Thursday, August 11, 2016

MOANING and WORMS!

MOARNING & WORMS (This is NOT a political piece!)

Please allow me a few paragraphs to explain the title of this post.
I MOAN…yes, literally moan whether I am sitting in a pew, in a Bible class, in a personal Bible study, or on a train. The location is not important. It is the content of the conversation that makes a low growl escape from my throat. It is when, I believe, the Holy Spirit would groan as well, that I, in harmony with God, groan. It has been going on for some time now.

Many of us have fallen into the postmodern trap of exaggerating the need for “self-esteem”; i.e. expressing our “pride” in children, talents, accomplishments, nation, and actions of created beings rather than the Creator.


I wanted to draw closer to God and to relieve my internal groaning (I’ll explain why soon). Someone on a private blog suggested that we all read the Psalms, well, not just read them, but pray them. So I turned over to Psalms 1 and read the 2 verse about meditating day and night. I wanted to actually check the meaning of that word “meditate” and as you can see, it has a significant connotation to me with the idea of MOANING, GROANING, even GROWLING, yep! That’s what I have been doing!


THE BACK STORY
Several months ago I prepared some lessons for ladies in my home congregation as well as in Lithuania and Russia. The lessons dealt with being a Christ follower. Christ followers are:
  • ·         TRANSFERRED (from darkness to light, grafted into the Vine),
  • ·         in TRANSFORMATION (metamorphosis from self-centeredness into HIS image through the power of the Spirit), and
  • ·         ever TRANSCENDING (rising above the rule of the flesh by the Spirit – being productive & fruit-bearing proactively prioritizing God’s Vision for His people.

In these lessons we learn that:
·         We are to “Acknowledge Him in ALL our ways.”
·         Glory belongs to the Lord ALONE
·         According to the latest research, postmodern folks are raising the most ***narcissistic generation ever recorded (over 80 years of research) who have their identities based on their own talents, looks, and abilities.
·         Narcissistic young adults, after leaving their parents, face depression, anxiety, anger, and between 19-24 year old become the highest risk for suicide. WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTV5fxQcTPs 
·         God called us to “catch fish” using a net (community on mission), not with a pole (for individual glory). Each person must do their part to plant the seed, to salt their conversations with grace and truth, to hold up their end of the net and God promises the increase. Those who claim to have “converted X number of people” are vain in their understanding, prideful, and in error as only the Holy Spirit converts men’s hearts to God.
·         We must be gracious, merciful, and patient, recognizing and appreciating the spiritual journey of all the diverse folks who are followers of Jesus. Celebrating each milestone with joy and praise to God alone. Disciples are multicolored, multifaceted and individualistic in their spiritual perceptiveness.  We are uniquely made in order to serve God’s purpose in the world. We learn that our place is to plant seed, sprinkle salt in our conversations and praise our Lord with our lips CONTINUOUSLY (1 Peter 2:9; 4:11)
·         We must open our mouths and bless those who are in our sphere of influence with all gentleness and wisdom, giving God the glory so as not to STEAL the glory from the Lamb of God. As disciples, we need to get our SHINE on!
·         We must express a bigger gospel than “be baptized, be nice, and wait to go to heaven when we die.” Christ, if He is lifted up will draw ALL (kinds) men unto Himself. The lonely, lame, poor, divorced, adulterer, murder, fornicator, homosexual, can be washed, can be cleaned, can be made holy through Christ’s glorious good news. (1 Cor 6)
·         We must become fluent in the language of faith-based testimony, telling our story as it aligns with God's story, the good news, while being appropriate, relevant, and authentic praise to God ALONE. (1 Cor 1:4-6)
What we cannot easily talk about, we really don’t KNOW. We have NOT taken ownership of it.
  • Every teenager knows the lyrics to at least 100 pop songs by heart.
    Do they KNOW 100 scriptures by heart?
·         Paul gave us an example of living in the vision, mission, and values of Jesus Christ. (2 Tim 4:6-8) He finished his life on target because he focused on God’s vision for His people. Without clear vision, we may end our life’s journey confused in its meaningless minutia and details.  To actually, move forward in our journey of following Christ, we must see clearly our identity in Him and where He wants to lead us. (Col 3:2; Rom 8:14, Gal 2:20; 5:24; Luke 9:23)

PREMIERE EXAMPLES

God through the ages has given us premiere examples of how He feels about sin. A premiere example is ONE which shows the consequences of sin and God’s reaction to it. The following are premiere examples:

  • Curse and mark on Cain. Not everyone who kills their brother receive this judgment
  • The stoning of Aachen for stealing gold and hiding it in his tent. Not everyone who hides stolen treasures is stoned
  • Israel and the golden calf. Not everyone who worships am idol is slain by the sword
  • Nadab and Abihu. Not everyone who worships God as they please are struck dead
  •  Ananias and Sapphira. Not everyone who lies to the Holy Spirit is killed by the Holy Spirit.
These examples are given to us to let us know EXACTLY how God feels about sin. Even though they are the first examples, and others do not receive such a swift judgment, these examples are given to us to let us know how sin can affect our relationship to the Creator. 

There is another premiere example that God has given us in His word. It is found in Acts 12:22-24. “The people kept crying out, (to Herod after his speech), “The voice of god and not a man!” 12 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

If we see this as a premiere example, then, when we steal the glory from God, we deserve to be eaten by worms.

The following videos expound on the idea that we must stop praising the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1; 2 Cor 3:5-6; 4:6; Matthew 5:16)
            
VIDEO: Olympic Divers:  praise Him in victory
VIDEO: NBA Player suffers loss of wife: Praise Him in crisis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-y2cdOA8P4
            
ARTICLE: GOD before GOLD - 24 Olympians – Acknowledge Him in ALL your ways
            Acknowledge Him – God gave us all our abilities

Isaiah 26:13 Lord our God…your name alone do we honor.

We, too often, drain the power from the cross when we do not acknowledge and praise our God. God dwells in the praises of His people. We sing praises and often pray praises, but our everyday speech lacks the grace and salt that we have been called to share. 

Here is how Paul handled a complement to Titus who served him well.

2 Corinthians 7:6 & 8:16 “But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus.”

Paul could have said, “Thanks be to Titus for…..” but, instead, he gave thanks to God for motivating and providing a good heart in Titus.  Do you see how as parents we can still give our children a positive outlook by tying their identity, abilities, talents, and physical prowess to our Lord.

Please watch this video: Video Acknowledge Him

Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name

1 Peter 2:9 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.

I have recorded some sentences that I have actually heard from the pulpit.  They make me MOAN as I think they also do the Holy Spirit. I use these as an exercise for Christ followers to re-word them so that they glorify the Creator rather than the creation.  Practice changing these sentences! Let’s get our faith-fluency up to speed so that we can be the salt and light in the dark places and so that we can express ourselves as ancient Christians did.

MAXIM: God dwells in the praises of His people! Help God to dwell with us.

The Gospel Bears Fruit in those who have Faith in the Grace of God and DARE to WALK in the footsteps of Jesus
WE have been TRANSFERRED to be TRANSFORMED and to TRANSCEND.
We are ALL ministers of Christ, supported by His power (2 Cor 5:18)
We must learn to graciously salt our conversations.

These practice sentences are the ones that have made me moan…. while thinking about being eaten by worms!

(1) This is a great congregation. If you are looking for a church home, you can do no better than to be with these great folks here at _______

(2) What a great sermon! You bring us wonderful lessons each time you speak. Isn’t great to have such a wonderful preacher? You don’t get any better than that!

(3) We are so proud of our youth director and our young people. They have worked so hard this week cleaning up the building for visitors.

(4) What a generous congregation! We have made our goal of $$$$$$$ so that we can support XXXXX.

(5) Great song leading! You are really talented brother ______. 

(6) I am so proud of my son who has completed his degree and found himself a really awesome job!

(7) My daughter is soooooooo beautiful.  She is planning on becoming a model one day.

(8) We are so excited about how many people attended our workshops this week. 

(9) Our missionaries in China have baptized six new converts. 


These are just a small sample of what I have moaned over recently. Can you change these sentences to praise God while sounding authentic, relevant, and appropriate?

The EASE by which we can witness/testify for Christ is a solid indicator of how strong our faith is.
The ability to lift up the eyes of those who are stuck focusing on the mud, muck, and chaos of this world is a blessing we can share with the world.


Dear Lord, may we become a people who point to you alone, praise you alone, and worship you continually with the fruit of our lips; May we reject the postmodern tendency to praise creation rather than the Creator. May we find our identity in you and may we glory in the cross alone. May we speak genuinely in a faith-based fluency that brings light to a dark world. May we learn to point to you and lift of Christ so that He can draw all men to the Cross. 

ADDITIONAL MEDIA:


***DEFINITION: Narcissism = Idolatry of Self – maintaining my “IMAGE” as my “god” - the opposite of a Christ follower, focused on self, self-importance, self-accomplishments and self-image resulting in the lack of compassion and caring for others.

***RESEARCH RESOURCES:
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