Look How Much You’ve Grown!

Joy has grown so much this last year. It’s obvious when you look at her. She’s taller and stronger. Her legs and arms are longer. Even her hair is longer. Her vocabulary is incredible, she doesn’t use baby talk and she annunciates her words very well. She can do more things for herself like spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread. And she’s learning how to calm herself when she gets upset. (I hope she will teach me.) Potty training is still a work in progress, but I know she will get that too. One thing hasn’t changed – that mega-watt smile can still melt Nana’s heart. She’s a growing, beautiful, amazing little girl.

Which makes me wonder, how do we know that we’re growing spiritually? We don’t get taller, but we should see signs that mark spiritual maturity. Like Joy, our speech is a clear indication of growth. Jesus said it’s in our words. “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matt 12:35). We talk about God and the things of God. We reject profanity and gossip and complaining (Eph 4:29; Phil 2:14).

It’s also seen in what we desire. Growing in God means we want the things that He wants and we are repulsed by the things that offend Him (Ps 40:8; Col 3:5). We look and act more like Jesus, which is God’s goal all along – “to be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Rom 8:29). We are compassionate (2 Cor 1:3-4), kind and gentle (2 Tim 2:24-25), loving (1 Cor 13), self-controlled (1 Pet 1:13), and “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (Jas 1:19).

Perhaps the most visible sign of spiritual maturity is how we deal with sin in our lives. As spiritual babes, we sin and the Spirit convicts us of our sin. We confess, repent, and receive forgiveness. But we go back to it again. And we repeat the cycle, sometimes multiple times. The true evidence of spiritual growth is when we stop going back to our sin. When the Spirit helps us recognize the pattern and break the cycle, we’ve made a major step in spiritual maturity.

I look at myself and see some signs of growth as well as places where I’m still a toddler in Christ. You too? Growth comes when we take in the things that nurture our spirit, like God’s Word, fellowship with other believers, prayer, and resting in the Lord. And trust. Paul said, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Phil 1:6). God’s not going to give up on you, Beloved. Don’t give up on yourself.

Are You Thirsty?

My son came into the kitchen from a long day of working in the summer heat.  He needed a shower.  He needed food.  But at that moment he desperately wanted something cold to drink.  He chugged a bottle of water from the fridge and then headed off to get cleaned up.  When we all sat down to supper, he had a glass of iced tea at his place.  He took a few drinks from it but left the glass half-full when he finished the meal.  His thirst, so intense just an hour before, had been satisfied; he didn’t have the same desire for a drink.

David was running for his life through the desert.  It was Dry.  Hot.  Dusty.  He was desperately thirsty with no water in sight.  But even more than a physical thirst, David was experiencing a desperate desire for God. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek You, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1).  Do you hear the intensity of his need?  Earnest. Thirsty.  Longing.  Nothing would satisfy but his God.

The Sons of Korah (think temple worship leaders) had the same passion for God: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Ps 42:1-2). It makes me wonder – when was the last time the church desperately panted for God?

Sometimes our lives take a hard turn and we find ourselves dry and desperate for relief.  I believe God allows those times to stir up a thirst for Him.  Just like my son at supper, when we are satisfied with our lives, we don’t drink Him in as deeply as we do when our thirst is intense.  We don’t sense our need for Him.  We don’t pant for Him. But when we’re in the desert we long for Him. That’s when we earnestly seek Him.  Is your heart dry and weary today?  Let that desperate need turn you back to God.  Be refreshed by His grace.  Be satisfied by His love.  Jesus said that whoever drinks from His spring will never thirst again (John 4:14). Come, Beloved, drink deeply from the Living Water.

What the Heart Wants

Why do we sin? Of course, we sin because our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, sinned and passed that sin nature down to us. But James revealed another reason you and I sin, “Each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). At the heart of all sin is our innate sinful nature and our own sinful desires.  Paul explained it in Romans 8:5 saying, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.”

And satan goes right for those desires, which are often our weaknesses.  Money, sex, and power are the usual enticements into sin and death, but there are more than we can conceivably count.  Every person has their own desire, their own personal lure, and be assured Satan knows it.  He has devised a scheme tailor-made to match that craving.  We answer to the temptation that calls out to our innate desires. If your desire is for material possessions, he will pull you into the mall, or entice you with advertisements for the newest shiny thing.  If your desire is lust, every TV commercial for lingerie will catch your attention and he will make certain you get plenty of pop-ups for sexual sites on your I-phone.  Want power, prestige, fame, a high?  He’s got just what you’re looking for.

Our only way of escaping his trap is to have but one desire: God.

One of the church’s favorite verses is Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.”  But we don’t take the whole verse, we just hone in on “He will give you the desire of your heart,” and rush past the requirement expressed just before it: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” If you and I are serious about living pure and holy lives, especially in this culture, we must adopt the attitude of Asaph who proclaimed: “Earth has nothing I desire besides you…God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25, 26).  When God is your heart’s desire Beloved, He will make sure you have the desire of your heart.

A Pure Heart

When my son was younger, he was determined to do something he knew was wrong. When I caught him before he could put his plan into action he protested, “But Mom I didn’t actually do it!” “That’s not the point.” I told him, “You wanted to do it – that’s the heart of the problem.

Human nature has reduced “sin” to an act – a thing we do, while the Bible tells us that sin is a condition of the heart – our desires. When Jesus taught about adultery in Matthew 5:27-28 He said that the sin of adultery is committed when the desire arises – “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” James identified the pattern of sin in 1:14-15 as a progression from one’s “own evil desire,” to enticement, then to the action. Sin clearly starts in the heart. After his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Urriah, David pleaded for God to “create in me a pure heart” (Ps. 51:10) for he knew that it was his heart that had led him astray. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mat. 6:21), meaning we will pursue at all costs what our heart desires. If that desire is for sin, you can bet your hands, feet, and body will follow. Jesus also said only “the pure in heart . . . will see God” (Mat. 5:8). That should be incentive enough.

A pure heart recoils at the thought of disobeying and dishonoring God and breaking fellowship. It pursues the heart of God, which never leads to sin. A pure heart runs from temptation (2 Tim 2:22). Does that mean if you struggle with sinful desires You don’t have a heart for God? No – Paul attested to the battle within himself (Rom. 7:15-23) and I know well my own tug-of-war with sin. But it’s not unwinnable. You just need some Help.

Beloved, Are you weary of toying with the sinful desires of your heart? Victory comes as you allow the Word of God and the Spirit of God to purify your heart day by day. God isn’t just after your behavior Beloved, He is after your heart.  When you “delight yourself in the Lord,” that is when He is all your heart longs for, then “He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps 37:4). He will give you Himself.

The Heart of Sin

Warning: this devotional contains sensitive and, quite frankly, disgusting information.

An Old Dominion University assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, Dr. Allyn Walker, has been suspended after writing a book defending what he* termed, “minor-attracted persons.” Dr. Walker stated, “It’s less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile. A lot of people when they hear the term pedophile, they automatically assume that it means a sex offender. And that isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors.”[1] In a nutshell, Dr. Walker was seeking to “normalize” sexual attraction to children by contending that people can have the desire without acting on it. That’s much the same message many pastors and Christian counselors claim about homosexuality. But that is a dangerous and wicked lie.

The point of this devotional isn’t to disgust you or to call for comments about how insane the world is. My point is to tell you that sin is rooted in the desires of the heart. It’s what James meant when he said that “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (Jas. 1:14). Our desires – or “attractions” as Dr. Walker termed it – will always lead to action and if they are for sin, they will always lead us away from God. The psalmist said, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 67:18). Desire and cherish all describe something that is deeply rooted in the heart. Listen to Psalm 37: 4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Many claim the second part of this verse without regarding the first. God is not promising to give you anything you want if you “put Him first.” He wants to be the desire of your heart – the only desire of your heart.  That is why “minor-attraction” or “same-sex attraction” or “food attraction” or “money-attraction” or “anything-sinful-attraction” cannot coexist in a heart that desires God.

Please hear me – I am not preaching condemnation nor am I saying that faithful believers will not struggle with the pull to sin. But if we desire God more than sin we will fight tooth and nail to be set free from it – we will “resist to the point of shedding blood” (Heb. 12:4). Beloved, if you want to be in relationship with God you must put every sinful desire to death (read Romans 6:1-14 – no, seriously, you need to read it). God is not after your good behavior, He is after your heart.

*I am assuming male as Dr. Walker has identified as non-binary.

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[1] School places professor on leave after controversial interview defending ‘minor-attracted persons’ | Fox News

What Do We Do About Sin?

Because you trust me as a Bible teacher, I want to tell you that sin is not an issue in my life. I want to tell you that, but it would be a lie. Yes, I belong to Jesus, He has saved me and redeemed me and continues every day to transform me into His image. He has done such a work in my life where sin is concerned. But like every other human being, I was born with a sinful nature and sinful desires – perhaps different from the things that tug at you, but sin is a real and present danger for me just as it is for you.

How do we handle our bent towards sin? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Recognize sin for what it is and don’t make excuses or exceptions for it. (Psalm 51:3)
2. Keep God’s Word close – in your hands, in your mind, and in your heart. (Psalm 119:11)
3. Keep God closer. (James 4:7-8)
4. Keep sin at a distance. Don’t put yourself in positions you know lead you into sin – whether places, events, movies, T.V. shows, websites, or even people. Take the way out. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
5. Repent when you do sin. (Acts 3:19).
6. Pray. 

The prayer I find myself returning to again and again is: “Lord cause me to love you so much that sin has no appeal to me.” I came to that prayer while meditating on Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.” I realized that if God is my delight, then I will desire only Him and that is a desire He is more than willing to fulfill. And if God is the delight and desire of my heart, I will take no delight in sin and will instead be repulsed by it because I love God with all my heart. And if I love God with all my heart there is no room in my heart to love sin.

I know I have a very long way to go before that is the reality of my life. Sin still beckons to me.  But this is my prayer – and the desire of my heart. Beloved, will it be yours too?

God Knows Your Heart

My friend had been trying for 20 minutes to explain why she kept doing something she knew was a sin. She honestly wanted to put this thing behind her, but she kept going back to it like a drug. We’d had this discussion many times over the years.  She stayed in this continuous cycle of sin and defeat. “I guess I’m just weak,” she sighed. “In my heart, I want to do better, isn’t that good enough?” “After all,” she said with a shrug, “God knows my heart.”
I threw out one of those breath-prayers, took her by the hand, and said, “Yes sweet friend, God knows your heart – that’s why He sent you a Savior.”
God does know our hearts. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts” (Luke 16:15). God knows that in its natural state “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). He knows that our hearts are very human and prone to mislead us by our own desires (James 1:14). It’s why we struggle to break away from sins that we cherish (Psalm 66:18).  It’s why the devil has such a grip on the world – because sin, at its core, is not so much a matter of what you and I do but what our hearts desire. Our actions will always follow our hearts. And there’s only room in our hearts for one. If our hearts desire what the world offers, we will not desire God.

But there is hope for the human heart. He is the divine Savior, Jesus. He knows your heart and mine and He came to redeem our hearts through His death on the cross. Covered by the blood of the Son of God our hard, stone hearts can become living flesh again (Ezekiel 36:26).

Beloved, God knows your heart – does your heart know Him?

Just One Minute of Sin

I love a good, hot shower. One recent chilly morning as I was getting ready to go to work, I thought, “I’ll just crank up the hot water and stay for a minute.” It felt so good! The next thing I knew I had stayed for almost 10 minutes. I just couldn’t bear to give it up.

Sin is like that. It beckons us with promises of how good we will feel. We vow to ourselves, “I’ll only stay a minute.” That’s when Satan sets his hook in us and that minute turns into ten minutes, a day, a week . . . a lifetime. We just can’t bear to give it up. I don’t recall who said it but it’s so true, “Sin will take you farther than you meant to go, keep you longer than you meant to stay, and cost you more than you meant to pay.” I know this is true from personal experience, and I’m not just talking about a hot shower.

James described the step-by-step progression of sin: “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). The key word in this passage is desire. The desire for sin is already present in us; Satan knows that it and he tailors the temptation to meet our desire. All it takes is one look in the direction of that sin and we are captivated and captured.

No, that moment of pleasure is not worth the chains that remain. You and I must get serious about sin. It is not something we can play around with, even for a brief moment. We must run away from temptation the moment it raises its enticing head. And we must make God the desire of our hearts. Because when you love God with all your heart, there is no room left to desire sin.  Beloved, don’t give sin any place in your life, not for even a minute.

But I Like My Sin

“I know the Bible says this desire is wrong, but why do I have to give it up?  Doesn’t God want me to be happy?”  Yes. And no. Happy in God’s vocabulary isn’t the same as our 21^st-century “it’s all about me” understanding. In the Bible, the word “happy” is interchangeable with the word “blessed.” Happiness is a blessing from God. It is not something you can attain from circumstances, pleasures, or emotions. And especially not from sin.

In the last half-century, the church has flung the doors wide open and said, “You don’t have to give up anything – just come sing a few songs and sip some coffee and God will make you happy.” That is nothing less than an outright lie. Before you throw your Bible at me – yes, God accepts us as we are, but His purpose in accepting us is to conform us into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29).  One who has no love for sin. A more conservative answer is, “You don’t have to give up your sinful desire, just don’t act on it.” It is an attempt to live in the tension between the holiness of God and your flesh. Two things will happen:  you will withhold the most important part of yourself – your heart – from God, and you will eventually give up the pretense.

Here’s the deal, God isn’t after your cooperation, He’s after the desire of your heart.  I Chronicles 28:9 says, “The Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought.”  He knows when your outward obedience masks a heart that still yearns for sin. Friend, the reason you and I fall back into sin over and over again is that we hold on to those fleshly, sinful, evil urges and don’t make Him the complete desire of our heart  That’s what the Bible calls “cherishing sin (Psalm 66:18).  It’s also called a divided heart.  And you can’t survive with less than a whole heart – physically or spiritually. Believe me when I tell you God is stomping all over my toes right now.

Beloved, you may think the sin you desire so much will make you happy, but that’s a lie. When God is your heart’s greatest desire sin cannot compare. When your heart delights in Him He will bless you. That’s true happiness.  

What’s the Desire of Your Heart?

A couple of years ago in the Seedbed Daily Text, One of my spiritual mentors, J.D. Walt, said “Too often my sin is a secret lover rather than a mortal enemy.”

Mind. Blown. Heart. Convicted.

Sin and holiness are often at odds in my heart, and if I’m being honest, sin is often my heart’s desire. It is like an old friend who knows to use the “back entrance” to my heart because that door is never locked. And sin has access to my heart because I haven’t lost my desire for it. I know the only way to eradicate sin is to desire God more than I desire that sin. It is my desire that directs my actions and behaviors and my life.

James said it like this: Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth do death” (1:14-15).  So the root of my sin problem is a deeply-rooted desire-problem. There is much work to do in my heart, where my desires grow.

But is it possible for me to change my desires? Yes and no. Yes because what I expose myself to feeds my desires. Music, T.V., movies, books, magazines, the internet, conversations, and, yes, even relationships. And no because God has to do a root-level work in me to redirect the desires of my heart. Transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. My part is to seek it, to ask for it, and to cooperate with it. Which might just mean locking that back door and handing Him the key.

But wait – I’m going to correct myself. I said that the only way to eradicate sin is to desire God more than I desire sin. That’s not quite right. Truly, the only way to eradicate sin is to desire God instead of desiring sin. It’s not a competition between who gets the greater portion of my heart. It is full surrender.