Daily Reflections on Ps. 127(I'm Hiring a New Builder)

Whenever you're building a new house or even remodeling an old one, having the right general contractor is crucial. If you want things to go well, be built well and in a timely manner, you better have a person who really knows what they are doing or you could suffer the consequences for a long time. Cheap isn't always better. Just because a guy can talk fast and make things sound good, doesn't mean you're getting the best deal in the long run.

Some contractors take short cuts or use cheap material or labor to insure their pockets are lined with profit. But those same steps aren't in your best interest. As the old adage goes, "Pay me now or pay me later." Use inexpensive substitutes and more than likely it will cost you more in the long run. When building a new home, you want to make sure it lasts, doesn't fall apart, or leak. Rush jobs, inexperienced laborers, inferior materials, short cuts always lead to a less than desirable outcome.

Solomon in Psalm 127 makes a poignant statement that many ignore. When he talks about letting the Lord build the house, he's not talking about an actual house. But his point is well taken. You want a master builder to build your house. You don't want Joe Fly-by-night in charge of building your dream home. Solomon is really talking about our lives. Unless we allow God to build into our lives, to guide us, direct us, protect us we're going to have a less than desirable result. More often than not, things are going to fall apart, especially if we face a major storm.

Many today draw their world view, philosophy of living, values from the world or their peers or even from their own personal desires. The problem is that when we hire those to build our house, we are in fact hiring Joe Fly-by-night. Expect your house to crumble at the first sign of stress on it. And since life is full of stressors, you can expect your house to be under constant duress.

God, I know sometimes I want to hire cheap substitutes to work on my place. I'm listening to all the wrong advice. I find myself constantly trying to do patch jobs on the messes I've made. I need you to remodel me. I've screwed it up in the past. I should have listened to you all along. Tear out the old stuff that's falling apart. Remake, rebuild me, my house the way that you want it built.

Daily Reflections on Dt. 31:16-19 (Playing Hide and Seek)

I played it. You played it. We've all played it. Hide and Seek is a fun kids game. I remember making sure that I had the best hiding place so that I would not be found. I couldn't wait for my seekers to give up. But because I didn't want them find my spot, I wouldn't reveal myself until they had moved away from where I was hiding. Of course when I was the seeker, I would never give up looking. I would search every crack and crevice until I would find them or they would give themselves up.

After several years in ministry, I've discovered that Hide and Seek isn't just a kids game after all. Adults play it all the time. And not just with kids. They play it at work, in their relationships with friends and family and often times with themselves. Of course it's not exactly like the game we played as kids, we have developed adult versions. We hide truth from our clients, our patrons, our customers, our friends, our spouses, ourselves. We disappear, make ourselves hard to find or get a hold of. We've become masters of avoidance or shifting blame or denial. We hide our true feelings. We're less honest.

We also play Hide and Seek with God. Somehow we've got in our mind that we can actually hide things, activities from God. The activities we do in secret, our thoughts, our lusts, our sly sins are okay in our minds as long as we don't reveal them to our church friends. I went to visit one of our elders at a church I once served. He was out on the lot of his business checking on his equipment. He didn't know I was coming. I surprised him as he came around the corner of a trailer. He had been smoking a cigarette and didn't want anyone to know that he smoked. In an attempt to hide his smoldering cigarette, he tried to cup it in his hand behind his back. As we talked the ashes were burning his hand and both the pain and guilt were evident on his face. But instead of coming clean with me, he endured the discomfort.

When will we learn that there is nothing we can hide from God. He sees all, knows all. What is more intriguing to me is that even though we know that what we are involved in is not only sin and harmful to us, we continue trying to hide our activity, disobedience. Instead of coming clean, we go right on doing the very thing that is causing us pain. Then we expect everything to be right in our lives and for God to keep blessing us.

In this passage in Deuteronomy, God tells Moses that after he's gone, the people will rebel against Him by getting involved in pagan worship practices of the people already living in the land God is giving them. And He goes on to tell Moses that when they do that, He will stop blessing them and they will have to live with the consequences of their behavior.

God doesn't play Hide and Seek. It's simple with Him. We choose to disobey Him, to walk away from His truths, to refuse to live by His truths, then we're on our own. We want God to bless our life, but we also want to do continue with our inappropriate behavior. Can't happen. Why would God bless our life when we willfully choose to cut Him out? We cut God out and He simply says, "Fine. You're on your own. Don't blame me when you crash and burn."

God doesn't have to bring punishment in our lives when we sin or rebel against Him by our actions. All He has to do is remove His hand and we will self destruct. You don't want God interfering in your life. He won't. But don't expect His blessings or protection or intervention either. You want to hide from God, go right ahead. God won't stop you, but hang on for the consequences of your own choices and behavior.

God, every time I choose to go off in my own direction, I pay the price. I need your Spirit's intervention in my thought process. I don't want to sever our relationship by my actions, lusts, thoughts, etc. I want to focus on you, experience you, receive your blessings.

Daily Reflections on Lk. 18:9-14 (Comeuppance)

Judgments! We make them all the time. We peruse the food court at the mall before selecting a restaurant to suit our liking. We glance over the menu searching for the delectables to satisfy our taste buds. We gaze into our closet in anticipation of our day or activity before carefully choosing the perfect attire for our occasion. We size up the best cell phone, car, apartment or house to meet our need or budget or more likely, our eye. We flip through the playlist on our ipod, itunes, or cds pausing only when the right song fits our mood.

We live in a menu driven society. We like variety and choice. We push, pick, touch, grab, click our selection. When it no longer meets our needs or becomes boring, we select something else. Our judgments are based on what is appealing or satisfying to us, more specifically, to me. And our judgments aren’t limited to cloths, songs, movies, food or other “stuff.” We extend our judgment making into the realm of people, persons, classes, races, etc.

Since we’re good at making judgments based upon our tastes, likes, whims and standards, it’s easy to cast aspersions onto people. We, in effect, begin to place value and esteem upon others based on our opinion, method of expectation, or appearance. This week my youngest daughter is doing an experiment for her psychology class. She’s dressing as an older woman to determine how people treat her and to gain perspective as an elderly person. My guess is she’ll learn a lot about others and herself.

The hardest judgments to make are about ourselves. Sometimes we’re overly critical of ourselves and sometimes we’re totally blind to ourselves. Sometimes we pass off certain behaviors, thought processes, traits (good or bad) as just who we are. It’s tough to be impartial about us.

The only judgment that really counts is God’s judgment. It doesn’t really matter what or how I think of others or myself. What matters is what God thinks. He looks into our hearts and minds and casts His judgment. It’s easy for many of us to take the attitude of the first man in the parable Jesus tells in this text. We make our own judgment about ourselves in light of ourselves; to which God says, “Get ready for your comeuppance.” God is looking for hearts like the second man in the story who recognizes his (or her) own need for God’s grace and cries out to Him.

God, forgive me for my arrogance. I do make judgments of others’ value based on appearance, status, talents, wealth and giftedness. Help me to see myself through your eyes and help me to see others also through your eyes.

Daily Reflections on Mt. 7:15-20 (Good Apples and Bad Apples, Choose Your Friends Wisely)

There's an old adage in business hiring practices that says the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. For the most part I've found that to be true. There have been some rare circumstances that that has not proved to be accurate, but 95 percent of the time it is. It really is hard for a leopard to change his or her spots.

I've watched young ladies time and time again fall in love with a young man vowing to she'll change his evil, lazy, abusive, ambitionless, or godless ways when they were married. It isn't long before reality hits. The marriage struggles, dreams are dashed, and all too often the fading romance gives way to disaster and divorce.

By the same token, I've advised young men to look closely at the young lady's mother to which they are entwined. The values of the mom are more often that not adopted by the daughter. Many times even mannerisms are unwittingly assimilated. How a young woman's mother treats her father is a pretty good indicator of how she'll treat her husband. There's another cliche, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Having done more funerals than I can count, it's pretty easy to tell what kind of person the deceased was in life by the number of flowers and sympathizers at the visitation and/or funeral. Giving, gracious, others-centered persons almost always draw bigger crowds and an abundance of florals. On the other hand, stingy, hateful, merciless, self-centered people produce quiet, unadorned mortuaries.

Jesus said by our fruit people will know who and what we are. He noted that good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit. The first question I have to ask myself is, "What kind of fruit am I producing?" The second question is, "What kind of fruit are my friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, chillin' buddies producing?" If one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch, what kind of apples are you hangin' with currently?

God, all of my fruit isn't so good. I need you to fertilize and water and nurture and prune where necessary. Give me the wisdom to choose my friends and associates. Help me surround myself with good trees and apples. Help me cut off the savory, questionable, negative influencers in my life.