Monday March 24, 2014

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Don Schmidt

1 Peter 1:7  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Have you ever thought about the difference between what’s real and what’s artificial?  Depending upon the circumstances it might be irrelevant or it might be significant.  I don’t think we’d want to bite into artificial fruit – we might break a tooth; but seeing a bouquet of artificial flowers is another thing.  But you sure wouldn’t expect to see a garden of artificial flowers.  Context can make a big difference.

Personally I love bouquets of fresh cut flowers.  In the spring I love having, daffodils, hyacinth and seeing blossom trees in full bloom.  Given my love of flowers, their beauty and fragrance, I love to have a couple of bouquets in the house to enjoy.   But many are the times I’ve experienced the disappointment of being attracted to plants or bouquets only to discover they weren’t real.

I remember years ago we were being shown around a friend’s big new home.  The wooden furniture in one room was amazing.  At least it was amazing until we touched it and discovered that the ornate fronts of each piece were plastic.  They were pretty but it seemed the intention was to have the furniture give the appearance of being something it wasn’t.  It wasn’t genuine.

Do we realize that any discussion of real versus artificial takes on a whole different dimension when we talk about our lives and relationships?  What kind of ‘front’ do we put up when we go somewhere?  .  How often do we hear of marriages breaking up and it comes as a total surprise to even close friends or family?  Instead of a genuine quality relationship, the representation of the marriage was artificial.

The same problems can appear in individuals, families, friendships or working relationships.  The issue isn’t to broadcast our problems to the world but to recognize the importance of our lives; that as Christians – Jesus followers – they must be the real thing.  There are times when we need help to get through stuff and we mustn’t let pride get in the way.  Beautiful gardens don’t happen over night; they take work.  So do quality lives and relationships.

We must take advantage of the grace, mercy, instruction and resources that God gives us; plus the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to become the genuine reality that He desires.  When we do, our lives are real – not artificial – because they are the work of His of hands.  He is the potter – we are the clay.

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Sunday March 23, 2014

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Don Schmidt

1 Corinthians 8:3  But the man who loves God is known by God.

When I read this verse I think of Moses and the burning bush.  The bush was on fire but it didn’t burn up.  It caught Moses’ attention and in the midst of shepherding his sheep, he turned aside to see this strange sight.  Once God saw that he had turned aside to look, He called to Moses from within the bush.

Moses responded and encountered God in a stunning way.  It strikes me that in today’s verse, ‘the man who loves God’ is the bush and ‘is known by God’ is the burning part – the fire that doesn’t consume.  This verse is there, like a bush on fire, that doesn’t burn up, with God waiting to see who will be attracted and turn aside.

There are other verses that have this same feature – this same element of mystery and attraction.  They are there – waiting – to see if they will cause us to ‘turn aside’.  James 4:8a says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  Stop and think about that.  God is everywhere.  He’s omnipresent.  As Christians He lives within us.  So what is He talking about when He says if we come near to Him, He will come near to us?  Could He be talking about something more intimate?

Then in John 14: 21b Jesus says, “The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”  This verse is explosive!  The one who loves Jesus will be loved by His Father!  But, doesn’t God already love us?  Isn’t that why He sent Jesus?  Is it possible that somehow, when it comes to the love of God, there is a whole lot more we can experience?

The Amplified Bible states the last clause of John 14:21 this way, “…and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]”  WOW!!!  This shouts that there is unspeakable treasure waiting for those who love God!  Not in terms of things, but in terms of relationship and intimacy with our Lord God.  All of this is there waiting for the ones who love Him.

These experiences are reserved for those who truly pursue loving God.  It’s almost like God saying that when we first come to Him, as marvelous as our experiences might be, it’s only the ‘tip of the iceberg’.   There is so much more of Him that only the ones who love Him will get to experience.  The choice is ours.

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Saturday March 22, 2014

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Joshua 24:15a  But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,

In 1996 my two oldest sons and I went on a mission trip to Romania with a small group led by a close friend from Seattle.   We flew into Munich, picked up our van and spent the first night in Europe at the Y WAM castle in Hurlach, an hour west of there.  The next morning we left early to beat rush hour in Munich.  We had to drive south from Hurlach and pick up the highway going east toward Munich and then on to Hungary where we would spend the night.  We got on the highway and after about 15 minutes, John, my oldest son asked an important question: “Dad – since when does the sun rise in the west?”

We had inadvertently taken the wrong ramp and were headed for France – not Munich and Hungary!  Thank God that it wasn’t a rainy morning and that my sons noticed this major discrepancy.  The dawn and the sun coming up on a clear morning are kind of hard to miss.

We need to recognize that life is filled with opportunities to take mistaken directions in terms of the attributes that characterize our lives.  The wrong choices become easier to make when we are distracted from following the Lord and become preoccupied with other things.  Instead of choosing righteousness, we make choices that are more appealing to our fleshly nature.

We get careless and wind up going the wrong way without being aware of it.  Such decisions frequently made become life habits and contradict or undermine our faith: situation ethics, shading the truth, the ends justify the means, a little promiscuity, cutting corners, let someone else do it, no one will know, getting even – hey everybody does it.  If you’re reading the Bible and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you hear them echoing within you, “Don’t go that direction!”

Unfortunately, hearing them doesn’t mean listening and obeying them.  Worse, our spiritual eyesight becomes dull and we don’t see the warning signs around us – (i.e., the sun rising in the west!)  We become comfortable with our Christianity being something we put on like a T-shirt.  Outward appearance might seem okay but inwardly we become filled with rot and decay.  Look at our society – about 75% consider themselves Christian, but you sure wouldn’t know it by looking at our culture.

We must recognize that our choices are the true reflection of whether we have chosen to serve the Lord.  It’s not what we say.  It’s not what we think we believe.  It’s not what we do on Sunday mornings.  The consequences of our choices are immense.  “Choose for yourselves this day….”

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Friday March 21, 2014

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Isaiah 9:6-7  6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Jesus is the one of whom Isaiah wrote in the above verses.  He is the One who is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.  Jesus is the One who reigns on David’s throne forever.  Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

The more we see Jesus the more we are overcome with the awareness that we can never thank Him adequately for what God has done for us.  We were lost and separated from God but because of Jesus, we are now His.  We are God’s people!  Peter writes of this wonderfully quoting another verse from Isaiah about this One (1 Peter 2:4-6),

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”  (Isaiah 28:16)

As Peter goes on to write about ‘those who believe’ – to whom this stone is precious, he describes what God has done and is doing with us (1 Peter 2:9-10),

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Because of Jesus, we are God’s special possession!  Because God so loved us, ‘unto us a child is born, to us a son is given…’  We, who were not a people are now His.  We, who had not received mercy, have now received mercy.  We get to spend our lives declaring His praises because He called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

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Thursday March 20, 2014

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Don Schmidt

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

I was reminded of a kindness shown to me by a stranger that really moved me.  We were having family over for dinner one night and needed a couple items from the store.  So in the afternoon I went to Aldi’s to get those items plus some fruit and vegetables.

The total came to $16.27 and I used my debit card only to have it declined.  That was unexpected and I thought it was just a computer glitch so we tried the card again only to have it declined again.  I was mystified because I thought I had sufficient funds in the checking account to cover a small purchase.  The cashier suggested I call the bank.  So the transaction was suspended while I went to make my call.

I walked over to the counter area where customers pack their groceries after paying for them and called Donna to have her check the account online.  Just then another customer came over to me.  He had just purchased his groceries and had witnessed my little adventure.  He got my attention and said, “I’ll pay for your groceries for you.”

What an unexpected kindness!  I thanked him and said that my wife was checking our account right then.  He said he would wait to find out.  I was embarrassed to discover that I had let our checking account balance get down to $14.  So Donna transferred money online from savings into the account.  All the while this gentleman was standing patiently next to me with cash in hand to pay for the groceries.

It’s difficult to describe what was going on within me once he made his offer.  Although I was on the phone with Donna while she accessed our account, I was so aware of the kindness that was being extended to me by this stranger.  Further, I was blessed by the fact that he didn’t leave me when I informed him we were transferring the money.  He just stood there patiently waiting to see if the card would be approved.

Once Donna completed the transfer, I went back to the cashier; we reran the card and it was approved.  He was still standing there, waiting.  I turned and thanked him again for his generosity and kindness, and asked his name – it was Jeff.

As we walked to our cars I was so grateful for the kindness the Lord had shown me through Jeff.  On the one hand, it’s something that I don’t want to happen again.  But on the other, I was grateful that I had inadvertently allowed the account to have such a low balance so that I could experience the Lord’s kindness to me through a stranger named Jeff.

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Wednesday March 19, 2014

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Don Schmidt

1 Corinthians 8:3  But the man who loves God is known by God.

In these past few days we’ve seen that we love God by obeying His commands.  If we want to love Him, He has given us a very precise answer on the way it is done – the only way it is done.  And it is something that we can grow in.  Our ability to love Him is not static – He intends for it to grow all the days of our lives!  When Jesus said to walk in His ways, this is what He meant.  Think of the intimacy reflected in today’s verse for the ones who do.

I would like to offer a different perspective on commands for your consideration.   January 21, 2005 while in Brazil with our son and family, I was struggling with this whole issue of truly loving God.  That evening, in a wonderful experience with the Lord and His presence, He brought to mind a movie that has been a favorite of our family.  The movie contains something that He just opened to me that night that continues to bless me to this day.  (I love to reread my journal entry where this is all recorded)

Have you seen the movie Princess Bride?  Peter Falk is a grandpa reading a love story to his grandson – the story of Princess Buttercup and her servant Wesley.  Every time she gives Wesley a command to do something he utters the phrase, “As you wish.”  Her “wish” is his command.

It becomes clear in the movie that “As you wish” means “I love you”.  They go through all manner of adventures and the movie has a wonderful ending.  For the sake of this illustration, don’t think of God’s commands as commands, but think of them as His wishes.  So, we are responding to wishes instead of commands.

Then think of being in love. You want your loved one to share with you their wishes – to which you respond, “As you wish.”  (Remember the expression ‘Your wish is my command!’)  You then go and do what they wish to bless them and please them and be overwhelmed with joy as you do.  God shares His “wishes” with us in His word.

All of His  “wishes” become opportunities for you to lovingly say to Him, “As you wish.”  “As you wish.”  “As you wish.”  Each and every time is your opportunity to love Him by what you do, and to say “I love you” to Him.  Your heart will be filled with the desire to learn and embrace all of His “wishes” so that you can do more and more of them.

Then, there are the times when we sin, and with painful remorse we come to the Lord and say, “Father – forgive me.”  To which He replies, “As you wish.”

(*Note: A few months later John Ortberg, my favorite author, came out with a book titled, God Is Closer Than You Think.  It has a chapter titled “As You Wish”)

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Tuesday March 18, 2014

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Don Schmidt

1 Peter 1:8  9You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. (The Message)

After I met Jesus years ago, I remember being told about an older prominent Christian by the name of Rufus Moseley.  Apparently he had a great deal of joy and for some strange reason some church people had a problem with that.  One old dour-faced Christian came up to him and sourly asked, “Do you think Jesus ever smiled?”  Rufus looked at her, grinned and answered, “I don’t know, but He sure fixed it so I can!”

I love to think of Jesus smiling and laughing.  I’m so grateful for paintings I’ve seen where the artist has presented Him doing so.  Then there’s Johnny Cash’s film Gospel Road that has such wonderful scenes of Jesus laughing and smiling with the disciples and children.

There’s also a production called The Thorn that began in Colorado Springs about 15 years ago that is very similar to The Passion of the Christ.  It tells the story of Jesus, and the violence done to Him is vividly represented.  But this serious production also presents Jesus as a man who smiled and expressed such joy when the miracles were performed and in times with His disciples.

Think of Jesus healing crippled children and their stunned and ecstatic response.  Can’t you just see the incredible joy in His face as He performed these wonders?  Can’t you just see these children running to Jesus and jumping in His arms, squealing with delight! Think of His face and the utter joy it would express.

This is our Lord.  This is the One we live with and for.  The Amplified Bible presents today’s verse this way:  8Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.   Oh my goodness, there are times when the wonder of what we have in Jesus is so overwhelming I’m beside myself.  It just seems too good to be true.  Hopefully you regularly have such moments of wonder too.

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Monday March 17, 2014

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Acts 9:31  Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

Have you ever lived anywhere where the drinking water was too unpleasant to drink?  In such situations a couple of alternatives are available.  One is to get bottled water and many people do that.  The other is to get a good water filter system that removes all the unpleasantness from the water.  Think about traveling overseas and the issue of whether it is wise or safe to drink the water?  There’s a lot more to it than just the taste and smell of the water.  Water that might seem fine can be a disaster to drink, that’s why it pays to be careful.

There are other water issues to be concerned about depending upon where you live and the water source.  Suppose you have the water tested and discover that there is ‘stuff’ in the unfiltered water that can and will hurt you.  But the good news is the testing also confirms that a quality water filter system removes those negatives; making the water safe to drink.  It’s just a matter of maintaining the filter system.

In this situation, with the filter system, the water is safe to drink.  Without the filter system, there are negatives in the water that will hurt us even if there is no bad taste or smell.  Water is important and it pays to be careful.  With this in mind, it’s important that we recognize that the fear of the Lord is a vital component of our spiritual filtering system.  There is a lot of deadly stuff out there in our culture that doesn’t ‘taste’ or ‘smell’ bad.  But it’s stuff that can kill and destroy.

We must also remember that we play a key role in our spiritual filtering system.  We have to pay attention to it and provide it with God’s Word so that it is fully operational.  We have to care! There is a very key verse in Numbers 32:23 that is a Biblical principle that we tend to forget but it’s still there: “your sin will find you out”.

That begs the question: “What is sin?” and the answer to that leads to specifics in every area and aspect of our lives.  Fortunately, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life in the motivational aspect of our lives in this realm.  It is life producing and the more we respond the more it protects us from things we must avoid.

Reread today’s verse.  The fear of the Lord was what they lived in.  It is healthy and positive and vital to our life in Christ Jesus.  We are to live in it too.

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Sunday March 16, 2014

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Don Schmidt

Ephesians 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

I was thinking about the pain of couples who quit loving one another.  I was reminded of a dream that is unquestionably the most powerful and vivid dream I’ve ever had.  This dream occurred several years after Donna and I went through some marital difficulties (1992) that were due primarily to me – my being unkind and behaving like a jerk.  At the time of the dream, our marriage had become the best it had ever been.  But in this dream Donna and I had divorced one another and that was the given for what then happened.

In the dream I walked into a small room and there in front of me was a small narrow table with Jesus sitting on one side of the table and a chair opposite Him.  I sat down across from Him and looked up into His face.  I don’t remember what he looked like but I will never forget his eyes and the tones in His voice.

With a smile on his face and joy in His voice He looked at me and said, “Tell me how you loved my daughter who I gave to you to be your wife.”  I did not say anything as my heart sank. (Remember in the context of the dream we had divorced.)  His smile vanished and there was no longer any joy in His voice when He began a series of rhetorical questions.  By the rising tone in His voice with each question, He knew the answers.

With great deliberation Jesus asked, “What do you mean you didn’t love her?!”  “What do you mean you left her?!!”  What do you mean you divorced her?!!!!” I cannot begin to describe the shame and distress that I experienced in the dream; hearing my Lord’s voice say again and again with growing incredulity and disapproval, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN….”  He wasn’t yelling, but if you’ve ever been called on the carpet and confronted by your father or a boss for serious mistakes you’ve made, you get the idea.

Then, all of a sudden, in the dream, I was Donna and the scene repeated itself.  Jesus asked with a smile and joy in His voice, “Tell me how you loved my son who I gave to you to be your husband.”  When He began the “What do you mean…” questions I immediately woke up.  What a mixture of pain and joy – pain at remembering the dream – joy and relief in knowing that Donna and I truly loved one another and had not divorced.

This dream was a priceless gift to me because it allowed me to see and experience the incredible importance that our Lord places upon marriage.   It also gave me a gut-wrenching taste of displeasing Him.  I cannot begin to describe how excruciatingly painful that was – and still is.  I pray that I never forget it.

But importantly, the dream generated a core conviction in the depth of my being that loving my wife is a primary way that I love Jesus.  If I don’t love her, I don’t love Him – and He and His word describe what love is.  Love is a whole lot more than affection.  What joy there is in waking up each day able to love our Lord and love our spouse!

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Saturday March 15, 2014

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Don Schmidt

1 John 5:3  This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

One evening I was really moved by Jesus’ question to Peter: “Do you love me?”  The more I thought about it, the question became alive to me – Do I love Him?  If so, how do I know for sure that I truly do love Him?  What if I’m deceiving myself?  The Bible has many examples of His people thinking they loved Him but their lives didn’t give any evidence of it – in fact their lives demonstrated that they didn’t!   Does He leave us to our own devices to determine if we love Him?

As I was crying out to Him about this, a sudden thought shot through my mind, “The answers are in the back of the book.”  This really spoke to me because I’m good at math.  All the math books I used had the answers to the odd problems in the back of the book.  Sometimes I had to start with the answers in order to figure out how to work the problems.  God was saying the answers to my question were in His book!

Loving God is defined by God as obeying His commands.  Scripture is filled with commands on how we should or should not live.  Culturally we have the unfortunate tendency to think of them as instructions or suggestions, but they are commands none-the-less – and every day we have nearly unlimited opportunities to obey them.

Every time we obey a command in Scripture, or respond to His Spirit, it is an objective, concrete expression of our love for Him.  (Think be kind, be gentle, don’t gossip, seek humility not pride, love one another, forgive, etc…)  We don’t have to wonder if we are really loving Him.  We just have to live His word. (Note: As a helpful aid, I have identified 25 different portions of Scripture in the NT that contain such lists and have them written in the back of my Bible under a title of ‘Loving God’.)

God also transforms our motivation.  Obedience (holding fast to His teachings and living in accordance with them) becomes something we don’t “have to” do, but we “get to” do!  It becomes a joy to do what Scripture says because His Spirit confirms in our hearts that we are expressing genuine love for Him.   The more we obey Scripture and the promptings of His Spirit, the more we love Him.  It’s like a dream coming true!

Part 5 tomorrow – A different perspective on commands.

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