Choose The Right Cup

This morning I am thinking of a Pastor I knew who started drinking and stopped ministering. He died that way.

1 Corinthians 9:25-10:6 ESV - "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did."

It is Monday and we have good spiritual food to eat. We are running a race and there are people that need us to keep running it. I plan to find strength in God and not seek to escape reality. We can face challenges with courage. God is faithful. If we are renewed in our mind we will see the provision.

Psalm 116:12-13 ESV - "What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD"

If we drink out of God's cup we will win this week. God puts it in front of us so we will partake of it. There is no Earthly substitute.

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Hush, The Neighbors Are Sleeping

Have you ever been quiet for the neighbor's sake? Maybe you want to do something but the thing you want to do is loud and it is late at night so you refrain.

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him." - Psalm 62:5 ESV

"For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' But you were unwilling, and you said, 'No! We will flee upon horses'; therefore you shall flee away; and, 'We will ride upon swift steeds'; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him." - Isaiah 30:15-18 ESV

Sometimes we quiet ourselves for our sake but this morning I am thinking about how we can respond to grace and enter into quietness for His sake.

Instead of staying here in quietness our minds can run away. We can run to fantasy and have our own little never never land. We flee away. The television becomes our noise or perhaps it is alcohol or lust of some kind. We chase the different scenarios around the living room of our mind. We make a ruckus with our 'should of's and 'could of's. We bang the drums of right and wrong. Perhaps it is a violin of self pity or maybe the hip hop of anger and self entitlement. We laugh loud to stave off the boredom. Instead of quiet purpose we run.

There is a place where God is waiting to be gracious. In quietness for His sake we find that place. A quietness in response to grace.

We might say, 'I need to turn this down because my neighbor is sleeping.'

On a spiritual level we say, 'I need to quiet down because God is resting in His Love. Is it right for me to panic so loudly? Is it really so good blare the sounds of my land of pretend when God is waiting right here to quietly speak to me?'

If is not a mindfulness born from demand. It is one born of grace, honor and love. He cares so we care. He has given favor because of His Son. We come under that favor and pass through the narrow space to find a wide open rest.

Hush now. Simmer down. What does the Bible say? Are we running or resting? Are we looking or leaving?

God is waiting to be gracious to us. He lifts Himself up to show mercy. He wants to speak to us in objectivity.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." - Psalm 23:6 ESV

If we run He will follow us and show us mercy when we have exhausted all our efforts but what if we just stay in quietness? If we rest then we will have the strength to rise early and seek Him at the appointed time.

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Redemption Or Soulish Substitutes

Truth is the antidote for error and love is the antidote for fear... but there are counterfeits out there.

"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God." - Ephesians 5:17-21 NKJV

Dissipation is Asotia (Strong's G810). A negation of the word for being saved Sozo (G4982). In other words non-redemptive... there is no redemption in drinking wine. It is a counterfeit because is produces a feeling that saves no one and buys nothing back. Yes, There can be joy and relaxation... it is used in the Hebrew scriptures as a symbol for joy. But, Now that the Spirit of God has come to indwell individuals we are to be wise and not drunken.

The filling of the Spirit has an impact on each area of our soul. The mind, emotions, will, consciousness and conscience. He restores balance. God creates a clean heart in us with a new identity.

"My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!" - Psalms 119:25 ESV

The counterfeits energize the old identity stimulating or depressing our natural man... counterfeit ideas, counterfeit emotions, counterfeit decision making, a counterfeit self image and a counterfeit value system... drunkenness that is non-redemptive... some translations use the word debauchery for Asotia.

Our pleasure is now rooted in a poetic interaction, in a musical ministry, in a thanksgiving that submits one to another in awe of God. All those things have redemptive value. Fun is redemptive fun. Pleasure is redemptive pleasure. Decisions are made in wisdom... not as a means of escape but as a means of investment... a strengthening... a buying back of time.

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." - Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Yes.

There are times when our soul will gravitate towards the dust and the counterfeit will look attractive... Those are the moments where by grace we find our way of redemptive escape. Jesus Himself is that doorway. We can walk by faith in those moments knowing that the integrity of faith in the finished work of Christ is the antidote for hopelessness and death. Faith in the resurrected ever living one is why we were created.

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