I think praise is important.  We all need encouragement and even affirmation.  A timely “Well done!” is so uplifting to our spirit.  But as important as it is, praise can be a two-edged sword.  Proverbs 27:21 proclaims,

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but man is tested by the praise he receives.  (Proverbs 27:21)

The crucible is the mechanism through which silver is refined and prepared, where the application of extreme heat forces the impurities to rise to the top.  The furnace serves the same purpose for gold.  But scripture says that we are tested by the praise we receive.

How are we tested by such praise?  Praise will test our metal by bringing out the truth about what we see our:

1. Identity – Our internal response to praise will show us whether we consider ourselves creator or creation.  As creator, we have all that was needed to accomplish that which was praiseworthy.  As creation, we enjoy and employ the gifts given to us by a sovereign God and acknowledge Him for every good work, both in and through us.
2. Worth – How we receive praise bears witness to how we really assess our own self worth, and more importantly, from where we derive our worth.  On one hand, we can receive praise as affirmation.  In other words, “The work you did is good.”  If we know that we have worth because we have been adopted by the King, we understand that nothing that we can ever do can or will increase or decrease our worth.  We are able to take praise at face value and enjoy the affirmation for a job well done.  On the other hand, we can receive praise as approval.  Rather than hearing, “The work you did is good,” we hear the words, “You are good” and “I approve of you.”  The actual words of praise did not change, only our interpretation and application of those words.  The person who lacks a genuine appreciation of their worth is always seeking to find it in the approval of others.  And sadly, there will never be enough.
3. Integrity – Let’s be honest.  We all like praise.  It makes us feel good.  And like anything that makes us feel good, we can begin to desire it, even crave it.  But what we do with that desire will reveal a lot about our character.  A person of high integrity will remain faithful to all that God prompts them to do.  They’ll do what He tells them to do, when He tells them to do it, how He tells them to do it – all with little or no concern for the praise they will or will not receive.  A person of lower integrity will be so drawn by the lure of potential praise as to set aside the things of God.  They become addicted to praise, and that praise becomes a drug just as intoxicating as any street drug.  They are always looking for another fix.

I don’t know about you, but God is showing me some things I need to work on?  How about you?

I’m a guy that likes a big return on investment.  Recently I shared that I’ve been reading through the bible in a year.  This morning I started Proverbs, and was quite taken aback by the very first sentence:

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;

for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair;

for giving prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—

let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—

for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.

I’ve read this verse a bazillion times, but have never really seen the return that God is promising as a result of our investment in studying the Proverbs.  Ok, so check this out.  The book of Proverbs was written so that we could experience the following:

• Wisdom – I don’t know about you, but I could use more.  Not just a little more, but a whole lot more.
  
• Discipline – I hate being disciplined by God, but I do desire to have a more disciplined life, where I’m not controlled merely by impulses.
• Insight – I think greater insight into the lives of the people around me would make me more compassionate, available and approachable – all traits that were important to Jesus.
• Prudence – Couldn’t each one of us benefit from God growing us up in our ability to care about the future?
• Knowledge – The more I walk with God, the more I realize how little about Him and His kingdom I really know or understand.  But that realization doesn’t make me want to give up.  Instead, it reminds me that I will spend all eternity trying to fully know my God.
• Discretion – I want to behave in ways that avoid offending people, but I’ve got a long way to go in that.
• Guidance - It seems like every one of us has enough problems and difficulties to fill up a lifetime.  And in the midst of those times of hardship is when we most often need someone to show us the way.

I’m not sure where you find yourself in each of these areas, but there isn’t a single one that I couldn’t use a super-sized order of right about now.  I’ve always enjoyed Proverbs, but I’ve never before read it with the expectation of being transformed with all these things at God’s hand. But these words have built in me a radical new expectation – that when I meet with God to study the Proverbs and apply them to my life – that God is going to pour out His great blessings upon me in ways that I can’t even imagine.

Every once in a while, I realize that I’ve been failing to approach my time in His word with the red-hot expectation that I’m going to encounter God in the midst of His living word.  Then God ignites my passion once again, so that I can hardly wait to meet with him again, bible in hand.

Maybe it’s just me, and maybe I’m just getting hung up on semantics or style of presentation, but something that really bugs me is when excellent Christian writers resort to mere alignment of what they write with Scripture.

Here’s an example of what I mean.  One area that I’m passionate about is marriage.  I have a real passion to see couples actually living out their life together according to God’s plan.  I’ve read literally dozens of books on the subject, books you would recognize, by authors that are well-known and well-respected.  Most of what I’ve read I would describe as ’scripturally aligned.’ What I mean is that the the author lays out all they want to say, in the way they want to say it, packaging and presenting within their preferred paradigm.  And at some point, most of these authors will present a few scripture passages to support what they have presented.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with that approach.  I’d rather have something aligned with scripture than misaligned with it.  And I can’t say that I’ve read much in those books that I would classify as contradicting scripture.  But to me it seems to lack power somehow.

There are a few books on marriage, however, like Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, where the content flows out of the very scripture.  He starts with scripture, and the unique perspective of his book flows from the actual words of scripture, rather than a preferred packaging paradigm (say that three times!).

I guess this particular quirk of mine comes from an ironclad belief that scripture really is sufficient.  If we’re going to teach out of the Bible, then let’s let the Bible do the teaching.  I want to hear what God has to say rather than the well-constructed argument of man, even if it does align.  I was taught to be skeptical of teaching that bounces around, plucking a verse here or there that supports the teacher’s own view.  It’s so easy to isolate a verse out of its context and use it to support a position never intended.  That risk is significantly mitigated when the author starts with the passage, explores the context, and let’s his teaching emphasis flow from the intended meaning.

And yes, before you jump on me and tell me that I have been guilty of the same thing at times here in my blog, you are absolutely right.  And when you see me doing it, feel free to call me on it.

It seems like a lot of energy is spent talking about the true essence of worship.  We talk about it in church circles, learn about it at conferences and deal with the complaints from people that don’t agree with our style.  Lots of scripture passages are used to support people’s different perspectives, and those are all helpful.  But what if we’re missing the obvious?  What if the essence of genuine worship is defined for us by a loving God who knows we have a propensity to complicate that which is simple.

One of the lessons taught to me by a great teacher was to pay close attention to the first time a particular word surfaces in scripture.  The context within which that word first appears can tell us a lot about its intended meaning.  You might be surprised to learn that the first time the word ‘worship’ appears in scripture is in Genesis, chapter 22, with Abraham and Isaac.  But before I share the actual verse, let me indulge in a little storytelling as I set it up.

God tells Abraham to do something outrageous – to take his one and only son, travel with him on a three-day journey, then sacrifice him as a burnt offering.  Can you imagine?  Here was the son that God had promised, the one for whom Abraham had waited so long, the boy he loved so much.  God had brought Abraham a child in his old age as a miraculous blessing and fulfillment of his promise.  But now God was telling Abraham to put him to death.  Can you imagine Abraham’s grief?

But scripture tells us that Abraham obeyed.  The next day he set out with Isaac and some servants.  The passage spares us the gory details of the agony that Abraham must have experienced during that three day journey, knowing what he was traveling towards.  Somewhere along the way it must have dawned on Abraham that God was commanding him to sacrifice his son because Abraham’s love for Isaac was competing with his love for God.  I imagine that Abraham must have experienced great remorse, even pleading with God.

We all know the climatic ending to the story.  Abraham puts the boy on the altar and raises his knife to slay him, when God intervenes and stays Abraham’s hand.  It was the exact moment of Abraham raising his knife where complete surrender to God took place.  That’s when Abraham’s devotion to God became complete and unrivaled. It is such a compelling vision of surrender.

But I have to back up a little.  On the third day of travel, when they got close to the destination God had indicated, Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” He knew exactly what he was about to do.  He was going to surrender everything he had to God right there, right then.

I believe that is the essence of genuine worship.

A while back, I went through a very difficult season, one filled with painful uncertainty.  In talking it through with a trusted friend who prayed with me, he felt led to counsel me, “I believe that how you go through this time is more important than how it finally works out.”  He was telling me that he believed that how I journeyed was more important than the destination.

As we talked that out, we talked about the importance of being a man of character, a man of faith, a man dependent upon a loving God.  I saw the wisdom of his words and it challenged my paradigm, which had been heavily focused upon the ultimate outcome of the uncertainty.  The person I am today will be most revealed in times of uncertainty.  You’ll see the quality of my character when I feel threatened.  You’ll see the degree of my faith when I’m worrying about the future.  You’ll see my level of dependence upon God when I’m trying to orchestrate.  At the same time, such seasons can also be the perfect crucible in which I can grow in character, faith and dependence.

James wrote about this in the New Testament:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:3-4

God uses the inevitable trials we encounter to test our faith.  As we grow in faith, it develops a character of perseverance.  That perseverance leads to maturity and a life of fullness.

Now having passed through that season, I can see my friend’s wisdom.  It was far more important, to me and to God, how I lived that season of my life rather than the eventual outcome.  The growth came through and in my character, faith and dependence.

If you are in a time of trial, that almost always involves uncertainty, ask yourself if how you go through this time may be more important than how it all eventually works out.

I’m using a one year reading plan through YouVersion to cover the whole bible in 2o1o.  I just read the most amazing passage of scripture in the book of Exodus.  I had to go back and read and re-read it a few times to let it settle in.  While I remember the scenes of Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea and destroying the golden calf with the first release of the stone tablets, I don’t remember this particular incident portrayed in the film.

After Moses lays smack down on the people for building and worshiping the golden calf, the people repent.  Moses then sets them to the God-instructed task of building the ark, tabernacle, courtyard, tables, lamps, etc.  Moses instructs the people:

“This is what the LORD has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;  blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;  ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.” – Exodus 35:4-9

Did you catch the phrase “everyone who is willing?”  They were not commanded to give a particular amount or percentage.  It was left up to their individual willingness.

And the people responded with an unbelievable generosity:

They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.  So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.” – Exodus 36:3-5

The people brought “more than enough.”  So much, as a matter of fact, that Moses had to take action:

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. – Exodus 36:6-7

Can you imagine?  So much willingness, such hearts of generosity, so much investment in the work of the Lord, such excess of personal offering, that we might be commanded to give no more?  They were “restrained from bringing more.”  Wow!

It challenges me to look at my personal generosity.  I’m sure I’m not even close to a point where God might be considering telling me to give no more.

As I discussed in my last post, our journey as Christ-followers will never be easy…we will have to strain because we will always be opposed by an enemy that desperately wants to keep us away from that which is life-giving.  The first of the four main tactics of the enemy is deception.  To deceive is to lead someone to believe something that is untrue in order to gain personal advantage.  Paul warns the Corinthian believers about this. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Cor 11:3-4)

The enemy seeks to deceive us about many things, but Paul highlights three of these areas:

1. The nature of God – The enemy is always trying to distort God’s character, intent and activity.  If we will believe the lies that God is a cosmic killjoy, ready to bully us around at the slightest infraction, (or worse), we won’t want to pursue being closer to Him, or to be more like Him.
2. God’s direction – The enemy is always trying to confuse us with conflicting direction.  It would be one thing if those conflicting directions were always obvious, like robbing a bank or having an affair.  We know God would never direct us to do those things.  But the enemy is more devious than that.  He’ll prompt us to do things that look good, that we would even consider to be godly in nature.  However good they might be, though, if they aren’t the specific things God in which God wanted us to engage, they take us away from God and His intended path for us.
3. The path of salvation – The enemy is always trying to distort our view of salvation.  Like the old roadrunner cartoons, where Wiley Coyote would attempt to change the roadsigns in order to get the roadrunner off course, the enemy wants to change our roadsigns.  If he can convince us that there is a different path to a life that satisfies, a life that works and a life that matters, then he draws us away from the real one.  It doesn’t matter how fast you run, if you’re running on the wrong path.

Of course, the greatest antidote to deception is truth.  One of the things I regularly do, especially when I’m feeling like maybe the enemy is trying to deceive me, is to ask myself the question, “What do I know that I know?”  This simple question takes me back to the basics – about God, His direction for my life, and the path to the life He wants for me.  These foundational truths are often enough to clear my mind.  How wise would we be to follow Paul’s advice?  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Next:  Straining past the enemy’s use of disconnection.

This past weekend we started a new series at The Chapel called Run.  I’ve been so excited about this series for both myself and for our whole church, but when Senior Pastor Jeff Griffin kicked it off with one of my favorite verses in scripture, I felt God really stirring me up.  The passage is Philippians 3:12-14.  This is the famous verse where Paul shares his own approach to growing in Christ. “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and…”  Wait for it.  “…and straining toward what is ahead…”  Paul doesn’t say “strolling”  or “striving” or “reaching” or “driving.”  He uses the word ’straining’.

I find ‘straining‘ to be such a great word and I think God was very deliberate in using it.  To strain is apply strenuous and continuous effort, pushing forcibly towards something.  The reality is that we only strain when there is opposition of some kind.  We only have to push forcibly if there is something that is opposing us.

Which brings me to my point (I know…finally!).  As Christians, we will never go another day without opposition.  I’ve been guilty of thinking that most of the time my movement to be closer to God and more like Christ should be relatively easy, with occasional times of hardship and opposition.  But I’ve come to the point of believing that such an idea is a fallacy.  If where God wants us to go is life-giving (John 10:10), then the enemy of God wants to steal, kill and destroy us along the way.  He will do anything he can to oppose us, to keep us from the abundant life that Christ intends for us.  We will never have another day without opposition.  Any movement we make or attempt to make will create some friction as we strain against that opposition.

One of the most effective ways to beat any opponent is to understand their tactics and techniques.  Sports teams will scout out their future opponents and watch endless hours of film to see what plays they typically use.  Doing so equips them to recognize those when such plays are coming and counteract them effectively.  As Christ-followers, we can do the same thing with our opposer.  The enemy has certain plays – strategies and tactics – that he uses over and over.  He uses them because they are effective at keeping us from our desires.

Over the next several days, I’m going to explore the four main tactics that the enemy uses, how we can recognize when he’s using them, and ways that we can strain through it toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Next:  Straining past the enemy’s use of deception.