Know the Needs--Do Good Deeds

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.  --Titus 2:11-14

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.  --Acts 10:38

I love a good mystery.  I grew up reading the Hardy Boys series, and when I couldn't find any more of those to read, I started reading Nancy Drew mysteries.  In high school I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, and Charles Dickens.  When I was in college I discovered Ellery Queen (Google it!).  As an adult I enjoy John Grisham and Robert Parker.

On television, I watched Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Dragnet.  More recently I have seen CSI, Criminal Minds, and NCIS.  There is a great sense of satisfaction when I pick the prime suspect before they do.

As every fan of the genre knows, you must find three things to find the prime suspect and solve the case.  First, you must find motive.  Second, one must have means.  And third, one must have opportunity.  You can't leave any one of these elements out.

A teacher is killed, say.  If an entire classroom of students hates the teacher, they may all have motive. If all those who attend the class will see him every day, they all have opportunity.  But you cannot convict any one of them without a the means to shoot him, aka "the smoking gun."  Similarly, if a woman goes missing, the primary suspects are those that might hold a grudge (motive) and a weapon (the means).  But if an old boyfriend was in another state when the woman went missing, he had no opportunity (aka, "has an alibi").  Finally, killing a loved one accidentally with a gun, say, or a car without any motive (even if you had means and opportunity) would not land a murder conviction--the worst that could happen to them would be a charge of manslaughter or accidental death.

The problem with all of the mystery books and dramas I have cited is that they involve violent death.  A moral person would not identify too closely with the killer, because killing is not in our nature.  "You shall not commit murder" is the sixth commandment.  We may be intrigued by what goes through a person's mind to lead them to such a violent act, but we are just as interested in the logic and forensic science utilized by the detective who brings the killer to justice.

Wouldn't it be cool if there was someone in your church or social group who committed random acts of kindness?  A couple in my daughter's church decided to pay off some of her student loans.  They wanted to remain anonymous, but curiosity won out.  What did we look for?  People with motive--those who loved my daughter (that's just about everybody).  People with means (that narrowed the list of "suspects" dramatically.)  And people with opportunity.

I have thought recently about what I would do if I won the lottery.  The more my debts pile up, the more I fantasize about being a person of more sizable means.  I would love to be able to hear about a need and take care of that need without anybody knowing it.  I would really enjoy studying people and then presenting them with a meaningful gift--paying the light bill for a struggling family whose electricity has been cut off; paying rent for the rest of the year for a person who is facing eviction; buying a new car for someone so they can get to work reliably.  The problem is my fantasies turn into an excuse.  I can't pay your rent, so I won't do anything.  But then I read Philippians 4:19: "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."  If I have motivation to serve, then God will help me to meet the needs of my neighbor.  I could be their answer to prayer.  I could be the hand of God in their life.

There are people with needs everywhere.  Opportunity abounds.   In fact the world is so full of needs that it can be overwhelming.  We see everyone everywhere, seemingly all with their hands out asking for something.

If we were really motivated to be like Jesus, we would see people's needs, and do what we can to meet them.  Paul wrote in Colossians 3:17, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

You see, we don't have to wait until we are rich to start giving people what they need.  I can't afford to pay off someone's car, but I can buy their lunch when they are hungry.  And it doesn't have to be about money, either.  When Jesus saw someone who was sick, did He pay their doctor bill?  No.  He healed them.  In the same way, if your neighbor has a project at work that requires him to put in long hours on nights and weekends, don't just complain about his lawn--mow it!  If your co-worker has to get her car serviced, offer to drive her to work with you--you're going there anyway.

When my daughter was in high school, a neighbor was going to be in the hospital for awhile.  The neighbor offered my daughter a little money to watch her cat for her.  She was to make sure the animal had food and water, and she was tasked with changing the litter box.  For some reason (church camp, I think) my daughter wasn't able to complete the tasks for the entire time the neighbor was out.  So I said I would help.  Did I mention I hate cats?  Nevertheless, I fed and watered the beast, and even changed the litter box.  Was it for my daughter?  Yes and no.  Was it for the money?  I didn't get a dime.  It was a kindness to a neighbor.  It was because I saw a need (opportunity), because I could (means), and because I said I would (motive).

Here's an idea.  Let's have a CSI team in every church.  Their job would be to find someone who had their need met by a stranger.  They would investigate anybody with means, motive, and opportunity to do the good deed in question.  If they found out who it was, then the CSI team could refer them to a Court of Blessing.  They could commend them to the One and Only True Judge.  It might convict the members of the jury to do good themselves.

Life is a Soap Opera

Now Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David.  --1 Samuel 18:20

Some fools think of happiness, blissfulness, togetherness.  Some fools fool themselves I guess.  They're not fooling me; I know it isn't true, I know it isn't true.  Love is just a lie made to make you blue.  Love hurts.  --Boudleaux Bryant

This is the story of Michal, a real Jewish Princess.  Her name means "Who Is Like God?"  Her father, King Saul, was a warrior, a politician, and a little bit crazy.  He was very jealous of a young man named David.  Michal's brother Jonathan was David's BFF.  Jonathan and David were, like, blood-brothers.  Comrades in arms, BAY-BEE, slayin' Philistines and stuff.  But Michal loved David.

It's also the story of you, daughter of God.

When David killed Goliath, the Philistine giant--you know the story, right?--King Saul promised he'd give David his daughter in marriage.  No, not Michal.  The older sister Merab was promised as a reward for delivering Israel from their enemies.  Yet when it was time for David to be given his reward, to become a son-in-law to the King, Saul instead gave his daughter Merab to another man to be his wife.

It was kind of like another Bible story, when Jacob ran from Esau.  He ran to his uncle Laban's house, and fell in love with a girl named Rachel.  Jacob loved Rachel.  He promised Laban that he would work seven years for Rachel, as a dowry for her so she could become his wife.  But on his wedding night, Laban got Jacob drunk, and in the morning Jacob found out that he had married the ugly older sister, Leah, instead.  Yeah, that was messed up.

I'm sure your life is not such a soap opera.  But I'd be willing to bet you have been hurt.  You may have loved someone, and it didn't work out.  Or maybe you were promised something, something very precious to your heart, and at the last minute it was given to someone else.  That's why I said this story is for you.

So David was ruddy and handsome.  When they returned to Israel, in every city they came to, the young women would come out and dance before them.  They would sing in celebration, "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands."  Saul got jealous, and wanted to kill David, but he feared the people.  So Saul started thinking of ways to destroy David.  His advisers, who may have been trying to change his mind, told Saul that his daughter Michal loved David.  This gave Saul an idea.  He said he would give his daughter Michal to David to be his wife, and then maybe Michal could keep Saul updated about David's comings and goings.  Plus, he thought she loved him for being a soldier; soldiers are often put in harm's way.  If David were to, say, be put at the front lines against the Philistine army, then maybe something *cough-cough* terrible might happen to him.

David had heard this song and dance before.  He said he had no dowry to give the King, nothing to bring to the table, so to speak.  "I'm just a poor man," he said.  "Who am I to become the King's son-in-law?"  Saul said, "Son, the only dowry I want is the foreskins of a hundred dead Philistines."  Now, you have to remember, cutting off the foreskin (circumcision) was what set the Jews apart from other peoples in the region.  So he was not asking that David go and evangelize their enemies, to make them convert to Judaism.  No, instead he wanted proof of death of 100 Philistine soldiers.  David went above and beyond, killing 200 Philistines, and bringing back proof.

Michal's love must have grown by leaps and bounds.  The man she loved had performed this mighty act of valor just to get her father to let him marry her.  She must have thought David was as strong as Samson.  You remember the story of Samson?  He loved Delilah, a Philistine.  During his wedding feast, Samson threw out a challenge to the Philistine wedding party.  He told them a riddle.  If they couldn't guess the answer in 7 days, they would give him 30 changes of clothes.  What did they do?  They asked Delilah to wheedle the answer from Samson, and go back and tell them.  When she did, and he lost the bet, Samson went and killed 30 Philistines, bringing their clothes to the wedding party to cover his losses.  Samson had only killed and uncovered 30 Philistines; David had killed and uncovered 200.  What a guy!

Maybe you have given your heart to someone and been burned.  Or maybe you thought you loved someone only to have them change.  Read on.

After they were married, Saul sent soldiers to David's house to kill him.  He was still that jealous.  Word came to Michal, and she warned David to run.  She lowered him out of a window, and he escaped.  Maybe she remembered the story of Rahab, the woman in Jericho who had hidden the ten Jewish spies.  She had lowered the men out of the window so they could escape.  In return, the men spared her when the army came back and marched against Jericho, so that the walls fell flat and the city was routed.  Maybe Michal had visions of David rescuing her from her father's house just like Rahab was rescued.  It didn't quite work out like she had planned.

Saul pursued David for years.  David spent some time hiding out in a Philistine city, just across the border from Israel, so Saul wouldn't be able to find him.  When David came back, he had multiple opportunities to kill Saul, but he purposely let Saul live.  Each time, Saul told David he was sorry, but then he would go back to chase David and try to kill him.  Saul took Michal, who was now David's wife, and gave her to another man.  She was being used as a pawn, like property, stolen from David, whom she loved, and made to marry another man she did not know.  Meanwhile, David took at least six more wives, and had children by them.

After Saul was killed in battle, David was at work gaining the trust of the clans of Israel, so that they would follow him as king.  Saul's general, a man named Abner, continued to fight for the house of Saul.  Then he had an argument with Saul's grandson.  Abner sent a message to David,  promising to join forces with him against Saul's descendants.  David demanded his wife back.  Abner went and got her out of the house of Paltiel, her husband.  The poor guy followed them, weeping as he went, all the way to the next city.  Abner told him to go back home, since she now belonged to David.  And so the two were reunited.

They didn't live happily ever after.

Michal probably thought she had been jerked around.  Her first love, David, had not come to rescue her himself.  She had lived with this other man for years.  She gets kidnapped out of her comfortable life, away from a man who clearly loved her.  Then when she gets to David's house, she sees he has a number of other wives, and they all have children by him.

She may have felt like the prophet Hosea.  If you don't remember that story, Hosea was told by God to take a prostitute for a wife.  He was to buy her on the open market, and take her home as her husband.  This was supposed to show how Israel had prostituted themselves with other gods, and how Jehovah was willing to redeem them, to buy them back.  Later in the story, Hosea's wife escapes from her home, and goes back into prostitution.  Hosea was told to go and find her, again, and to buy her freedom, again, on the open market.  This was to show God's faithfulness.

Maybe there have been times when you felt abandoned, left all alone by the one you loved.  Maybe you landed on your feet, maybe not.  There will always be scars.  God may ask you to do something that is not in your nature to do, like forgive somebody, or take them back after they left you.  Love hurts.

We pick up Michal's story a little later.  David has been king for awhile.  He has been gone fighting and defeating Israel's enemies.  When he came back, Michal looked out the window and saw David dancing naked in the street.  The Bible says, "And she despised him in her heart."  When he comes home that night, there she is, hand on her hip.  "What's wrong with you?" he demands.  Her answer drips with sarcasm.  "How the King of Israel distinguished himself today!  He uncovered himself in the eyes of his servant's maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself."

Jealous much?

David clenches his teeth and answers, "It was before the Lord (that I danced), who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint ME ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel.  Therefore I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be distinguished."  OOOH, burn!  Those maids she was worried about all esteemed him more than Michal did at that moment.

The very last mention of Michal in the Bible says that she had no child until the day of her death.  She who loved David first, loved him most, and then felt abandoned by him, had no children by him.  Even after he had rescued her and put her in the castle, along with all the other wives and concubines, she gave David no heirs.  It is not clear whether she was barren, or if she was never intimate with her husband from that point forward.

Maybe this describes your life in some ways, maybe not.  Maybe your life doesn't have this much drama.  If so, you are truly blessed.  But it is that blessing that I want to key on right now.

In the book of Revelation, God gives John a specific message to deliver to the seven churches in Asia.  The very first message is to the church in Ephesus.  Remember Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians, and in it he recounted the love story God had written just for them.  "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-6).  But John's message to that same church was more stark: "You have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  Therefore remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent." (Revelation 2:3-5).

Maybe, like Michal loved David, you were really in love with Jesus at the start.  But after life happens--every day you get up, go to work, see to the kids, clean the house, cook the meals, pay the bills, drop exhausted into bed so you can get up and do the same thing again tomorrow--after all that your love may have flattened a bit.  Oh, you are still faithful to Him.  Your heart has not left, it just doesn't, well, beat for Him the way it used to.  Maybe, like Michal arguing with David over an act of worship, you have a disagreement with God over some issue.  Maybe you resent His taking someone near and dear to you too soon.  Maybe you are mad at Him for not giving you that job, or that promotion, or that great house you always dreamed of.  Maybe you are miffed that the Christian life didn't meet your expectations, whatever they were.

Let me encourage you to fall in love with Him all over again.

In the beginning of this post I quoted from a song called "Love Hurts."  The most famous recording of that song was in 1975 by a band called Nazareth.  Try to think of your life from God's perspective.  He created you to love Him.  He found you in somebody else's arms.  He sent His Son, who grew up in Nazareth, to redeem you, to buy your freedom.  He was overjoyed when you said yes to Him.  But as time goes on, you spend less time with Him.  You think of Him only occasionally, and even then those thought may not always be positive toward Him.

Who is like God?  God is faithful.  He is calling you and me to be faithful, even when life throws us for a loop.  We must get up, dust ourselves off, and confess that God is God, whatever happens to us.  We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.  If a wolf carries us away, He will come looking for us.  If we wander off and lose our way, He will find us where we are and bring us back to Himself.  Don't focus on the drama, or on what has gone on before.  Instead, look into His eyes and fall in love with Him all over again.

Trust In You

Lauren Daigle

Letting go of every single dream
I lay each one down at Your feet
Every moment of my wandering
Never changes what You see
I try to win this war
I confess, my hands are weary, I need Your rest
Mighty warrior, king of the fight
No matter what I face You're by my side

When You don't move the mountains
I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You

Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings
There's not a day ahead You have not seen
So let all things be my life and breath
I want what You want Lord and nothing less

When You don't move the mountains
I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You
I will trust in You

You are my strength and comfort
You are my steady hand
You are my firm foudation
The rock on which I stand
Your ways are always higher
Your plans are always good
There's not a place where I'll go
You've not already stood

When You don't move the mountains
I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters
I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers
As I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
I will trust in You

Spiritual hypoglycemia

God, are you avoiding me? Where are you when I need you?  --Psalm 10:1a, The Message Bible

....God's grace and order wins; godlessness loses.  The victim's faint pulse picks up; the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood as you put your ear to their lips.  Orphans get parents, the homeless get homes.  The reign of terror is over, the rule of the gang lords is ended.  --Psalm 10:16b-18, The Message Bible

Several years ago there was an ad campaign for Snicker's candy bars with the tag line, "You're not yourself when you're hungry."  You probably remember the commercials when an actor known to be a villain in movies was offered a Snickers, and suddenly changed into a normal person again.

It's so easy to migrate away from God's pasture.  He has provided everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and yet we are drawn to the world.  Sin drags us down into an abyss, a bottomless pit, such that even when we reach for the Bread of Life, the Word of God, it seems stale to us.  Admit it, we've all been there.  In January we commit to read 3 or 4 chapters in the Bible every day, and we're really into the reality of what God did all those years ago.  We read about the Creation, and the Original Sin, and God casting us out of the Garden (consequences) while simultaneously covering us (provision).  Meanwhile, the rest of our time is spent in business or commerce or entertainment where we hear messages that are not of God.  Most of the time the things we do or the people we come into contact with are not necessarily antithetical to Christianity, they are just secular.  Once in awhile we may hear an outburst from someone that is anti-religion, or utterly godless, or even giving reverence to a god that is not the God of the Bible.  We stew in this melting pot for awhile, and pretty soon we find our daily Bible reading is not very exciting.  We get bogged down in the laws in Leviticus, or the names and clans in Numbers, and we get bored.

In some cases our sin nature may take over.  We may fall into old habits.  Our everyday speech, which used to be seasoned with Scripture, now becomes peppered with put-downs.  We curse others under our breath, and before long it becomes more overt.  We are less careful with other areas of our lives.  Until, that is, we wake up in despair.  How can God love a person like me?

Stop.

Take a breath.

Re-center.

Truth:  God does love you.  He gave his only son to die an agonizing death for you, then raised him up to rule and reign forever.  Truth:  Through acceptance of and identification with the son of God, we, too, can rule and reign, both in this world and the next.  Truth:  God created you to be something special, something exciting for his own glory.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:  Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix our attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  --Romans 12:1-2, The Message Bible

I had never read that passage like that before.  To me, it's not so stale, like a verse I've read a thousand times before.  You might want to read it again.  I'll wait.  Good.  Let's go on from there.

I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.  Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.  No, God brings it all to you.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.  --Romans 12:3, MSG

In my own strength, I am broken and weak.  It is only by his great grace that I am alive.  On my own, I cannot bring anything worthy to God.  Yet every morning his mercies are new (Lamentations 3:23).  It is only by him dwelling in us that we find worth.  It is only by him working through us that we accomplish anything at all.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body.  Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.  The body we are talking about is Christ's body of chosen people.  Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.  But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we?  So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christs's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.  --Romans 12:4-5 MSG

Wow.  As broken as we all are, we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).  Satan loves to isolate us away by ourselves, because by ourselves we only see the brokenness.  Sin creeps in, and we compare ourselves to others.  The comparison can be tearing ourselves down (enviously comparing ourselves with others), or tearing others down (prideful comparison) to elevate ourselves above what others appear to be.  I think that's why Hebrews 10:25 encourages us not to abandon coming together for worship together--not to compare ourselves with one another (either positively or negatively), but rather to be the body of Christ.

If you preach, just preach God's message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them.  Keep a smile on your face.  --Romans 12:6-8, MSG

What better description of ministry can there be?  We are all called to minister in this way, according to the gifts we each are given.  We don't become ministers for personal gain, either.  Remember to humbly put others before yourself (Philippians 2:3).

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.  Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.  Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.  --Romans 12:9-10, MSG

When you find yourself a spiritual hypoglycemic, feed yourself first.  You cannot feed others if you are starving.  We know what causes hypoglycemia:  Sure, it can be caused by diseases like hepatitis or other liver diseases, but we know that "by his stripes we are healed" Isaiah 53:5. Get you some of that, and you will feel better.  But we also know it can be caused by overwork, or over-indulging in alcohol.  The same condition found in athletes who forget to re-fuel can also be found in lazy people who drink too much.  The same Jesus is the cure for both, for he is the fountain opened, the Rock smitten (Isaiah 55:1-5).

Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled ad aflame.  Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.  Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.  Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.  --Romans 12:11-13, MSG

What encouragement.  What sound advice.  You are always busy doing something, so why not busy yourself studying the word and letting it spill out in expectation of the next opportunity he gives you.  Busy yourself in prayer, so that  you can help those in need.  Even if you don't have any money, you can be a blessing.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.  Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down.  Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up.  Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.  --Romans 12:14-16, MSG

We're called to empathy.  We can't put others down and put ourselves in their shoes at the same time.  Remember, there but for the grace of God go I.  Be the face of grace to everyone.

Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone.  If you've got it in you, get along with everybody.  Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do.  "I'll do the judging," says God.  "I'll take care of it."  --Romans 12:17-19, MSG

You might be laughed at.  You might be persecuted.  Satan will not let any good deed go unpunished.  Don't worry about it.  Extend grace, and grace will be given to you; some may have a greater need for grace, and they won't be able to give you what they don't have.  Don't stress over them.  Keep throwing blessing their way.

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink.  Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.  Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.  --Romans 12:20-21, MSG

I heard a Christian psychiatrist and author this week quote from this chapter, in this translation.  I liked what she had to say.  She said a man after God's own heart may still have a problem with lust, promiscuity, or porn.  That doesn't make him less loved by God.  A woman after God's own heart may still have a problem with overeating or low self esteem.  God cannot love her less than he does right at this very moment.  If we are to help people where they are, we can draw from where we've been or even where we are.  By God's help, we can be the body of Christ to the helpless and the hurting, the isolated and intolerant.  We just need to not be stuck there ourselves.