 3 times God reminded Joshua that there was no room for flighters. In each instance God reassured Joshua that He and His word would be there through all of the conflicts before him. And God kept His word to Joshua. Did he always have an easy time? No. Was God faithful? Yes. Did God give him strength? Yes. Did he win? Yes. Would God do this for me? Yes.

I’m feeling a little stronger.

In 1 Cor. 16:13 Paul said, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” The act like men part doesn’t let Princess Jan off the hook. This refers to being prepared and armored as a soldier for battle. My Women’s Study Bible says it like this, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

OK, I’m putting my armor on.

In Eph. 6:10-19 Paul explains the armor that Christians should wear in this life. Before that he says, “finally brethren (and sisteren) be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm.”

I’m feeling strong now. I'm ready to face the circumstances that make me want to run but I still need a little somethin/somethin.

Matt. 28:16-20 says, “But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.  When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful (They were a little scared to be on their own. I know the feeling.) And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority and power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go  and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always (Ah, here’s what I needed.) even to the end of the age.’ ” 

Flight is not an option. Thankfully I will never face insecure situations alone.

Jesus is with me.

 He is before me,

Behind me,

Beside me,

Over me,

Under me,

Around me,

And in me,

Forever.

I’m ready.

Hand me a water pistol.

My Contractor Designer Builder Knows

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy

has caused us to be born again 

                    to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.                              

I Peter 1:3

(I underlined the words I like.)

I’m having my bathroom remodeled. Wow, I never imagined those 5 words would have had such a great impact on my life! What I thought was a simple: just move the shower over here and put in new sinks has affected every inch of the space. My friend (a very patient man I might add) is my contractor/designer/builder. He had to go all the way back to the beginning point of the area I called my bathroom. It was a complete do over.

Our pastor is leading us in a study of I Peter 1. I find myself at verse 3 in my bathroom redo and my life rebuild too. Since I underlined the words I like I’ll try to explain why I like them. I say try because my bathroom is not finished and my application of this verse in my life is not quite complete either.

1.       Blessed - Worthy of praise is our Father God and our master Messiah Jesus (I like giving my God the honor and submitting to His leadership.)

2.       Great mercy –Because of His daily overflowing covenant love (I like the fact that His love is a minute by minute promise.)

3.       Has caused us to be born again – Has given us a genesis, a re-creation (I like knowing that this is a total redo of me.) 

4.       Living hope – To a daily gift of trust in His surety (I like that I can absolutely trust that He is creating me perfect in His eyes.)

5.       Through - This promise is made possible by Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection (I like that the sacrifice of Christ was the final covering of my sin and gifts me with all the promises.)

There have been moments when I have questioned my very patient friend in the ways and means of my bathroom remodel. My sister, who is visiting, has heard my conversations with my very patient contractor/designer/builder. She finally said, “Jan, just let him work. He knows what he’s doing.” And that is true. He does know what he is doing much better than I.

And God has basically said the same thing in I Peter 1:3, “Jan, just let Me work. I know what I'm doing.” And this is true too. Jesus knows what He’s doing with me much better than I. I need to trust His work until it is completed. I think it will take all my life. I’m glad He is a very patient God.

Jesus Christ is my contractor, designer, and builder.

He is daily recreating my life to be more like Him.

And He knows what He’s doing.

The Fifth Voice

I sing in a quartet. We always attempt to have a very close harmony and when we sing in unison we strive for it to sound like one voice. Our unofficial musical goal is for the listener not to be able to identify which of us is singing a specific part. Sometimes the harmony is so tight that we hear what we lovingly call “the warbler.” That’s not an official music theory title for the sound. So, you know me, I researched that phenomenon. It is called the “ring.” It is when the voices are so unified in harmony that it rings. It has something technical to do with synchrony of sound wave lengths. Some say that there is actually the sound of a fifth voice!

Paul evidently knew a little something about harmony in singing. He wrote in Colossians 3:12-16 (and I will insert little comments here and there):

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you forgive.  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity (or that perfect harmony).  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body (the ring); and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing (see, he understands our harmony in action) with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

We are supposed to be a cohesive group at home or church (or wherever Christians are gathered) having that perfect harmony. We should be acting, praising, singing, worshipping, managing, and/or whatever we are doing together with unity. We are supposed to have the ring. If any one of us is out of tune we won’t.

The best harmony comes from singers from the same family. It’s in the DNA and some call it “blood harmony.” And so it should be with the Christian body. We have the same spiritual genetic makeup with the same Father so our harmony should be tight. And nothing but the blood of Jesus has brought us together.

So If I am not acting with kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, or love then I’m not helping the unity of the group. It won’t have the heavenly ring. And it won’t until I get tuned with God’s harmony. When I’m synchronized spiritually with my brothers and sisters in Christ then those outside the family will marvel at our harmony.

They will hear the fifth voice.

Who is the fifth voice?

 Jesus, of course

Time Flies When You Are Living It

One of my friends told me that her son and his wife are now living in the same university apartment  as dorm parents that I inhabited as a dorm parent so long ago. At that time, in the past, my friend wasn’t even dating. Now her child is married and doing my old job.  Wow, times flies. That was such a wakeup call for me. It made me evaluate the course of my life. I think at certain points in our life God reminds us of our history and the part He played in it.

Solomon reviewed the course of a life in Ecclesiastes 3. He broke it down into segments; a time for this and a time for that. All of our lives have come in contact with times of: births and deaths, pain and healing, sadness and happiness, building up and tearing down, grief and joy, taking apart and putting together, following and leading, being loved and being unloved, fear and safety. It’s just part of life. But it’s more than that.

It’s part of God’s ordained plan to get you from where you were to where He wants you to be. I try to narrow my past down to specific events that changed a course in my life. A song got me a scholarship to college. A relationship with a friend got me a job. The death of my parent moved me to another state.  And all of those and other events put me where I am now and made me who I am now.  And it all goes back to a master plan God had and still has for me.

Most of the time, I was just living my life. I didn’t know at the time how God was taking one event and weaving it into something good for my future. It’s only when I look back that I can say, “Oh, so that’s why that happened.”

This is how Solomon ends this chapter of self-evaluation:

You can’t change what is past.

You don’t know what is in the future

Trust God for the meaning of the things that happened in the past, what is happening now, and what will happen in the future.

Enjoy the life He has given you through all of the times.

Now, Solomon was a little skeptical and melancholy about the whole “purpose of life” thing at this point of his life. But I think that we don’t have to be.  I don’t have to be. Yes, there will be a time for all of the good and bad life gives but God will be with me every moment of all my days. He has a plan for me whether I know it or not. And it will be good. It will be perfectly designed just for me.  It’s a promise.

“And we understand and have learned that God is taking all the pieces of our life and making them into a complete whole that is good and beneficial to us as we love and trust Him because He has given us His salvation and called us to His kingdom.”       Romans 8:28

Time may be flying but enjoy the ride.