The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. -Leviticus 19:34 (NIV)

In an earlier post, I touched on the November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, where over 100 were killed, and hundreds more wounded.

Of the suspects in the attack, one had a Syrian passport, and so many in the world went into a knee-jerk, human response of condemning all Syrians as terrorists, and wanting to close borders to Syrian refugees.

And yet, just months earlier, the world felt deep sympathy and compassion for Syrian refugees when a toddler washed up on the shores of Turkey.

And some professed Christians were not immune to these ebbs and flows of public opinion, which are largely steered by curated communication from media outlets.

Especially during trying times, we believers have the opportunity, privilege, and duty to show God’s love. His love is constant and not conditional on spiritual performance or merit. And as walking ambassadors of His love here on earth, we don’t have to get caught up in the world’s inconsistent positions on who is worthy, and who should be judged.

Let us never forget that we are not of this world, and we are passing through on our way to the next. And just as God’s people are often strangers in a strange land, as are we on this earth…and we are called to love as He loves us. Our work to do in the Great Commission is to make Him known to all the corners of the earth…and how can we do that without showing His love?

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. -2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:4-5 (NIV)

Halloween is a polarizing day for Christians. You either get dressed up and take part in it, or you want to have nothing to do with it.

In this agent’s opinion, Halloween represents a day and evangelistic opportunity like any other day for Christians, because we live among unbelievers. They’re everywhere, and we’re entrenched in this world of unbelievers to show them God’s truth…and possibly lead them to accepting it, if it’s in His will.

The passages above are written to Timothy from Paul, who was in prison at the end of his life. Paul exhorted Timothy to always be ready to preach the word.

Halloween is a missed opportunity if we avoid the very culture in which we’re engrained. We can still intermingle with Halloween celebrants, and even dress up for fun, without obviously compromising Christian ideals. We don’t have to worship idols or take part in any ceremonies that fly in the face of our respect for the Lord.

This is a topic I’m encountering with my child, whom I will let dress up for fun…but not limit it to one particular day a year. They can dress up any time they want, which is one of the great benefits of being a kid! For the other kids who come dressed up to our door, who will likely be of many different faiths, we can distribute bible verses or other Christian messages tied to each piece of candy.

Every day, we walk and talk with nonbelievers. Halloween is no different. Every day we work alongside them, eat alongside them, and socialize with them. Halloween is just another day for us to let them know God’s truth surpasses anything else of this world.

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. -‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:13‬ ‭(NKJV)

Ever felt insignificant or unneeded? Maybe it happened on the job, or in a personal situation.

I know I have. It’s easy to feel irrelevant, especially if you feel like you’ve been upstaged by others who clearly can handle the job as well as–or better–than you.

But I tell you, friend, you are quite the opposite of insignificant, unneeded, and irrelevant.

You are chosen by God, set apart with the special honor of making Him known. You are so loved that God gave His Son’s own blood and life to give you eternal life. You are instrumental and essential to God’s plans here on earth!

Essential

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He refers to us as salt. Salt was essential to many things back then, and still is today.

Salt was, and is, excellent as a preservative. As believers, we can help preserve what purity is left in this world.

Nutritionally, salt was and is an essential electrolyte and mineral to the human body, helping maintain the water and electrolyte balance in our bodies, as well as with muscle and nerve function. Likewise, believers are essential in the tug ‘o war of spiritual warfare every day.

In the ancient world, depending on which historians you read, salt was a form of pay, or an essential that could be purchased with one’s pay. The word salary originates from salarium and the root sal. As believers, we add flavor and life to the world around us through how we live for Christ.

Get salty!

When Jesus spoke of salt losing its flavor, He meant in a spiritual sense, not a literal sense. (The ionic compound of salt, sodium chloride, is so stable that it actually can’t lose its flavor!)

As essential as we are here on earth as instruments of God’s will and plans, we are on a global stage to win the lost for Him…to live vibrant, inspiring, lives to be savored!

We are not here on earth to live bland, lukewarm lives. We are like the essential seasoning to punch up an otherwise boring and flavorless world.

Season every moment, day, month, and year with richness of spirit that you can only muster with God’s help. Ask Him every day to energize and invigorate you, especially when you can’t, so all will see through you to Him!

Today’s soundtrack

TobyMac’s “This Is Not A Test” reminds us that our lives are not practice, or a test or a drill–this is it! Let’s show God all we’ve got to His glory!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. -1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV)

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. -1 Thessalonians 3:12 (NIV)

In the secular world, there is the ongoing pursuit of the perpetual motion machine: a machine that is self-sustaining, never running out or requiring additional energy to stay in motion. The second law of thermodynamics would argue that this is not possible, and such a machine is but an impossible dream.

They’re wrong.

There is one infinite and sustainable force that will never fail or run out, nor will it ever need re-energizing: God’s love.

The secular world

As a far more experienced agent explained to me, much of the pain of the secular world comes from not accessing God’s perpetual motion machine.

People are like vessels, partially filled, but cracked and leaking. But since there is no access to God’s love, they look to others for fulfillment, and vice-versa. And, inevitably, the other person will come up short and disappoint them. People are human and flawed, after all.

The believing world

With God’s infinite love, however, believers are like the cracked vessels nonbelievers are, but can allow for God’s love to fill them, flow through them, and overflow beyond them. This overflow is what allows believers to love others with God’s love and energy…to motivate them supernaturally when they have no motivation of their own. This is how believers can successfully be God’s hands and feet on earth in relationships, missions, work, family, and so on.

That being said, I will be the first to say it’s very easy as a believer to let my flesh narrow or close the opening at the top of my vessel through which God’s love may flow. I have to step back away from myself to open and widen it. And that’s the double-edged sword of free will: God gave us a power that can even limit His love to flow through and out of us.

Be overflowing conduits of His love

God’s love is everlasting. It’s endless. It’s forever sustainable. We only need to get over ourselves limiting the flow of His endless love in us. Instead, let us be conduits of His infinite love and power, and win more of the lost through the showing them the only true perpetual motion machine right before their eyes.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’” -Matthew‬ ‭10:34-36‬ ‭‬‬(NKJV)

Make no mistake. We are not here to smooth things over. We are not here to be mice, but to roar like lions. We are here to make waves.

As I will discuss further in a future post, I am in the tiny minority of Christ followers in my family. Most of my friends are nonbelievers as well. And I will tell you here how it goes as I share the Good News with them. I have plenty of people around me to test and refine how to communicate the gospel to unbelieving eyes and ears. I do expect waves.

I used to be a sleepwalker, like the billions around us, who didn’t know that anything was really amiss. The world is what the world is, and reality is what I can touch and sense, right?

That all changed when we accepted Jesus and something like scales fell from our eyes. We saw the world to be the terrible, fallen place it really was and is. We also knew that, as agents, our mission was to light up every corner of this dark world.

We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. -2 Corinthians 5:7 (NCV)

In the day to day, we can easily forget that. And the ruler of this world, Satan, relishes it when we get caught up in the minutiae instead of keeping our minds on higher things. This message is a reminder to snap out of it! and crack open your bible again. God’s Word has the sobering power to focus you once more. Get your bearings again and blast away the fog and the haze.

We are disruptors following the greatest disruptor of all…agents of change…agents of His light…meant to drive deep in the darkest recesses of this world. We carry His Word in our hearts and wield it as the Sword of the Spirit. We are children of the One True King.

Don’t ever forget who you are, and don’t let the world mistake you for one of them, either!

Today’s soundtrack

Casting Crown’s “Till the Whole World Hears” is a great anthem for believers who charge out into the world every single day.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. -Ephesians 1:11-12 (NKJV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. -Romans 12:1 (NIV)

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. -Psalm 73:26 (NIV)

Today is this agent’s 42nd birthday, which naturally reminds me of the same number made famous regarding the meaning of life in Douglas Adams’ hilarious book, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (I highly recommend it, if you’d like some seriously absurd laughs.)

A computer tells us the meaning of life

In that book, mankind builds a machine that was built for one purpose alone: To finally figure out the answer to the ages-old question of the meaning of life. Generations of men pass, and one day, the computer awakens with an answer. All humankind waits with bated breath: What is it? What could it be? We’ve waited eons, and now we can finally be enlightened!

The computer tells them the meaning of life is…42.

All that waiting…all that time and effort spent to build the machine…for an answer as confounding as the baffling question which birthed it. (I told you the book was absurd!)

How this all ties together

Of course, the meaning of life is something contemplated a little more each passing year by increasingly reluctant birthday celebrants. But I only mention my birthday here because it marks an interesting intersection of my old walk and my new walk.

In the unbelieving world, the number 42 is a fun inside joke amongst readers of Hitchhiker’s Guide (or watchers of the funny, but not-as-funny-as-the-book movie rendition). You can buy all kinds of shirts and other paraphernalia relevant to this joke.

But this birthday also marks two years since my being saved at age 40 (a biblically significant number), forever opening my eyes to layers of reality I couldn’t see before. And, even as a baby believer, I know that Jesus rocked my world view so radically that I knew the question of the meaning of life was already answered.

Why? It’s only a question if the focus of the questioner’s life is not God. (There is such a thing as Christian existentialism, but I’ll go into that another time.) Douglas Adams was a staunch atheist. And if you don’t believe in God, it’s understandable why you would spend a lifetime contemplating and searching for the meaning of your life.

In a way, asking a Christian the meaning of life is a trick question. The answer is patently clear.

The meaning of life is…(cue drum roll)

As I mentioned in another post, my experience of being saved was as jarring as being unplugged from the Matrix. The wool was pulled off my eyes. I was out of the allegorical cave.

And with each passing day, God has only sharpened my focus on, and understanding of, what is real, what matters, and why things happen. All of these things make it clear about the meaning of the Christian life. But because we only see the backside of the tapestry, life can be frustrating. But just as the poem goes, “Doubt sees the obstacles; faith sees the journey.”

The meaning of believers’ lives is the chosen blessing of actively fulfilling God’s plans for this world. We do this through making our lives surrendered, sweet-smelling sacrifices to His glory. All things we think, say, and do, should be clearly to His glory and credit…including how we are dependent on Him to pick us back up when we fail Him daily.

The meaning of life, for us, is to praise God in our ever more Christlike walk. A birthday is the anniversary of when He brought us into this world, and a reminder that we strive ever more to serve Him as we leave vestiges of ourselves behind us on our path.

The meaning of our lives is to be walking songs of praise to God, our loving Father and creator, in our all-consuming passion to make Him known (Isaiah 26:8). Thank you, Father, for the blessing of another anniversary of service to You!

Today’s soundtrack

Chris Tomlin’s “Made to Worship” says exactly why we’re here: Purposefully made to sing His praises through our lifetimes.

The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. -2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV)

I can testify that until I was saved, the world and all its lies were undoubtably real and true. My senses did not lie to me, nor did my sense of morality. I would’ve considered myself quite perceptive and aware of how the world worked.

Oh, how God turned that all upside down when he pulled the wool off my eyes and showed me what it really meant to see beyond my eyes and mind!

Back in high school, I was fortunate enough to take a class in philosophy. (And when you’re not saved, what a head trip that is!) And in that class, I read about the famous Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s The Republic.

Seeing is believing…

In this allegory, imagine adults who have been imprisoned in a cave since childhood. They are chained in such a way that they are all facing the cave wall in front of them, and their bodies and heads are fixed so they cannot look around, or at each other.

At some distance behind these prisoners is a fire, or light source. In between the fire and the prisoners is a short wall with a walkway next to it, and free men—who stay out of sight under the wall—carry objects along the top of the wall. These objects cast shadows onto the cave wall in front of the prisoners. The free men also talk, and their voices echo off the same cave wall into the ears of the prisoners.

These prisoners, who have known nothing else but what is before them, are living in what they believe is reality. It completely real to them. Their eyes see shapes and their ears hear sounds.

…until a taste of truth is had…

But suppose one prisoner is unshackled and is made to turn and look at the fire. His eyes would hurt from such intense light, and he could not clearly see the objects that were casting the shadows. If he were told that what he was looking at his whole life was not real, but these painful things he’s squinting at now are, he would run back in disbelief to the comfortable view he’s known.

…and especially when the ultimate truth is shown.

Now, suppose that same prisoner is forcibly dragged out of the cave. The searing sunlight would cause him to feel anger and pain, only getting worse as it blinds him.

But, eventually, his eyes start to adjust. He first sees shadows, then reflections of people and things in the water, and then the actual people and things they were reflections of. Eventually, he can see the moon and the stars and night, and the sun. Once he is able to look straight into the sun, he can start to understand what it is and reason about it.

This former prisoner would correctly conclude that what he saw was true and real, not what he’d been experiencing previously in the cave. So he wants to free the others in the cave!

But as he reenters the dark cave, he is blind again, but because his eyes are now conditioned from living in the light. The prisoners in the cave conclude that the newly free man’s exit from their world of the cave is what caused his blindness…and if they were able, they would kill anyone attempting to drag them out of the cave.

As it is with our world.

As believers, we have returned to the cave along with billions of people whose minds and hearts are fooled by the enemy into believing, beyond the shadow of a doubt (pun intended), that what they perceive is irrefutable. The enemy makes unwitting pawns of them to perpetuate these lies through marketing, cultural trends, and so on.

The few of us who have been freed of the shackles, sackcloths taken off our heads, see beyond the echoes and shadows. We see the world as it is. And sometimes it seems like, try as we may, we are only met with hostility and resentment from a world convinced that we are the ones who need to snap back to reality.

But Jesus was clear in proclaiming the Great Commission:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV)

We continue to fight the good fight. I personally believe we act as embedded operatives and prudently await windows of opportunity when God says, “Now!” to speak His truth to hearing ears and seeing eyes. This is why it’s crucial that in thought, word, and deed, that we do our best to His glory as His ambassadors.

His light we carry is like the light in the cave. It is just a taste of His ultimate light, which, once experienced, no one would ever want to leave…and would want the blind and deceived to see.

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:

Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. -2 Corinthians 2:15 (NLT)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. -2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Our very lives, in each step and word and thought and deed, are our fragrant offerings to the Lord. Do we wish to make it pleasant, or make it stink?

Our lives are also fragrant here to others around us. When you think of it that way, it might help you remember or be more aware of the effect you have on others…even strangers.

One agent is well-known for making sure to give anyone she would meet a smile and hello, for it could be the only nice thing they would encounter that day. And that single kindness could be the blessing to keep them from going to darker places. In that kindness, God works through us.

The opposite of this is when we let our flesh take over and we lose our tempers in a nonproductive manner, or other unkindnesses. The world gets a very different scent from us…one that will definitely repel any who might’ve looked to us as a possible example of a Christian.

But it’s not too late! Part of the Christian walk is humility and recovery from a fall with God’s help. When others see you stink it up and stumble, be sure to give God the glory as you take His outstretched hand and get back on His path. Extend the grace and humility that your flesh would rather not give.

And for some people, even the pleasant fragrance of a Christian who is walking God’s path is repulsive. Pray for them. We are charged to bring as many to Christ as we can, and nothing is importable to him who believes!

This Our Daily Bread devotional video shows us how it’s often the little things we do that make a big difference in others’ lives…and make Him known:

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 walk in a strange world. We walk among billions of sleepwalkers all around us, who do not know they’re sleepwalking. I know, because I was one of them.

And if you were to ask them who was the one living in an illusion, they would gladly tell you that it’s clearly you who was being fooled. After all, this world has plenty of proof (on its own terms) that nothing is real except what man’s scientific framework says is real.

Remember the 1998 movie “The Matrix”? If you were any of the people in that world, who had no idea their lives were a ruse, and told them you knew the truth of their world…they would think you’re insane, or gullible at best.

And, like in the Matrix, you can’t and won’t believe it till your eyes are opened. And once they are, you want to wake others up as well.

The verses above come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where he tells us we are the salt and light of the earth. When we carry His light to the corners of the earth, as Jesus has commissioned us to do, that light can awaken our sleepwalking brethren.

Don’t be frustrated if those around you haven’t already awoken. God wakes us when the time is right. As part of a much larger plan I may not understand till I’ve passed through this world, He waited till I was 40 to open my eyes.

And now, I encourage you to look around you at all these sleepwalkers. To renew your commitment to Jesus and pick up His light again, especially if you’ve let it be dampened and hidden by taking your eyes off Him.

Remember, we are a town built upon a hill. Let’s be walking beacons to the lost and sleeping, and lighthouses to those in perilous waters. What an honor it is to be His torchbearers!