For the summer I've been reading the Old Testament and I've been struck by a theme that keeps coming up. Over and over again, God is calling Israel to return to Him. And it's more than just a call to start doing the right things.
God is calling Israel to return to Him with their hearts. With their attitudes and their motives.
God doesn't want them to do the right things just because they are the right things. He wanted them to do the right things because they wanted to do the right things.
"I want you to show love,
not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know Me
more than I want burnt offerings."
(Hosea 6:6, NLT)
In this verse, God is calling for Israel to return to Him with their hearts. He doesn't want their sacrifices and offerings, unless they're flowing from a heart that wants to do them.
God wants them to show true love to each other. God wants His people to know Him - to spend time on their relationship with Him.
I believe this is the same thing God wants for us today. He wants us to do the right things because we love Him and know Him. He wants our attitudes and our motives for what we do to flow form our relationship with Him.
When our hearts are no longer a part of what we do, it can be easy to fall into the trap of legalism. We do the right things to earn God's approval and favour. It becomes all about actions.
And legalism slowly kills us. When we're doing things because we're supposed to, we miss out on what God really has for us - the life He really wants us to live.
Legalism will never satisfy us. And it will always end in defeat.
That's why God tells us over and over that it's our heart that matters. If we're doing something because of where our heart is at, then it will bring us life.
If our attitudes and our motives are about bringing glory to God and knowing Him more, then the things we do will bring us life.
If our attitudes and our motives are about doing the right things - legalism - then the things we do will bring us death.
Why are you doing what you're doing in your relationship with God?
If you're straying into legalism, then maybe you need to be honest with God and ask Him to change your heart. That is His specialty - but He won't force it on us.
That's the best part of this all - Just because we've been living one way doesn't mean it can't change. We can turn to God with all our hearts, even if that's not how we have been living.
How is your heart?
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Seasons
Sometimes it seems like life goes in seasons. Some we feel really alive and some we don't. That can be a way we describe our walks with God.
For most of my life I would get frustrated when the season of my walk with God seemed more like winter. I didn't understand why those times existed. I thought they were a waste of time in our lives.
But, then I started to notice something that happens in nature with the changing of the seasons. In winter things die or go into hibernation. They often get covered by the snow. And then spring comes. With spring comes new growth. Things bloom again.
I began to see that it's similar to what happens in our walks with God. After those seasons where things felt dead is when the new growth began. It's when God began to do new things.
And when my perspective changed on those things, is when I stopped getting frustrated with those times. It doesn't mean I like them. I still wish there was a way to avoid them. But seeing them as the precursor to God doing something new makes them easier to walk through.
For most of my life I would get frustrated when the season of my walk with God seemed more like winter. I didn't understand why those times existed. I thought they were a waste of time in our lives.
But, then I started to notice something that happens in nature with the changing of the seasons. In winter things die or go into hibernation. They often get covered by the snow. And then spring comes. With spring comes new growth. Things bloom again.
I began to see that it's similar to what happens in our walks with God. After those seasons where things felt dead is when the new growth began. It's when God began to do new things.
And when my perspective changed on those things, is when I stopped getting frustrated with those times. It doesn't mean I like them. I still wish there was a way to avoid them. But seeing them as the precursor to God doing something new makes them easier to walk through.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Why Jesus Came
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion -
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of His splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
-Isaiah 61:1-4
These words of the prophet Isaiah are also the words that Jesus used to announce His ministry. In Luke 4, Jesus reads these words. "Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:20-21).
Isaiah spoke these words to Israel as prophecy of what God would do. Jesus announced that He had come as the fulfillment of this prophecy. It would have been quite shocking to the people in the Temple that day to hear Jesus claim He was the fulfillment of this prophecy.
This passage from Isaiah has long been a favourite of mine. It speaks of the incredible things that God can do in the lives of those who are willing to allow Him in.
Jesus came to bring the good news of our salvation.
Jesus came to bring healing to wounded and broken hearts.
Jesus came to bring freedom to those who were held captive by sin.
Jesus came to release people from the darkness that held them back.
Jesus came to bring comfort to those who were mourning.
Jesus came to replace ashes with a crown of beauty.
Jesus came to give us a reason to praise instead of mourn.
Jesus came to do all of this so that we would be reflections of God's splendor.
The image of being oaks of righteousness intrigues me. How often do we talk about " mighty oak trees"? It's a picture of something strong and beautiful. That's what this Scripture tells us Jesus came to make us.
When Jesus comes in our lives to do all of this it is for something important. The ruins of what once was good and has been destroyed will be rebuilt. Those places that have long been left to fall apart will be brought into the light once again.
Jesus didn't come to do all these things so we would live the same old lives. He came to do all these things so we could live the life we were created to live.
A life that reflects Who God is and what He has done.
A life that points to Him in every way.
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion -
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of His splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
-Isaiah 61:1-4
These words of the prophet Isaiah are also the words that Jesus used to announce His ministry. In Luke 4, Jesus reads these words. "Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:20-21).
Isaiah spoke these words to Israel as prophecy of what God would do. Jesus announced that He had come as the fulfillment of this prophecy. It would have been quite shocking to the people in the Temple that day to hear Jesus claim He was the fulfillment of this prophecy.
This passage from Isaiah has long been a favourite of mine. It speaks of the incredible things that God can do in the lives of those who are willing to allow Him in.
Jesus came to bring the good news of our salvation.
Jesus came to bring healing to wounded and broken hearts.
Jesus came to bring freedom to those who were held captive by sin.
Jesus came to release people from the darkness that held them back.
Jesus came to bring comfort to those who were mourning.
Jesus came to replace ashes with a crown of beauty.
Jesus came to give us a reason to praise instead of mourn.
Jesus came to do all of this so that we would be reflections of God's splendor.
The image of being oaks of righteousness intrigues me. How often do we talk about " mighty oak trees"? It's a picture of something strong and beautiful. That's what this Scripture tells us Jesus came to make us.
When Jesus comes in our lives to do all of this it is for something important. The ruins of what once was good and has been destroyed will be rebuilt. Those places that have long been left to fall apart will be brought into the light once again.
Jesus didn't come to do all these things so we would live the same old lives. He came to do all these things so we could live the life we were created to live.
A life that reflects Who God is and what He has done.
A life that points to Him in every way.
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