I had the opportunity to get a pre-release of the first book you should read in 2010.  I got to read ‘Primal’ by Mark Batterson.  He is the author that brought us the book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.  Primal takes us back to find the lost soul of Christianity.  In the book, Batterson takes us through the heart, soul, mind, and strength of Christianity and shows us some of the ways we have lost the truth of Christianity by dreaming small dreams, by being selfish with our possessions, and by trying to be Christians on our own, without the power and vision of the Holy Spirit leading us.

He challenged me with several ideas, some of them I have heard before so they are a refresher challenge for me and some I have not heard before.  First, he challenged me with this question: “Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God?”  This question convicted Batterson when he first heard it and it convicts me every time I hear it.  It seems that time and comfort drive us away from this question and it’s always good to revisit it.

Primal

He challenged me with his ideas on having an income cap; sort of a level where my income is ‘enough’ and I don’t need to make more.  Hence, if I do make more I can know where the cap is and give away everything that is above it.  I haven’t had time to think this one through yet to determine what my cap should be nor have I discussed with my wife yet, but it’s great food for thought and I believe it will become a way of life for Kathy and I as we look at 2010 and beyond.

Batterson wants to bring Christianity back to the point where we love God with all of our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our strength.  He shows us how we have steered away from these things and gives us food for thought about how we can return to this type of love.  We do not return to this type of love without making some primal changes to our lives but he paints a picture of how our lives will be so much richer if we can just make that return.

In the book of Colossians, Paul was enumerating a list of common sins that all of us are familiar with.  When he finishes listing these sins, he adds a little sentence that seems easy to overlook.  He says, in Colossians 3:7; “You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.”  I believe this sentence calls us to remember where we came from and exhorts us to get over the “righteousness” that we credit to ourselves when we come to Jesus.  We tend to get all “righteous” and judgmental about those who are doing the things that we used to do.  Thank God that the ones who came to us, to lead us to Jesus, weren’t so judgmental when they came to us.  All of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus must overcome the urge to be so judgmental so that we can see others with the eyes of love that Jesus does.

I used to have a t-shirt that said, “I’m the wretch the song refers to” and I loved that shirt.  (It finally fell apart so I’m looking for another one!)  It reminded me of God’s grace and of the fact that His grace is the only difference between me being in fellowship with Him and me being a wretch.  The truth is that God’s grace is big enough for all of us.  There are none that are too far gone; God loves the wretches like me and wants to bring us all back into relationship with Him.

As the church, the living Body of Christ, let’s start walking this out.  Let’s see others through Jesus’ eyes.  Let’s see others as those who God wants to be in relationship with, just like us!

Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope.”  Paul was talking to the Romans here about the weak and the strong without puffing up the strong or discouraging the weak.  We are all here to lift each other up, to edify each other, whether weak or strong.  So, to do this we can all learn from the lessons taught by those who have come before us.  There is great wisdom in this.  Its foolish for us to ignore the wisdom of scripture and the wisdom of those who have walked the path ahead of us just so we can make the same mistakes that have already been made.  After all, the people who lived out scripture or have walked before us have already made our mistakes for us; we just need to learn from therm and not repeat them.

Did you ever watch Charlie Brown when he was trying to kick the football from Lucy’s hold?  She always pulled it out from under him; time after time.  But, in this case, Charlie wouldn’t learn from the lessons of the past, he just continued to try and kick that football from Lucy’s hold and end up on his posterior because she would move the ball before he kicked it.  I think it was Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Learning the hard way

That’s what happens when we ignore the wisdom of scripture and of those who have walked a little further along the path than we have.  We just keep trying to kick that football and keep ending up on our posteriors.  We try to do the same things and expect different results.  The lessons of the past are our teachers.  The lessons taught in scripture is our teacher.  I hope I can continue to learn from scripture and from those who are further down the path that I am so I can minimize the mistakes that I’ll be making.

I saw the Charlie Brown episode about the Great Pumpkin over the last week.  It’s been a favorite of mine since I was just a kid.  I would always get annoyed with Linus, though, because he’d waste all that prime candy gathering time waiting in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin.  The Great Pumpkin never came!

Linus keeps reminding us, throughout the whole episode, of how sincere he is.  He knows that if his sincere belief in the Great Pumpkin will insure a visit from him.  Linus puts all his hope in his sincerity.  Then, toward the end of the episode, he has a slip of the tongue and says something about “if” the Great Pumpkin comes.  This slip of the tongue; the admittance that he’s not absolutely sure the Great Pumpkin comes, ends his hopes of a visit.  The truth is that there is no Great Pumpkin, regardless of the level or Linus’ sincerity.  His sincere belief is groundless and empty so we see his disappointment at the end of the episode.

Many people, I think, are like that.  We believe that sincerity is the key.  It’s almost as if we place our hope in our sincerity.  If we sincerely believe there is a ‘higher power’, then we are all set.  The truth is, though, that sincerely believing in something besides the truth of the gospel of Jesus will only make us sincerely wrong.  We are all, at one level or another, searching for true truth and our sincere belief in anything less than the true truth of the God of the Bible will only leave us empty; regardless of the sincerity we put in our belief.

Mark 4:35-41 always encourages me to take a fresh look at life and at what God has called me to.  The story starts with Jesus’ disciples sailing across the Sea of Galilee, a lake really, and a storm coming up.  Jesus was asleep in the bow of the boat so the disciples woke him up to calm the storm.

But, did you notice what Jesus said before they ever set sail and before there was a storm?  He said, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Jesus set the course to go to the other side of the lake.  His call on the disciples was to take him there.

Jesus didn’t say, “Let us try to go over to the other side.”  He didn’t say, “Let’s hope we can make it over to the other side.”  He sure didn’t say, “Let’s go out in the lake and get swamped by a storm and die.”  He told the disciples they were going to the other side of the lake.  Maybe that’s why Jesus was comfortable enough to sleep during the storm.  He was comfortable with the calling he had on the disciples to get to the other side.

How many of us forget that Jesus calls us to the other side of the lake?  We forget that he doesn’t call us to fail; he calls us and equips us to succeed!  I need to remember that all the time; maybe you do too.  He’s called us to go to the other side of the lake, through any storms that might arise.  He’s comfortable with that calling so maybe we think he’s forgotten us and he’s fallen asleep.  The truth is though, that we need to walk in his calling on us and not fear the storms.

There is a verse in Acts that grabs my attention every time I read through the book.  Paul, Barnabas, James, and others are discussing the gospel to the gentiles and about what the gentiles need to do in order to follow Jesus and be a part of their church.  In verse 19 James says, “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

It seems like many of us, at one time or another, want to make it difficult for people to come to God.  It seems that we all want people to clean up before coming to Him.  We expect them to beat their drinking problem and then come to Jesus.  We expect them to kick their drug habit and then find God.  We expect them to end their live-in relationships before coming to the Lord.  We forget, I think, where we were when we came to Him.  We forget that He loved us, accepted us, and forgave us right where we were.  God wants us to come to Him; just as we are, so that He can do the work that He wants to do in our lives.

I need to remember these things as I’m out and around and seeing people who haven’t come to Him.  He wants them to come just as they are.  He wanted me to come to Him, regardless of the mess I had made of my life.  He welcomes people just as they are – but He loves us too much to leave us just as we are.  He changes our hearts and transforms our minds into what He has planned for us.

I want to make it easy for others to turn to God.

As I was journaling this morning, a quote from Ezra caught my eye.  Shecaniah, one of Ezra’s contemporaries, told Ezra that, “We have been unfaithful to God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us.  But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel.”

God’s grace and mercy can truly give us all hope.  I’m sure we have all been like the Israelites and have been disobedient and unfaithful to God at times, I know I have.  It seems like God would just shut us down and take away all of the things He has promised us because of our disobedience and unfaithfulness, but He doesn’t.  Every promise from God, from the beginning of time, is still a promise from God.  He doesn’t give us what we deserve, He gives us grace and mercy and He accepts us just as we are.

Despite all the mistakes I’ve made and all of the wanderings I’ve done, I have more hope now for my family and me than I’ve ever had in the past.  God’s promises are all right out in front of me and I know He is faithful to all of them.  I could focus on all my failures, disobediences, and mistakes of the past or I can focus on the hope that I have because of God’s grace, mercy, and promises.  I will choose to focus and look forward with hope.

If you read through the book of Esther, you will see that Mordecai is a true hero of the Jewish race.  His brave actions saved the Jews from one of the very first attempts at genocide known to man.

The very last verse of the book says that Mordecai was held in high esteem with the Jews, and of course this high esteem was well earned and well deserved.  But, let’s don’t overlook the reason Mordecai was held in high esteem.  Let’s not forget that Mordecai wasn’t great because he was held in high esteem but that Mordecai was held in high esteem because he was great.  There is a big difference.

We see Mordecai’s greatness from early on in the book.  He decided to care for his orphan niece, Esther, who just happened to become queen a few years later.  Mordecai didn’t have to make this choice, he could have left it for someone else to do.  Mordecai saved the king’s life by unravelling a plot to kill the king.  He could have remained silent on the matter; the truth is that he didn’t really ‘have a dog in that hunt’ but he chose to be great by doing the right thing.

I’m sure there are many, many other choices Mordicai made over the years that added to his greatness.  These were choices that we will never know about, but they were important choices because they helped develop his character.  His character made him great and then his greatness made him to be held in high esteem.

We all make small choices every day.  We all have the chance to do the right thing or the wrong thing in these small choices.  It’s these decisions, made every day, that build up our character.  It’s these things, that no one will ever see, that will make us great and will make us to be highly esteemed.  Let’s all focus on these small choices and choose to do the right thing every day.

I’ve heard it said that a good manager does things right, but a good leader does the right things.  If we choose to lead, we need to choose to do the right things along the way.

Ezekiel 22:30 says, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”  God was looking for one person to stand up in the gap, to take action to build up the wall, but none were willing to step up.  There was power in one during this time but there was no ‘one’ to step up and be counted.

As a result God would destroy Jerusalem.  So many times, we think there is no power in ‘one’ who will take a stand, but the world cries out for one who will do God’s work and, as a result, save a nation or a people.  ’One’ can make a difference.  The power of ‘one’ is real.

I want to be the power of one and stand in the gap and take action to build the wall.  I want see and know that, as one, I can make a difference.  I want to be an example of the power of ‘one’.

Ezekiel 20:30 says “Therefore say to the house of Israel: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did and lust after their vile images?’”

The wording of this verse makes it plain that our lives are a result of our choices.  We can choose to defile ourselves the way our fathers did or we can choose to remain true to the path God has for us.  So many people, so much of the time, blame their shortcomings, bad habits, and unfulfilled lives on their parents, their schools, or some other circumstances.  God’s Word says we can choose our way and remain in His path for our lives.

I can’t blame my shortcomings on others, bad relationships from the past, being mistreated by others, or losing my father at a young age.  I choose my way.  I can choose God’s way for me or I can walk my own way – but the bottom line is that I can choose my own path.  I choose, then, to follow Him and to see what He has for me along His path.  I’ll trust Him to love me more than I can imagine and know that He wants the best for me.

You can choose, too!