Holy Living

Less of Me

“We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” – David Platt

We sing a song in our church with these lyrics: “If more of You means less of me, take everything. Yes, all of You is all I need. Take everything.” Wow. That’s a lot to pray. Take everything. Why would we pray that kind of prayer? Maybe because we’ve figured out that our way of doing things really doesn’t work!

We present an aura of confidence, good will, and purity when inside we are none of those things. It’s easy to fall into a life of covering, posturing, and pretending. And it’s exhausting!

Instead of an ego-centered life, God wants us to admit our weakness, so he can be our strength.

He wants us to give up our earthly desires, and let him provide what will really satisfy.

He challenges us to stop trying to be better, stronger, wiser, and, instead, to focus completely on him.

He invites us to relinquish pride, appearances, being right, honor, self-satisfaction, superiority, authority, perfection. He doesn’t want those things to be important anymore.

Why all this giving up? Because God knows that when we always have to be in control, we’re not able to accept the greater gifts he offers us.

When John the Baptist was preaching, he had many followers. When Jesus came on the scene, John pointed to him as the one he had been talking about all along, and he says, “He must increase and I must decrease.” He deliberately steered people’s attention away from himself and onto Jesus.

I think that’s what this is all about. Less of me. More of him.

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:3

The Front Row

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord.” – J.I. Packer

The high priced seats at any concert are those that are closest to the front. Why? True fans want to be up close so they can see and hear everything. And they’ll pay a lot to be able to do that!

When it comes to worshiping God, he has already paid for the high-priced ticket. He invites us to come closer and to experience the awe of his presence.

A. W. Tozer uses the tabernacle in the Old Testament as a picture of doing that*:

The tabernacle courtyard was for everyone. It was wide open space for all who chose to come. It’s where we begin in our relationship with God.

If we want to grow closer, we move to the Holy Place. There the focus was on Torah. In other words, this is the space where we learn about God, and for most of us, that is through the church. If we want to get closer to God, we need to be willing to learn.

The inner room was the Holy of Holies. The encounter there was one-on-one with God. Since Jesus came to make us clean, this inner place is open to us. We can go in alone to meet with God through prayer, meditation on his word, and worship.

I don’t know about you, but I want to spend more time in the Holy of Holies soaking in his presence and bowing in adoration. Why hang around the courtyard when the door is open for us to come inside and be all alone with God?

“. . . in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:11b

*From Pursuit of Christian Maturity, A. W. Tozer

Encounters with Jesus

True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.  
—Thomas Merton 

How can we live in such a way that encounters with Jesus, as Merton describes above, are possible for us?

We start by wanting to know everything we can know about him. As Christians, one of our missions should be to read and reread the Gospels to keep gaining insights into Jesus – not only his teaching, but also his actions, attitudes, and habits.

Then we will want to know him, not just intellectually, but experientially through a one-on-one relationship with him. We will want personal encounters with Jesus – times when we can sense his presence or hear his voice as a thought in our mind or feel his love reaching out for us.

These moments with Jesus are possible, but they cannot be commanded. They can only be received. We can prepare space for them by walking in obedience to Jesus, desiring to please him in every possible way. Such a moment might happen when we pause in our prayer to listen, or when we’re driving to an appointment, or as we sleep at night. Every encounter with Jesus will cut to our heart, it will change us, we will never forget it, and we will want more.

Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives within everyone who has put their trust in him. If we tune in to his presence and his power, he will respond in his own way and time.

“. . . “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” – John 14:2

Their god is . . . .

“Each day provides a multitude of ways to improve the way we shelter the Holy Spirit of God.” – Gary Thomas

There are times when we seem to have a love-hate relationship with our bodies. As Christians, we know that our bodies belong to God, that the Holy Spirit lives within us, and that we have a responsibility to take care of the body we have, whatever its present condition may be. Much about our bodies is outside of our control. But we do have something to say about how we eat, exercise, and rest.

Paul actually refers (not favorably!) to people whose “god is their belly” (from Philippians 3:19). I think we could safely interpret it to mean that it’s possible to let our bodies have too much to say about how we live. Sometimes it is our baser instincts that rule our decisions.

But we don’t have to follow the demands our body makes for satisfaction, pleasure, or foods. We have to give it what it needs, but not everything it wants! When we make God our first priority, our one and only God, we are less likely to make our appetites, our comfort, or our happiness into “gods”.

If we’re serious about having God rule our bodies, what do we do? We learn to feed them well, to get exercise to keep our muscles strong, and to find the right balance between work and rest and between feasting and fasting. We can use our bodies to turn us toward God, not away from him, as we learn to care for these temples in ways that please him.

 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship“- Romans 12:1

Letting Him Speak

“When God speaks to you, he is not writing a new book of Scripture; rather, he is applying to your life what he has already said in his Word.” – Henry Blackaby

Ready for a spiritual experiment? Try this:

Worship Jesus. Adore him for who he is, what he’s done, and what he promises.

Remember. Ask him to bring to help you remember a story about him from one of the Gospels. See which event comes to mind (don’t sort through several – just take the first one).

Meditate for a few minutes on that story.

For me recently it was the account of Jesus raising Jairus’s daughter. The detail I zeroed in on was that, though there were many people there, Jesus allowed only three to go in with him. My heart went immediately to “I want to be one of the three!” I want to be close to Jesus, one of his most trusted companions, one who can see everything he does and hear everything he says.

Draw a conclusion.

Jesus reminded me that, if I wanted to be like Peter, James, and John, I need to stay close to him and not lag behind. I need to ask questions and listen for answers. I need to suggest things I’d like him to do and then learn from his response – just as they did throughout the Gospels.

When we give Jesus our attention, he responds. His response encourages us and deepens our desire for more of him. If you’re ready for that connection, you might want to try a spiritual experiment like this one.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” – John 16:13

Maybe there’s more to the story.

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.  By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace to which others are just as entitled as we are.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Have you ever judged someone just by the way they look? Or how they worship? Or how they vote? Have you ever assumed motives behind what someone said and later found they meant it in an entirely different way? It’s so easy to label people or to misinterpret a comment, text, or post.

We too often assume we know more than we do about another person’s beliefs, motives, or actions. Maybe that’s why the Bible has many cautions about being quick to judge. Think of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. She desperately wanted children, but she and her husband had been unable to conceive. She was despondent and out of options. So, she went to the tabernacle to talk to God. She wept and prayed quietly – her lips were moving, but no sound came out.

Eli, the priest, saw this and was immediately filled with disgust. He assumed she had been at the festival and was drunk – in this holy place. So he confronted her, and she responded, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” Eli quickly saw she was telling the truth and reversed his judgment, offering her a blessing instead of a rebuke.

Judging is so easy to do! Let’s be wary of it by committing to these attitudes instead:

  • Assume the best motives unless or until proven otherwise.
  • Don’t be too easily offended.
  • Sometimes just let it go.
  • Love and be loved.

Life will be better. God will be pleased.

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”- John 7:24

The Monks’ Two-Minute Rule

“Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way – in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.”
– Os Guinness

High up in the mountains of central Greece sits Meteora, a monastery representing retreat from the world and all its temptations. However, the monks realized, as isolated as they were from worldly allurements, they still had problems with evil thoughts – things like vengeance, lust, envy, anxiety, and pride. The thoughts just seemed to come out of nowhere and, once planted in their minds, they began to savor them, engage them, and treat them as welcomed guests.

St. Paisos the Athonite, one of the great teachers at Meteora, heard their confessions and gave this advice: Essentially he said that an evil thought is like a hand grenade tossed into your mind. When it comes you have about two minutes to toss it back. If it stays longer, it will explode and cause great damage. It comes from the evil one. Throw it back to him!

We know from Jesus’s teaching that evil thoughts are where sin begins in our lives. If we are serious about our spirituality, we simply can’t accept them. We have to cultivate good thoughts instead: Those that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable and excellent (Philippians 4:8) and those that are from above (Colossians 3:2).

It’s not sin to have evil thoughts come into our minds, but it is a sin to let them stay. And, if we do, they will lead to pain and destruction. The trajectory of our lives begins in our minds. Let’s protect ourselves by protecting our minds. Remember the monks’ two-minute rule!

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6

Saying More by Saying Less

“The most precious things in speech are the pauses.” – Sir Ralph Richardson

When we look at Jesus, we find that sometimes he preached long sermons. But, it seems that, quite often, he spoke only a few words at a time, but words that changed everything for the one or ones that took them in. Things like, “Follow me,” “Peace, be still,” (Mark 4:39), or “Child, arise” (Luke 8:54).

Bible studies or business meetings are a great place to observe people’s communications habits. There are those who dominate the discussion, eagerly sharing their understanding or ideas. That’s not bad. But the ones I like to see are those who sit through most of a meeting attentive, but quiet. Then, we hear them say something that ties everything together for everyone. They seem to process all through the session, and, in a few words near the end, bring everything to a point. Their words are few, but valuable.

At the empty tomb, Jesus said one word and, for Mary Magdalene, it changed everything. She thought he was dead. Someone must have stolen the body. Then she sees a man and thinks it is the gardner. That is until he spoke. He simply said, “Mary.” She couldn’t believe her ears. It was Jesus.! She fell at his feet and, then, she, too, said one word, “Master.” When he spoke her name, she responded with simple submission.

There is a time for listening, processing, meditating, pondering. After that, what we say will be helpful and, by God’s grace, maybe even powerful. I, for one, would like to practice saying more, but with fewer words.


“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” – Ecclesiastes 5:2

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Somebody doesn’t like me.

“You can love without agreeing with someone. You can disagree without hating them.” – Tim Keller

There are many reasons someone might be critical of us: They disagree with our decisions. They feel hurt by something we said or did. They are of a different political persuasion than we are. Or there is just a conflict between two differing personalities.

Getting others to like us is not the primary goal of life. Not everyone liked Jesus. Some hated him enough to hire witnesses to lie about him so he would be sentenced to die. Not everyone liked King David, or Joseph, or Daniel. . .

So what do we do when someone expresses anger toward us or just doesn’t like us?

If we have hurt them, we should seek forgiveness. Sometimes we are the forgiver and sometimes the forgiven, often it’s both: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

If it’s a difference of opinion about lifestyle, leadership, or politics, we should agree to disagree and continue in a respectful relationship: “. . . let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall” (Romans 14:13).

If these approaches don’t bring peace, we should give it all to God and move on. “Never pay back evil with more evil. . . Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:17-18).

We should try to live in harmony with others, especially with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should address conflicts, pray for one another, and grow in our relationship with God. He is the one we want to please the most.

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” – 1 Peter 3:8

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Care and Feeding of the Soul

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing” – C. S. Lewis

We focus a lot on our bodies. We try to exercise, eat good food, get enough sleep, and take the right supplements. Why do we do these things? So our bodies will be healthy, our organs will be free to do what they were designed to do, we’ll have less pain, we’ll live longer, and we’ll be useful. On the other hand, there are practices that will destroy our bodies: addictions, inactivity, poor diet, and stress, to name a few.

Just as there are healthy practices for our bodies, there are healthy practices for our souls. We can feed our souls by reading and meditating on the Bible, slowing our pace, and spending time with others who are also feeding their souls. We can exercise our souls by worshipping God and by loving others. We can undergird our soul health with sincere prayers to the one who created us and who is preparing a place for us to be with him forever.

Caution: Just as with our bodies, there are things that can damage our souls: Lies, evil influences through people or media, hardheartedness toward others, bad attitudes, and neglect of God. Run from those!

God wants us to take care of our bodies. He made us, and caring for ourselves honors him. But, if we want to be happy and to live meaningful lives, we must not neglect our souls. A sick body with a healthy soul is at peace. A healthy body with a sick soul will never be satisfied. Do we need to adjust some priorities?

 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” – 1 Timothy 4:8