Why do it?

I sit here tonight in a state of ??? I really don’t know what to call it. Hundreds of separate thoughts running through my mind but unable to lock in on anything. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you a peek into my brain. Brace yourself, I have no idea what you are going to see, it may be ugly, it may be quite disturbing. If you understand it I would seek medical attn immediately as you don’t process like a normal individual.

This morning as I was sitting in church John 15: 12,13 once again popped into my brain. It wasn’t the pastors topic but what he was saying brought me back to this verse. “Love as I have loved you. No greater love has man than this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do as I command you.” Now I’ve said a few times that this means we are called to love greater than we love ourselves. Today I began to seriously ask “What does it mean to lay down our lives for our friends?” Well it means when a friend is in need we should set aside our own desires and our own self interest in exchange for theirs. This means a friend loses his or her job and can’t pay rent. We have money set aside to buy a new TV. We forget the TV and pay our friends rent. A brother breaks his leg and doesn’t have insurance because he just lost his job. We are strapped for cash but know we need to help our brother so we sell our _____ to help him out. Our sisters car breaks down she has no way to get to work so we set our alarm to get up one hr earlier everyday until she can get her car fixed and give her a ride even if she works on the other side of town. I think this is also what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1 when he says “… present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service (Other versions say spiritual act of worship) He goes on to talk about transforming our minds and seems to spend the rest of the book talking about “How to live the Christian Life” Last week I asked the question “How do we exhort daily? How do we develop a community with the lifestyle of confession and exhortation? We had one person respond (I loved her response) Basically she said “This is what we should do but will we? (I am paraphrasing pretty big) We are too concerned with looking good to others and it’s too easy to run to the church next door if we are held accountable. We should strive for this but is it really possible in today’s church?” She is absolutely right. I see few signs that it is possible in today’s church. This morning I’m thinking “This is how we get there.” By living as Christ said. If we sacrifice of ourselves for our brothers and sisters our community would become so tight knit that we wouldn’t run away when confronted. How beautiful! The problem is… That’s a pretty big IF most of us aren’t even willing to give up our daily coffee to help a friend let alone really sacrifice. I know I’ve not answered my phone because I knew the caller was going to ask me to help with something. How pitiful is that? Who cares if he has needed support every Tuesday for the last month and I’m tired of missing American Idol. What’s more important a brother or a talent competition? Now please don’t think that I’m trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone or that I’m sitting here down on myself for not being perfect. A guilt trip doesn’t work when we are all guilty of the same thing. WE ARE ALL SELFISH HUMAN BEINGS!! That’s a natural result of the fall. Eve eating that piece of fruit and Adam following suit. I can’t sit here and guilt anyone into action. Best case scenario would be a few of us say we will live this way. We dig in our feet and are really good at it for a month maybe two then we grow tired and move back to the way we were before. How many times have any of us heard a sermon and said “AMEN! I will begin living this way.” Then go to work on Monday and forget what was said on Sunday.

This is where I am. God reveals these incredible things to his people but we only half accept them or we sit back and say “That’s a perfect world scenario the church today is not perfect so it wont work” We are living in defeat and we haven’t even tried. We are settling for far less than God intended for us and there is nothing I can say or do to change that. There is nothing you can say or do either. But this isn’t what God wants. God is the most powerful being in this universe. God controls all/Created all. Nothing happens that he doesn’t allow. If he doesn’t want us to live like this than why does it seem impossible for us to do anything about it? Put simply it’s because we are believing a lie. A terrible idiotic lie from the scum of the earth. This scum can do nothing without Gods approval and we are sitting down here believing its lie. How do we defeat this liar? How do we get around our “Can’t” attitude and begin doing? How do we learn to set aside our own selfish desires and begin living sacrificially for each other? How do learn to ”Confess” confidently? How do we learn to “Exhort” each other daily? How do we finally break through and live the life that God has for us? How? How? HOW?

John 14:15-18 If you love me keep my commandments and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans I will come to you.

John 14: 26 …The helper, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…

John 16: 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you; but if I depart I will send him to you.

We’ve been believing lies but “The Helper” is the spirit of truth. God has given us a helper. The Holy Spirit living in us. This makes it possible for us to recognize lies and move onto the truth. “But Larry, if we have the spirit living in us we should be recognizing it already.” Yep, we should. Here is what I would like to propose the problem is. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the spirit” I think, (This is me, my opinion take it or leave it.) We have become so adept at quenching the spirit we don’t even recognize when he speaks anymore. Do you remember getting those tuggings that said “Go and talk to that guy you just passed?” or “I should turn off the tv and study my bible” how about “Call so and so and see how they are doing” to which we respond “As soon as the show is over” “I feel weird going up to a total stranger” “If I call them and everything is ok I’ll feel stupid” Our selfishness quenches those little tuggings. Then we grow confused at why “The Spirit” doesn’t listen to us when we ask him to heal a friend. Or provide a job for our brother. We’ve grown quite talented at calling on the Spirit according to our own terms not his. (This thinking seems kinda upside down yet we all do it) We are so good at quenching the helper God sent that we don’t recognize him anymore. So what do we do about it? How do we learn to recognize him and stop quenching him? Again my opinion take it or leave it but this is what I plan on doing. Go to God and repent. Tell God that you are sorry for ignoring him/ His Spirit. Then ask him to help you recognize his voice and tugging once again. Then whenever you hear or feel what you think may be the Holy Spirit. Stop and listen. 1 Thessalonians 5 after he says don’t quench he says to test the spirits. So ask, Holy Spirit is this you? Test it? Is it asking you to do something contrary to scripture? No! Then Do it? He hasn’t gotten tired of us ignoring him, packed up and gone. He is still in us. Ask him every day to give us a fresh filling. Ask him to give us the strength to follow his tugging. I think we may be a little more than surprised at how much we hear and how much our lives are changed. We may even begin to experience the Community God desires for us. That’s my thought what about you? Do you have any idea’s? I’d love to hear them.

As always lets live this week “Upside Down!”