The least

Gideon judges 6:14-15 7:9-11

I was sitting thinking about a sermon presented a few weeks ago. It was from the book of Judges about a guy named Gideon. Gideon was chosen by God to fight the enemy of His people. When Gideon was informed by the prophet, his response was, “My family is the least of families, and I am the least in my family.” There is much more to the story, but the thought of “the least” is what has captured my thoughts.

Have you ever thought of yourself as “the least?” Have you ever compared yourself to others? Did you decide you weren’t good enough based on that comparison? Well, listen to this. God loves choosing “the least” to do great things. David was the youngest son, a sherpard boy. Esther was a Hebrew girl in captivity who became Queen of Persia. Matthew was a tax collector hated by all, yet Jesus chose him. Mary Magneline was a prostitute but Jesus chose her. Peter was an uneducated fisherman. Jesus chose him, and he became a leader of the apostles. I am not great by man’s standards but He chose me. I could go on but I won’t. This is my point. God has a plan for you that will make you great for His purposes. It might not be on a grand scale. You might not even be recognized by those around you. But if you follow His plan, you will be great on His grand scale. Go in the strength you have and trust Him to give you what you need to do the job. You are not “the least” in His eyes.

Trust God to make you Great.

Questionable Fruit Trees

We say what we are feeling. I hear you saying, “No, I don’t say what I am feeling because that would stir up a whole lot of trouble.” I beg to disagree. Your mouth may not say it but your face, your eyes, the twist of your mouth, and even the way you sit or stand says so much more. Have you ever listened to someone say all the right words but you didn’t believe anything they said. Sometimes it is because of your attitude but most times it is because you got the message that their body was sending.

While Yshua (Jesus) was teaching about our words condemning or justifying us, he made this statement.

“Either make the tree good, and the fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; the tree will be know by its fruit”

Usually we focus on the fruit but today the tree sat up and screamed, I am what’s important. If the tree is unhealthy, anything it produces is not profitable to anyone. You and I are the trees. If our insides are sick, filled with mean, unforgiving thoughts; if the growth and depth of our roots have been hindered by grudges and anger then no matter how nice we try to say it, the fruit we produce will be lacking in nourishment for ourselves or anyone around us. The messages we send verbally or bodily are the fruit our trees produce. A bad tree can produce something that looks like good fruit but when you bite into it you realize it is not good. That is much like the right sounding words we say but underneath them or embedded in them is all the rottenness housed inside us.

Let us let go of the anger, grudges, meanness, unforgiving evil thoughts.

Let the plant food of the Spirit and Word of God not be hindered in reaching the roots of our mind.

Let the leaves of your tree be green and full of life.

Let the shade your tree provides signal rest, refreshing, and peace.

Let the fruit from your tree bring nourishment: encouragement, compassion, truth, fairness and real love.

Let it be known that you are a good tree with good fruit.

Just in case you think I am excluding myself from these admonitions, know that they hit me first. I had to face myself in the mirror of these words.

The Pharisee Syndrome

Who are the Pharisees? The particular group that I am referring to are the religious leaders of Israel during Jesus’ time. They were the gatekeepers of Israelite Law as prescribed by the Mosaic and Levitcal Law. By this time they had taken a serious responsibility and perverted it for selfish power plays. They talked a good game but their behavior did not match. There were those who mistreated the people and used the Law to justify their actions. Sound familiar? I am not taking on all the things involved but there is a sharp comparison to the current behavior of “us Christians.” It is what I call the Pharisee Syndrome.

Have you noticed how the world lumps all Christians together under the “Right Wing, Evangelical, Tea Party Banner”? I find it a major insult. Being a believer in the Bible and a disciple of Christ has become an ugly, dirty thing. I understand why the world would think that. I thought about their expectations and decided they should expect us to be under the same banner but not that one. The banner we should be grouped under is the truth of the Word. The practice and teachings of the Christ. I have not found anywhere in the Word where He selectively hated people while justifying His hatred with Himself (The Living Word of God).

• His continued teaching was to love people. Love is not hate-filled. His teaching said be righteous.
• Righteousness requires us to live up to the standards in which we believe. We were not commanded to judge the world. We were told to judge ourselves and leave the judgment of the world to God.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NKJV)
    ⁹  I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
    ¹⁰  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
    ¹¹  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person.
    ¹²  For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?
    ¹³  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” 
• Just in case, I am not clear, the Apostle Paul is writing to believers in the city of Corinth and this is a more modern translation. It makes it very clear.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (MSG)
    ⁹  I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous.
    ¹⁰  I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that!
    ¹¹  But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.
    ¹²  I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?
    ¹³  God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

Those under that hateful banner are behaving just like the Pharisees. I am holy speaking but not holy behaving. When Jesus said if you lift me up, I will draw all men (mankind) to me, He wasn’t just talking about what we tell people but how we show people. If my God is a God of Righteous love and judgement then that is what they should see in my behavior.

• People should see me trying to live up to my God’s standards daily.
• I should conduct business by his standards even if the rest of the business world doesn’t.
• I should respect those who have different lifestyles from me even if I disagree with them. He did!
• I have no hell to send anyone to so I have no authority to condemn. The only people that I should expect to live up to what I believe are the ones who say they believe the same thing.
• Agreeing with me should not be a pre-requisite for me showing you compassion, mercy and His love. I am not responsible for your opinion, just my commitment to Him.

If I, we, live what we say we believe the way He lived, doing what He did, the way He did it we would be respected even though we may be “hated and persecuted.” At least then it would be for “righteousness sake” and not because we were the initiators of the hatred.

Let’s not be like the scribes and the Pharisees. Let our righteousness exceed theirs.

Matthew 5:20 (ESV)
²⁰  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We were commanded to Go, tell, baptize teach, and love. The rest is God’s job. Let’s let Him do it. We might find a great weight lifted when we stop trying to do God’s job. Stress reduced!

Side Note:

Just like all Christians are not right wing, tea party hate-filled people, not all Pharisees were like this. There were some who lived the Law the way God intended.

God’s Mental Health Plan

A few weeks ago I delivered the morning message at my church.  It was entitled “Think on These Things.” The scripture that I used was Philippians 4:6-9. 

Philippians 4:6-9 (ESV)
⁶  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
⁷  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
⁹  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.  

As I studied I realized a better title would have been God’ Mental Health Plan. Verse six begins, ” Be careful for nothing ..” More simply put it means 

                                         “Don’t Worry about Anything.” 

God said that if you would just talk with him, make your concerns known with an attitude of thanksgiving, then He would make you prosperous in all things concerning you and His peace and wholeness would be with you. Now before you get yourself all worked up, I am not talking about financial prosperity necessarily. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance the word for “mind: translates to “of (from or concerning) you.” He will bring you prosperity in what you need to eliminate your anxiety or you will have the opportunity to learn to trust his Word will He changes your circumstances. 

Peace

What kind of peace surpasses understanding? Is it something so rarely experienced that I can’t picture it in my mind? Yes!! A resounding YES!! He promised that His peace would guard or protect your heart, (thoughts, feelings) and your mind, (all things concerning you).

How To Get This Peace

The answer lies in verses eight and nine. Think about good things. If it is true, just or fair, pure or clean, lovely, or commendable; if it reflects excellence and is worthy of compliments, then think about those things. Don’t cloud your mind up thinking about the negative things. Don’t worry about the gossip and the gossipers. Don’t give your adversaries another thought. God says, He’s got this.

I believe God’s got it because He said so but I am not really sure I am sure. That is why Paul encouraged us to “practice these things.” Very few of us get it the first time around. It requires practice. Take baby steps and with each step our confidence will rise and God’s peace will become apparent.

The result is awesome mental health.

For those unfortunately suffering from mental illness, I am not suggesting walking away from therapy or even your medications. However, I am suggesting as you can try this. Practice thinking about the good things in your life. Think about the lovely, pleasant things that make you feel good as often as you can. I believe it will only help you get better faster.

For those of us who have momentary or mild mental dis-ease, this is a preventive measure. We spend way to much time and energy worrying about things and people we can’t do anything about. We also spend way to much time and energy complaining and doing nothing about the things we can change.

                                    STOP! Trust God and do something instead.

                                                   Think on These Things!