The Desire of Your Heart

People long for and want what they cannot have and then spurn what they are given. This season of the year is a perfect example. The little child opens his present only to discover that it is not what he wanted and the wrong color at that. Not mentioning the fact that the gift costs them nothing, people will still think or speak of how they received something they did not desire.

There is one Christmas in particular that I remember as a young boy. My family went to my maternal grandparents house and the time to open gifts arrived. I was so excited. With several gifts to open from my family laying in front of me I chose my gift from uncle Jim to open. Ripping the paper into shreds I found a Lego set.
Now, I should have been grateful and happy (I know now that Legos are expensive), but I wasn't. I actually pouted and when mom and dad told me to say thank you I didn't. In fact I was so stubborn about appreciating the gift and saying thank you that I took a spanking and time out more than once before I said it. I don't even remember what I wanted that I didn't get. Yet, the funny thing is I still have that Lego set and now my son plays with it when he goes to grandma and grandpa's house?!

What I didn't want at first turned out to be one of my favorite toys. Sometimes what we want is not as good as what we get. But what about those times when you get exactly what you want.

My senior year of high school I wanted an electric guitar for Christmas. My parents had taken me to look but they were quit expensive and I figured it was possible to get one but not exactly the one I wanted. I had my eye on an American made Lone Star Strat with two single coil pickups and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates 2 Humbucker, Maple fretboard in white with a red turtle shell pickgaurd, it was the perfect guitar for me!

Christmas morning came around and what did I get? A single box with a kapo in it. A 4" x 4" box with a KAPO IN IT! I was not happy, not only did I not get my guitar, or any guitar for that matter, I only got one measly present. I however acted grateful even though I sinfully was upset and selfish inside. Then my father asked if I had gotten everything out of the box. I said yes and he responded, "I don't think so." Upon further investigation I found a note saying the rest of your Christmas is in your room. I walked back to my room and there laying in the middle was, yep you guessed it, a Lone Star Strat with a maple fretboard in white with a red turtle shell pickgaurd. Let's just say I was excited. I had received exaclty what I wanted!

You know the Lord works a lot like these two stories. He gives us what is best when our desires are wrong or they are misguided. He gives us what we want when we are seeking the things of his will, but in his timing. What do you long for and want from God? What have you been given that you neglect?

When you know that you want what God wants, ask for it and patiently await his timing to bring blessing and opportunity into your life. Then when it arrives don't neglect it or take it for granted for nothing is better than the Father's grace. It is an amazing thing when God gives you the desire of your heart!

Unworthy but desiring,
dave m

Really?

The Pinnacle

When Jesus was taken to the pinnacle of the temple by Satan during the wilderness temptation, the test was to throw himself down so that the angels would catch him. Think with me for just a moment, what a sight that would have been. This unknown carpenter from a little useless town of Nazareth standing at the edge of the massive cliff, jumping off. If no one noticed that, I am sure the legion of angels carrying him safely to the ground would have garnished some attention. And upon his landing, then what? Instant recognition. There would not have been a person for miles around Jerusalem that did not hear of the amazing occurrence. Those who didn't believe, they would have come to meet the man for themselves.

But why not? Why did Jesus refuse? The easy answer is the Devil asked him to do it and we know Jesus would never listen to the devil. But wait just a moment. Jesus was a man, God for sure, but a man too. He had not eaten for forty days and was at the point of bodily injury and starvation. Why, because the Spirit, that is his Father's Spirit, led him to do so. This was a training session in obedience for the Son, a next step in the road to the cross. However hard the wilderness may have been, it was not what the cross would be.

Jesus must suffer and obey the heavenly Father as a man, no divine privilege here, no supernatural scapegoat, just the fortitude and will of a man to obey perfectly his Father's will. That is why we could not do it. I would have broke. "I take the easy way, give me a bread loaf from that rock cause I am about to die." But not Jesus, he trusted in his Father's provision and endured in obedience, even when the circumstance was extremely hard.

So what does that mean for us. Well, simple. If Christ was willing to endure a forty day fast in the wilderness just because his Father told him too, what will you endure. We bail quick when it doesn't seem right. We retreat when things don't make sense. Do you think that it would make sense to you if God asked you to go to the wilderness and not eat for forty days. Most of us would rationalize and say obviously I didn't hear from God. Including me. Not Jesus, that is why he is the Messiah. That is why he has the authority. He is the obedient Son who is blessed by God.

Jesus knew the Father better than any of us ever will. Follow his lead, emulate his example and endure in obedience. The Father knew best for Jesus, and his obedience provided salvation for all who are in Christ. What will your obedience provide?

The pinnacle was not to be the temple mount. The pinnacle was obedince unto death, even death ona cross. There and only there, all the world may see and believe.

struggling with all His energy

I have wanted many times to explain and share my heart as to the title of this blog, “struggling with all His energy.” I hope this post will give you my heart and why I do what I do, and one reason why I long to grow in Christ myself.

Colossians 1:24-29 (ESV) 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

What is the minister to take from this exhortation from Paul? I do not intend to exegete the passage but I hope this story from a sermon I am preparing gives a glimpse of the powerful truth Paul gives in his example to the minister of the gospel.

A young couple deeply desired to have a child. It had been nearly six years since they married and four since they began praying for a child. It seemed as though all the prayer along with doctor visits, strict diets, and treatments were all for naught. Was God unhappy with them? Had sin caused this hurt? All of their friends were having children and were starting their families. Every birth was more of a burden than a time of rejoicing to this couple. But God had heard their prayers and God did understand their desire. The four years of waiting seemed as only a day when Grace arrived. She became the passion of them both.

Years went by and their love only grew stronger for the little girl. They could not understand how anyone could have this much love for another. Among all the joy were struggles and problems but all paled in comparison to the blessing God had placed in their care. All was well until one fateful night. Grace was now thirteen and was sleeping soundly when she found herself trapped, mouth covered and terrified as a man who she did not know began carrying her out of her room. She had time to let out a small scream after biting the hand of the intruder.

Her father hearing the sound sprang from his bed into the hallway seeing in the faint darkness the outline of the predator. Without hesitation he ripped his daughter from the intruder's hands noticing in the moonlight from a window the shimmer of a knife blade quickly moving in his daughter’s direction. He threw himself between the knife and his daughter receiving the cut of the knife directly in the face. Quickly the intruder exited the house leaving behind the scar of that night on the father’s face

More years went by and Grace, now a young woman, had become deeply committed to a young man and talk of marriage began. The young man wanted to ask her father for her hand in marriage, and the night had arrived. Looking intently into the face of grace’s father, all the young man could notice was the severe scar, barely resembling the face of a man, yet reminding him if the intense love he had for his daughter, a love willing to sacrifice his very life for her. Still yet he asked, “May I marry your daughter, Grace.” To which the father responded, “Promise me you will love her the way I have loved her.”

The minister has been entrusted with preparing Christ’s bride, the church, to be presented complete when Christ returns. To do that we must love her as Christ loves her. Christ gave his life for her what are we to give?

The day of the wedding finally arrived.Grace was beautiful. Standing with her father behind the closed doors to the sanctuary, neither could hold back the tears. All the years of prayer, struggles and laboring to raise his daughter in the Lord had paid off. His love for her was evident by the scars he bore on his body, but even more was the image standing there before him in a white dress, pure and innocent about to meet her bridegroom. The doors opened and Grace’s father walked her to the alter with head held high, his job was complete and it was the bridegroom’s turn to take his place as her provision now. “Who gives this bride in marriage,” asked the preacher. “Her mother and I,” he responded knowing that he would not even trade his scared face for this day.

One day the church will be united to her bridegroom. Are you willing to fill up the afflictions lacking in the body of Christ. I don't know about you, but that is a hard question to answer. May God give the grace that we may be faithful to this task as we procliam the mystery hidden for ages but now made clear to Christ's church.

Don't miss out?

As a response to a dear friends blog, If I perish, I perish.

It also amazes me that there are those who think that they cannot whole heartedly follow Christ because they might miss out. The amazing thing is, that is me to often.

Don't miss out? Don't miss out on what? Let's just be frank, the reason we do not want to miss out on the things of this world is because they are more important to us than Christ. We enjoy our sin. That is why people sin isn't it? If sin were not fun, if sin were hard work, would people be as apt to do it?

Take for instance a teenage boy, (I a going to be "to the point" here) who is a sexual relationship with his girlfriend. The truth of the matter is, he likes it. He likes it enough that he is willing to risk in order to have it. There is a satisfaction in his actions. This is not to say they are right, just to say that it is obvious the action is worth doing to him.

To break this down to the simplest form, this young man does not consider a relationship with Christ worth more than the moment of sin, providing instant pleasure. A relationship with Christ is hard work and it does not satisfy him the way sex does. We could go into all of the consequences of the sin and the reasons why he will pay for his sin, and the possible situations that it will produce, yet all this has taken a back seat in his mind for the gratification. Christ is seen as less valuable than sex.

This situation is simplistic, I admit, but the truth is in any sin we choose the sin over our relationship with Christ. What that says is, we do not truly know or are thinking about who Christ really is. The treasure he is and the true joy that he can bring. We have set our sin ahead of Christ because we do not know him well enough to know that it is absolutely ridiculous to trade a growing relationship with him for a moment of selfish desire.

We must go back to the book and remind ourselves of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. We must, when tempted, set our minds on things above. Why? Because if we truly know what the things above are, sin, in comparison, seems complete nonsense. As C.S Lewis says we are content on making mud pies on the shore when God is offering us a holiday at sea.

If you desire the things of this world more than Christ, then ask God to capture your heart and show you the truth of how much he is worth and what a relationship with him is priceless.

Why can Esther (The woman in my friends blog) walk all over South Korea, loose toe nails and risk life, because she understands that Christ is worth so much more, and to disobey is to deny what she truly desires. May the Lord reveal to our complacent, stubborn hearts the same truth.