Tuesday 20 August 2013

They Deadly Lie

The world tells us that being busy is the best way to be.

It is a sort of badge of honor. To be busy is to be productive, useful and successful, and being stressed comes with being a hard working and responsible person... anything less then this is to be lazy, a slacker.

And guess what, as I am sure is no surprise to most of you, the church has not only bought into this destructive, deadly lie it has adopted it and created its own "holy" version!

I have fallen for the lie. I love to be busy busy busy... I love feeling stressed out (just as much as I hate it!). It gives me a feeling of self worth, and purpose to my life. If I am not busy, then what am I doing? I am proud to be known as someone who can work hard and play hard. I truly attribute my ability to the grace of God, because there have been times where I didn't think I could go on any longer, and God gave me the strength. Yet, I ignore his commandments to practice the Sabbath and to not worry (stress)...

Recently my body has been screaming at me to STOP! REST! NOW! God loves me sooo much, and he knows what is the best for me, so he has implemented the Sabbath and a not worrying (stressing) mandate.

Just as my body is telling me, so does the Bible. To not rest, to not practice Sabbath, to be stressed out is an active act of disobedience against God.

I am not yet sure how to work (because I do think God wants us to be good workers) and to rest well in him, that is what I am going to be meditating on over the next little while... but what I do know is that God is commanding us all to rest, trust and be still in Him...

stressed.
release us
into joy
into peace
into You
Amen.


Saturday 10 August 2013

Earnest? Earnest who? Earnest what!?

At the end of my devotional reading today the writer gives the exhortation to "... Show your gratitude [to God for his gift of life] by earnest, Christ-like lives, and as God has bidden you to live, see to it that you live in earnest." (By: Charles Spurgeon on Aug 8, 2013)

That got me thinking… what does earnest living look like?

So I googled it! (Because that’s what I do) and I found a great definition:

It means: -adjective 1. serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous: an earnest worker.2. showing depth and sincerity of feeling: earnest words; an earnest entreaty. 3. seriously important; demanding or receiving serious attention. -noun 4.full seriousness, as of intention or purpose: to speak in earnest. (from http://wiki.answers.com/ and you know it must be true because Wiki knows everything)

At the end someone has written (yelled): WHAT EARNEST MEANS TO ME: MY EVERYTHING... 

I am pretty sure they are referring to their love for another human and they kind of get off track, but what struck me as significant was the first thing they said: “MY EVERYTHING"… I thought yup that's it, that is what it means to live earnestly: everything, no part untouched, no boxes, no separation between sacred and secular, but ALL EVERYTHING we are, think, do, say, breathe, dance, sing... Is with/through/for Jesus!

OK that is simple to write and beautiful to sing about but what does that actually - hitting the pavement - look like!?

Great question…

Oh you think I might have an answer? Ha! Nope… I do have a few thoughts; obviously that’s why I am writing about it…

Thought number one: Jesus.

Great start right?

He is so much more than the Sunday school answer. He is our everything… and speaking of being earnest, Jesus is what it means to be earnest… think about, look at his living example when he walked this earth… there was no separation between sacred and secular with Jesus, he glorified his father in all he did, and didn't do… he spent blood sweating time in prayer, he partied with the sinners, he got tired, he served, he slept and rested, he cried, he threw a protest (the market place in the temple)… on and on, the point is when I look to Jesus I see a man who lived his whole life, his everything, all he did, for the love of his Father and other people…

I am going to stop at this first thought… because I need to get started on my homework, and it’s probably my best one any how…

To wrap it up: What does it mean to live earnestly? To love God and people with and in your everything… no separation between Sunday mornings and Saturday nights, every moment is for the magnification of His loving and glorious name! BE LIKE JESUS! He is after all the starter and perfecter of our faith, so we can trust and look to him to teach and help us to live earnestly…

Yup, that’s it… I’m going to get busy earnestly doing my homework for the love of my Father in Heaven and for the glorification of the name of Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord God Almighty…