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Jan 17, 2013    |      Comments Off on HYDRATE — Winning from the inside. (xtra post) Psalm 119:109 “Spiritual Tightrope”

HYDRATE — Winning from the inside. (xtra post) Psalm 119:109 “Spiritual Tightrope”

When was the last time you thought about TIGHTROPE performances.

My life constantly hangs in the balance,
but I will not stop obeying your instructions. Psalm 119:109

I’m breaking the rules of my Hydrate Series where I said each blog post is about a Teaching or Command of Jesus from the New Testament. This segment is from the Old Testament. I will not number this teaching, but feel lead to include it in the series. I hope it challenges you like it does me.

I have seen a few tightrope performances. Some at circus events I’ve attended, and a couple via television as I watched someone cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Personally, I’ve never seen a person fall from the times I’ve watched any tightrope performances. So, after I decided to use the word tightrope today, curiosity lead me to research the subject. I came across a family of tightrope performers nicknamed “The Flying Wallendas.” (Very popular in the 1940’s) They are known for not using a safety net in their performances. They have fallen multiple times and some have died or been paralyzed, but they still refuse to use a safety net. They have a family slogan; “If we fall, we die.” The leader and founder of the tightrope performance, Karl Wallenda fell to his death at the age of 73 from a 10 story tightrope performance in Puerto Rico in 1978. The winds were blowing 30mph that day. The family still chooses to perform without a safety net. Its incredible.

Isn’t it interesting that of all the tightrope performances that exist, I chose to use this family as our example. I chose to talk about them. Why? Because they do it differently. Their performances take your breath away. If they fall, they die. Crazy? Yes. But when was the last time you ever talked about a tightrope performance? If not for their risk, they would be just an average, invisible, non-interesting and forgettable performing group. But because they have the element of life or death…here we are still talking about them!

THE TIGHTROPE.

You walk it everyday. Its a “fine-line” between holy living like Jesus and giving in to the desires of your flesh and thus living like the rest of the world.

THE TIGHTROPE.

You walk it everyday. Its a fine line between inviting someone to Church and giving them a chance to meet some incredible people and Jesus Christ, or just walking on by and ignoring the opportunity to possibly change their eternal destination.

Maybe it would be a good slogan for our personal lives as spiritual beings/Christians. “If we fall, people die.” You don’t die, if you fall into temptation. You must repent and ask for forgiveness, and Jesus says He will forgive you. But, that is because you have the Holy Spirit living in you, because you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. SO WHO DIES IF WE FALL?

Other people.

If we fall from the tightrope walk of Loving people who are far from God, therefore not inviting them to be a part of Church…the bride of Jesus…well…these people can’t be forgiven…they don’t have the Holy Spirit living in them. How terrifying to be unforgiven…eternally. How terrifying for us to fall from our tightrope and the consequences of not inviting, or losing our credibility with other other people, influences their eternal death. The Apostle Paul loved people who were far from Jesus so much that he said he would be willing to spend eternity away from Jesus if all others would believe in Jesus as Lord. (See Romans 9:3) Talk about walking a tightrope! Jesus gave up His very life so that others may live in Him. Talk about walking the Tightrope!

You are walking a serious tightrope and Heaven and Hell are in the balance…FOR OTHER PEOPLE! The consequences are life or death…ETERNALLY.

There is no safety net. The stakes are way higher than being paralyzed or death of the physical body. This is spiritual eternity we are dealing with….for others!

Invite.
Worst they can do, is say no.
But then you just invite again, later.
And again.

Spend time with unchurched people. They need you. Please do not let ALL your time be spent with circles of other Christians. I created a new “ROUTINE 2013 booklet, where there are 13 challenges. One of the challenges is to try 13 things you’ve never tried before. If you sign up to learn something new…I challenge you to learn it from a group of non-christians. You’ll develop some friends and it will give you a chance to walk the tightrope of impacting their lives eternally. Please don’t just sit in Christian circles the rest of your life. Please don’t create a bunch of programs at your church where just your Church members get together all the time. Its not wrong to do that, but what does it do? It will cost others their eternal lives.

Walk the Tightrope. There is no safety net. Get in the circles of non-Christians.
Its walking a tightrope!
If we fall, people die.

Love you all.
My family and I are walking the tightrope with you.

Trent

Jan 16, 2013    |      Comments Off on Hydrate — Winning from the inside 34 (Matthew 7:3-5) Judging Part 2

Hydrate — Winning from the inside 34 (Matthew 7:3-5) Judging Part 2

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:3-5:

In my previous post, Hydrate 33, I wrote about how God has commanded us as the church to judge one another. If that sounds surprising to you, then I encourage you to read that entire post #33. Its long, but hopefully very educational for you, thus worth it.

This post is simply a part two of the last one. Please notice in this passage from Jesus that He does not tell us that we should not judge. He simply says that if we are going to judge others, then we must make sure we aren’t being hypocritical.

The Bible tells us, as Christians that we are to be the Light of the world and the Salt of the earth. That means we are to be purifiers. In order to purify we must first be pure. In order to be light we must first rid ourselves of darkness.

That is all Jesus is saying.
Are you in the habit of telling others where their faults are, but you are totally lacking self-awareness of your own faults?
If this is the case for you, you will be fruitless when it comes to influencing other people for the cause of Jesus Christ.

I am listing some Biblically mentioned sins below. Use the list to do a sin check in your life. If you are actively continuing in any of the sins below then please keep your mouth shut to others about how they should live their lives. You’ll only cause more damage to the Cause of Christ than good. First conquer the sins in your life, and then be a purifier for Jesus. Here’s the list.

1 Corinthians 5:11,  “I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer* yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-20, “9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”* 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

If you would like to see what other sins the Bible lists, then the list below is the listing of every Bible verse in the New Testament that lists specific sins that we are to conquer as Christians. (When you see the letters “ff” in the passage reference it simply means, “and following verses.”

2 Corinthians 12:20-21
Romans 1:29ff, 13:9-13
Galatians 5:16-25
1 Peter 4:3
James 3:14
Ephesians 5:3ff
Colossians 3:5ff
2 Peter 2:3-14ff

The BIble is not for the faint of heart! God desires a high standard of living and He asks us as Christians to hold each other accountable and judge one-another in love about how we live our lives. (He never asks us to judge people who are not Christians.)

Make sure you are holy, before you call other people “unholiness” out. And when you are living righteous and you begin to challenge others, please do it with love.

I’ll close this post with 1 Peter 3:15-16, “15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.* Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!”

When it comes to helping others conquer their sin, as you conquer your own, use gentleness and respect.
Christianity has lost its sense of judgment. It is killing the Church.
Learn to judge the way Jesus teaches us to.
Its a tough thing to do.
It won’t make your popular, but it will make you like Jesus.

Apr 3, 2012    |       2 comments

HYDRATE — WINNING FROM THE INSIDE 26 (Mt. 6:9-13) “Lord’s Prayer”

“This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Matthew 6:9-13

Do you think Jesus was direct and to the point? I do. In Hydrate 25, Jesus told us to not babble when we pray. Throughout the gospels in the Bible, it is clear that Jesus was direct. There are only a few occasions where Jesus spoke for a long time. Matthew 5 is the longest and we call that passage the sermon on the mount. I wrote a devotional book called Retweeting Jesus where I wrote about 14 phrases that were tweetable. My point is that Jesus was a man of focus. He still is today. I think you would agree with me that we as a people living in this world are losing focus. We need to be refocused. Jesus is the best candidate we should look to when it comes to focus. Today, during this study, I hope that you will use the Lord’s Prayer to help you focus. In fact, I am asking you to find a quiet place and spend 15 minutes or more to pray. I hope you will use this material to help you focus during your time of prayer. To help you focus, I ask that you remove your shoes, and, like I recommended in Hydrate 25, get an empty chair and set it in front of you and imagine God sitting in it as you pray through the Lord’s Prayer to Him sitting in the chair.

Jesus teaches us to pray. He tells us how to get started, what to say in the middle and how to end. This is the Lord of Lord’s and King of Kings giving us an example of how to pray. There is no better teacher! So today, pray like Jesus asked you to.

Let’s get started.

Jesus says when you pray…pray like this.

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

In your prayer to the Father, simply acknowledge God. When you call me on the phone, or send me an email, you acknowledge my name which tells me that you are directing your message or communication to me. “Hey Trent…how are you.”

Do this for God.
Address God and then spend a few minutes thinking about all the “Hallowed” things of God. Spend the next few minutes simply thinking out loud all the titles, and wonderful traits about God. Give God praise. Do this to the empty chair where God now has taken a seat. It might feels weird, but stretch yourself. I believe God will take a seat in that chair and enjoy your company. When I do this, I always wish He would reveal Himself to me physically. I’ll bet it would rock my world!

When you are satisfied with the number of compliments you have given our Lord, then move on as Jesus says to.

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Spend a few moments in silence thinking about Jesus coming back today. (Your kingdom come.) Let Him know you are excited to meet Him face to face. Then, spend a few moments speaking out loud to God about what you could do for the people you are going to encounter today and tomorrow and what you could do to bring a piece of Heaven on earth for them. How can you serve them, react to them, forgive them? How can you show the people around you that God’s Kingdom and His people are alive and well today and making Heaven come to earth? When finished, move on.

“Give us today, our daily bread.”
Speak your mind with God about what you need today. Now be careful with this one. God knows what you “need.” A good measuring tool to help you determine between what you need and what you want is to imagine a homeless person sitting in your presence as you ask God to give you what you need. Remember this…God is not your genie in a bottle granting you all your hearts wishes and desires. God wants you to communicate with Him. Bring to Him your needs. Try to focus less on physical needs and more on mental, emotional and social needs. See how that changes the way you pray. Then keep moving.

“Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.”
Be specific with God in this one. Confess every sin, out loud, to God, that you can think of. I love 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is confession time. Vomit them out to God. He knows what your sins are anyway. He already sent His only Son to die to pay the price for your sins, He just wants you to be done with those sins, get them off your chest and confess them. It will help you conquer them, if you confess them. Remember God’s not angry at you about those sins, He wants you to be free from the guilt and pain of those sins. Confession is the start of that becoming a reality in your life. Notice that Jesus assumes that you have already forgiven your debtors. This is expected. You must forgive the people who have hurt you, or God will not forgive you of your sins. In fact the Bible says that God won’t even hear our prayers if we hold unforgiveness in our hearts towards others. Maybe God is whispering in your ear that you need to write a letter, send an email, make a phone call, send a text and forgive the people you haven’t forgiven yet. Forgiveness is for you. Don’t worry about your offender not facing any consequences. Its not your job to make your offender face consequences, its God’s job. Make sure you forgive, which shows you trust God enough to take care of the revenge and consequences. If you are struggling with forgiveness and need a tool to help you learn about what true forgiveness is and how to grant it then I want to recommend that you go to www.vcli.org and purchase the workbooks called SALT and work through them. The material is dynamic and will help you become mature in Christ. Please make sure you are forgiving of others. Forgiveness is for you to be free. Forgiveness is for you. When you recognize this fact, you will be a person that lives in total freedom and forgiving others will become a common and wonderful practice in your life. Jesus was the best at this. Makes sure you are following His example.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

You need protection. Temptation is waiting for you around every corner. You know what your weak points are. Take them to God right now and speak your weaknesses out loud to the Father. He knows your temptations anyway. To speak them out loud helps you to be more aware and humble. Ask God to strengthen you. Converse with God about what you are going to do if that same temptation pops up again and again today. Verbally plan out what you are going to do, if you are faced with that temptation again. Then when the temptation does sneak up on you, you will be ready to conquer it. In your prayer time, ask God to help you resist the devil and protect you from His destructive and enticing ways.

Close with,
“In Jesus name, Amen.”

Think of how much more prepared and focused you would be if you started everyday off that way.
Pretty powerful. Right?

Mar 24, 2012    |       6 comments

HYDRATE — WINNING FROM THE INSIDE 25 (Mt. 6:5-8) “Prayer Motives”


5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Matthew 6:5-8 (NLT)

DRINK IT IN:
There is no doubt that Jesus brings about a stronger judgement and accountability upon Spiritual leaders. When Jesus was teaching this subject material, the religious leaders must have been present. He called them Hypocrites. The previous post, Hydrate 24, talks about the same motive. This motive of doing anything for recognition. What motivates you to pray? What motivates you to give? Do you pray differently when you are in a private setting than you do when you pray publicly? Why? Jesus may hold spiritual leaders to a higher accountability, but he holds everybody accountable.

As I write this in 2012, I have now been in ministry for the past 20 of my 41 years of life. From my perspective, I have noticed changes amongst pastors over these past two decades. Good changes. I remember when I was in my mid twenties and attending my first pastors conference and we had a breakout prayer session where we gathered into groups of about six to eight for some time of prayer. We were instructed to go around the table and everybody take turns praying. I remember being so uncomfortable as each pastor seemed to want to out-pray the previous pastor. As each pastor prayed, to be followed by another pastor taking his turn, the words became more eloquent and more complicated and more “spiritual” sounding. This prayer time seemed to start a competition of who could outwit, outsmart and outplay their prayer predecessor. It was Prayer Survivor, except there was no prize for the champion. It saddened me. It made me question whether or not I wanted to remain for the rest of the retreat. I did remain, and the rest of the retreat went pretty well. I share this story, because I have attended many more of these retreats in the following years and I have seen more authenticity and less competition when it comes to our corporate prayer time at these retreats. Times are changing. I can only speak for myself, but it seems to me that Christians and Christian Pastors are beginning to be more and more real and vulnerable publicly when it comes to communication and prayer and leadership, and I believe it is a very good thing for the cause of the Kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth. I am convinced that the greatest success for the church is yet to come, and will only come if the churches leaders can be vulnerable and transparent and their greatest motivator be to honor Jesus.

I think that this is what Jesus is saying when it comes to this teaching on prayer. It seems, from this teaching, that Jesus is opposed to praying out loud in public. But, It is obvious from other sections of Scripture that Jesus is okay with group prayers and people praying out loud in a public setting. How do I know this, because Jesus prayed publicly, and sometimes the prayer was said extra loud so that the people around Him could hear what He was praying. The Apostles prayed publicly in the book of Acts. Jesus is not so focused on where we pray, but why we pray.

I think Jesus, for clarification, would add something like this, “if you pray because you like the attention it gets you in public, then you’d be better to not pray than do it for wrong motives.” He might also say something like this, “if the temptation is too great for you to get attention in your prayer time publicly, then retreat to your private closet and pray to the Father secretly, then you will be blessed and God will be honored.” I hope you agree with me in thinking that Jesus would say these things.

Motive matters to Jesus. Motive is an outflow of the condition of our heart. If you are whole in Jesus Christ, if you define who you are based off what Jesus believes about you, and by what Jesus did for you, then you will have no reason to seek approval or grab attention when in public. Motives matter. Motives become very evident when we pray.

Before Jesus actually gives a perfect example of how to pray, He injects one more point into His teaching. In verse seven, He says, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.”

I grew up in the Catholic religion. I am thankful for some of my Catholic roots. As I am now in the Restoration Movement of the faith of Christianity, I am a better Christian because of my old Catholic roots. When I was younger and in the Catholic religion, I had never read the Bible for myself, and I remember wondering, when I was taught to pray the Hail Mary prayer, why we repeated the same phrases over and over. (I don’t have time in this section to cover what I was thinking about being taught to pray to Mary.) Today, I just refer to the redundancy of prayer. This redundancy is a part of why I quit being committed to Catholicism. I knew God was all powerful and I knew that God knew my very thoughts before I even thought them. I was so confused as to why we had to repeat the same lines, while praying, over and over. As a young kid I remember wondering if my Catholic teachers thought God was hard of hearing and so the more we repeated the prayer, the more likely God would be able to decipher what I was praying. Before, I lose all my Catholic friends, I want to acknowledge that I have been personally guilty of using the same phrases habitually in my private and public prayers. I have seen this repetition and false conversation with God happen in all different faiths, denominations and churches. This is a people problem, not a specific religion’s problem.

Instead of being taught the Hail Mary prayer when I was Catholic, I wish I had been taught this teaching of Jesus. The religious recitation of prayer goes against what the Lord of Lords commands. I think the repetition of prayers insults God. Let me put this in a practical setting. Imagine if I called up my earthly dad on the phone and in my talking with him, I would say to him, “Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. I was hoping you were were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. You are a great dad. You are a great dad. You are a great dad.” Good bye.

But I don’t stop there.

Next week, I get him on the phone again and I say to him, “Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. I was hoping you were were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. You are a great dad. You are a great dad. You are a great dad.” Good bye.

But, hold on, to make sure my dad got my point, I call him the very next day and I say to him.”Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. Hello dad, I hope you are doing well. I was hoping you were were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. I was hoping you were coming for a visit this next week. You are a great dad. You are a great dad. You are a great dad.” Good bye.

Now imagine I repeat this over and over for the rest of my life. I would not be surprised, for one minute, if my dad never came to visit me. I would think he would be completely irritated with me. If this is how I pray to God, then I’m just not a very good conversationalist. Do I make my point? Please don’t be insulted in what I am writing here, see the error, if you are doing such a thing, and turn your prayers into personal conversations with our relational Father in Heaven.

Now, what about this last sentence that Jesus teaches. In verse 8 Jesus says, ” Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

I have often wondered why God, if He knows exactly what I need before I even ask Him, or as another Bible passage says, knows my thoughts before I think them, then why do I even have to pray at all? And then I had kids. The more my four children age, and I grow in my experience and relationship with them as their father, the more I recognize my Father/Child relationship with my Heavenly Father. I know my four kids very well. Many times my wife and I laugh as we know what our kids are going to say before they even say it. For instance, when we are in the grocery store with our kids, and we arrive at the checkout station to see the lineup of tempting candy and magazines, at the conveyor belt area, we know exactly what our kids are going to ask of us. When I pick up my children from School and then venture home, I know exactly what they are going say as we drive by the local Sonic Restaurant. When one of my kids is on their cell phone with a friend and its a Friday night, I know exactly what that child is going to ask when He gets off the phone. You get the point?

I still want my kids to ask me. I know what my kids need. I know what is good and bad for my kids. I want to bless my children and give them the desires of their heart, and I want them to talk to me about it all. I am a relational dad. I know what my kids dreams are, but I want them to talk to me about these dreams. When I watch my kids compete in their sports games, I watched as they scored and I watched as they made mistakes in the game. I know they are excited about their win or upset about the loss, but I want them to talk to me about it all. I want to hear it from their view point. I want them to sit with me and tell me about it all. I cherish that when it happens. Have you ever been in your car privately with one of your children when they naturally open up and talk to you, and ask you questions, and actually listen to your answers? Its magical. Its healing. Its thrilling. Its relational. As a father I want that from my children. God made us to be like Him. He desires these things as well.

Even when I know what my kids are going to talk to me about. I still want them to talk to me.
I love conversation with the people I love.
Conversation and prayer are the same thing.

Now, go into a private place and converse with your Heavenly Father.
He is anxious to hear what you have to say, even though He already knows what you are going to say.
Tell Him what’s on your heart and mind. Tell Him your hopes and dreams. Tell Him what you are afraid of. Ask Him for things that you desire.
He will enjoy your time and your words immensely.

SWEAT IT OUT:
The next time you pray, do so with an ear to hear what you are actually praying. Do you repeat the same phrases every time you pray? If you do, catch yourself and make a change in your words. Please don’t let your prayer time be just habit and discipline. Can you imagine your child coming up to you on a daily basis and saying, “Hey, my calendar just told me Its time for me to talk with you…I have to talk with you now.” That would be the same as a husband bringing to his wife a dozen red roses on their anniversary day and handing the roses to his wife while saying, “today is our anniversary, I am obligated to get you these roses.” Roses have thorns, they would hurt as they would be thrown in your face for making such a comment, and performing such a dutiful deed. Get it?

If you struggle with being relational in your prayer time with God, then I want to challenge you to try some things outside of your comfort zone. Next time you pray, go to a private place where you will not be interrupted and bring with you an extra chair. Set this chair up and invite God to sit in it, and as you pray imagine Him physically sitting in the chair listening to you. If you have a hard time staying focused in your prayer time, remove your shoes as you pray, and it will help you stay focused as you recognize that your time with God in that moment makes the place a holy place, as you spend time with the creator of the sun, moon and stars.

If you are stuck in a repetitive cycle of praying the same way, the same time, the same words, each day, then practice praying while you are driving by yourself. As you drive, just talk to God as if He were sitting in the seat next to you. People who pull up next to you at the stop light will think you are weird, but who cares! Go for it anyway. If it happens to be somebody you know, and they ask you about it later, don’t lie by telling them you were conversing with someone via speaker phone, tell them straight up, you were praying! This driving practice will help you break ritual habits and make your conversation with God more real-time and relational.

If you have a hard time knowing if you are just repeating phrases or praying in a weird way of any kind, then use the recording device on your cell phone, and when you are praying just record it all, and listen to it later. As you listen to the playback, you will hear things and notice things that will help you be more relational in your prayer time with your heavenly Father.

We all practice things we want to be good at. Practice your praying. You know you want to be good at praying. Practice it.

God wants you to spend time with Him. He is waiting. God never moves far from you. There isn’t anything that will ever make God stop loving you. Knowing that, spend time telling Him how much your appreciate Him. Talk to Him.
Be self aware of your motives.
Pray.

Mar 22, 2012    |      1 comment

HYDRATE — WINNING FROM THE INSIDE 24 (Mt. 6:1-4) “Secret Service”

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-4(NIV)

After being away on business, Tim thought it would be nice to bring his wife a little gift.
“How about some perfume?” he asked the cosmetics clerk.
She showed him a bottle costing $50.00.
“That’s a bit much,” said Tim, so she returned with a smaller bottle for $30.00.
“That’s still quite a bit,” Tim complained.
Growing annoyed, the clerk brought out a tiny $15.00 bottle.
“What I mean,” said Tim, “is I’d like to see something really cheap.”
The clerk handed him a mirror.

The story above is supposed to be a joke. Albeit, its probably got a lot of truth in it. What motivates you to give? When you give, how do you do it? Would you be seen as somebody who is a great giver? Average giver? Cheap giver? When you give, do others role their eyes as you give it, or do people whisper about the gift, wondering where it came from?

DRINK IT IN:
In this teaching of Jesus, it seems His focus is on motive. The first sentence of this teaching has a critical word structure to it that should give us a hint towards what Jesus is trying to say. Jesus says, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, TO be seen by them.

Jesus is not concerned about us doing acts of righteousness in front of people. How do I know this? Because He says so in another passage of Scripture. In Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Motive matters to Jesus. He makes it very clear. If we do any acts of kindness for the purpose of being thanked, or to get attention of any kind, then that is the only reward we are going to get. I sense a hint of sarcasm in Jesus when he refers to the “hypocrites” around the synagogue and on the streets. I think He is referring to the Pharisees and religious leaders. These men had created a pretty strong negative stereotype with the common man of Jesus’ day. I don’t want to be judgmental, but it seems these people, that Jesus calls hypocrites, might be comparable to the stereotype of a politician today whom enacts laws for the public but doesn’t have to follow them himself. There is a strong push in our country right now about creating a 28th amendment to the constitution that basically declares that congress cannot enact a law unless they have to obey it themselves. I think that would be a good amendment. Without something like this, it becomes very easy for leaders to become hypocrites and act in ways that are embarrassing to themselves and the system that allows it to happen. Jesus can’t stand hypocritical behavior.

Jesus is warning His followers to be people who give and do good deeds for the purpose of honoring the Father Heaven, period. Jesus tells us to do it in secret. I think that you will agree with me that anonymous giving is mysterious and fun. Too often, when we give, and the receiver knows we are the ones who gave it, it turns into an uncomfortable situation where the receiver feels obligated to say thank you and maybe even feels obligated to pay you back in some way or another. I think the best way to avoid this uncomfortable situation is to simply give it anonymously.

SWEAT IT OUT:
Is it wrong to give to the church and in return have your name inscribed on a brick paver, or on a plaque so that everyone can see that you gave to the project? No, it is not wrong. Jesus simply warns us by telling us, that brick or that plaque with your name on it, is the only reward we are going to get for that specific gift. That’s a good reward, but at the cost of a great reward. I love to say, “The enemy of the great, is just the good.” Another good example is this whole idea of thank you cards. My grandma is the queen of giving gifts and expecting thank you card immediately in return. I have even received phone calls from my grandma because I didn’t give her a thank you card for the 20 dollar bill she gave me for a birthday present. That’s an awkward phone call. There is nothing worse than writing a thank you card because I am expected to. I want to write thank you cards, but not because I’m supposed to or expected to. This concept seems to have crept into birthday parties as well. Birthday parties used to about inviting your friends and they would bring some fun gifts. Today it seems that the parents of the kid having the birthday, are required to give party favors and gifts to those who show up. It all seems like a grand showcase to see who can outperform who, so pictures can be taken and pinned on Pinterest or updated on Facebook for the days bragging rights of best giver and provider of a soon to be forgotten experience. All for what? To get up tomorrow and do it all again. I don’t trust the motives behind it all.

Jesus tells us, in other passages of the Bible, to store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven. Heaven is eternal, and there is a reward system for all who live eternally in Heaven. Think of it this way with me. Imagine Heaven having an enormous bank in it. You have an account in this bank. I don’t know what form of “reward material” there will be in the bank. That’s what money, in the form of paper and coin is, right? A reward material. So imagine with me that there is a bank in heaven. It is currently accepting unlimited deposits. Everyday, you, through your acts of kindness…done in secret…are depositing into your eternal bank account. When you secretly give a bike to a kid in the neighborhood, Jesus, the banker in Heaven, notices and puts a deposit in your eternal bank account. Every dollar you give towards the work of the Kingdom of Heaven, and given discreetly, is a deposit in Heaven. I personally think, when you give a kind word to somebody discouraged, and you do it without seeking any reward, that Jesus puts a deposit in your bank account in Heaven. When you pull over and help the stranded stranger on the road fix a tire. When you pull the weeds in your neighbor’s yard without anyone seeing you do it. When you pay for the meal of the person behind you in the drive through. When you volunteer at your local church. When you send money to a foreign missionary. When you give a drink of water to a homeless person. When you visit a stranger in the hospital or in prison. The list is unending. These acts of kindness are causing deposits of treasure that is being stored in Heaven for later use! Eternal use.

jesus says, store up for yourself treasures in Heaven. Jesus says, when you give, do it privately, for if you do not, whatever earthly reward you received for giving, is the only reward you will get. Thus, you didn’t get a deposit in your heavenly spending account. Randy Alcorn actually wrote a book about this called the “Treasure Principle,” that I would highly recommend to you for reading. He also wrote a book titled, “Heaven,” that might help you understand what I’m talking about when it comes to “banking” in Heaven. I have found the Bible teaches Heaven in a very different way than what the average person thinks Heaven will be like. Randy Alcorn’s book called “Heaven,” will help you piece it all together from a biblical perspective, and not some false teaching of what others say it is.

So, why do you give?
What motivates you to give?

The answers to those questions determine your eternal rewards and the amount of your eternal rewards that are being stored as treasure in Heaven.

I encourage you to be motivated more by long term investing in this case. The short term investment, the earthly reward, is so short lived.

I want my Father in Heaven to see my secret deeds and then receive the reward from Him.

Something about that thought, makes my heart beat faster.

May your life be filled with anonymous giving and quiet encouragement. Be a sly and sneaky giver. How fun!
What an impact you will make.
The rewards will be even better.

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