For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. -Hosea 6:6 (NASB)

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. -Micah 6:6-8 (NIV)

Everyone knows the song The Little Drummer Boy, who has nothing to bring to the baby Jesus but the sound of his drum.

Little Drummer Boy brings only his song. That’s all he has…what’s from his heart. That’s what the Lord wants of us…our lifesong. A life lived as a song of praise to Him. He wants us and our hearts, not offerings and sacrifices. Anyone can give offerings and sacrifices, but without your heart in it, they are meaningless lip service.

For the One who gave His only Son so that we may live, can we not live our lives as a song for Him?

Today’s soundtrack

The Pentatonix rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” is powerful.

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. -1 Samuel 8:7

We know we have a patient and loving God. Look at His special chosen ones, the Israelites, and how they not only were disobedient, but even rejected Him! As a parent, there are few things on earth more heartbreaking than your own children’s rejection.

But God is also loving in His demonstration of consequences. After so much complaining and whining from His children, who wanted a king to rule over them like their neighbors (“all the other kids are doing it!”), God tasked Samuel with giving them a king. The Israelites would have to reap what they chose to sow.

Samuel first warned them that a human king would be very demanding, and even unjust or cruel, but they didn’t care. They wanted what they wanted, and Samuel gave them Saul, who did well…at least for the first twenty years.

Like the Israelites, we should carefully consider what we’re asking for.

I’ve learned to put my petitions to a litmus test before bringing them to God: Is what I’m asking for glorifying Him, or just serving me? Am I possibly rationalizing my way into thinking my way will also please Him?

If my petitions pass the test by glorifying Him and not serving my needs, and that I’m wanting to please Him through that for which I pray, then I bring them before Him.

If you’re asking for something that dethrones Jesus–the One True King–in your heart, and doesn’t make Him famous, you’re asking to be ruled by the world. You’re asking to be like the unbelievers around you.

But He has set you apart as one of His elect. Boldly bring Him your petitions that make Him known, and He will bless you in your obedience, faith, and surrender.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -John 14:6 (NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

We all know them: unbelievers who model selfless, sacrificial behavior better than Christians do. They might follow other gods, or maybe don’t believe in any gods at all. And yet, they are genuinely kind,

They are good people.

Remember Uriah, the Hittite warrior husband to Bathsheba? King David, who strayed from following God when he slept with and impregnated Bathsheba, tried to manipulate Uriah so that the baby would appear to be Uriah’s. But, smelling something amiss, Uriah exercised restraint while honoring his king.

Uriah was not a follower of God, but as we have seen before in the bible, sometimes it’s the ones who aren’t believers who do a better job of showing love, kindness, and compassion that those who profess to love God. And yet, being a good person isn’t what will get you into heaven. You don’t earn a spot in heaven by just being a good person…through good works alone.

But what about Christ followers who don’t show His love to the world…who don’t show good works? Faith is key, with good works resulting from it. We show our faith in our fruits, which blossom forth from the Holy Spirit within us. We don’t do much in our calling–the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), to make Him known to all the corners of the earth–if we don’t live and walk in His Word.

We all fall short of His glory, but true believers will be so heavily convicted in their hearts when they sin that they will confess and repent of their sins, have those burdens dashed as far as the east is from the west, and return to God’s path. And that path–the only path to Him–is through Jesus. And when we walk that path, our deeds will demonstrate our faith.

So, it’s through our faith in Jesus, the only Way, Truth, and Life…the only way to the Father…which saves us. And the good works that will naturally spring forth from our walk in faith, that will make for a fragrant offering to make Him known. Have faith. Jesus is the only way. And if you follow Him, you will surrender all to Him and live to make Him smile, and the world will know you are His…a true believer who will spend eternity with the Father.

You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? -1 Corinthians 3:3 (NIV)

We all know them: card-carrying, cross-wearing Christians. But their actions and words don’t seem to show the fruit of the Spirit they profess to dwell within.

They are carnal Christians.

A carnal Christian may have, at one time, accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and then strayed far from His intended path. They have hard, unteachable hearts, clinging to self and earthly desires. They are unrepentant in their ways, doing and saying whatever they please, saying that God will understand and forgive them. Selfish motives can be supported with selectively chosen bible verses.

In many ways, carnal believers are, from all appearances, no different than unbelievers–except that by publicly professing Christ, they only make it even harder for true believers who want to spread the Good News. Carnal believers make it seem to the world that accepting Christ is either a “get out of Hell free” card, or that there isn’t a God.

Note: All believers are carnal, but when true believers stumble, they are not gone for too long before the conviction of the Spirit is too much to bear, and Jesus once again reigns over all in their lives. For carnal believers, Jesus takes a back seat to the world, and to self.

The question that arises would be: is the person a carnal believer, or one who was never saved in the first place?

By accepting Jesus in your heart, He performs a transforming work in you, where you die to self and let Him command your heart, mind, and soul. And by doing so, each step you take sheds another part of you to reveal the image of Christ.

If you know of a carnal believer, pray for them to be led back to Christ. If they are an unbeliever, pray that they come to know Christ. And for ourselves, pray that our hearts listen when He calls…when He warns…and when He tells us what we need to do for His glory. For true believers, it’s all about Him!

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. -Isaiah‬ ‭29‬:‭13‬ (NIV)

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. -Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37-38‬ (NIV)

God is not fooled when your heart isn’t in it for Him, or if it’s in the wrong place.

Following yesterday’s post about Mary and Martha, where Martha let her own busyness be an obstacle to authentic worship, there is an even more sinister detour that can happen if you stay too busy for too long.

You can stop caring, and just go through the motions. You can start singing songs of worship to be seen and heard by others, but not for Him first. You can publicly pray and read your bible to get affirmations and pats on your back.

You start putting presentation first. Remember who else did that? The Pharisees. Jesus didn’t think too much of them.

First and foremost, we were made by Him to worship Him. All else is a distant second.

God wants our authentic, heartfelt worship: heart, soul, and mind. It doesn’t have to be fancy or sophisticated or shiny. It just needs to be real. Let’s do it.

Today’s soundtrack

This satire song is funny, but also biting in identifying people we all know in church who seem to not be there for God first. Take a look.

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? -Matthew 23:33

There’s an image of Jesus that’s been bothering me for some time.

It’s a pervasive image, apparently decades (or maybe even centuries) in the making: Jesus as a timid, sandal-wearing nice guy in flowing white robes…a friend to all. A Jesus who would take any and all punishment and wrongdoing without even a whimper or contrary word. In short, a walking doormat. A milquetoast.

This is an image that has been foisted on millions of believers, as a false model of how to live meekly and without complaint against any and all wrongdoing…and to also take on the responsibility of any offense found against us. An unrealistic image that, in the face of a harsh and evil world, would just be stomped on and extinguished.

And sure enough, there are only a few books out there that decry this misrepresentation. One such book is No More Christian Nice Guy by Paul Coughlin, which explains how living according to the misrepresented Jesus hurts us in our unnecessary, ungodly suffering, but also those around us. (He wrote No More Christian Nice Girl for women as well.)

Enough!

The real Jesus–the model upon whom we, His followers, are supposed to emulate–was anything but a doormat. The real Jesus was bold, humorous, and outspoken. He was sarcastic. He’d be considered rude by today’s standards…but with a righteous anger, because all of these qualities would raise their heads only when God’s truth was being obstructed or challenged.

If Jesus were among us today, He would be That Guy who everyone would see coming and brace themselves, because they knew He would righteouly stir things up. And that’s a good thing. Just some of the things He did that are usually glossed over in favor of Soft Guy Jesus:

• He calls the scribes and Pharisees “hypocrites,” “fools and blind,” “whitewashed tombs,” “serpents,” and “brood of vipers”
• When the Pharisees try to trap Him, He asks them (who are the most learned of the Law), “Have you not read…?”
• He gets angry and indignant with His disciples, who try to keep little children from coming to Him
• At the temple, he makes a whip out of cords to drive out the sheep and cattle; scattered the money changers’ coins, and overturned their tables
• At the synagogue, He looks around angrily at the Pharisees, who would rather catch Him healing a man’s shriveled hand on the Sabbath (a no-no) than to do good. He heals the man anyway.

Don’t get me wrong: Jesus was also gentle, kind, compassionate, and loving. But He had an edge, which has been severely blunted in the portrayals of Him to believers worldwide. And that’s a shame. If we are to emulate Him as His followers, should we not also be passionate, and not oddly robotic and shrinking in our walk?

It took boldness, perseverance, and strength of Christ followers to plant churches throughout centuries of persecution. Today, it takes boldness and fortitude to walk and talk God’s truth in a world that increasingly calls us ignorant, morally backward dinosaurs. It takes passion to not meekly go along with the flow of the world, which goes against God’s truth.

Shatter the false image

So, to live true as followers of Christ, we need to strike a balance of all that God gives us in our hearts to make Him known. There are times to pick battles, to stand tall, to be gentle, and to be bold. We should look always to God’s Word, and His Son in His perfect walk, as our guide for living.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. -Matthew 5:11

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. -1 Peter 4:14

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. -John 15:18-19

It’s definitely not cool or popular to be a believer in a sea of unbelievers, is it? Because of our adherence to God’s truth, we are castigated as ignorant and backward for not bending over backward to not allow for all behavior and morality as okay.

I’ve drawn fire for speaking and walking in His Word to expose longstanding wrongs—many of which I own contribution to by having silently accommodated—and it only becomes clearer to me as the opposition grows and rages that I’m headed in the right direction. Satan attacks harder as you walk straighter and talk louder in God’s name. To counteract this, the loving, truthful fire of the Holy Spirit can outburn, outshine, and outlast any other fire.

Think of the believers worldwide who face religious, legal, and physical persecution in Jesus’ name. All believers around the world should fight this fight, at whatever level of resistance is met, because God is not to be compromised.

You will face resistance. You will face hate. Just as Socrates explained in the Allegory of the Cave, it is the burden of those whose eyes have seen the truth to return to to the unseeing and unbelieving to help them come to see…and the seeing will face intense resistance and condemnation.

God is with you always, and sees when you face persecution in His name. Keep on fighting the good fight, because He will not leave your side through the battle.

He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. -Matthew 13:37-38 (NKJV)

As the morning sun’s rays bathe me in their warmth and light, God recharges me and reminds me that I am blessed with more opportunities to thrive as the wheat that He planted in His field.
Every breath we take is a gift from God to speak His name through our words, and to be His love in our deeds…living with passion and reckless abandon.

But we are surrounded by impostors who can stifle and harm us in our mission.

Good seed and bad

The verse above is from Jesus’ explanation to the apostles of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30), where a farmer sowed good grain seed in his field, followed by an enemy who came along and sowed tares (weeds) in the night. When the crop came up, the grain shot up, as did the tares. The man’s servants asked where the tares came from, and the man told them an enemy planted them. The servants offered to pull the tares, but the man cautioned against it, saying that at harvest time, his reapers would separate the wheat to store and the tares to burn.

Jesus explained that He was the farmer, true believers are the good grain seeds in the world (the field), but the tares were planted by Satan. The angels are the reapers at the end of this age, and they will, without error, separate the believers from the unbelievers. The unbelievers will burn for eternity, with much weeping and gnashing of teeth, while the believers will shine in God’s kingdom.

Which do you choose to be? That’s an easy question to answer.

The terrible thing about tares

It is generally believed that the tares in the parable are bearded darnel weeds. As defined by Easton’s Bible Dictionary:

tare: the bearded darnel, mentioned only in Matthew 13:25-30 . It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific [sleep-inducing] poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.

Until they are mature, darnel weeds are almost indistinguishable from wheat till the ears appear, so they can grow alongside them unnoticed. But to try and pull the weeds would also uproot neighboring wheat stalks.

Tares, believers in appearance only, are all around us. They are often good people, may have plenty of head knowledge of God’s Word, and even go through the motions a believer would. But, upon closer inspection, you can discern whether they bear fruit to God’s glory, or if they are merely “Christians” with quotation marks around them. Look for the fruit. Time and tribulation will reveal fruit…or its absence.

Tares are insidious because they not only give true believers a bad rap to the world, but can also hurt true believers with unbiblical thinking and influence. Beware, and always turn to God’s Word for clarification.

As true believers, it is not our job to uproot the tares, but to ensure our growth as wheat. We must walk the walk and always keep our eyes on God.

Be wheat

Every morning is a new opportunity given us to make a difference in this world—His field—in His name. Every moment, hour, day, week, month, season, year, and decade is a chance to show the world we are His love on earth. True believers are wheat. We live passionately and authentically, and it pains us when we are not doing more in God’s name, does it not?

Be wheat, my friend.

Today’s soundtrack

“Live Like That” by Sidewalk Prophets is what I strive to do each day. Enjoy.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. -Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬ (NIV)

He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. – I John‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬ (NKJV)

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. -1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬ (NIV)

When you buy a collectible item, it might come with a certificate of authenticity to prove it’s not just a fake…one that looks something like the real thing, but not true to its core.

It’s the same when it comes to authenticity in the Christian walk: there are those who are, in appearance, Christ followers…and there are those who walk the walk, who walk for and with the Lord, and not for anyone else.

I believe the enemy would love to affix quotation marks around you as he eggs you on to worldly wants, behaviors, and deeds. What better way to turn people from Christ than through Bible-thumping hypocrites?

The above “let your light shine” verse comes from the Sermon on the Mount, and its context is the latter part of Jesus’ “Salt and Light” speech:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭14-16‬ NIV)

We have an amazing responsibility and privilege to make the Lord known!

Truth: We all stumble

We all fall short of His glory…every single one of us, every day. This doesn’t mean that the Spirit of Truth doesn’t reside in us. We regularly confess and repent of our sin burdens to rejoin the Lord in a godly walk.

I think of sin as those quotation marks. We can shed them every time we confess and repent, rather than walking around with them in unrepentance.

The compromised walk

I should mention that there are also Christians who are not intentionally superficial in their walk, but compromise their walk by harboring guilt or sin…and you can imagine how that will play out.

This excerpt from a Cru devotional talks about hidden guilt and shame covered with a smile:

I did have a genuine relationship with God, but there were areas of my mind that I thought He couldn’t handle. So instead of giving them to Him, I walked around with a burden of guilt… and a masking smile.

Read the whole devotional »

Walk and climb off your sin weight

God’s light of truth keeps burning away at the parts of me I keep holding onto…my encumbrances of sin and shame. The closer I yearn to get to Him, the more I must let go of self. He wants a totally surrendered life. And little by little, trial by trial, confessed sin by confessed sin, He is working with me to keep those quotation marks far away. Let’s climb together and leave those quotation marks behind. Our certification of authenticity radiates from within.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. -Acts 1:8

It’s too easy to maintain a sterile, safe Christian life: surround ourselves with like-minded believers, and associate with non-believers as little as possible—or not at all. We keep to ourselves at work, in our social circles, and in our worship communities.

Where was Jesus during His time on this earth? He was hands on with the poor, the sick, the needy, and the helpless. He faced fire and opposition head on. He was in the thick of it, changing hearts and minds daily.

You might say, “Well, I’m not Jesus.” But as believers, God lives within us, does He not? We are called to walk His walk, to follow His lead, and to pursue Christlikeness, which is achieved over time through such a walk.

The context for the verse above is Luke the Evangelist telling how Jesus stayed with the apostles for forty days after He rose, speaking about the kingdom of God, and that they would soon be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They asked him if the kingdom would be restored to Israel right then, and this is what happened:

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. -Acts 1:7-9

While we wait, we are active in making Him known in this world, so we need to disperse and mix with the crowd.

Don’t get me wrong: it is important to have the fellowship and support of fellow agents. It definitely is, because we falter and need support. But imagine the missionary who may have to work alone in a foreign land of unbelievers…in depressing conditions where despair and confusion reign. That person is a single beacon of God’s love to pierce the darkness, and dependent entirely on Him to recharge and maintain strength.

The truth is, we are all missionaries. So, let’s burst the bubble from the inside.

We were called to go out and win the lost, not preach to the choir and keep our hands clean. We need to get down and dirty in the trenches and in the mission field. And we go out there fully equipped and flanked by the God of angel armies. We can fearlessly carry His light to the ends of the earth. Fear not, for He is with you.

In the following video, the members of Casting Crowns describe what it means to thrive. Check it out: