Beneficial, Constructive, Destructive

The Mill Ministry
Filters – Choices, Decisions, and God.
Session 2

Right and wrong. Obedience and sin. There are certain things that are required of a Christian, not to grant the faith, but to vindicate it. And when it comes to these commandments of God, it really comes down to this – either we will obey Him or we won’t.
However, life isn’t that simple. Nothing is black and white, and we find our lives buried in shades of grey. These vague choices aren’t condemned and they aren’t encouraged. Let’s label these things, which are neither right nor wrong, as ‘not wrong.’

This can encompass everything from controversies like alcohol, smoking, medical marijuana, and spooning, to picking a career, McDonalds or Burger King, the car we buy, and on and on.
What do we do with these?
“ ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything,’ – but not everything is constructive.” [1 Corinthians 10:23]
There is an inherent danger in assuming that everything ‘not wrong’ is ok for us to do. These decisions require the guidance of the Great Counselor, the Holy Spirit, with serious reflection in sincerity and in truth.
Why? Because the Bible is in many aspects, descriptive, not prescriptive. It doesn’t hold a rule by rule, situation by situation instruction for how to live our lives. Rather, it describes what a godly life looks like, and rather than obtaining a set of rules to strictly adhere to (refer to Book 4, Chapter 8, Section 2, Paragraph 3, Subsection 4, Line 1) through these descriptive narrations, we can find principles, by which we should act and think.
“Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.” [Proverbs 4:5-6]
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.” [Proverbs 1:32]

These two passages lead us to our next filter:

Filter #2 – Is it wise or is it foolish?

We don’t live in a morally neutral or clear-cut world; therefore each situation is unique in circumstance and actors.
So consider these four questions as you debate the wisdom or foolishness of your choices.

Question #1 – Is it wise considering my past?
e.g. should you have a drink of alcohol? The bible says don’t get drunk. The bible also doesn’t say have a drink, or never drink. But consider, if you are a recovering alcoholic, then in light of your past, should you have drink? There are many former alcoholics who won’t drink a sip of alcohol, not because they are doing what the bible says, but in their wisdom, they can admit that for them, they can’t just, “have the one.”

Question #2 – Is it wise considering my present?
e.g. If you are with a friend who is a recovering alcoholic, then should you have a drink?
Having a drink in their midst isn’t wrong, per se, and well within the realm of your “rights,” but is it wise? Or are you acting foolishly and not out of love, but selfishness.
Or another example – you’ve just gotten divorced, and you’ve found a great person, and the topic is heading toward marriage. Considering the fact that you’ve just gone through a divorce, is it wise to be considering remarriage to another person so soon?

Question #3 – Is it wise in light of your future goals and aspirations?
e.g. If you want to go on missions overseas, then is it wise to amass hundreds of thousands of debt attending Harvard university?
Or, an example from the speaker, he tucks in his three boys at night, almost every night of the week. Now this isn’t necessary nor necessarily the easiest thing to do, but because of what he envisions for his future relationship with his sons, it is wise for him to commit that time and intimacy with his kids now.

Question #4 – Are you trading the ultimate, for the immediate?
e.g. When God refers to Himself, He sometimes uses the name ‘The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” But Jacob was not supposed to receive the main portion of the inheritance because he was not the firstborn. But his older brother Esau traded away his birthright for a bowl of soup! Imagine, it might have said “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Esau.” But Esau traded the ultimate (birthright), for the immediate (a bowl of soup).

Or the Israelites, right after they had fulfilled the 400 years of slavery God had told Abraham his descendants would endure, and He had brought them up out of Egypt with miracles and glory. And in the desert, they began to complain that there was no food, so the Lord heard their grumbling and sent manna – Magical heaven bread. Not only that, but he then sends them quail to eat for meat, so much that the quail covered the camp. So they now have food.
But, of course, a desert is a dry place, and they begin to grumble against God again, and God, hearing their grumbling has Moses go and strike a rock to magically provide water for the whole community. But instead of being called, The Place Where God Provided, it was named Massah, because the Israelites argued and quarreled and Meribah because they had tested the Lord.
“But they [Israelites] soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for His plan to unfold. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test. So He gave them what they asked for, but sent leanness into their souls.” [Psalm 106:13-15]
For the sake of gratifying their immediate desires, they didn’t wait for God’s plan to unfold, but tested Him, and though they were nourished in body, God sent leanness into their souls.

Are your decisions colored by something more than just the present?

Having gone through the four questions, let’s apply this to a ‘not wrong.’ For instance, let’s say spooning with your boy/girlfriend. There is no law against it or for it, but is it wise, considering your past, your present, your future, and the big picture?
I would say no.
No one wakes up in the midst of a married life, having made a series of great and wise decisions over the course of the years of their marriage, and decides that they are going to throw it all away by cheating on their spouse. There is always a trail of small, bad decisions which culminate into their big decision to commit adultery.
Likewise, things like spooning, making out, staying over at each others place (alone) till 3 in the morning, or falling asleep in the same bed, can be part of the many small decisions which lead to a really big foolish decision.

“Be careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.” [Ephesians 5:15-17]

Filters – Choices, Decisions, and God.

The Mill Ministry
Filters – Choices, Decisions, and God.
Session 1

There are many decisions we make everyday – some are life changing, others are trivial. This can range from the clothes we buy, to where we eat, to where we go to college, to whom we marry, to whether we really are ok to drive after pounding another shot of vodka.
However, we can find that the myriad of small, little decisions we make every day can have a large impact on the few big decisions we make later on. And we find our future choices directed, limited, and sometimes enriched by smaller decisions we made before.
For example, if you know deep down in your heart that you want to go into the mission field, then perhaps going to Harvard and racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt isn’t the best option.

So let us consider the lens, the filter through which we view these choices and options and ultimately come to a decision.
For instance, if the filter by which you act is your personal happiness, ‘what will make me happiest right now,’ then you will act and live your life so that you can experience the most gratification now.

So what does God have to say about all this?

Our behavior and our choices, the works of our flesh don’t determine our salvation, since that is through faith, by grace, because of the work already completed for us on the cross. So, our behavior does not determine our inclusion in the family of God. But once we are in the family of God, He would have us behave in a way that demonstrates our membership within His family.
Christianity isn’t a moral code, it is a gift of grace, but there are some things that God expects of His people.
Heart transformation irresistibly results in behavior modification.
Once Jesus Christ, becomes your Lord and Saviour, and transforms your heart, then out of this change – this shift – your principles, your foundations, your perceptions, your pleasures, are all shifted to what God desires.

That is the first lens.

Filter #1 – Is it right or is it wrong?

Usually referred to as commandments, when God gives us these instructions it then becomes a matter of obedience. You will do it or you will not. The former is to obey, the latter is to sin.
Now, there are some pretty clear cut things which God very plainly tells us to do.
We shouldn’t murder. [Exodus 20]
We shouldn’t get drunk. [Ephesians 5:18]
We shouldn’t make money and the luxuries of wealth the focus of our lives. [Matthew 6:24]
I won’t list all of them but we must always remember the sanctity of what God has commanded us. When Satan wanted to deceive Eve, the first thing he does, the first conversation recorded was this – “Did God really say…” [Genesis 3:1]
He called into question the authority and sanctity of what God had commanded Adam and Eve and, well you know what happened next.

And so, when you come to any choice, whether big or small, ask yourself, is it right or is it wrong?

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” [1 Corinthians 6:19-20]

Undefeated

Invictus

“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”

– William Ernest Henley

Glory

Staying Alive to God’s Glory

1. At least once every day, I will look up at the sky, and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and around me.
2. Instead of mindless evolution, I will believe and trust that there is an intelligence guiding the universe
3. I will live each day as the unique event that it is, filled with worthy potentials. I will hold trouble and pain not only as evils, but as ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
4. There is a truth beyond my perceptions, so will always strive to live in a reality. I will remember what I am doing when I abstract, which I will often have to do.
5. I won’t demean myself by envying others, I am unique. I will not confine myself to psychological or social categories. I will try and forget about myself and do my work.
6. I will open my eyes and ears. I will simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, a person. I will not concern myself about what they are, but simply be glad that they are. I will joyfully allow them the experience of their “divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic existence.”
7. I will turn frequently to imaginative things, such as books and music.
8. I won’t get sucked into the rat race, but “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I will try to live well now because now is the only time that exists.
9. I will assume my ancestry is from the stars and not the caves.
10. 10.  Even should I be wrong, I will bet my life on assuming that the world is not chaotic, or uncontrolled, but that even this very day some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that I will one day understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega.
11. I will strive to view everything with the fresh vision of a child – a “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

Every day, I will live in the light of God’s glory.

(A paraphrased rendition of Clyde Kilby’s Eleven Resolutions to Staying Alive to God’s Glory.)

Soli Deo Gloria

Selah

Most Christians have gone through it, they are praising and then the musical interlude comes in. The dreaded musical interlude. To be honest, I used to fear it, I didn’t know what to do and felt awkward every second of it, and whenever I knew an interlude was coming, I always felt a little anxious knot in the pit of my stomach.
For the past three years or so, I have spent most of these interludes praying for whatever God stirred in my heart.
But, as I was meditating to Like Incense/Sometimes By Step, my “theme song” for this season of my life, I got the urge to look up the lyrics. I went online and once I found it I noticed this particular phrase, “selah.” It was placed right where the musical interlude was. Out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of “selah.” Unlike “sela” which means “rock,” “selah,” though difficult to translate, can be interpreted loosely as “take pause and think.” Or more concisely, “let those with eyes see and those with ears hear,” in effect, it is a calling for all worshippers to “stop and listen.”
And so, when a band goes into a musical interlude, they are inviting the worshippers to pause and reflect upon themselves, God, and the song they are singing.
I love the idea of selah now.

PTL.

Snapple Wisdom

I was living my life as I had for the numerous days before, working, waiting, wishing in San Jose, when I happened upon something.
“Do not regret growing older,
It is a privilege denied to many.”
And this on a Snapple cap, no less.
Feeling a little foolish at this sudden surge of morbidity, I cast it from my mind and went about my business. But, God can work in mysterious ways.
That night, I went to dinner at a friend of my uncle’s and just a few weeks prior, they had commemorated the one year anniversary of when their youngest had been taken from this world. I don’t know what God’s reasoning for taking a six month old child was, I don’t know why she was born with a genetic defect which cut her days short. Even if God, were to show me, I know I’m too short sighted to understand fully.
But, with a rush of awakening, I remembered what I had read just a few hours earlier. I began to consider with what heart and gravity I lived the days given to me. Squandered and wasted away, unappreciated, as part of another daily grind.
“I know there is nothing better for people than to be happy and do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God.”
– Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
Every day is a gift from God. Every breath is a gift from God. Every moment another extension of His mercy. Our every provision – from food, to our homes, to the comforts of His grace.
Of course, the saying is only half true, growing older is a privilege and good, but heaven is where we were created to be, and it is incomparably better. It is our home, our true citizenship.
But, here we are. God has given us another day. How will we use it? Will we waste it? Will we spend it on our own selfish desires and self-centered pleasures? Or, will we with boldness live in the purpose and confidence of Christ’s authority?

So, what are you doing with your life?

Actualized

Scientifically speaking, darkness is no thing, There isn’t an actual thing called darkness. Darkness is merely the absence of light. But, as I lay to sleep, I saw a darkness – black and thick and completely enveloping, like a tar pit of steel. Completely and utterly impenetrable.
And only with the coming of dawn, could I rest, having escaped the…darkness.
They say that cold is the slowing of molecules, and evil is the absence of good. But, sin, like absolute zero, and like this darkness, can take on properties of its own.

Actualized.

Psalm 130

“Out of the depths I cry to You, LORD;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If You, LORD, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve You.

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,
and in His word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with Him is full redemption.
He Himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.”

 

 

Above All

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown,
something new.
Yet, it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though You could be today what time
– that is to say, grace –
and circumstances acting on your own good will,
will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that His hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.

Amen
– Pierre Teilhard de Chaudin

 

Confession of a Contrite Heart

Interesting, tragically so, that the night I had approached with a determination to commune with God only ended in my sin against Him.
And in my weakness, Satan used the very Word I relied on as a weapon against me.
God, could I still meet you here?
For years I’ve lived with my asceticism. But, is it not your lovingkindness which leads us to repentance?
God, I don’t deserve you. But, if you will have me, then take all of me.

Meet me in my brokenness.