Give Careful Thought

I love deep Bible study, taking verses one at a time, researching the words and context, and mining for treasure. I’m in a writing group that is working through the biblical text in small sections to allow us to notice every word. The insight we’ve gained and shared is remarkable. But there is also a lot to be said for taking on bigger chunks of Scripture. Like the little book of Haggai. Grab your Bible first and read this book in its entirety – it’s only two chapters and 38 verses – then come back.

Haggai is set in post-Babylonian captivity. When the Hebrew people returned to Jerusalem they set to work first rebuilding the city walls (see Nehemiah), then began restoring the Temple – the house of the Lord (Ezra 1:2-6). But they faced opposition from their enemies and struggled with their own issues and needs. They were also discouraged because the new structure was much smaller than the original Temple built by King Solomon. Eventually, lethargy, disappointment, and interference brought the work to a halt. The Jews turned their focus from God’s house to build their own homes.

Enter the prophet Haggai to proclaim God’s message of gentle chastisement and strong encouragement. I found one phrase five times in this little book: “Give careful thought” (1:5,7; 2:15,18 twice). Guess what that means (you’ve heard it from me before)? “Pay attention.” He said, “You plant much, but harvest little,” (1:6). “You earn wages, and it falls through the holes in your purse” (v. 6). “You expect much, but it turns out to be little,” (v. 9). “What you bring home I blow away” (v. 9). Why? In their depressed state, they gave up on the work of the Lord.

Now, I’m not some great theologian or prophet, but I think it’s pretty clear that the church today needs to “give careful thought.” Our ministry efforts are failing. Evangelism is ineffective. Teaching and preaching are weak. Why? Because the attacks of the enemy and the culture have discouraged God’s people and we have turned our attention back on ourselves. And we’re focused on our own issues and needs. Like the Jews, we’re sitting at home licking our wounds while the church goes lacking.

But, God says when we give careful thought to our ways, when we make His priorities our priorities, when we humble ourselves under His authority, He “will grant peace in this place” and He “will bless you – from this day on” (2:9, 19). The Lord is calling His people back to Himself. Beloved, it’s time to put down the phone, turn off the t.v., and pay attention.

Get Out of the Ruts

I am convinced that the biggest detriment to faithful, Joyful, holy living is between our ears.  Our thoughts can make or break us. And here’s what you and I need to grab hold of: our thoughts are just that – ours – we choose what we think about. And whatever we choose to dwell on makes an indelible impression on our hearts. I used to be a very negative person. But God showed me that was because my mind was filled with negative, critical, anxious, and discouraging thoughts. Just as wagon wheels always find their way into the ruts in the trail, my thoughts always found their way back into the ruts I had dug out in my mind. Friend, I’ve seen your posts. We’ve had many conversations. The honest truth is, you’re doing the same thing. And it’s time, for the health of your mind and your heart, to stop digging those ruts.

Paul gave us two prescriptions we would be wise to heed:

“Take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Here’s the root of the issue: we’re not paying attention to what we’re thinking. The enemy is counting on that and the culture feeds it. Like putting our car on cruise control, we let our thoughts run wherever they will. And let’s be honest, our thought default rarely runs to the positive.  We need to reject thoughts that do not follow Paul’s other remedy: “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” (Philippians 4:8). We must fill those negative ruts with – not just positive thoughts – but godly thoughts.

It takes discipline, it takes purpose, it takes intention, and it takes practice. But Beloved, nothing has the power to change your heart and your attitude like changing your thoughts. Here’s my challenge: Write these two verses on notecards and put them on your mirror, your fridge, in your workspace, and beside your bed as a continual reminder to take control of your thoughts. Then do it.

The Scripture says, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). It’s your choice, Beloved. Wherever your thoughts dwell, your heart goes. Maybe it’s time to take it out of the rut and onto a new, healthy path.

Do You Know Where You’re Headed?

I made the right-hand turn onto Dean Road on my way to work yesterday, accelerated to the posted speed limit, and set the cruise control. I tend to be lead-footed so the cruise helps me stay within the law.  I began to think about the things I needed to do when I got to the office. The next thing I know, I reached the end of the road and my next turn. I didn’t remember anything of the road I had traveled. I had mentally drifted. That kind of scared me because my mind was not attuned to the road or any possible danger along the way.

Jeremiah warned the people of Judah (the southern kingdom) of coming disaster. They had “wandered” (Jer 31:22) into idolatry and sin and Babylon was about to deliver God’s judgment. The Lord spoke some very wise advice on the road of life. “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road you take” (v. 21). In short: Pay attention! Notice everything around you, and everything in you, and the way you are going.

I said this was “wise advice” but it was more than that. It was a command. Read it again. Do you see the directives in this verse? The Lord said “Set up,” and “Put up,” and “Take note.” Each of these phrases means to station, establish, to attend to. There is nothing casual here; this is deliberate and purposeful action. This is a wake-up call. God wanted the people to take note of where they were and how they got there.

You and I will never follow God by accident. We will never stumble into a daily discipline of prayer and reading the Bible. Holy habits require effort on our part. We will never just fall into obedience. We must determine to do so. Every. Single. Day. Many believe that the end of the journey is just where we drifted to. It’s not. It’s where we decided to go. Beloved, Are you paying attention?

Are You Paying Attention?

This morning I very quickly typed in my laptop’s password – maybe a little too quickly because it was wrong. I tried again and still messed it up. I tried a third time, slowly, paying careful attention to the keys I was hitting. And I got it right that time. God has been impressing those two words on my heart a lot in the past several years. “Pay attention.” In so many areas of my life, I need to pay attention. In my job, at home, in my relationships, in my schoolwork, and in my ministry. And with my granddaughter. It’s not enough to sit in the same room with her and watch TV or scroll through my phone while she plays. No – she wants Nana’s full attention. And I give it to her gladly because building a block castle, rolling the ball across the floor, or helping her wrap up her baby doll is better than anything on TV or my phone.

My password debacle made me think of the discipline several of us are doing, writing out small portions of Scripture every day to eventually write through the entire Bible. We’ve all noted how much we’re discovering because writing forces us to pay attention to every word. For instance, as we’re writing through Job we’re seeing little glimpses – and a few bold declarations – about Jesus that we never noticed before. On the surface, Job is a depressing book and we tend to want to get through it as quickly as possible. But it looks so different at a slower pace.

Now I had a different direction in mind for this devotional and the Spirit just completely re-routed it. So here goes. He pointed out just now John’s proclamation that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1) We know that “the Word” was Jesus (v. 14). By paying attention to every word of the Word, I am paying attention to Jesus. I can’t think of anything better to give my attention to. Mind you, I’m not suggesting that you have to take pen to paper and write out every word in the Bible, (but if you want to, I’ll post a link to our group in the comments) – but I am saying that taking the Bible – taking the Word – at a slower pace allows you to see things you’ve never seen before.

Beloved, what are you missing? What do you want to see? How might it change your life if you paid attention to the Word – and the Word made flesh?

Say It Again, God

“When God repeats something, He’s making a point and we need to pay attention.” My seminary professor’s words stuck with me as I sat before my Bible the next morning reading the day’s Scripture. I had been working through the Psalms for several months and was sitting in Psalm 136. You need to read this for yourself, so go grab your Bible (or look the verses up here) and read through this chapter. I’ll wait for you. What did you notice? Every verse ends with the refrain: “His love endures forever.” Twenty-six times. Do you think God is trying to make a point? Do you think you and I need to pay attention?

If there is one persistent theme in all of the Bible it is the love of God. God’s love often comes in different ways and the Psalmist points many of them out to us – His great wonders (v 4), His creation (vs. 5-9), salvation (v. 10-12), miracles (vs. 13-15), guidance (v. 16), protection (vs. 17-20), goodness (vs.  1, 21-22), faithfulness (v. 23), redemption (v. 24), and provision (v. 25).  God’s people in every generation could add to that list. God’s love is extraordinary and indescribable, through writers of books and songs and scripture (and blogs) have attempted to put it into human words. And they’ve all fallen short. There is a great old hymn, “The Love of God,” written in 1917 by Frederick. Lehman and Claudia Mays, that I think comes as close as anyone ever could. The third stanza is my favorite:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.[1]

This psalm is full of beauty and majesty and wonder. But the point God was making over and over and over  – the thing that He wants you to grasp with all your heart, Beloved, is that He loves you and His love will endure forever. And that is something to repeatedly thank God for (vs. 1-3,26).

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[1] The Love of God  (1917) by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917, har. by Claudia L. Mays, 1917, v. 3 by Anonymous/Unknown, copyright status is Public Domain.

Hebrews – Pay Attention!

It was my constant mantra with my son. “Pay attention to what you’re doing!” He was the proverbial bull in a china shop and plowed his way through life, leaving messes and chaos in his wake. So when the author of Hebrews says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore to what we have heard . . .” (Hebrews 2:1), I can certainly sympathize. So many troubles could be avoided if we would just pay attention to what God has said. Paying attention is a deliberate exercise. One of satan’s favorite ploys is to lull us into a relaxed state of mind. We let our guard down. We become complacent. We tolerate things we would not if we were applying ourselves to God’s Word. We are less and less willing to endure and persevere; instead, we just give in and give up. Paying attention becomes too much effort. God help us.

Why all this attention to paying attention? “so that we do not drift away” (v. 1_b). It is so easy to overlook things that seem small or insignificant or familiar to us.  More spiritual problems are caused by neglect than perhaps by any other failure on our part. It is rare when someone who has been following the Lord suddenly decides to just turn away. More often spiritual failure occurs because we just drift away from truth. We neglect Bible study. We skip prayer. We let a flashy preacher with gleaming white teeth tell us what God said. We give the culture more credit than we give to the Creator. We make time for sports and leisure but have no time for reading God’s Word.

One of the most relaxing times I’ve ever spent was floating on an oversized innertube on a man-made “Lazy River.” We just sat in our plastic donuts and let the current take us wherever it went. We gave no thought to where we were drifting, we just enjoyed the ride. That’s the picture I get when I read this verse. The author is talking to people who were once zealous for God, who had ceased to care about what God said and were just drifting along – and drifting away.

Beloved, are you taking the Word of God for granted? Are you neglecting your soul by neglecting your Bible? Have you stopped paying attention to what God is saying? It’s not too late to get out of the lazy river and back into the Word of Life. I’ll grab a towel for you and meet you back in the Scriptures.

Take Control of Your Heart

Several years ago, I had an “SVT Episode,” supraventricular tachycardia – or extremely rapid heartbeat.  In the Emergency Department, I was hooked up to an EKG machine to monitor my heart rate, which was soon brought back to a normal rhythm.  During a follow-up echocardiogram, the technician turned the monitor toward me so I could see my heart in action.  It was fascinating.   We all know how vital the heart is to human existence.  The heart, spiritually speaking, is also the core of our Christian life..

Often when we think of the heart, we think of emotions.  However, that is a 21^st-century understanding of a 1^st-century word. The Greek rendering for the word “heart” is kardia – which you should easily recognize as the medical term for all things concerning the physical heart.  In Greek, it points to our conscience self – our thinking and understanding. That should give us a great deal of insight into the role of the heart in the Christian.  The heart is where we find motivation based on reason and conscious thought and it is the root of our emotional nature. In simpler terms, the heart is the place where we talk to ourselves because that is what thinking really is. And our thinking controls our feelings. No wonder Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” How? We mentioned “conscious thought” – that’s what you think about intentionally, like when you’re focusing on the steps to a project. We also have to pay attention to our “unconscious” thoughts – the ones we don’t initiate. These come from our subconscious and reveal the raw condition of our hearts. We have to bring those thoughts into submission to Christ, casting out anything unChristlike and intentionally choosing Philippians 4:8 thoughts. (Go look that up if you need to.) It may seem silly, but I will often do a lasso motion with my arm to take my errant thoughts captive. Let me tell you, paying careful attention to your thoughts all day is exhausting. But over time you and I can retrain our hearts to think rightly and truthfully.

Diet and exercise can help our physical hearts. Our spiritual hearts need a workout as well to become healthy and strong. Beloved,  take control of your thoughts because your thoughts control you.

Don’t Drift Away from God

Words fascinate me. The Holy Spirit knows this about me and so often when I am reading my Bible, He will draw my attention to a word and ask me, “What does that mean?” – and I am off on one of my favorite digs. Yesterday I was reading in Hebrews 2 and He did it again in the very first verse: “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” The phrase “drift away” became my holy grail. This is one word in the Greek: pararreo – and it means to glide by, to be carried away, and you would use it to say something “slipped my mind.”. We’ve all missed appointments because they slipped our minds. That’s why we jot them down on our calendars or put a reminder in our phone. Likewise, the writer was saying, don’t let the message of the gospel slip from your mind. That’s easy to do when life is hard, when tragedy strikes, when you’re weary, when the whole world is caught in a pandemic. It’s easy to forget about the hope we have in Christ. But this dig continues.

This morning the Spirit highlighted another phrase for me: “careful attention.” These two words perissoteros and prosecho mean in great abundance, above all else and to hold or possess. Simply put, this means above every voice and every worldview, take hold of this gospel and let everything else go. That’s the key to not drifting away.

The message of the first chapter was that Jesus is the Son of God – He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Heb. 1:3). In a world that says there is no God, or that God is whatever you want him to be, we need to get a firm and secure grip on the truth. In a world that is full of evil and darkness, where death runs rampant and people are scared out of their wits, we need to wave the banner of the gospel and the hope of salvation and eternal life.

Beloved, what are you paying careful attention to? The news? Facebook? The opinions of others? These will cause fear, confusion, and doubt. They will cause you to drift away. Let them go. Pay attention to the truth: Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died to save you and give you eternal life and hope for today. Hold on to that and never let go.

 

Pay Attention!

I was on my way to work this morning, just rolling with the traffic around me, and letting my mind wander a bit.  You know — going over the projects for the day, thinking about my child who needs some encouragement, what to make for supper, reminding myself to pay the utility bill, etc.  Suddenly, brakes lit up ahead of me as we spy the patrol car parked off the roadway. I notice that the whole pack of cars had been speeding, and I was right in there with them.  Thankfully the officer was after bigger fish than me, but I realized something in that moment.  I had been letting the rest of the cars set the speed for me – and in going along with the pack, I had broken the law.

The “road” of our life, like the physical highway can lull us into something of a daze.  It becomes so easy to go along with the crowd. But there is much danger when we do.  The crowd will almost always lead us away from God.

The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah gives us some very wise advice.

“Set up road signs; put up guideposts.  Take note of the highway, the road you take.” (Jeremiah 31:21)  In short: Pay attention!  Notice everything around you, and everything in you, and the way you are going.   Far too often, the way we take is just where we drifted to.

Do you see the directive in this verse? The Hebrew for “set up” is to stand oneself before, to station, establish, to attend.   There is nothing casual here; this is a strong decisive word.  It is a deliberate and purposeful action.  The word “guideposts” is amazing as well-the root word means “column of smoke.”  Now if you know much about the Bible at all, you will remember that the Israelites were lead by God through the wilderness with a “pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night” (Exodus 13:21) God is still leading His people, He is still making Himself visible to us if only we will pay attention.

We are also directed to “take note of the highway, the road you take.”  The heart of this section is – well– the heart.  By looking at the terminology, Jeremiah is instructing us to set our hearts to follow the Lord along the right “road” – the road or highway being the conduct of our life.  This is an intentional decision to guard our hearts and minds and stay alert to both the leading of the Lord and any attempt by Satan and the world to draw us off course.  We will never follow God by accident. We will never stumble into a daily discipline of prayer and reading the Bible.  We will never just fall into obedience. We must determine to do so.

What is the benefit of all this determination and attentiveness?  “A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk in that Way.” (Isaiah 35:8) Isaiah proclaims a “Way of Holiness” that will take us into God’s presence and light.  A highway that He has prepared for those who “walk in the Way.”

 The road we travel today will either lead us closer to God or farther away.  It’s your choice.  Will you pay attention to the direction you are traveling?

Almighty God, teach me to pay attention and to follow you with all my heart. Amen