Putting First Things First...

"You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first."
C.S. Lewis

Are you a Martha or a Mary?

There is a story in the gospel of Luke about Jesus visiting two sisters, Mary and Martha.   Jesus seemed to find great value in taking time out to visit with family and friends.

In the story though, there is a bit of an issue between the two sisters.  Martha, perhaps wanting to make Jesus' visit as nice as possible, is busy, busy, busy.  She's cleaning, arranging, preparing, and just in general hustling and bustling trying to get things done.   At the same time, her sister Mary is reclining on the floor at Jesus' feet, just enjoying his company.

Naturally, Martha feels a bit put out at being the only one in the house who feels the need to get all the necessary work done, and she appeals to Jesus, asking him to get her sister Mary involved in the work.  But Jesus perhaps surprises Martha with his reply.

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things,but few things are needed--or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

It wasn't that the work Martha was doing didn't need to be done.  But Martha had the same choice that Mary had - focus on the work, or focus on the visitor.   Mary had made the better choice.

Jesus knows that we all have a tendency to focus on things rather than God.   We get caught up in the issues of life, we get busy with activities, we get concerned with things in this world - and we tend to forget about the things of God.

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. "   (Matt 6:31-33)

Do you really believe that the God you follow is a kind and loving heavenly Father who wants the best for you, who is meeting your needs even before you ask, who has a plan for you that is a good plan full of hope and a future?  If so, why do we spend so much time worrying about things that aren't really that important in the long run?

When was the last time you spent some "Mary" time with your God?  What a shame it would be to find that the Lord of Glory had called on you to spend some time together, but only got your answering machine becauses you were just too busy.

Put the first things first.   Devote part of your day, every day, to God first.  Spend time with Him.  Speak your heart to Him, and incline your ears to hear from Him.

I think we'd all be amazed at how differently our days would go.

Coat of Many Colors

          "And I couldn't understand it

For I felt I was rich

And I told them of the love

My momma sewed in every stitch

And I told them all the story

Momma told me while she sewed

And how my coat of many colors

Was worth more than all their clothes

But they didn't understand it

And I tried to make them see

That one is only poor

  Only if they choose to be

  Now I know we had no money

  But I was rich as I could be

  In my coat of many colors

  My momma made for me"

  ("Coat of Many Colors", by Dolly Parton)

Do you ever think you're just not good enough to be used by God?

Are there times when you are reminded of your many mistakes and failures, and you just get overwhelmed with the sense that there is no way that God could want anything to do with you, let alone actually want to use you in His kingdom?

I feel that way sometimes.  I think we all do.

In Psalm 139 it says, "you knit me together in my mother's womb...I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  I am reminded that God was the one who put me together as I was being created.  Even before I was visible as a child in my mother's womb, God could see me and knew what I would look like.  This same psalm even says that God knew all the days of my life, that he ordained them, all while I was being formed in the womb.

One of the many reasons that God so wonderfully and richly loves every single one of us is that He is the one who created us.  He wasn't just involved - He did it all.  I think of God knitting together this amazing tapestry that will be our life, full of intricate design, pattern, and color.  A beautiful image of the life that He has planned for us, complete with all the amazing twists and turns that make life rich and full.

Oh, but what we do with that beautiful tapestry...

We drag it through the mud.  We rip and tear it.  We take it places it was never intended to go.  In seemingly no time at all, God's beautiful work of art is nothing more than a filthy rag.

But, what if God never stops knitting?  What if the whole time we are stumbling about creating rips and holes, God is stitching and sewing those holes closed, repairing the damage we are doing.  What if each stitch is sewn in love, restoring His beloved tapestry to wholeness again? 

Not that God removes all evidence of our mistakes.  The point is not to pretend we've never stumbled or walked through the valley.  Instead, God redeems those dark times, and the lovingly stitched repairs serve to forever remind us of His love and goodness towards us.   Even better, they allow us to relate to others who have experienced similar scars.

How did Thomas come to believe that the resurrected Jesus was actually the Jesus he had followed and ministered with?  By the holes in Jesus' hands and feet.  Did you ever think that God could have taken those horrible scars away, and yet, it was by those marks that the resurrected Jesus was revealed.

The apostle Paul said, "if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation."  You and I don't have to continue to be the old person we once were.  God, through Jesus Christ, is restoring, redeeming, making new.  We are His "Coat of Many Colors," each healing stitch sewn in love.  

Putting to death the god of me...

I've been meeting with some of the men from church on Saturdays, and we've been studying the issue of idolatry.  It seems like every book in the Bible talks about idolatry in one form or another.  When idolatry is the very first of the commandments given to Moses ("thou shalt have no other gods before me"), I guess that's a pretty good sign of two things:  idolatry is a significant problem in God's eyes, and He knew it was something we were going to have a problem with.

God is a jealous god.  In fact, scripture says that one of his names is "Jealous."  I think that might bother some people because we have a fairly negative impression of the word.  On the other hand, if I was flirting with another woman and my wife wasn't jealous, I'm thinking that might be a cause for concern.  Still, sometimes we as human beings twist jealousy into something that really is more than a bit negative.  But not God.  His jealousy is entirely holy and pure, and it stems from his great love and passion for us, his creation.

One time Jesus was teaching and he said, "if anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - then they are not fit to be my disciple."  Talk about harsh.  But he wasn't really telling me that I had to hate my family members in order to follow him.  He was telling me that I had to love him more.  He was telling me that I had to love him most.

In our men's study we are talking about the many things that can become idols in our lives.  As soon as we love something most, and that something is not God, then we have begun chasing after an idol.  Idols can be perfectly good and healthy things in our lives, things like family, a career, even getting physically fit.  But when that perfectly good and healthy thing begins to consume our time, our thoughts, our resources, our focus - especially to the exclusion of relationship with our God - we are perilously close to a serious problem.

What I'm discovering is that, out of all the things that can become idols in my life, there is one that is tougher than all the rest to deal with.  It's harder to recognize.  It's harder to unseat.  It's harder to keep from slipping back in to.

It's the idol of me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the idol of "me" is not just a problem for me.  It might even be the case that the idol of "me" is kind of like the boss idol that all the other ones like career, family, success, and others work for.

• When I get mad at the driving of other people on the roads I'm traveling, I get upset because they are inconveniencing ME.

• When unexpected things happen in my life that produce anxiety and frustration and irritation, it's because they aren't fitting into MY plans.

• When I decide I need a collection of weapons at my ready disposal, it's because I've decided that my safety and security is all up to ME.

• When I ignore the pain and rejection that a personal symbol like a flag I wave brings to millions of my brothers and sisters, it's because what matters most is ME.

• When I ignore or refuse to help a person in great need because they are unworthy, it's because that money is MY money, earned through MY works.

The only thing you can do with idols is destroy them.  You can't put them on a shelf or pack them away in a box because, if you do that, they'll find a way back in.  And as you destroy these idols, you must also "set apart Christ as Lord," the only position that God is willing to take in our lives.

The apostle Paul told the church in Colossae, "Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature...and put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of it's Creator." When Jesus said we had to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily, I think he was urging us to put these idols to death.  And the toughest idol to put to death is the idol of me.

Idolatry keeps us from seeing the world as God sees it.  It keeps us from being in the world what God planned for us to be.  And it keeps us from accomplishing in the world the very purpose that God chose for us - to be salt and light, the pleasing aroma of Christ among both those who are being saved and those who are perishing.