Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

Ephesians 5:19  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

Take My Life And Let It Be – Frances Havergal, 1874

Take my life and let it be, Consecrated, Lord, to Thee, Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Above, I have the first verse of this wonderful hymn that many of us have sung in our worship services.  In the midst of this verse I believe the Lord allowed me to see a picture of something in a way I hadn’t seen it before.  It came in an instant and I saw and understood it.

This verse talks about our lives – our moments and our days.  Our prayer is to let them flow in ceaseless praise.  Think of that ceaseless praise as a symphony – performed by an entire orchestra – not an individual.  Drums, strings, woodwinds and brass – All the musicians, with their many different instruments, have their appropriate parts to play.  The symphony is to be a harmonious blend of them all.  They are all to be in-tune with each other! – And must follow the conductor’s lead in order to blend together.

In this picture, I saw that our lives, consisting of thoughts, attitudes, actions, words, intents, motives and everything about us – are continually doing two things.  First, our lives are creating a musical score.  Second, our lives are playing as a symphony, the score as we create it.  Each and every one of these aspects of our lives is an instrument and plays a part.  Nothing is left out.  Nothing is too small or insignificant.  Nothing is silent.

The question becomes, ‘How do we sound?’  Is the ‘music’ pleasing or discordant?  A pleasing sound is dependent upon the transforming work of the Holy Spirit and our obedience to walk in His ways.  Nothing escapes His care and attention.  We are to become increasingly responsive to His touch.  When we co-operate with Him, He will bring everything in our lives into submission to His will.  He will create within us the harmony and the wonder of a symphony of life that will glorify our Lord.

Scripture to follow:  

I had a good friend in college named Keith.  His father was a piano tuner who trained him in this trade when Keith was a child.  Keith started tuning professionally at age 9 and was very good at it.  He was raised near a nationally famous music camp and one summer he tuned for Van Cliburn (world famous pianist) who was performing at the camp.

There is one thing that I particularly remember about how Keith did his tuning.  Although he did it by ear, he disciplined himself to tune periodically with a machine.  He found this to be an excellent and necessary way to keep his own ear tuned appropriately.  Otherwise, with the passing of time, his ear would go slightly off.

This is such an important lesson for us to consider as we look at our own lives.  We have habits, associations, friends, idiosyncrasies, patterns of behavior, thoughts and attitudes – all of which need to be ‘in tune’ to the standard that God has for us.  Without diligence, these practices can become ‘off key’ just as much as an out of tune piano.  We might think everything is fine because we become deaf (and blind) to the disharmony we’re producing.  What appears normal can become strident without us being aware of it.  I trust we understand that I am not talking about music here.

Think of the warning in Isaiah 5:40, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter!”  It describes lives ‘in tune’ with the world but ‘out of tune’ with our Lord!

What is sexual impurity?  What is gossip?   Dishonesty?  Immodesty?  Immorality?  What is stealing (in terms of habits and practices done at work)?  How about jealousy or gossip?  Where do you hang out on Friday or Saturday nights?  What do you look at on a computer, your phone or tablet or on TV? Where do we draw the lines on these things?  Who or what defines our standard for right and wrong?  Acceptable and unacceptable?  I never dreamed we’d see the day where the warning in Isaiah would so describe the culture around us.

These are all items, along with many others where we must be in tune with God’s word.  What is good?  What is evil?  [Note: Another way of thinking of this is the question, “Which way is North?”  North is not subject to opinion! – and neither is God’s identification of good and evil.]  We must care enough to submit everything about our lives to Him.  Prayerfully read His word and allow the Holy Spirit to touch anything in our lives.  If we’re really listening, He will show us where we are ‘out of tune’.

Psalm 1:1-3   ¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

The beginning of Psalm 1 has always been special to me.  It describes the journey to a Godly life.  It’s a simple summary or overview of what not to do; what to do; and the results of a life so lived.  It’s like a father talking with a son or daughter and giving them counsel that will help them in all they do.  The counsel appears to be general in nature yet presents a clear picture of the types of actions required to have a blessed life.

The principles are really common to us because they exist in all areas of life.  No matter what goal we’re seeking, there are things and distractions to avoid, an attitude of heart to have, things to embrace, and the results consistent with such actions.  Sports, music, school, marriage, child-raising, work, life – it makes no difference, the counsel applies.

Years ago, I was teaching in a private school and in the summer following my third year there, the school without warning closed.  With a family to support, I wound up in sales – not somewhere I thought I would ever be.  Lots of people fail at sales or only marginally succeed.  Many of those around me failed because they wouldn’t discipline themselves.  They did not avoid the distractions, actions and associations with others that undermined what they were trying to learn.  They did not approach the job wholeheartedly.

If we’re supposed to be on the phone, making prospect calls, we can’t be daydreaming, reading other stuff or talking with others who are in the process of failing as well.  If we’re supposed to be studying, there’s TV, talking, messaging or tweeting.  There are things and people and ‘stuff’ that call us – distract us – keep us, from attaining the goal we set.  But we must recognize the issue is us!

Great are the rewards of avoiding the pitfalls, and wholeheartedly pursuing the actions that enable us to attain a worthy goal.  We must recognize that this reality applies to our relationship with the Lord.  The result we achieve will be commensurate to what we do and how we do it.

James 1:22  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Year ago, back when I was surviving as an insurance salesman, I made a significant sale to a small business twice – at least I thought I had.  I remember how excited I was because at the time it was my biggest sale – which meant it was also my biggest commission.  You can imagine my disappointment when their payment check bounced!  Note: At that time most things were paid for by cash or check. I went back to see them again.  They apologized; gave me another check and it bounced too.  I never did complete a sale with them.

Prior to that, I would say I knew I had a sale when a customer gave me a check. That was forever changed in my mind to I knew I had a sale when the check cleared.  The check was a promise of something real.  It’s the money in the bank that gave value to the check.  If there isn’t adequate money in the bank, the check bounces.

One of the problems that has always confronted Christians is having their lives back up what they say when they verbalize the Gospel.  Words are a whole lot easier to express than the Godly lives that give the words credibility.  There’s an old expression that describes this “Talking the talk and walking the walk”.  There is such power when the testimony of following Jesus is backed up by lives that reflect His glory.

Putting this in the context of my sales experience, the Godly reality of our lives is the money in the bank that gives value to the check – the testimony we give about Jesus and our faith.  If we have inadequate reality of Him in our lives – the check bounces.  This isn’t about walking in perfection but about there being ample evidence of us being a Godly work in progress.

Being a doer of the Word affects everything in our lives – our thoughts, attitudes, words, actions, responses, beliefs – our hopes, our fears – everything.  This impacts what we say; how we say it and how we are perceived.  There is such joy and confidence that come with being a doer of the Word – having lives that truly give witness to the Lord we serve.  Remember, this is something we get to do!

Hebrews 6:1a  Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…

When we are born again, God does an amazing work in us.  We become new creatures in Christ Jesus.  Old things pass away and all things become new.  Many of us experience remarkable transformations in our lives that impact behavior, thinking and speaking.  The Lord becomes the most important thing in our lives.  We are His, but in terms of living our lives here on earth, we have not arrived – we are merely beginning.

Have you ever considered the perspective that Christianity involves a skill set to be learned and lived?  Foremost it is a relationship with our Lord, but that relationship with Him and with others has requirements of us.  Some we find easier than others to meet.  Some we really struggle with because of the ongoing work that the Lord must do in our lives.  Although we are new in Christ, it’s amazing the lifetime supply of ‘stuff’ we have in our lives that God will bring to our attention and help us deal with.

Our Christian walk is to become more and more like Jesus.  We need to know what that looks like. All too often we think we know but we don’t.  Think a moment about it in terms of carpentry.  It is a learned skill.  Items must be smooth to the touch – no splinters!  How often in our lives are we prickly or ripe with splinters in our interactions with others – and we might even be totally unaware of it.  Some areas of our lives are in need of reconstruction by the Master Carpenter – while others He is putting His finishing touch on.

Change doesn’t all happen overnight in terms of our behavior; it’s a life-long transformative process with the Holy Spirit working with us.  When the scripture says that they will know we are disciples of Jesus by our love for one another, it’s talking about how we live – how we act and talk.  What attitudes do we demonstrate?  Do we have a servant’s heart?

We rejoice both in conforming to His word, and in His dealing with us where we have far to go.  Jesus is our focus.  I remember the slogan of the Zenith Corporation, ‘The quality goes in before the name goes on.’  The same is true of us but with a twist.  We receive the quality within us in Christ.  It’s how we live that reflects our name – whether we are truly followers of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 2:14  But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Our youngest son Michael was born with an artistic gift.  Even when he was little he could draw beautifully.  I describe him as having the eye of an artist.  After serving in the army, he joined the National Guard so that he could be trained in Broadcast Journalism.  He wanted to become a videographer – one who makes videos.  That was his job in the Guard.

Good videography requires technical competence.  It’s not just taking videos and splicing them together. It is producing a product that accomplishes its intended purpose.  The quality and attractiveness of the video produced depends upon the skill and technical excellence of the one producing it.  But here is where Michael had a real advantage.  He brought the eye of an artist to his trade.

This artistic gift affected everything that he did in the process:  camera angles, shots taken, lighting, what to include or exclude, music, editing, how things are put together.   This enabled him to produce videos that stood out and received recognition.  They have an inherent attractiveness because they combined art and technical skill.  The resulting product has an attractive ‘fragrance’, if you will that art or technical skill by themselves couldn’t produce.  Michael’s generals and others noted the excellence of his work.

This illustration of the importance of artistic gift + technical competence has a wonderful parallel in our Christian life.  The gift is the life of Christ within us.  It affects everything about us and particularly how we view everything.  The technical skill component is walking in His ways.  We have the Holy Spirit within us motivating and enabling us to learn from God’s Word how to do it.  The more we walk in His ways, the greater this component becomes – the more Christlike we become.  Without this, excellence is not produced.

Whereas Michael produced excellent videos; we are to produce lives of excellence.  People watch us just like they do videos.  What are they going to notice and remember?  If we truly and seriously commit ourselves to Christ and His transforming work in our lives, we will spread the wonderful fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus wherever we go.