Our hearts the Idol Factory

image  “They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.” 2 Kings 17:15

Since attending the Advance ‘09 conference in June, I have been thinking about idolatry and trying to identify the idols that claim the affections of modern believers. These quotes have been helpful to my thinking.

“Idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible and one of the most powerful spiritual and intellectual concepts in the believer’s arsenal.  Yet for Christians today it is one of the least meaningful notions and is surrounded by ironies.  Perhaps this is why many evangelicals are ignorant of the idols in their lives…Contemporary evangelicals are little better at recognizing and resisting idols than modern secular people are…There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols”

Os Guiness & John Seel

image “An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God, and can also be referred to as a ‘false god’ or a ‘functional god.’ In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on, that motivates us, that masters or rules us, or that we serve.”  Luke 12:29, 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Ps. 119:133, Matt. 6:24

Ken Sande

“There is always a reason for sin.  Under our sins are idolatrous desires…Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things.  Sins is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing more than God.  Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us.  Sin is primarily idolatry.”

Tim Keller

“A triune God could never be a God of human invention. Our idols, our made up gods, are monads – self centered autonomous deities, a bit like bigger versions of us really, a million miles away from the true, and stunningly beautiful, three-personed, eternally loving God.”

Friday Fought blogspot

Jesus Calling

Jesus_Calling-119195560017700 I love to find devotional books that bring freshness and depth to my quiet time with God.  For several months now I have been blessed by reading Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling, Enjoying Peace in His Presence.

The unique thing about this devotional book is that it is written from passages of Scripture as though Jesus Himself were speaking them to you.

This morning as I have noticed how often feelings of failure swirl around in my mind, I read

“Do not be discouraged by the difficulty of keeping your focus on Me.  I know that your heart’s desire is to be aware of My Presence continually.

This is a lofty goal; you aim toward it but never fully achieve it in this life.  Don’t let feelings of failure weigh you down. 

Instead, try to see yourself as I see you.  First of all, I am delighted by your deep desire to walk closely with Me through your life.  I am pleased each time you initiate communication with Me. 

In addition, I notice the progress you have made since you first resolved to live in My Presence…

Rejoice in tiny triumphs, and they will increasingly light up your days.”

Sarah Young, Jesus Calling, Integrity Publishers, 2004, p. 320

Thoughts for Orphan Sunday

Hillsong United is launching what they are calling the I Heart Revoltion with this month’s release of “We’re All in this Together.”  This video clip reminded me of the story of Martha and Mary, Martha was distracted by what some have called “the tyranny of the urgent”.   Rather than commend her , Jesus offers her gentle, corrective help with these words about the one thing that will satisfy her soul.  When I was thinking about the “one thing” I remembered that Jesus asked Peter, “Peter do you love me?”  When Peter responded, “Lord, you know that I do.”  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  This Sunday as we consider the orphaned sheep of this world, what is the one thing Jesus would have us do?

Luke 10:40-42 (NIV)
40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Living on the Edge

I have been blessed by Ray Ortlund’s commentary “Isaiah—God Saves Sinners” as I prepare for a Sunday school class on the Greatness of God.  I was particularly challenged by these words this morning:

living on the edge Here is the Christian life in just six words: “Not knowing where” (Hebrews 11:8), “I know whom” (2 Timothy 1:12)…If you always have to know where and what and when and how and so forth, all in advance, before you obey God, then you are not living by faith in God.

Living by faith in God accepts ambiguity without getting nervous, because God is the one in charge.  “Not knowing where, I know whom”—that’s Christianity…We always live on the cutting edge of faith, either faith in God or faith in something else.  And yesterday’s faith in God belongs to yesterday.  In who do you now trust?  In the struggle you are facing now, in whom do you trust?

Ray Ortlund, Isaiah – God Saves Sinners, Crossway Books, 2005, p. 205

Soaking before God

cynthia heald I went to a Women’s Conference at the Hotel Jefferson Saturday morning.  There in the opulence of the Grand Ballroom a sweet 70 year old woman shone brighter than the chandelier as she reminded the women of the importance of “pitching our tents” near God.

Cynthia Heald’s message created a homesickness in my heart. I wanted to “go home” and meet with God in His Word—I knew what she was talking about and longed for it.  I also longed to be a woman who spends herself encouraging other women and pointing them to the truth of Scripture.

Oswald Chambers added to the theme of the weekend in His “The Unheeded Secret” devotion for this morning.

“It is not practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College, its whole strength lies in the fact that here you are put into soak before God. You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad, and if you waste your time in over-active energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God’s Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes…”

It was a weekend full of new mercies.  It is good of God to send messengers with reminders that I need a good soaking every day!Bible (Small)

The Next Step

“Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.”

Psalm 119:105

Amy Carmichael gave me a good word to live out today as I head into a new call.

“If the next step is clear, then the one thing to do is to take it.  Don’t pledge your Lord or yourself about the steps beyond.  You don’t see them yet.

Once when I was climbing at night in the forest before there was a made path, I learned 03_02_06-003what the word meant,

Psalm 119:105: ‘Thy word is a lantern to my path’.

I had a lantern and had to hold it very low or I should certainly have slipped on those rough rocks.

We don’t walk spiritually by electric light but by a hand lantern.

And a lantern only shows the next step—not several ahead.” ((Amy Carmichael, Candles in the Dark, CLC Publications, 1981, p. 43))

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it,

for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”

Revelation 21:23

Is a “B” Good Enough?

1257962367_38e5fdfe95_m I have a friend who frequently says to me, “Lissa, why strive for perfection when good enough will do?”  I always laugh because the thought hits me as such a novel idea! Most of us have heard of “Type A” personalities or at least we have been the uncomfortable recipients of their intensity as they navigate life and tasks. It seems that women are particularly susceptible to this personality inclination.  Here is how this type is described:

Type A Personality Characteristics & Behavior The Type A is a normal person operating at his maximum possible speed. She wants to achieve a big goal but she thinks that time is very limited and this results in the following behavior:

    • Exaggerated Sense of time urgency: Since the type A thinks that time is running out and since her goals are too big, she always races with time. If you want to lose a type A in a short time, then waste her time (by making long phone calls or making her wait for something too long). Time is a tool for measuring and a means of limiting, confining and defining. As such, time is important to someone who has always had to meet standards and deadlines for acceptance.
    • Issues with Valuing rightly: Type A people have esteem issues, as they don’t base their value on solid ground but rather on meeting standards. As such, rather than by their inherent value as people, they value themselves and what they do by money. What’s it worth, what did it cost, how much do they earn, have and spend? Their language is peppered by references to the cost of things.  They spend or give money as a way of showing love or affection. It is their empowerment and security. In relationships there is a medium of exchange and of acceptance with others and it is money.
    • Competitiveness: The type A is a very competitive person, she considers everything to be a challenge. She is challenging the circumstances that led to her insecurity and so she will challenge every thing else that does the same.
    • Cleanliness: Since A types tend toward perfectionism they have a high need for orderly, clean, neat surroundings. Disorder or dust makes them feel bad about themselves so they are driven to stay ahead of clutter and dust bunnies!
    • Multitasking: The type A can handle more tasks at the same time than Windows XP can.Smiling You know that a person is Type A if you have found that she is involved in at least five unrelated activities while performing well at them all.
    • The Price for Over Achievement: Over achievement does not come for free. Type A’s are subject to tremendous amounts of stress. Their life style is the main drive for this stress (always running, having lots of things to do & racing with time)

Doesn’t that list make you want to settle for a “B”?  As I was pondering the cost of striving for perfection, I ran across this quote from Noel Piper’s book “Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God.”  It caught my eye because it was about one of my missionary heroes, Helen Roseveare.  What a helpful, gospel-orienting help this was to my soul:

“Perhaps the deepest underlying personal factor in Helen’s tension was the need she felt to do her very best and, if possible, to be the very best. God called her to Africa where that was not possible. There were K8JTSCAUO7J84CAYVXZ7DCAFHY0HRCAOE5RKQCAK30FDACAF9OZ8KCA9CDTFACA4HF5OSCAJ4413ICAZV5LM5CACA26UMCAP8G9O4CASHO9Z0CAP2YNUJCAG65LSPCA7JTXEBCAJ89X62CAGTK75JCAZRV2G6 continuing lessons for her: learning to treat malaria by symptoms rather than with prescribed lab tests, having to operate without having been trained as a surgeon, needing to make bricks rather than spending the day with patients. Perhaps that is an issue for some of us–struggling with the reality that God has called us to do less than we want to do or less than what we believe is best. That can happen in any setting.

For me, it’s been especially true in my years with small children – ‘I got a college degree for this?’ Maybe the problem is the way we see ourselves. Maybe we think more highly of ourselves than we ought. If anyone was too good to die, it was Jesus. If anyone should have done greater things than walking dusty roads and talking with people too dense to understand him, it was Jesus.

In Philippians 3 . . . is the verse, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (verse 10). When God called Helen to less than she expected, he was helping her become like Christ, rather than like the best doctor or missionary she knew of. Who is it we want to be like?” (p. 172)

Can you imagine?  Our perfectionist impulses are evidences that we think too highly of ourselves? Oh little one, why strive for perfection–Jesus is the embodiment of it–so restfully settle for the “B”… it is very good enough!