PURPOSE 1

One of the greatest tragedies that is sweeping the modern world is confusion and therefore corruption of purpose. In how many areas of life have we confused our purpose and so lost all hope of fulfillment?

IS COMFORT YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?

In John 12:27,28 Jesus said,

"Now is my heart troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"

Purpose was crucial to Jesus. But do you realize what our Lord said here? His purpose was for His heart to be troubled. It was necessary for Him to come into the hour of trouble to redeem us. What is your purpose? Is it to avoid trouble or heartache?

Your God given, soul satisfying, purpose is not comfort. Jesus said He would send us another Comforter. But the Holy Spirit is to be with us in trials. If your purpose is comfort, finding it will bring boredom rather than satisfaction.

WHAT ABOUT PLEASURE?

The purpose of your life on this earth is not pleasure either. God created pleasure. It can be very good as a side dish. But it makes a terrible main course.

The drug epidemic and the sexual revolution that are deadly parasites on our homes, our economy, and all the foundations of society are products of the unquestioned belief that pleasure is the highest human value.

I am aware that many of my readers would already agree with what I am saying. Although I am very pleased if some of you who disagree are reading this. But even those of us who basically oppose such behavior find ourselves tempted, even addicted to internet pornography or some other pleasure oriented problem, because we have been able to indulge in it secretly. I pray for God's deliverance which will certainly require uncovering the rattle snake's nest. Many churches have men's groups where it is safe to confess such things. Pastors may have to find or organize a ministers' group to deal with whatever you need to confess.

But many of us who are free from the most debilitating of these sins are living our lives as if pleasure were more important than anything else. We need to challenge that thinking with scripture, prayer and seeking a higher purpose from God.

IS YOUR PURPOSE SECURITY?

Have you ever been thrilled by stories of risk or sacrifice? They are the bread and butter of TV drama. Would you watch an adventure show in which the leading character never had any higher good for which he was willing to risk or sacrifice? Would you watch the show twice if the hero ran away from every danger in cowardice or cynicism? You would not because somewhere deep in your consciousness you know safety and security are not the purpose of life. I love the statement from Jim Elliott's college journal. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Jesus concluded with the highest purpose of our lives. “Father, glorify Your name!

I intend to write again next week on this subject. I suspect you will be surprised if not shocked at two things that I say should not be your purpose in life.

GLEANINGS

Are you familiar with the Old Testament principle of gleaning? It is stated in Leviticus 23:22.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am the Lord your God."

Landowners, even poor farmers were commanded to take less profit to help the poor and the stranger. The Old Testament book of Ruth paints a vivid picture of gleaning in action.

This is unique among religions. Religions tend to favor the rich and powerful, those who can earn or buy or deserve salvation. But the God of the Bible sides with the poor and disenfranchised. By the gospel we must come to Him as beggars. He receives the spiritually destitute.

In a talk at The 1974 Lausanne conference on World Evangelisation Francis Schaeffer said,

"The Bible does clearly teach the right of property, but both the Old and The New Testaments put a tremendous stress on the compassionate use of your property. If at each place where the employer/owner was a Bible believing Christian, the world could see that less profit was being taken out so that the workers could have appreciably more than the going rate of pay, the gospel would have been better proclaimed than if the profits were the same as the world took and then large endowments be given to missions and other projects."

Okay, how do we apply this principle to our lives? First, I think it is a serious beginning to recognize this truth and start asking the question. How can you apply it in your situation?

And there is a possibility that this blog will be read by some of you who have employees. You could begin asking God to show you how to bring this about.

Others of us ought to affirm companies that pay their employees more than the going rate. I do not know their motivation but the In-N-Out Burgers’ website claims that cook/managers in their restaurants can earn up to $120,000 a year. They need to be held up as a model.

The owners of Hobby Lobby are clear about the motivation of Christian principles in raising the minimum wage of full time employees to $14 an hour. I would like to see companies who do this sort of thing publicly honored. Most of us do not have a large soap box. But you influence more people than you think. I did a little research to verify these figures. But in both cases I was given the information by people who did not have a greater platform than friends and relatives.

All of us relate in small ways to wage earners. For instance, how do you tip in a restaurant. Do you leave a tip for the ladies who clean your motel room on a trip?

I have increased what I tip and not just when the service is especially good. I tip well because I know my waitress might be a single mother struggling to raise her children. I tip because I know that worker works long hours with little compensation, respect, or appreciation. I tip well because I remember that I did nothing to deserve the most important thing in my life. I often ask a waiter if we can pray for him as we pray over our meal. I tip well in hope of removing barriers to the gospel. What can you do that will improve the lives of people who need what you can give?

THE ISSUE OF ABORTION

In this and many elections I have been a one issue voter because I feel so strongly about abortion. My stomach rolls when I think of an innocent baby being torn apart in the womb. I see our nation standing before the Lord and hearing Him say, “Whatever you did or did not do for the least of these.”

However, there is more to the problem of abortion than its legality. My first concern is our society's attitudes toward sex. I don't know how legislation could have much effect that problem. But I would like to see a president use the bully pulpit and other prominent figures in our society use their influence to appeal to Hollywood, fiction writers, and other media to help turn our thinking around. I also think we need to show compassion and give help to teenagers and women in general under the  pressure of an unwanted pregnancy.

And I would also like to see adoption publicly affirmed and promoted. I like the promotion of adoption on soft drink cups at Wendy’s. I think it is interesting that there are so few children available for adoption that couples are paying tens of thousands of dollars to adopt.

I believe abortion is a major issue in America and the world. But we will not have significant impact on it if we are only concerned about its legality.

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HOW TO LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

In a prayer time that I was leading shortly after September 11, 2001 a six-year-old boy spoke up. “We need to pray for the terrorists!” I answered without thinking. “Pray that they will be caught and killed.”

That incident and the real danger of enemies on our door step plunged me into a serious quandary of how to love them. In Luke chapter 6 Jesus gave us a list of specific applications. And while I need to say these directives are personal rather than political, they should affect every area of a Believer's thinking.

Luke 6:27

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

You have to begin by listening. Are you willing to listen to things Jesus says that go against what you consider common sense? Have you considered what good thing God has arranged for you to do for the person who lies about you or opposes something important that you need to accomplish?

Luke 6:28

“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Desiring God's blessing on someone is a foundation of intercessory prayer. I have several lists of people that I pray for every day as a personal spiritual discipline. And from time to time God impresses me to add someone to one of those lists that I just don't like. I have to pray for God to develop His love in my heart for them as I try to ask Him to bless them.

Luke 6:29

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”

This  may be the most practical and difficult application of loving our enemies. And while the command to turn the other cheek, not to mention the ensuing commands Jesus gives us here, leaves us terribly vulnerable, it meant much more than that to the people who first heard it.

Some years ago I went on a mission trip to what you might call a “kiss culture.” Especially in the churches there, men greeted one another with a kiss on the cheek, often on both cheeks.  It did not take us very long to discover that the one receiving the kiss has to turn his cheek. If you did not turn your cheek, you got kissed on the mouth.

We were never comfortable with this custom, but we quickly came to understand the depth of relationship they were expressing. In such a culture turing the other cheek was an offer of relationship. In the case of an enemy, it was a vulnerable offer of reconciliation.

Let me skip down to Luke 6:35,36, a good conclusion to this passage.

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Genuinely loving your enemies requires a work of God in your life. We grow in this complicated and humanly impossible discipline as we spend time in His presence. To love like this you must be a child of the Most High. God must plant His spiritual DNA into your heart.

In a prayer time that I was leading shortly after September 11, 2001 a six-year-old boy spoke up. “We need to pray for the terrorists!” I answered without thinking. “Pray that they will be caught and killed.”

That incident and the real danger of enemies on our door step plunged me into a serious quandary of how to love them. In Luke chapter 6 Jesus gave us a list of specific applications. And while I need to say these directives are personal rather than political, they should affect every area of a Believer's thinking.

Luke 6:27

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

You have to begin by listening. Are you willing to listen to things Jesus says that go against what you consider common sense? Have you considered what good thing God has arranged for you to do for the person who lies about you or opposes something important that you need to accomplish?

Luke 6:28

“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Desiring God's blessing on someone is a foundation of intercessory prayer. I have several lists of people that I pray for every day as a personal spiritual discipline. And from time to time God impresses me to add someone to one of those lists that I just don't like. I have to pray for God to develop His love in my heart for them as I try to ask Him to bless them.

Luke 6:29

“If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.”

This  may be the most practical and difficult application of loving our enemies. And while the command to turn the other cheek, not to mention the ensuing commands Jesus gives us here, leaves us terribly vulnerable, it meant much more than that to the people who first heard it.

Some years ago I went on a mission trip to what you might call a “kiss culture.” Especially in the churches there, men greeted one another with a kiss on the cheek, often on both cheeks.  It did not take us very long to discover that the one receiving the kiss has to turn his cheek. If you did not turn your cheek, you got kissed on the mouth.

We were never comfortable with this custom, but we quickly came to understand the depth of relationship they were expressing. In such a culture turing the other cheek was an offer of relationship. In the case of an enemy, it was a vulnerable offer of reconciliation.

Let me skip down to Luke 6:35,36, a good conclusion to this passage.

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Genuinely loving your enemies requires a work of God in your life. We grow in this complicated and humanly impossible discipline as we spend time in His presence. To love like this you must be a child of the Most High. God must plant His spiritual DNA into your heart.

THE SOURCE OF LOVE

I have been doing research on three books that I am asking God to let me finish. Their working titles are FAITH, HOPE, and AGAPE. From time to time I intend to give you glimpses of each of these books in my blog posts. This is the first.

In the introduction to my book, Joy, I said that whole book was to some extent a definition of joy. That is not the case with AGAPE. In this book I would like to show you powerful elements of love and help you develop genuine love in your life. But love is much more difficult to define. That is primarily because of its infinite personal source. Agape comes from God and God alone.

Look with me at 1 John chapter 4:7 and 8.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Do you get the force of this statement? "God is Love!" "God is agape!"

In the same context verses 16 and 17 say,

"And we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

This gives us a glimpse into the nature of the triune God. Love is not something God developed later. He did not create us so He would have someone to love. Love is the very nature of the infinite God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved one another eternally. The first lines of this poem on John 1:1 reaches for this truth.

In the beginning, from before the beginning

There was God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

In perfect union, eternal love communing."

So verse 19 of 1 John 4 concludes that we love because God loved us first.

Love comes from God. We love out of relationship with Him.

Life-long Repentance

In Matthew 4:17 we are told that after His temptation in the wilderness and the arrest of John the Baptist Jesus began His preaching ministry with the call for repentance. "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Interestingly enough, the word the Lord uses here in Greek, the language of the New Testament, demands that the action of repentance be continual. When we come to Christ we enter into life-long repentance. Of course, this means a permanent change of thinking. But in our daily lives it also means we must continue to turn our hearts away from sins that inevitably creep in. Let me suggest three necessary aspects of continuing repentance.

1. A Sensitive Heart

How do you respond when someone accuses you of wrong? Do you put all your energy into defending yourself? Do you automatically attack? Or do you pray? You can ask God, "Father, is this an opportunity to repent?" Since our ultimate accuser is Satan, you may well discover that the accusation is not completely true. But even in this situation you may have an opportunity to bring your heart and your thinking more in line with your Heavenly Father's. If your heart is sensitive, what the enemy intends for evil will only make you more Christlike.

2. A Thoughtful Heart

The freedom to examine your heart comes to from saturating your mind in the truth of the gospel. Have you memorized verses that give you God's assurance? Do you think daily about their wonderful truth? You don't have to defend yourself. Jesus is actively defending you before the throne of God. (1 John 2:1) You are not condemned. (Romans 8:1) God sees you washed in His blood. (Revelation 1:5) There are hundreds more!

3. A Comforted Heart.

To react in repentance rather than defensiveness you need to be immersed in the love of God that His Spirit desires to lavish upon you. Do you regularly Give thanks for the love of Christ? Do you tremble in wonder at God's amazing grace? Only in such assurance will you be free to continually examine your heart and allow God's Spirit to bring it nearer to His own.

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KEYS TO HAPPYNESS

I thought about using the word blessedness in my title this week. Of course that would have turned readers away in droves. But blessedness is really what I want to write about even though we seldom, if ever, use such a word in these days. I was surprised to see it still listed in my Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. We tend to replace blessedness with words like success or happiness. But other words do not capture the concept of the blessing of God on our lives. So blessedness is still used in our English translations of Scripture. And while it means so much more, blessedness touches the core of true happiness.

One of my favorite scripture passages that deals with this crucial concept is Psalm 1. It begins, "Blessed is the man." Let me point out several important perspectives of happiness that God shows us in this Psalm.

First, Real happiness is Deep. If we used the psychological definition of happiness we might call happiness, contentment. But contentment is contingent upon how a person feels in a given moment. Your momentary contentment may be shattered in the next instant.

In Psalm 1:3 we read about a truly happy person. "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season." His happiness does not depend on what is happening in a moment or season. You can trust God in painful times if the source of your blessings are deeper than what is happening on the surface. Yes, you are weeping in this long night of pain or sorrow. But it need not overwhelm you. You can trust God to bring you into His joy in The Morning.

True happiness is Heavy. The life of the person depending on God is sometimes uncomfortably heavy with trials. But you can rejoice in knowing that the heaviness is fruit being matured in your branches. The chaff is not heavy. But it will be blown away.

Finally, Complete happiness is Ultimate. If you asked Kids, who are exhausted and playing poorly in a high school ball game with their team far behind, "Is this is a good game? They would say? "No! This is a terrible game." But if they somehow turn everything around, and come back to win against impossible odds in the final seconds, what would they say about that game?

In this corrupt world I am sometimes tired and weak, foolish and sinful. But I can grin in the struggle because I  know how it will end. Jesus already took the penalty for me. God has promised to lay on my shoulders all the glory that Jesus earned. Romans 8:18 and following assures me that nothing I endure now can compare with the glory that will be revealed in me.