INTEGRITY OVER IMAGE
God, may I never be more concerned with surface appearances than with inward substance. I long for a Christlike character that will sustain me through the vicissitudes and trials of this life. May I seek integrity over image and holiness over happiness. Protect me from the sin of lost potential that would result from pursuing the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong ways. Grant me the power to be that same person when no one is looking as I am when I am among my peers. Let me be increasingly impressed with Jesus Christ and less impressed with appearance, posturing and posing. I ask that godly character will inform and empower my daily choices and relationships. Then I will seek the things that really matter and endure over the things that will fade and disappear.
THE PROMISES OF GOD
Checking Your I.D. Acts 17:27-28
"Cogito, ergo sum." Or, "I think, therefore I am." This Latin phrase is perhaps the most well-known attempt at self-identity ever uttered. Its author was the French rationalist philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650). As a rationalist, he would believe as truth only that for which he found evidence. This led him to the first principle of his Cartesian philosophy: I am conscious of my own thought which therefore proves my existence. As a next logical step, he theorized that his own existence proved the existence of the God who created him.
That was Descartes' way of identifying who he was-rational, logical, proof-based. Centuries before, another group of philosophers took a totally mystical and mythological approach to the dilemma of identity. Greek scholars in Athens held the belief that they had sprung from the very soil of their beloved Athens. Their legends were their identity: irrational, illogical, and spoof-based. When the Apostle Paul encountered these Athenians, he told them that all men are descended from a common ancestor, and that the true God has determined the times and places in which the human family exists. God did this in order that there might be a common relationship and link between all humankind and their benevolent Creator (Acts 17:24-27).
Then, in a moment of culturally-sensitive evangelism, Paul quotes one of their own revered poets, Epimenides (600 B.C.), who had declared: "For in him we live and move and have our being." Though Epimenides was referring to the Greek god Zeus, Paul cites him anyway to remind the Athenians that their own mythology credits man's identity to a god. He then warns them that the true God has set a day in which he will judge the world through Jesus Christ.
From what does your identity come? Do you know that you are God's offspring, part of the human family which he personally and lovingly created? God surrounds us with his presence; we truly have our being in him. No child of God should ever doubt his or her value, identity, or place in the world. Our life, our movement, our very being, is in him.
God's Promise to You: "Your identity is firmly grounded in my own."
THE PURSUIT OF GOD - PART 19
Walking in the Power of the Spirit
Last month's article on the parable of the married bachelor illustrates that our call is to combine our power to choose and the Spirit's power to change. Your will (power to reckon) can be connected to the Spirit's will (power to strengthen). And as you improve your skill of reckoning upon God's truth, you will begin to see the life of Christ being re-formed in your behavior. Thus you learn to walk in the Spirit. The first foot relies on the truth of the Spirit and the second foot relies on the power of the Spirit. To you Paul says, " . . . for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
Obviously this way of walking isn't developed overnight is it? It's only accomplished by making wise choices over an extended period of time. That includes your choices of avoidance: carefully monitoring the things you see or hear, staying away from environments that trigger old habits, and withdrawing from relationships that tempt you back into sin. You must constantly be on guard against the world's efforts to derail your spiritual progress. As Tozer writes,
"The world intrudes upon our attention day and night for the whole of our lifetime. It is clamorous, insistent, and self-demonstrating. It does not appeal to our faith; it is here, assaulting our five senses, demanding to be accepted as real and final. But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us. The world of sense triumphs. The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible, the temporal, of the eternal. That is the curse inherited by every member of Adam's tragic race."
And it also includes your choices of engagement: making it a point to watch and listen to that which is pleasing to the Spirit, spending time in environments that nourish your soul, and developing healthy relationships with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Each of those small choices will eventually have a cumulative effect. As Tozer says,
"As we begin to focus upon God, the things of the Spirit will take shape before our inner eyes. Obedience to the word of Christ will bring an inward revelation of the Godhead (John 14:21-23). It will give acute perception enabling us to see God even as is promised to the pure in heart. A new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all."
Tozer says that, "Every man must choose his world." At the end of the day each of you must choose which world you want to live in. You either choose to embrace and treasure those things that the world declares important, or you choose to embrace and treasure those things that the Word declares important. You cannot have it both ways. You must choose. And it is true that it takes a great deal of faith to choose the unseen over the seen, and the "not yet" over the "right now." But Tozer warns that, "We must avoid the common fault of pushing the other world into the future. It is not future but present. It parallels our familiar physical world, and the doors between the two worlds are open." As we practice the presence of Christ, we are increasingly able to turn the secular world we see into the spiritual world where the Kingdom of God actually spreads out into an invisible panorama that can be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, and touched by those who regard him to be their deepest treasure, their source of glory, and their greatest wonder. To the one who reckons it to be true, this treasure exists in the present tense; it is right in front of you, right now.
Mount Sinai and Mount Zion
Referring to Mount Sinai, the writer of Hebrews 12:18 tells us,
"You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.' So terrible was the sight, that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.'"
That is a description of the majestic manifest presence of God. The Israelites were overwhelmed. They did not want God to speak directly to them and they did not want to speak directly with God. They preferred that Moses be the intermediary. But suddenly the author of Hebrews switches from speaking about a physical mountain to speaking about a spiritual mountain.
"But you have come to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."
Tozer asks, "May we not safely conclude that, as the realities of Mount Sinai were apprehended by the senses, so are the realities of Mount Zion are to be grasped by the soul?" The primary instrument God has given us for comprehending his celestial city is obedience - simple obedience. This is the secret by which the invisible becomes more visible to us. "More and more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and his presence the glory and wonder of our lives."
Your Prayer
Go back and imagine that you are little Kristin, or Chris, or just a childlike Christian. You are standing at the edge of a major decision regarding your Heavenly Father - to jump or not to jump. Before you he waits, arms outstretched, gently inviting you to jump into his arms and the wonderful world of apprehending him. All around you swirl the dire warnings of this fallen world, pleading with you to do the sensible thing: stay on solid ground, don't jump. What will you choose? It doesn't take a lot of faith, just enough to take the first step. And when you do, it won't be long before you too turn and say to him, "Let's do it again, daddy!"
Let this prayer be your prayer of liberation.
"O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know Thou art good. Make heaven more real to me then any earthly thing has ever been. Amen."
BEING DEFINED BY GOD'S TRUTH
Living God, may I never place my security in people or performance, but only in Your character and promises. Deliver me from the plague of insecurity and anxiety that can cripple me and erode my faith in You. I want to be increasingly defined by Your truth and not by the lies of a fleeting and broken world. May I be Your person, even in times of trouble and stress, knowing that from You and through You and to You are all things. Grant that as I cast all my anxiety on You, I will experience Your peace and make choices that are honoring to You, instead of foolish decisions that spring from fear and disbelief. Thank You for the grace of forgiveness when I do things that are displeasing to You. I am grateful that there is no sin that is so great that it would prevent You from welcoming me back when I come to my senses and return to You.
