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Only a little late this week, but at least I'll be caught up. As of today, Rob and I have been dating for 6 months. It was also the last race of the season at Londonderry Speedway. Life should settle down more now, I hope. I realize that I have the Forum side of my blog for prayers and praises, but since I have your attention here, my father just got diagnosed with Covid on Thurs. night/Fri. morning. He's already improving, so at least there's that. Especially since he just turned 80 recently. Your prayers are all appreciated. Thank you!!
Did you ever have a Secret Code as a kid?? Either through a TV show for some of my more "mature" readers, or just from a book or between friends?? Maybe your family had its own "specialized" words for things... I've always had an affinity for codes, but didn't get many chances to use them growing up as an only child with few friends. Within my house, we only had a couple of words or expressions that were unique to us. If my father* was making Instant Potato for supper with soup or veggies mixed in, he called it, "Instant Slop". Not a very appetizing name, I know; but it was fast at the end of a long work/school day. The other thing we would say also involved supper. If dad wasn't up for cooking anything specific, it was considered a night of, "Catch a can".
Pastor Matt's side-story involved "Family Code" as relative to the new puppy they recently adopted. As of a couple of weeks ago, based on a comment on an FB video of the girl, she's officially been dubbed as, "Fluff Missile"!! And based on her love of Peanut Butter, a.k.a. "Papa Bravo", she is specifically known as a Peanut Butter seeking Fluff Missile!! LOL
So what does any of this have to do with our message?? Let's look --
James 4:1-10
New International Version
Submit Yourselves to God 4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”[c] 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
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While the passage doesn't bring out the idea of codes, specifically, the idea that God loves us enough to encourage self-reflection and repentance shows that we can't hide anything from Him. That's where the connection of codes comes in. We think we can hide our true feelings and intentions towards certain situations we're not the most proud of. But the truth is this; while we may be able to hide them from other people, we can never hide them from God. We disguise our pride, our envy, our jealousy, even our shame, in a mask of anger. We use our anger as "code" for deeper feelings or intentions. This passage challenges to explore those depths in order to "mine them out", if you will. It encourages us at the same time with a promise of God's promotion in our lives as we humble ourselves before Him.
In verse one, we find James inspired by God to ask the people, "What causes fights and quarrels among you??" We are, in our turn, challenged to ask ourselves the same question. God wants us to pay attention to our underlying feelings so that we can approach the situation in the humble purity of love rather than trying to bury them in angry reactions.
As humans, it comes naturally to blame others for our anger. "If they would just change..."
I can guarantee you that we've all been there at some point. Just now, I'm reminded of Michael Jackson's song, "Man in the Mirror". Opinions of him may differ, or tastes in music, but the fact remains that he had the maturity when he wrote it to recognize the truth. We can't rely on anyone else to make the changes necessary for a better world, nor can we force anyone to change until they're ready; so we need to look at ourselves and start there.
Verses 2 and 3 can be summarized in one simple phrase that Pastor Matt used. "Our 'wanters' are broken." It's as simple as that. We can't get the results, or items, or people we want, so we take things to the extreme. It even calls us out on our petitions to God if our motives are wrong!! Yes, we should absolutely ask God for things we need, but we just can't do it out of selfish ambition or the answer will be "no" until we get our hearts right. Selfish ambition sets others aside for our own perceived good. Serving our own desires. God's nature is purely based in love, as should our own be. Love is about settling ourselves aside for the good of others*. Just think of what He did when He sent Jesus down to die for us. It wasn't that He wanted Jesus to die, it was that He wanted us to live*. It's really sad to say, but not all Churches understand this properly. Their idea of Discipleship is nothing more than basic "behavior modification". "Obey our rules, and you'll go to Heaven*." They don't take the time because they don't care enough to dig deeper and change people's hearts. They're the ones that just look at the idea of making people good vs actually Saving the Lost; which is exactly what Jesus said He was sent to do. I mean, seriously, people can be morally good without being saved, so what's the difference where they learn it, right?? The point of Church is supposed to be about leading people to Jesus, not just about filling chairs*.
Now the important thing to realize and remember here is that desires, in and of themselves, are not wrong. The point lies in how we choose to respond to them. I mean, desiring food is a good thing. We need food to live, but if we want to live healthy, we need to choose foods that will help with that. Sadly, things like donuts and candy are not necessarily high on that list... (although it's a fact that dark chocolate is really good for you, so there's that) ;) Also, we need only to look elsewhere in the Bible for confirmation that not all desires are bad. Psalm 37, for example. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Properly interpreted, this means that God will put desires in your heart according to HIs will for you.
We all have a deep, actually a core need to belong with others. It's like God put a sense of Community right in our DNA. Of course, my fellow Introverts out there understand that some us require more "down time" from directly interacting with others than the average Extrovert, who requires little to none. But even we introverts need to know someone cares about us and wants to be around us when we need/want them. We all have desires, either way, but the problem in our world is that those desires have been contorted and confused by the use of manipulation and control as means of fulfilling them. But the truth is, those methods are Toxic, and don't give us the results we truly want/need in the long run. And that's the key phrase right there, "in the long run'. Things may seem like they're good in the moment, and maybe even for months on end, but they eventually fall apart because it wasn't real. At the same time, something right could fail due to a lack of proper effort on our part*. Neither scenario is good. But the point of needing to belong to something or to someone lies in a feeling of safety and security. There is an absence of pain and/or pursuit of pleasure. (as previously mentioned a while back, Americans in particular are not good with pain/grief)
So... what to do about the chaos of fulfilling our desires?? Let's read on in our passage...
Verse 7 reads, "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you." If we back-track up to verse 4, we see that we have a choice to make. Either the World or God. We can't have it both ways and be authentic or expect to succeed. Choosing one and embracing it completely will automatically set us against the other. Of course, choosing God doesn't physically remove us from the world, and there are still rules and laws to be followed, but this is about our hearts and in turn, how we treat our fellow human beings. As last week's message brought out, there is wisdom from above, which shows humility; and there's wisdom from below which shows pride.
The choice becomes even easier when we realize that God is tirelessly working on our behalf. He only wants what is truly best for us. When we recognize and accept this, it brings us to a place of humility. There's a sense of freedom in humility unmatched by the deception of pride. Humility means that we have a clear understanding that we absolutely cannot manage pure, consistent goodness on our own. Like I said above, morality can happen without God, but a pure heart simply cannot. Humility is shown by obedience to God. There is a reasonability in it that is based on God's goodness. As it says in 1 Jn. 4:19, "we love Him because He first loved us." When someone loves you, it's a natural response to want to do things for them that will make them happy. You have a sense of belonging, and you don't want to purposefully do anything to jeopardize it*. (of course, that's if you truly love them in return)
Now the urge to say of any given situation, "I want what I want. I'll do what I want." is all too natural. There's energy in anger and bitterness, in unforgiveness and revenge... The problem is, none of those provide a sense of belonging. They actually work against it and create distance from others.
Okay, so how do we become humble?? Start by reading verse 8... "Come near to God... wash your hands... purify your hearts. If our hearts are truly pure, we will mourn at the idea of sin. The passage literally speaks the language of sackcloth and ashes in the original Greek. This grief is actually a gift from God that allows us to re-orient our lives towards Him*. Now obviously, the phrase, "wash your hands", as used here has nothing to do with soap and water. Rather, we are to take the example of Pilate ahead of the Crucifixion's torture. We are to turn our backs to sin, which, incidentally, is the idea of repentance. A "turning away" from the direction we had been going. The truth is, trying to be your own "savior" will only result in ruin. Remember the promise of verse 10, "humble yourself, and He will lift you up." This will result in healing, restoration, redemption, and wholeness.
To close, Pastor Matt shared another brief story illustrating a heart of stubbornness. He had a moment of, "I want what I want, I'll do what I want." He was attending a Men's Retreat and ended up arriving early. He proceeded to park in the lot and just wait in his car until the scheduled time. The parking attendant was opposed to this and insisted Matt leave the premises and return later. After a few minutes of perfectly logical argument from Matt, "I'm here, I'll stay out of the way until you're ready, but I'm staying..." He pulled out of the lot and parked just outside the property over a little bridge in the driveway. His attitude was to show that he had obeyed, if only to the minimum extent. (tbh, I would've done the same thing) lol But there was still tension in the situation, so it didn't truly bring the freedom that would have been found in humble and more complete obedience. -- God Bless!!
Footnotes --
In my house, there was my grandfather, my parents, and me. My father is the more domestic partner by a vast margin. Not that he's actually that great of a cook, but mom is worse... ;p
I have an ex-boyfriend who grew up in an abusive environment. As a result, when I would say, "I love you", he would sometimes say it back, but other times he would say that he wasn't sure what that meant. :/ I gave him the simplest, most basic definition I could muster -- "Love is about taking random turns at putting the other person first." It's not about "keeping score", because that wouldn't be fair or reasonable. There's always going to be situations in which one person's needs will automatically take priority. (illness, job responsibilities, etc...) The point lies in proper recognition of these moments and integrating them into the mix of voluntary give and take required in any successful relationship.
"He wanted us to live" -- this bit reminded me that there are those people out there who actually think that Jesus' death on the Cross was a "last minute" decision on God's part to save humanity. It's clear to me that they have not read the Bible as an entire narrative pointing to Christ's sacrifice throughout the entire history of mankind... Seriously!?
"Obey our rules..." My ex-husband and I attended a Church like that for exactly one Sunday before hearing from others that it was/is a Church like that. We heard that people should only go there if they don't mind having their entire life controlled. Uuuugggh!!
Earlier this year, I believe it was, I watched a movie of a Pastor who understood that his Church would not be filled "over night". It took years before people filled his sanctuary. It's called "Nothing to Lose" about the life of Edir Mecedo. It's actually in two parts and it's AMAZING!! Look for it on Netflix.
Psalm 37 has also been interpreted as God giving us what we desire, because they connect it with Matt. 6 where Jesus tells the people to "seek ye first the kingdom of God.." The problem is, they are "cherry-picking" because the Bible, taken as a whole, as it should be, is all about following God's will
Sadly, I've been in both of these situations...
Being loved and loving in return... not jeopardizing it -- This is brought out by Rob on a regular basis. He has mental disabilities which work in direct opposition to my High Functioning, and he gets very upset with himself when he says or does something to aggravate or frustrate me. He feels that I'm the best thing to ever happen to him and he doesn't want to lose me.
I had an image come to mind here of a helicopter gift from a fan as shown in The Hunger Games movies. God is our Number One Fan, and we would do well to remember it!!
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