Spiritual Maturity

So this week for Home Team I really wanted to do something from 2 Kings or Acts just because it's been really fun (and bloody) to read. So while preparing for Home Team, I threw out the quick, "Lord, should we do 2 Kings or Acts?" Quite clearly I heard, "Neither". Now this is pretty big since I really wanted to at least touch on Acts. But obviously God had other plans.

I opened up the reading for Psalms this week and came to this:

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

This is what spiritual maturity looks like. It's no longer a negotiation of "Well, God it's not really sinning is it? I mean, it's not like I killed someone or anything like that." There are no more excuses about so and so or your church not meeting your needs, etc. You step up and say, "Okay God, search me, test me, show me the crap I'm still clinging to and lead me toward freedom."

Randomly today I decided to listen to an older Perry Noble sermon. I never do that. It's just not something that ever crosses my mind, but today I did. What was it on? The title, "Me or Jesus?" intrigued me so I downloaded it. What did it end up being on? Spiritual maturity. Specifically asking God,

"What do I still lack?"
"What am I resisting that you still want to do in me?"

These are scary questions just like David's requests in Psalm 139. Why? Because the answers just may change your life forever. It may turn what you now know as normal upside-down.

So we have a choice. We can stay spiritually stunted, just hanging out, going through the motions and feeling empty. Or we can step out and say, "Search me, test me, show me, lead me" and find out that God has so much more in store for us than we could have ever imagined if we'll just let Him work through us.

God is faithful

Three years ago, our singles home team started praying. We prayed that God would provide a godly husband for Jen. There were times when it was hard, sad, depressing and just plain annoying.

After three years and hundreds of prayers, God more than proved himself faithful this Saturday. I could go on and on about how the rain stopped just in time, how the moment Pastor Miller prayed to thank God for the weather the sun came out and countless other blessings. But I'll leave you with the picture because it says it all. God is faithful.

Bobby and Jen Simmers

GO and do the same!

Have you ever had the experience of someone asking you for something and you simply did not want to help? We usually have lots of good reasons to not aid certain types of people. Perhaps they were mean or rude, the kind of person who would never show gratitude or possibly even jeer at you if you attempted any kind of assistance. What keeps us from helping people in need?

Let's go to Luke where a religious law expert asks Jesus what he thinks is a win-win question. He'll say the right answer, Jesus will praise him and he'll feel smug and good about himself. But that's not what happens. Pick up the story in Luke 10:25-29

So far so good. But the man wanted more and boy did Jesus give him more here.

Jesus tells the famous "Good Samaritan" parable. (Bit of a pet peeve: "good" is such an underwhelming word for this act of mercy so I'm calling him the Compassionate Samaritan)
Here are some interesting things to note:

• Who passes the injured, naked man by? The most respected and "religious" members of the community.
• Who ends up literally saving the man's life? The most universally hated enemy of the Jewish people, a Samaritan.

It's hard for us to truly understand how much Samaritans were despised by Jewish people. It wasn't simply a prejudice preference...it was a cultural hatred that had been around for hundreds of years.

Which leads us to the question: did Jesus answer the man's question? No. He turned it back on the religious law expert and made him examine his own heart and motives. Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, was combating this heart issue almost constantly.

Luke 9: 49-50--the disciples proudly report to Jesus that they told someone to stop casting out demons in Jesus' name because the person "isn't in our group". How does Jesus respond? He yells at them! “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you."

Luke 9:51-56--the Samaritans don't readily welcome Jesus and the disciples want Jesus to rain fire down on the village and destroy it. How does Jesus respond? This time, He really lays the smack down! "But Jesus turned and rebuked them."

So what does this have to do with us? Think about it: how many times have we been jealous of what other Christians or churches are doing or just mad because they don't do things our way? We criticize them for everything and refuse to help. We tell them to stop because they are not part of "our group". But Jesus made it clear. If they are for Jesus and you oppose them, you are opposing HIM!!!! Scary!!!

Also think about the one people group or person who have rejected you. Our first response is much like the disciples...rain down fire, baby! But Jesus is asking us to be completely different. Our first response is to be love. In the parable of the Compassionate Samaritan, the Samaritan is said to have had "compassion to act" when seeing the injured man. That word "compassion" in the original Greek is a rare word which has incredibly strong connotation. It literally means "gut-wrenching movement within your deepest being". Whoa.

When met with people in need who are messy, mean, different, unfriendly, inconvenient and just plain unlikeable is my first response love? If not, why not? What does that say about my heart and about my relationship with Christ?

When we look at the last part of the parable, Jesus ends: "Yes, now go and do the same." This is not a friendly suggestion. It's a direct command. We are to go and literally do the same.

Blaine, a South African former Mormon and current Episcopalian seminary student, blogged on this parable and gave a powerful paraphrase of this command:
"Go and do this kind of mercy — this gut-wrenching movement within your deepest being — to last person you can imagine as a neighbor to you"

Trust

This week at Home Team we looked at Luke 4-5 where Jesus calls Peter as a disciple. I really loved these verses since Matthew and Mark have the "Cliff Notes" version of the story...

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 18 And they left their nets at once and followed him.

Luke, on the other hand, gives us the more detailed story which revealed some interesting facts.

1. Jesus knew Peter (Simon) prior to calling him as a disciple. In fact, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law when He was invited to Peter's house.
2. Peter had a mother-in-law which means Peter had a wife!
3. Jesus used Peter's boat to preach from and Peter sat there and listened. He was familiar with Jesus' teaching.
4. When Jesus asked Peter to go and fish, it wasn't a simple request. Peter had been fishing all night. He was probably exhausted. Not only that, he was an expert on his trade. Going to fish during the day was just stupid. It made no logical sense.
5. Peter trusted Jesus anyway and went out to fish.
6. Not only was Peter's boat filled with fish, but also James and John (Peter's fishing partners) got in on the deal and their boat was filled to almost sinking.
7. What does tons and tons of fish mean? Money and provision for Peter, James and John's families.
8. Peter's first response was to recognize he was a sinner and that Jesus was holy.
9. Jesus reassures Peter and calls him to do something amazing.
10. Peter's response? He left everything in God's hands and followed Jesus.

Last week, I simply could not get this story out of my head. I thought about it constantly. Here were some of my reflections on the passage.

• Do you really trust God? When it came down to it, if God asked you to do something seemingly illogical would I still do it?
• Recognize that we're sinners saved by a Holy Savior. We can't do this on our own.
• When God calls you to do something, He provides for your needs. Peter wouldn't have left his family had he not known in a HUGE way that Jesus was providing for their everyday needs.
• What do you have to leave behind in order to completely follow Jesus?

Allowable, but not God's best

As part of our Home Team, we read the passage Matthew 19 where Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees who tried to bait Jesus with a controversial subject at the time: divorce. The Pharisees were hoping Jesus would cater to one side and then the people who ascribed to the other side of the debate would get angry.

But Jesus threw them a curveball. He didn't pander to either side. He went back to the original intent of marriage: one man, one woman, together as one to glorify God. He then explained that while divorce was allowed by Moses, it was because people had "hard hearts". It was allowable, but not the best God had intended.

Then we looked at 1 Corinthians 6:12 where Paul addresses the Corinthians who were pulling the line, "Well, I'm saved so I can do anything and get forgiven, right?" Paul very strongly responds by saying, "'Everything is permissable for me' but not everything is beneficial."

Our conversation led to what are things that our culture, even our Christian culture says is allowable, but is not God's best for us.

My example was that I have to be gone for four days to go to this recruiting fair in Seattle. According to my district's policy, I'm not able to take more than 3 discretionary days off in a row. This was a problem. I had several people tell me, "Oh, just call in and say you're sick the last day." or "Say it was something else, nobody will know."

But the truth was I would know. I would know lying was wrong. It wasn't ethical even if "everyone does it". No matter how much I would rationalize (or as Pastor Greg says tell myself "rational lies") or blame my district's policy, I would know and everyone else I talked to about the situation would know that I had lied. What kind of blessing from God would I forfeit if I deliberately said, "You know God, you said you'd take care of me, but I think I know better so I'm just going to fake being sick so I don't lose pay,"?

I didn't lie. I put in for four days. I talked with my administrator quite honestly. And guess what? God took care of me. My administrator cleared me for the fourth day. I won't lose pay. God honored my faithfulness and the fact that I took a stand and said, "Yes," to integrity even though Christian friends and colleagues had said, "No biggie."

So my question is what have you accepted as "allowable" that is not really God's best?

• Is it fudging on your taxes because God knows you really can't afford to pay it all?
• Is it not being honest with that friend because maybe he or she won't like me if I speak the truth?
• Is it laughing at that off-color, racist or sexist joke just to fit in? Is it making the joke just to feel accepted?

In this morning's service, this verse was read and it really resonated with me. It's from Psalm 25:21:

May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in You.

Is your hope really in Him and His ability to take care of you?

Friday night fun

Last night, a bunch of us girls from home team got together and had a guess what most would call a "night of fellowship". Each of us brought something to eat and we spent several hours playing Mexican trains(a domino game), munching on "puppy chow" and pizza and musing on our favorite euphemisms for medical problems. Deb, being the only registered nurse of our group, then told us some hilarious stories about medical terminology. It was a great time. I love these gals!