God's wisdom.

"God reveals his wisdom, his ways and his will through his word."

When God told his people that they would, eventually, want a king for themselves as other nations did, he instructed them to choose wisely. He then said that the first thing which the king should do was to copy God's words down. "That scroll is to remain at his side at all times; he is to study it every day so that he may learn what it means to fear his God, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. If he reads and learns, he will have a long reign as king in Israel, he and his sons."

True for us too. If we read and learn, we will gain insight and wisdom as we come to understand and worship God more.

This is the benchmark.  As God instructs his people about living wisely, listening to prophets - "If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him." (Deuteronomy 18: 19) - everything has to be looked at in the light of Scripture. This is because THE LORD is our inheritance. Everything about our lives comes from him. 

Wendy Blight @FirstFive explains: "On its face, this (the Levites being the only tribe not to be allotted land - they were supported by gifts from the others) sounds unfair. But in reality, it was a gift. It allowed the Levites to focus on their singular call to serve the One True God and His people and not get entangled with the worries of the world. The Lord, not land, was their inheritance. (Numbers 18:20) That was enough. They lived by faith in God’s promised blessing to be their share and their portion.

That promised inheritance included providing not only for their spiritual needs but also their physical needs through the other 11 tribes. This provision did not depend on the people’s generosity; it was established by law. These laws required the other tribes to share specified portions of their tithes, gifts and offerings to feed and sustain the Levites.

This same word, “inheritance,” appears in the New Testament in Ephesians 1:18: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

Paul teaches that just like the Old Testament priests, God has claimed us, believers in Jesus, as His inheritance. He chose us before the foundation of the world, adopted us into His family, redeemed us by the blood of Jesus, indwelled us by the power of His Holy Spirit and claimed us as His own. (Ephesians 1)

Later in the New Testament, Peter identifies believers as a priesthood. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

And just as God provided an inheritance and physical blessings for the Old Testament priesthood, He provides an inheritance and blessings for us as well. Ours are spiritual blessings.

Spend a few moments reading through and thanking God for these spiritual blessings … the riches of our inheritance.

We are …

Loved (Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 1:4)

Forgiven (Psalm 103:3)

Redeemed (Galatians 3:13)

A new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Holy (Hebrews 10:10)

Set apart (Jeremiah 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:21)

Created with a purpose (Jeremiah 29:11)

God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)

A temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20)"

Inspiration for living life loving

Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. (You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart.) 

Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,

The old life is a grass life,
its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers;
Grass dries up, flowers droop,
God’s Word goes on and on forever.

This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.

God's Word.

Not just words from God on a page in the Bible, but God's Word. 
The Word that was made flesh. Jesus. 
The Word which was there at the beginning, before Creation.
The Word who promised that He would be with us always and for ever.
The Word who promised to send us another to help and encourage us - His spirit.

I have new life. I can leave everything that belongs to the old life behind - not just when I die, but now.

I can leave my sinful desires out of my life if I choose to love others as if my life depends on it. 

I can be free from being a slave to my sin. I do not have to give in to temptation. 

I CAN. 

Live rightly - for the best Reason

1 Peter 1:17, 21: "You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Live out your time here as (a) foreigner(s) with reverent fear.

I am a foreigner in my workplace, my community, my 'frontline' as Mark Greene (author of Fruitfulness on the Frontline) would put it.

...Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God."

A deep consciousness of God. As Matthew Henry says, "the Word of God been planted in my heart by the Holy Ghost. is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life."

I feel this. Not often, but just now, as I struggle with angry thoughts and wishes for revenge. I feel my thoughts in an uncomfortable struggle inside me.

Almost like a feeling of indigestion, where the body struggles to digest unpalatable foods, I feel my ungodly responses trying to rise to the surface and spill out of my mouth. I feel the struggle and live in grateful amazement that my sin is not winning my soul. It is NOT turned into action.

I live with huge tension, constantly trying to turn every thought into obedience to Christ, I am discovering this truth: "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored." Romans 8:5-6

And so 1 Peter 1:21 says: "It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God...Through him (Christ) you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."

My faith and hope are in God. That 0 and WHO -  is what enables me to get through times of trials.

Living generously

I read Peter's call to holiness, to right living, to a generous life: "So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. (Put all your hope in how kind God will be to you when Jesus Christ appears.)Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. 
As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”

And I have just written of living generously, and the cost to my self will, the need to kill my selfish desires:

Living generously
is not about giving out of my riches
but my need.

I forgive my enemy
the friend who has betrayed
the colleague who has put me down

open-handedly giving away
my need to win the argument
my desire for love and rognition
my wish for revenge.

  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Living generously
is not about benevolent feelings
but selfless actions.

I bless my enemy
do good to the friend who has betrayed
speak well of the colleague who has put me down.

grudgingly putting away
a desire to wound
yearning for a nasty response
craving harm.

  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Living generously
shows me how far short I fall
of perfection.

And how can I do this? Because I have received the gift of life that is Jesus. Because he has saved me from condemnation  because he loves me. Because I can be joyous and endure because of him.Because.

I set my mind on things above.

Becoming a woman of influence: godly character.

Esther is chosen to join the group of potential new queens and immediately becomes the chief eunuch's favourite. So she was given special food, cosmetics, and seven maids from the king's palace to look after.

But she didn't tell anyone she was a Jew. This was deliberate: Mordecai had told her to keep it a secret. Perhaps, had it been known, she would not have been favoured; might, indeed, even have been discriminated against.

Hmmm. How often have I 'not told' anyone I am a Christian? Not deliberately lied, but not nailed my colours to the mast because, if I am honest, there has been lingering fear of prejudice. Literally, others pre-judging me on what they think they know about me. Fear of 'put downs' or derogatory remarks; fear being excluded from 'the group'.

Yet, by keeping quiet, Esther grew 'in favour', building relationships with important people and, as we shall see, eventually becoming queen and obtaining a position of influence.

Fair enough. Psalm 112:1 says: "Shout praises to the Lord! The Lord blesses everyone who worships him and gladly obeys his teachings." 

Esther was indeed blessed: she became a favourite. She might have kept quiet, but she must have secretly worshipped him in her heart and obeyed his teaching. St Francis said: "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Esther is a great example of obedience as she listened to and followed Mordecai's advice and as she lived a good gentle, life. For it could not have been just her external beauty which attracted others, but her loving, kind character as well.

Great example.

Esther 2:8 - 11

The love story

Here's another post about the same blog.  And I just have to repeat part of it here because it is just such a hugely powerful retelling of THE Love Story. The Story of how Jesus loves us so much - with a pure, everlasting, nothing-in-it-for-me, no selfishness love.

Here it is. Thank you, Sarita.

There was a man who fell in love with a girl who was a slave. He loved her so much that he worked 7 years for her to pay the debt off her life because to him, there was no flaw in her. He married her and made a covenant with her, but because she grew up a slave, she did not understand this love. Her whole life she had been abused and taken advantage of. Her whole life’s worth had been in serving her master and trying to make him happy, even though she never could. Her husband’s devotion made her uncomfortable. So she left him and went back to the one who had owned her before and she got pregnant with his child. She lived in guilt but she did not know how to be different.


Her husband came for her, he pursued her, not to tell her how much she had hurt him, not to hold her sin over her head, but because he loved her, with all her faults, with all her mistakes, he loved her as his bride and longed to be with her again. His love for her was unconditional, it was without limit and without end. The owner said he could not have her back because the child was his and would grow up a slave in his house. The husband could have killed him. He wanted to and he could have. But deep down he knew that it would not prove his love and that his wife would only run away again to someone else. So he offered something else. He said he would give his life as a slave unto death, if his wife and child could be free. The owner hated the husband so much, he hated his love and his tenderness, so he agreed to the exchange, to take his life to pay off the debt of her sin. The slave girl found out and begged him not to, she begged him because she knew she did not deserve that kind of love, she begged him because she did not believe she could ever change. But he just looked at her, as though there was no one else in the entire world and said he would gladly die so she could be free, so she would never have to return to being a slave. When they tortured him she could not watch, she could only sob. When they beat him up and pierced his side with a knife, she collapsed in anguish. She could not understand how he could love her so much. She only knew that he did. They mocked him, they mocked his love for such a woman, but he bore it all without responding. When he died he told his wife, “I died so you could be free. You are not a slave any more. Go back home and raise our child in the knowledge that you both were loved.”


Something snapped in her, something deep in a place long shut down by the life she had lived, in a place long devastated and long given up on, a place she remembered as a child before she gave up her soul. And she just knew--no more. She was a slave no more. She was a wife, a bride who was loved, loved enough to have a man die for her and his only request of her was that she live as one who was free. She had never felt love so much, love in her that made her want to die in his place. But it was done. She left that day for good. The owner would come to her house and tell her that she should work for him to pay for the guilt of her sins, he would tell her that she did not deserve the love her husband had shown. It was hard. In her heart, she believed those words, and yet she could not return with him though she wanted to pay off her debt, though she wanted to be free of guilt, she could not return with him because she knew that she had promised not to. She knew that everything her lover died for would be for nothing if she allowed herself and her baby to be enslaved again. Love had cost him everything. And she could not make a mockery of that love. Even though it pained her, even though she rather would have lived a slave in the owner’s house just to prove her love in some small way, she clung to the belief that she had been loved and that He wouldn’t want her to see herself that way. How could she become a slave again if he died for her freedom? It was the hardest thing she ever did, in saying no. Everything in her knew, she had not deserved such a love, and yet it had been given. Though she had not asked for it, it had been given. There were days she struggled with shame, but she kept trying to remember that He had seen her as worth the price, so she began trying to live as though she was worth it. And slowly, she began to believe it, began to believe that He saw something in her she did not see and He had wanted it to live.
For the first time in my life I have seen the anguish Jesus must feel when we live as slaves even though he died for us, his lover, his bride, so we could be free. I do not yet know how to live as one who is free. How to believe in that kind of love. And yet I know it is the lack of knowing that keeps us in chains, or stuck to our church pews paralyzed to do anything or make any difference in the world because we are so bogged down in the areas of our hearts that have not been healed, we do not know how to spread out leaves of healing for others, or how to offer fresh bread to the poor. How to give when we are so empty.


But our emptiness is authentic. Our need is what draws God to us. He longs to fill the need, to put to rest the issues in our hearts that keep us from truly living. Do you not see the good the Lord longs to give to those who love Him, to those who allow themselves to be loved. It is not easy for some of us. For some of us, being loved is harder than actually loving. I think of Elisa whose face would go from stoic, to ruined. I think of how hard it was for her to not get up and run away because our love was overwhelming. She was not sure, after all that time in darkness that it was real, that it could last. I think of the girls in Uganda whose brittle arms I want to hold in mine, even if they push me away because they cannot believe in love. I think of myself, struggling to believe, fighting for my freedom, that others might be free. It is so hard to hope, to actually believe we are beautiful, that to God, there is nothing more beautiful in the world than our face. That if we gave him nothing else than our time with Him, our sweet embrace, that it would make him happier than any other sacrifice of long hours worked, or churches built, or lives saved. All He wants is us.


It is hard to believe. Hard to have faith in. And yet nothing else---no person, no addiction, no hobby, no food, no drink, no work, will heal that place in our hearts that needs to believe in it.


I spent the morning with a blank piece of paper. And I asked God what He thought of me. And always, always, I am shocked by the answer. I am ready for Him to list my faults and my failures, I am ready for Him to tell me who I should have been or what I should have done instead. I am ready for another reason to loathe myself. But he is just holding me and the answer is sweeter than I think I deserve.


Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover…I pray it is me and then I pray it is you.


“Arise my darling, my beautiful one and come with me.
See, the winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” Song of Songs 2:10

Love in Uganda

I've just come across an interesting blog, posted from Uganda.  I like it for the language. I like the way it's written. And I like the themes - this one, about loving God, for instance. Simple, encouraging, just to LOVE. To follow the greatest commandment of all: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind.

Sarita says: God is most concerned with who I am when no one is watching than what I do. There is something coming. Wars and rumors of wars. Time grows short as Jesus coming back to reclaim us gets closer. And I ask myself the question, are we ready? Are we the Bride? Do we really love Him with our whole hearts. And I ask myself the question what would I do differently if I knew I only had years left. If I knew time was not a given, stretching into infinity. How would I change my life?

That is what I would like to change. To fill my days with activities and non-activities which encourage me to just LOVE GOD. That's all. That's more than enough.

However short - or long - the time I have left.

Be a giver, not a taker

Or, in other words: bear one another's burdens, don't just 'dump and run'.  I've just read this article but am going to copy it here, because I'm scared the link might break (these things happen) and it is too good just to disappear...

Giver or a Taker?

January 10th, 2011 by Jen Koop

One Sunday not too long ago, a friend of ours approached me and gave me a hug. She said she had been thinking of us often and wondered how we were doing. This dear Sister has been privy to some of the heavy things on our proverbial “plate” of life.  So in response, I immediately set about telling her all that was going on, never once really coming up for air.  You know what I mean, monologue style, rehashing every last uncomfortable detail… Throwing in a, “but God is so good,” and a “despite it all, I feel so blessed” here and there for a good measure of Church Speak.

My husband, likely noticing my friend’s eyes glazing over, stepped into the conversation and asked her how things were going for her at school (she has gone back to take some college courses).  I was immediately embarrassed, realizing how focused I was on my own problems.  I had chosen to forget that those around me have their own lives and things to work through.  She gratefully smiled in response to his concern and said that she loved her classes and so the long commute was worth it.  However, the day before, as she was driving to school, she had been in a pretty bad car accident.  UGH!  She had suffered a significant scare and set back.  If my husband hadn’t asked, I would have continued on about myself, never knowing what she had been through.  Even more convicting was her faith.  There was no complaint of, “Why me?” or fear of, “What shall I do?”  She was trusting God in the details and sincerely grateful that she was not injured or worse.

I realized that I had again let myself sink into the arms of self absorption.  Believing that my time, my life, my problems are most important and imperative.  There in that self-wallowing place, we are less sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His call to minister.  There in the mire of our hearts, we are unable to love and sympathize with others since our interest is tied up in our own problems, and we are paralyzed by selfish preoccupation.  We miss the blessing of loving others, encouraging others – the very thing that will swiftly lighten the load of our own struggles.

Years ago, a dear friend of mine had lovingly committed to praying for me and my family.  We were going through a pretty wide and dry desert at the time, and I was so grateful for her listening ear and willingness to pray.  However, my fears and flesh began to slowly suck the blessing out of the love this Sister offered.  I began to see the relationship as a way to dump all my problems, describe all my woes, and explain every wretched detail of my troubles.  I chose to ignore that this friend was also living a life mottled by problems, speed bumps, and grief.  I was so wrapped up in my need to be heard, why I thought my life sucked so bad, and wanting to explain why I needed prayer and how I wanted God to answer, that I forgot to be a friend to the one who was taking so much time for me.  Worse yet, I had forgotten that we are to thank Him even in the midst of our troubles; I was missing the sweet assurance that His perfect plan will bring all things good AND bad to beautiful fruition in Christ. (Romans 8:28, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, James 1:2)

Finally, after many woe-is-me letters and phone calls, my dear Sister lovingly and courageously told me to shove it.  OK, not exactly; she was much gentler than that.  In fact, as I look back, I can’t believe how kind she was.  She spent time relaying to me how God loves us and would take care of us.  Then came the sentence that hung in my mind for months, well actually, years.  She wrote, “It is time to become a giver, and stop living as a taker.”  She told me how God had things for me to do that would bring Him glory—those good works He prepared in advance for me to do! (Ephesians 2:10)  She assured me that as I trusted Him, gave, and let Him use me as a vessel to pour out, I would be abundantly blessed in unexpected ways.

She was right.  I began to take every thought captive to the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:5) and find things to thank Him for even in the days where it seemed difficult to simply function. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)  As God gently retrains my mind and heart’s perspective (Isaiah 64:8, Romans 12:2), my thoughts are less likely to be hovering over the troubles I am experiencing.  When worries, fears, or complaints come to mind, I am better able to see through an eternal perspective and realize that they are no where near as weighty as I would like to believe. (Isaiah 55:8-9)  It is amazing how self absorption throws reality out of whack and causes us to believe we are suffering far more than we really are, or that our problems are more important than someone else’s.  I don’t know why it is so easy to slip into a proclivity of doom.  I haven’t the foggiest why self pity feels so darn warm and cozy, vindicating and right, because it isn’t; and we must take caution to avoid that lie that only leads to an ineffective and powerless frame of mind.

In no way do I intend to belittle the problems you face.  Instead, I want to encourage you to ask God to help you view these things through His eyes.  Nor would I suggest that you stop talking to godly counsel about your problems; this is so important, and the Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).  But the verse says, “Bear one another’s…,” not “Dump your troubles and run.”  Sure, it isn’t going to always be a fifty-fifty deal, but the intention is not to take advantage, spill or heap our burden on others, or assume our needs are greater; instead, we are to give, and share the load.

So… reality-check for me.  Yes, hell or high water may come, but it is nothing that our mighty God cannot handle if we only open our hearts and lives to Him and surrender it all.  God is greater! (Genesis 18:14, Matthew 19:26)  No sense in pretending anymore, dear Sister, we have never been nor will we ever be in control.  So, why not let the Almighty take the helm and enjoy the opportunity to be used of Him and witness first hand, the work of the Lord?  Being a ready and open vessel is the ultimate drown-er and squash-er of troubles; it is a divinely appointed remedy for woes.  No, those trials will likely not vanish, but your choice to focus on something or someone else will help you to keep things in perspective, help keep you from reacting out of emotion, and help alleviate the stress and strain on your spirit and physical body that comes with worry.  The best part is: our heavenly Father is patiently waiting for us to ask Him to do this work in us!  The Word says, “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength!” (Philippians 4:13)  He is ABLE!

All Scripture NIV ©2010

Church

Church. What’s it all about, then? This is another post on the same topic. I might be repeating myself. It's a question which is occupying a lot of my waking thoughts.

In the last year we have been attending ‘our’ church less regularly on a Sunday. And no, we have neither been staying in bed, sleeping off the excesses of the night before nor spending the day at the beach.

We’ve been attending a tiny, elderly church. Elderly in every sense of the word, as it is the oldest church on the island.  The congregation on a Sunday morning numbers between 30 to 60, depending on the type of service and the day. In the evening, upwards of a dozen or so. We lower the average age considerably.

So what are we doing?

We became friends with Phil, the rector of the church, a couple of years ago when he and his wife Sarah and 5 children moved here from Kenya – a country we know well, having lived there for decades. We, too, know the realities of culture shock and adjustment to a very different way of life.  We wondered how best to support them, gradually realising – until God’s gentle nudges had begun to feel more like shoves – that we needed to become more involved with Phil’s church.

We didn’t want to ‘leave’ ours.

So we decided, tentatively testing the waters, that we would offer to help Phil with the Alpha course which was due to start. We knew that there were over two dozen people from the church signed up to do it, so he extra table ‘leaders’ would be needed. We thought that getting to know members of St Sampsons this way might be a good start and still allow us to attend services at Trinity.  We asked our home group for a temporary leave of absence , as the group met on the same night. They agreed, though they weren’t too happy about it. We went to see Phil and offered to help. He agreed, though he didn’t seem particularly surprised. We told our own vicar, Jon, what we were doing. He then told us that he had asked Phil how the church could best help. “We don’t need money at the moment, thanks to a generous bequest” Phil replied, “but we do need people.”

“Like Richard and Angie Pollard?” suggested Jon. It turned out that they had had this conversation the very same day that we had realised we could no longer ignore God’s prompting!

So we joined the Alpha Course and had a wonderful time.  Then folk continued meeting to study the course ‘Christianity Explored’.  We are part of the evening group which has up to 14 or 15 people.

The situation is  further complicated as there are two churches in the parish, so on the Alpha Course  we found ourselves in a group with people from both churches. In practice, this means that we would never see some of them on a Sunday unless we alternated churches. It is easy to go weeks without meeting up with people.

This has led us to re-examine what we mean by ‘church’.

In those wonderful ways in which God leads and reorganises our lives, we have had meetings and conversations with many people, ranging from old friends to new acquaintances who we barely know. Gatherings with Christian friends – over coffee, over meals -  seem to lead to the same topic of ‘how do we ‘do’ church?’ without, I may add, any help from us !

We're learning more about what 'church' isn't, than what it is.

Church isn't just about turning up to a building on a Sunday, singing some songs, saying a few prayers, listening to a talk and then going home, forgetting all about 'church' until the next week.

Church is about meeting with people. Yes, after the church service over coffee.  No coffee served? Go to a coffee shop together, invite folk home for a cup of tea...but church isn't JUST a social time. Being 'church', doing 'church'...it's spiritual, intentional.

Church is about getting to know people, more than just briefly after the service. Because you can't. So church means meeting others at other times than Sundays.  Church isn't JUST a catch-up on the news - and definitely NOT gossip. 'Church' goes deeper than what lies on the surface of our lives.

Church is about getting to know people well, more than as just brief acquaintances. It is about understanding others, appreciating their lives, listening. It is about intimacy, accountability. We have found the best way to do this is to talk about Jesus. What he said, what he did, how he lived, what his friends said about him.  So we study the Bible together. We find out what it means. We wonder how we can apply it to our lives. We talk with each other upon the way, as the two disciples did on the road to Emmaus. And many other dusty Palestinian roads as well.

Church is about spending time. Giving time. Helping one another. Encouraging.

Pleasing God

I've been challenged to think about pleasing God by Rachel Olsen, who wrote a devotional about Jonah. This, though, was the first verse I thought of:

Therefore, I urge you, sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1, NIV: check it out in The Message, too.)

To offer my body - my female, imperfectly made, sometimes poorly maintained body - as a living sacrifice: how?

My instinctive question would not be HOW, but WHY? Why would God want my body?

Silly question, really.
He made me just as I am – with a little help from me in the way of adding some extra fat cells.
He made me because He loves me – hard to understand sometimes, but one thing I do know is that He loves me enough to send Jesus my superhero to rescue me.
He made me perfect in every way – and nothing is more pleasing to him than to see me use that body perfectly for his glory.

That’s my view of God’s mercy, so the thought of offering my body as a living sacrifice is a huge incentive. Inspirational, even.

So I say to my hands: OK, hands, whatever you do today, you’re doing it for God, right? So think about all the good stuff you could do. Writing encouraging words; caring for someone in sorrow; serving someone in need.

I say to my feet: I’m glad you’re here and working well. Now, just be careful where you take me. Don’t just worry about taking me to the wrong places: I’d like you to take me to the right places, to the places God wants me to go.

I say to my mouth: smile, God loves you. That way others will know that God loves them, too. Jesus reminds us that “What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'” (Matthew 15:11) and even more scary is “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) I ask my mouth to speak only words which will bless my hearers.

I say to my eyes: choose carefully what you look at today. Psalm 101:3 says “I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.” (New Living Translation) and Psalm 119:37 asks God to help me turn my eyes away from worthless things.
Psalm 123 (verses 1 and 2) says “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God…” Don’t you just love the idea of being so devoted to the Lord that your eyes refuse to look anywhere else?

I say to my heart and mind: just do what Paul says in Philippians: fill up and meditate on “things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” (Chapter 4 verse 8 – 9, The Message)

Now THAT is pleasing God.

A challenge

Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1-3