Through out history, men have looked up at the heavens and the night sky and worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars. They made idols out of created things, false Gods to make our heavenly bridegroom jealous. Yet Psalm reminds us of their original intent and purpose: to point us to the one we should be worshiping, to manifest the light of his glory, like an artist signs his name to his work, or as a potter’s fingerprints might be left in the clay.

When we look up, let us hear the story of his glory and worship the creator of all things, not the work of his hands. Let us guard our ears and our hearts against those deaf to creation’s song and not filter out their creator.

Open our eyes, Lord, to see your glory in your creation. Fill our hearts with awe and wonder at your vastness and the greatness of your majesty and might, as well as your mercy and your love. Show us your purpose for us and how we might join in with all creation in bringing you glory. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

The most famous passage in the bible, John 3:15-18,  tells us Christ was lifted up on the cross so all who believe in him would have eternal life, that God loved us so much, he gave us his only son so that no one who believes in Christ should perish. Today’s verse asserts at this point that God’s goal was not to condemn everyone else, but to save the world.  Verse eighteen adds sadly, however, that those who freely choose not to believe in Christ, to not accept the offer of salvation he extends to everyone, is condemned already and choosing to remain condemned rather than accept an offer of pardon.

What would we say of a governor who offered a pardon to a prisoner with no expectation of reform? Would we call an earthly king loving for releasing into his kingdom a person who had make it clear such had no intentions of being a productive, law-abiding citizen? Mind, God’s done all the work for us even.

So, on the judgment day, those “sent” to hell are going where they chose to go. They have condemned themselves and why?  Because they loved their sin more than they desired a pain-free, joyful eternity in the presence of God, who forbid them from taking their pet into his kingdom.

Tell me,  what kind of offenders facing a death sentence are offered a pardon, but say no, they like their old life of crime too much to receive a pardon and live? A stiff-necked fool.

Let us not be so foolish, we who trust and believe in him.

We thank you, Lord, that you came not to condemn, but to save. Search our hearts, be there any wicked way in us? If we have pet sins in our lives we need to surrender and leave behind, show us. Strengthen us to love you more. Open our eyes to the truth and set us free from the chains that bind us. Season our tongues, Lord, so we might also be of a mind to seek not to condemn those who already are, but to gently show them the way to salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Longing for peace and harmony in your relationships? This blessing in Romans points us to the only source of reconciliation: Jesus. It starts with prayer, filling up on encouragement and endurance from the Lord, opening up to his power to bring  each of us into accord with him. The more like him each of us grows, the more harmony we will have with one another.

Churches and Christians get in trouble when we start to see harmony as an end unto itself. The end goal of harmonizing is to glory the Lord our God, who does not change. If, for the sake of peace, we sacrifice doctrinal truth and change our message to please those in the church who are held captive by the world, we might have peace, but we’d all be out of harmony with Jesus. Rather than glorifying Christ, we’d be spreading deception.

Thus we must be sure who we are harmonizing with is truly seeking to be in one accord with the Christ Jesus of the Bible. Now, we should be respectful, gentle, and kind in disagreeing with those who choose to believe a lie. We should be sensitive to the Lord’s leading in who we cast our pearls before.

However, in our own lives, we must not back down from where we stand in Christ to please the Marketplace of Ideas Shoppers who toss a few cherry-picked Christian beliefs in their basket along with other cherished beliefs that seem right and feel good to them. Warn them if God leads,  leave them to God’s judgment as convicted to, but don’t let them take you with them for the sake of peace. Our first responsibility is to harmonize (become in accord) with the Lord. If others around us decline to, that is their choice.

Lord, search our hearts. If we have any beliefs not in harmony with who you are, reveal them to us by your holy spirit. By your grace, grant us the strength to cast off anything that is not of you. Encourage us to endurance, seeking to live in peace, for the purpose of glorifying you with all of your people. We pray we would find peace and harmony as we your people draw closer to the truth and walk in your ways. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Then tells us we need to ask: why are we, God’s chosen holy and beloved ones to put on compassion, kindness, meekness and patience? What are we missing by not asking why?

The answer to that question for this verse, and to the same question regarding an earlier list of  sinful inclinations of our fallen flesh that we’re to put to death, is found in verses 1-4 and 11:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

We are to put on those virtues because:

• We have been raised with Christ and should be focused on His kingdom (be heavenly minded) rather than the things of this world.
• We have died (to sin and need to replace it with something else.)
• Christ is our life, not our work, not our hobbies, not our spouse, or even your children if you have any. If they are,  we’re making them an idol that we need to die to and learn to hate them compared to our love for Christ, or Jesus said we’re not worthy of Him.
• All Christians equal regardless of ethnicity, race, economic status, or class. The context of this one is don’t lie to each other because we’ve put off the old ways and put on the new described in verse 12.

Praise God then that our new ways are being renewed by knowledge, the most key of which is, as verse tells us, we are to put on virtue because verse ten tells us doing so restores us in the image of our creator. In other words, Christ has a compassionate heart and is kind, humble, meek and patient.

So stop avoiding him to hide from the false image of a distant, angry father, young lady (to preach to myself.)

Father, forgive our lack of understanding and for any idols we’ve placed before you. Strengthen us to crucify the flesh and walk in your ways. We place our trust in you today. We look up to you today. We thank you for choosing us and calling us your beloved. We thank you for your compassion and love. We lift up to you all anger and earthly lusts keeping us from being like you today, and we name specific concerns as you bring them to mind now: ____  We release it all into your just hands and we open our hearts to recieve a renewal of our spirits into imageo deo, the image of God we were originally  created in .In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Most of us can confidently say we only have one God in Heaven. I wonder if anyone besides Asaph can honestly say we desire nothing on the earth besides God. Of course, this is a lament, so he’s just dumped out before God all of his baggage, in his case a rather frustrated envy of the wicked who prosper while the innocent are stricken. So we might get there in the same way. However, if there is anything we desire more than God, that is idolatry that will separate us from Him, so we need to examine ourselves and invite God to search our hearts and show us.

Whatever it is, get rid of it or the desire for it, or surrender control of it to God. Be willing to lose it or forgo it and still love and serve Him. Though our heart and flesh fail us, we too can trust in God to strengthen our hearts and  embrace him as our great reward.

Lord, we thank you for your word. Show us if anything is more precious to us than you are, and reveal to us what we can do to rectify this, and give us the strength and will to follow through. You are our inheritance, we pray knowing you intimately would be our greatest treasure. May our hunger and thirst for you void all other appetites. Make us worthy of your calling and fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by your power, so that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us and us in him, according to your grace, oh God. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Is God first in your heart? What is your deepest desire? What do you hunger for? What drives you? Are you willing to let him tell you the answers?

What do you treasure on this earth? If he asked you to give it up in a clear voice, would you be willing?

Lord, forgive us not giving you all of our hearts. If we’ve been holding anything back from you, we offer it to you now,to your service, Lord. Change our hearts. I pray we would love you and trust you enough to give up anything you said wasn’t good for us. Deliver us from fear and wicked voices that might try to confuse and enslave us. Grant us discernment to know you will for our lives. Whatever you have called us to, let us do it with all our might, not as man-pleasers, but knowing from you we will receive the reward of the inheritance. Thank you for your grace. I pray whatever we do would be in the Spirit of love, not fear of condemnation or to simply to avoid Hell, but out of a hunger to grow closer to you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

The seven chapters seek to teach readers how to:

1. Perceive, accept, and pursue the call of God
2. Overcome the prison of the past
3. Lose the weight. That is, to separate from the Old Boy’s network-the folks used to the old you who don’t like the You 2.0 that Jesus wants to upgrade to and seek to keep you back in the life you’ve been saved from (this is Andrea, the author’s metaphor is an eagle raised in a chicken coop, and says if you keep hanging around with chickens, you’ll let them mock you into continuing to act like a chicken). Note these folks can be Christians themselves who don’t want to grow and feel threatened by yours.
4. Take the heat-a warning that God’s training program involves pain, pain, and more pain, and that if you want to follow Christ, you need to learn the old fashioned art of enduring under fire and submitting to God’s discipline, a concept rarely taught today.
5. Keep on Keeping on-while under opposition. This one we hear about even less often in a Church prone to blaming persecution on the persecuted, “If you were more loving, the world wouldn’t hate you so much” is what I hear in some form or another being said to Christians torn apart by the enemies of the cross, just as Christ promised we would be if we’re faithful to Him. The basic thrust of this chapter is that as you purse God’s call on your life, you become a threat to the devil, and the accuser of the brethren will fight you every step of the way-and stir up your own friends and family, including fellow believers, if he can. His basic advice is to recognize the people the devil is using to stop you and ignore/avoid them, rather than letting yourself be controlled by them in the name of the popular notion that Christian love requires avoiding all conflict and never offending anyone. He also discusses mental attacks, and taking every thought captive.
6. Stay Connected. Probably intended as a counter balance to all the advice about dumping the people the devil is using to keep you in sin, or at least not a threat to him, this one is all about staying connected to the people of God rather than letting fear and paranoia from past wounds turn you into a hermit. He teaches the reader to let God connect them to the people who will help mold them into their calling rather than hindering them and not to rely on the superficial judgment of man and the paranoid suspicion borne of past experience, but to rather rely on spiritual discernment.
7. Get out of the boat. A final reminder that while you can’t achieve God’s purpose for you in human strength alone, you do have to actually do something. The way I like to put it is to point out that God’s miracles often do involve some type of effort-fill these jars with oil, go wash, get up and walk.

Over all, there is plenty of solid teaching that, if applied, could very well change your life. My primary concern is that we often get our fleshy desires confused with God’s. One could be pursing their “call” and actually running head long into sin. Such deceived persons, when applying the advice to dump people that criticize them for pursuing God’s call, will harden their hearts and write off the folks God sends to call them back to their true calling as legalistic folks sent by Satan to derail them. Thus they lose out with God, miss their calling, and may even lose their souls.

He’s right that many of us take the criticism of our naysayers too seriously. And too many Christians use Christian love as an excuse to keep rubbing elbows with people that lead them into sin. If anything, this is an oversight, as Powell does cover being teachable in chapter six. But he assumes that the call his reader is perusing is actually from God, and that sadly is not always the case.

For instance, plenty of folks are “called” to amass great wealth to themselves, but the scriptures have nothing positive to say about that. The spiritual gift of giving tends to come with an ability to accrue wealth, but like all gifts, this is not given for personal glory and enrichment, but for bringing glory to god and edifying the church. The old law required ten percent, but the new testament says with food and raiment, be content. Meet your family’s basic daily needs. Whatever’s left was meant for meeting the needs of the Church.

America doesn’t have a financial crisis. We’re still the richest, or one of the richest, nations on earth. What we have is a lifestyle crisis.

Likewise, read Hebrews 11, about all the saints who pursued God’s call without ever receiving the promise at all in this life. By earthly standards, if we only consider his temporal life, Jesus Christ himself was a dismal failure whose ministry ended in his trial and execution. The only lasting success that Christ achieved all came on or after Easter Sunday.

Biblically, Christians don’t labor to obtain earthly riches. Our reward isn’t this Earth, but the Kingdom. Does this mean you’re in danger of hellfire if you’re wealthy? Only if your earthly treasure is more important to you than Christ (because Mammon is an idol and no idolater will enter the kingdom.) However, only He can justly judge that. We all have blind spots.

So what does that have to do with pursuing God’s call? My point is that our notions of success tend to be completely at odds with the Lord’s, and that we tend to assume what we want, what we dream of, is from God. That can be the case, but not always. The easiest way to test which is the case with you is to examine the plan in the light of God’s word. However, when we really want something, we tend to bend scripture to say what we want it to. If we’ve convinced ourselves God has called us to do this, we’ll ignore his prophets when God calls them to rebuke us and point us back to the narrow way.

Thus, I don’t recommend simply ignoring your critics. Powell is absolutely right that a favorite device of the enemy is to tell you to that it’s arrogant to pursue your call. You’ll definitely get that from Christians content to sit in the bleachers. Christians threatened by anyone who dares to get in the game will get in your face and call you every name in the book. To justify their own inaction, they will even side with the enemies of Christ!