Two most important life issues

According to the Bible there are two issues that are the most important things in all of life.
One is the salvation of the human soul and the other is the glory of the name of God.

So, how do you save the soul so that it is not destroyed and how to you glorify the name of God so that He is not belittled?  I love John Piper from Desiring God ministries.  He has a powerful message on this topic and much of what I have learned comes from his messages.

1 Peter 2; 11-12  Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.  Keep your behavior excellent amongst the gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers they may on account of your good deeds- as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Those two verses are powerful- abstain from fleshly lusts- the lusts are waging war against your soul.  If you have ever tried to break a sinful habit or addiction you would know that it was like a war!  There are anti-soul forces at work here!  But the passage goes on to say that our victory- our excellent behavior brings God glory.

Jesus said - what would it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?  Yet. in our current culture these issues are seldom spoken about in any form.  The world teaches us how to battle wrinkles in our skin and stains in our clothing,  We know how to fight cholesterol and weeds, ants and roaches, dandelions and all sorts of health issues but to the world -our souls are non-issues.
We are passionately committed to the inconsequential.

Consider God

As I reflect on the chaos of people's lives one thought repeats itself in my mind.  People are not intentionally mindful of God.  They may say that they believe that He exists but they don't consider Him in their daily walk.  Even many active, church going Christians do not take God into account when planning significant life events.
In Matthew chapter 22 in the Bible it says we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.  That's the first and the greatest command that God has given to us.  If we are to honor that instruction we should be mindful of His presence every day of our lives, not just for an hour or two on Sunday.

Hebrews 4:13 says..."all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account".
I really do think we will all stand naked and empty handed before the throne of God and give an account for our lives.  In Matt 7:21-23 Jesus says that not everyone who calls Him Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Some will say "we served in the church! we did this and that!" but He will say "I never knew you".  Those will be terrifying words.  To avoid them we must intentionally consider God and talk to Him regularly.

God can read our minds- every thought but we honor Him when we intentionally pray directly to Him.  Also, I think a good practice for any believer would be regular self-examination.  If we were working in Ebola infested areas we would regularly check for symptoms.  The same is true for sin- it is deadly and toxic to the soul, we should examine ourselves and confess any known sin to God.  It gives us a clean conscience which leads to peace of mind.  I know many believers who brush off that thought.  "Oh, all is forgiven!" they say somewhat flippantly.  I think regular self-examination and humble confession reminds us of our weaknesses and the need for God to strengthen us.

Many years ago I started praying in a pattern.  I created an acronym C-L-A-P.
Confess- I start out my time by coming clean- admitting known wrong and asking for forgiveness.
Listen- I quiet my mouth and allow God to speak- or to bring thoughts to my mind.
Ask- I pray for unsaved loved ones, friends with health issues.  I ask for the things I desire.
Praise- I end my prayer time with grateful praise and thanks.

My prayer is that you will consider God.

You don't have because you don't ask God

There's so much trouble and pain in the world.  So much chaos, disease, wars, suffering, drought, wildfires, volcanoes, floods and on and on.  The news is sobering and I am sure it causes anxiety in some people. Still, amidst all of the horrors that surround us I wonder how many people lift their faces to God above and ask Him to intervene?  My guess is that few people do.  Many people look to government to fix their problems.
If you think about drought for example, government can truly do little to relieve the problem.  Man can figure out ways to move water from one location to another but they cannot create more water.  Yet God is there- looking down- in hope that the drought would cause us to turn our faces to the ONLY true source and humbly ask Him to provide...but we stubbornly refuse.

Do we honestly think that WE are in control of life?  We can't even make our own hearts beat.  We are utterly dependent on the Creator and Sustainer of our existence and our lives could be so much more secure if we would only ask Him to help us.  He would not withhold good.

There is immense peace from knowing confidently that even though the storm rages all around us, our feet are firmly planted on a large, solid Rock.  Let the storm rage...my God is Sovereign over all.

The Greatest Treasure

The most valuable thing we can possess is a clean conscience, knowing that all things are good with God.  It gives me confidence that I can enter into His presence and talk about my hurts and fears and longings.  I know that He hears and will respond.  I am not saying that He is my genie and will perform as I ask but I know He is my provider, He is sovereign over all my circumstances and I am confident that He loves me.  His will is always best even when I don't understand His ways clearly.

Watching the news these days can be very troubling.  There are wars, ecological disasters, invisible viruses killing people, wildfires destroying homes...the list goes on and on.  A person could become insecure and worried about the future of our country or health.  The truth is- everyone dies- 100%- no exceptions.  We will all come to the end of life in our mortal bodies one day and we will stand before our Maker and give account for the precious gift of life that He entrusted to us.

What a precious and beautiful experience it will be for the person who lived with a passion for pleasing God.  We must not wait until we are dying in the hospital or nursing home to try and please Him.  We must strive to know Him intimately and please Him here and now.  It's the safest place we can be in these troubled times- under the wing of God.

Set our minds on the Spirit.

I have been trying to gain a deeper understanding of how to “walk in the Spirit. ” How do I live in a human body and be constantly bombarded by earthly things but  “set my mind on the Spirit”.  How does that work?  So I have been studying in Romans and also praying that God would direct my thinking and show me truth.  Today I read:

(Romans 8:5-8) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Wow- that seems black and white.  If we live according to the Spirit we DO set our minds on spiritual things- otherwise we are “hostile to God”!  Hostile means antagonistic, unfriendly, non-receptive.   We cannot please God if our mind is set on the flesh. 

Yesterday I had some trials and difficulties and as the day progressed I found myself wallowing in self- pity.   Now self-pity is quite obviously a mindset that is focused on flesh.  As I pondered this I realized that in the big picture of life- God had allowed the trials and difficulties so if I reacted in a negative way- ultimately my negative reaction was directed at God since He is Sovereign over-all and He allowed it to happen to me. 

I had never viewed self-pity as being hostile to God but it is easy to see that it is a focus on the flesh. 

Peace with God

Over the years my understanding of why I exist has changed a number of times.  Now that I am officially “old” I know for certain that I will be standing naked and empty handed before my Creator soon.  All of us die- 100% guaranteed no matter how hard we work to stay fit and healthy.  And the existence of God is evident in creation even though the vast majority of people do not want to acknowledge Him.  Just because we don’t want a righteous judge to exist does not change the fact that He does.

I am at peace with God.  I long to meet Him face to face.  I understand the apostle Paul saying “to live is Christ and to die is gain”.  I don’t feel like my work here is done- there are some people I love very much who are not ready to meet their Maker and I keep praying for them and hoping to influence them but if God calls me home I will not kick and scream about it!

I can’t say that I have peace with earthly life though.  I feel like I am on the battlefield in a war.  I feel battered and beat up- pulled in different directions- tempted and tried.  I can feel exhausted like I am climbing up Mt Elbert and there is no oxygen! (Did that once and only reached the summit because my sweet hubby helped me).  Daily life can wear a person down.  Sometimes we have an agenda but the multitude of distractions and interruptions keep us from accomplishing much.  Or we are fighting a bad habit and we have days where we fall flat on our faces, both scenarios can be discouraging.

In the midst of all the madness- all the horrible scenes on the nightly news- there can be a peace and calm inside that feels rock solid.  It comes from knowing with absolute certainty that God Almighty is pleased with me.  I’m not perfect- I still fall flat on my face and sin daily – I get impatient- speak without thinking- eat when I am not hungry- but I have more confidence of my right standing with God than I have ever had before in my life.  I have more compassion for the lost and suffering- more hope for victory over the sins that I struggle with- because God is FOR me. It is a peaceful place to be. 

God of the Ants

Several years ago I was sitting in my backyard in a lawn chair planning future yard projects.  I got to watching the ants busily working to build an ant hill in the sandy soil of my lawn.  I thought “They don’t even know I’m here.  They don’t know that I am god over them and could destroy every one of them with a wave of my hand (holding chemicals, of course).  They are busily going about their lives completely ignoring me.  If I destroyed their anthill with my shoe they would just start re-building.”

Recently after watching the sobering evening news, watching the warnings for a horrible storm coming to an area that had just been hit by a previous storm I commented to my husband, “if I lived in that area I would repent!”  I said that because sometimes I think God is trying to get our attention!  He wants us to call on Him to save our wretched souls from destruction!  He could crush us all in a heart beat- destroy everything we’ve done with a wave of His hand and we ignore Him- almost completely.  We go about our lives with our own plans and dreams.  We seldom bother to consider Him.  When we do pray it is usually to TELL Him what we want Him to do for us!  We boss Him around like He is our servant and we get angry at Him when He doesn’t do things the way we want in the time frame that we expect!  How arrogant!

Today I thought about the ant analogy again.  What if I knocked over the ant hill- destroyed all of their work with my shoe- or even a shovel & rake and the ants got angry at me?  What if they decided to attack me by biting me?   Perhaps my intent is that I want them to move their anthill somewhere else.  I am being patient and kind.  I simply want them to acknowledge my authority and move.   Since I can see the bigger picture let’s suppose I didn’t want to use chemicals since I am a bird lover and didn’t want to upset the balance.  They only see the small picture of their lives and I’m knocking over their house.

Isn’t that what many people are trying to do after these hurricanes and tornadoes, volcano eruptions, floods?  They are shaking their fists at God- if they acknowledge His existence at all.  Maybe it’s just “Mother Nature”.  Either way they fail to bend the knee and acknowledge God and there is a huge, eternal price to pay for that.

Take it a step further and imagine the ants start biting me- over and over.  Ganging up- rebelling in mass.  How long would I be patient with that foolishness?  How many bites would I put up with before I said “enough” and got out the big chemicals and blew them all away? 

Sometimes I tremble at the arrogance of man. 

We have such a small view of God.  He is so much more powerful than we can imagine and when I watch the news I wonder how much longer He will be merciful?