Yearly Archives: 2024

I want to talk to you today about something I am going to call “moral love”.  It seems to me that the whole world at this moment is preoccupied with this concept. It’s important to address it, and in many ways all of humanity has been involved in the discussion for all of history.

It includes questions like what is right and wrong? How does morality apply to individuals, groups, businesses, countries, races, genders, children, pets, animals, plants, soil, rocks and in some circles, planets?

What is right because it’s right? Who decides that? What factors trump other factors?

As of late the discussion has taken on a new flavor, a new sort of dogma and, instead of being something humanity ponders in addition to other things, the current deliberation has pushed it to the forefront with a fevered pitch, making it almost an all-consuming din of noise.

How do you approach a topic so varied and convoluted when everyone, everywhere, all at once, is screaming that their angled perspective is the one and only true way to look at something?

The Bible told us it would be like this as we got closer to the end. It told us that knowledge would explode and grow at an exponential rate, and that people would become so focused on their stance on the question of morality that family members would turn on each other because they disagreed, and that many would be killed simply because they had a different thought on the matter.

It’s not an easy undertaking. I mean, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is not 42.

And, it’s not just about perspective either. Obviously every person belongs to multiple groups. They are part of a race (maybe even 2 or 4), they belong to a gender (maybe even 2 or 4…), they belong to a city, a state, a country, a planet. They are of a certain age (which changes), and in so many “states” of being throughout the course of their life. And, they all, I mean, we all, want what’s best for US. We want what best serves us – and we want what serves us best right NOW. If our circumstances change, we now want what serves us best NOW.

Moral Imperatives Change

Here’s an example to make things clearer: baby boomers.

This huge generation of children born in the middle of the last century were a huge group of babies, then, as time went by, they were a huge group of children. Then a huge group of teenagers. Then a huge group of young adults. Then a huge group of middle-aged people, and now they are a huge group of seniors, really, really senior some of them.

When they were children, schools were adjusted to meet their needs. When they were teenagers the world adjusted to meet their social needs. When they were young adults, the world adjusted to help them join the work force in mass, then retirement systems changed to accommodate them, and now nursing homes and social security and health insurance have all adjusted to help them age.

At any given time, what they wanted and demanded, was different.

Senior people didn’t have the weight or the clout in society when those baby boomers were babies in the same way seniors do now in our society, in our laws, in the programs offered for taxes, insurance and the like. But when those same babies became teenagers, the babies didn’t matter as much, but school aged kids and programs for them became the focus.

Those same kids destroyed the culture of our country in the 50s and 60s, annihilated all the established ways of doing everything, and they didn’t put it back because, well, now they were young adults. And what mattered to them was raising kids, and, you get the idea.

You cannot from this determine that babies are always the most important, or that school aged kids are, or that teenagers are, or that young adults, middle-aged adults, or senior adults should be the priority of a culture or a country.

How much weight should any of them have? Which trumps which? I mean if you only have $100,000 to spend on programs to help people, who should get the help? Who should get the dollars? Who deserves it more or needs it more?

This is a simplified question because it leaves out all the other factors and all the other groups and all the other subgroups. It only shows how the needs change though time and how everyone needs help and the form of help changes.

And this only considers circumstances in which people want to help and want to be helped. Maybe people are selfish pricks instead…Have you ever encountered one of those? Is that more the norm than people who want to help?

Why Moral Love Matters

If you are an adult and you don’t have any moral stance on children, for example, it makes it okay to suck up all the life, money, time and resources for yourself. ‘Who cares about children?’

Or, if you are a teenager and you don’t have any moral stance on businesses, for example, it makes it okay to shoplift. ‘Who cares about them?’

If everyone does that, if everyone only pushes and fights to get what benefits themselves right now, we are set up for a huge fight. One that no one will win, because in the end, none of the “stuff” matters.

Sure, you might have the best schools for your kids, or the best parks, or the best neighborhoods, but if you aren’t raising well-balanced, loving children to become well-balanced loving adults you’ve lost everything.

Maybe you’ve heard about ceasefires on Christmas or of enemies being kind to one another in certain circumstances. This is ‘moral love,’ and it’s getting rarer and rarer. I think this is so partly because no one is talking about it, at least no one is hearing it.

It used to be heard in the church, but church attendance is down. We used to hear about it in school, but that is not the message schools are teaching any longer. We used to hear it in families, but that is also something that has gone largely by the wayside.

Moral love matters because it is fundamentally part of the make up of humans. It is part and parcel of being human. And when we don’t have it, it makes us less human, more animalistic. Eat or get eaten.

We are losing site of it like a shore that gets smaller and smaller until it disappears. Soon we won’t remember what it even looked like.

Definition of A “Moral Love”

So, a ‘moral love’ is a love that loves because it’s right. That definition only works if you know what right and wrong is, but first note that it indicates there is a motivation for that love involved.

It’s a love that is motivated by doing what is right, as opposed to doing what works best for yourself. It is, then, by definition, doing what is right for someone else. And that is a little bit easier to grasp.

Even if we are fuzzy from all the screaming about what is right, we CAN figure out what’s better for someone else. We can put others above ourselves.

Here’s another thing we can conclude even if we don’t know for sure what is end is up about what particulars are right or wrong: we can put others first BECAUSE it’s right. We can love BECAUSE it’s right.

And, when you start thinking through things in this way, it kind of is a cheat code for figuring out what is right and wrong.

You don’t have to figure out who trumps who. You can choose to love Because. Because it’s right. Because it’s good. Because it’s moral. Because it’s human. You can choose to act and choose because – like a simple rule.

Meaning we can logically approach the issues facing us. And in days gone by we would have put it this way, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s a little too King-Jamesy for my taste, but perhaps if we modernize it by making it situational.

When in doubt, try it on for size. When you put the shoe on the other foot, when you put yourself in their situation, it’s very easy to tell what is and is not loving.

I recently lost my father. We were not close. ‘Nuf said…

And I had the tedious task of going through his many things and determining what to keep and what to pass on or let go of. Almost every box, every drawer, ever letter, every card and photograph held some nuanced insult to me.

I kept finding myself asking “what were you thinking?” What was it that could have deluded him into thinking he was a good person when he didn’t do the most basic things like care for his wife and children? Because I honestly believed he had convinced himself that he was a great guy. One we were proud of. Ones who would mourn his passing… Why? What was there to mourn? What I lost I lost years and years ago when I was afraid in my bed, when I was humiliated, when I was denied.

And then I would wonder, why am I wasting time thinking about any of this? Why does this hurt so much? Why do I care?

And then, it came to mind, because he should have done right by me. He should have done right by my mother. He should have been a good guy, a dependable, safe, caring guy.

He should have just done it. I mean, even if he hadn’t felt it, ooey, gooey lovely dooey for me. He should have done it. Isn’t that what polite people do? Isn’t that what good guys do?

We tell people we like their haircut when they ask, even if we don’t give two figs about their hair. We do it because it’s right.

And, no, I’m not saying we should always be nice no matter what…that’s the stuff of trauma for sure! But I am saying that loving others rather than destroying everyone in our path because we want everything for ourselves is a better plan for society than the direction we are heading.

And, even if we don’t feel like it, we can do it BECAUSE it’s the right thing to do.

And if we are uncertain which course of action is the loving thing to do BECAUSE, then we are very likely to be able to figure it out by putting ourselves in their shoes.

That exercise in and of itself is worthwhile. Thinking past the end of our own nose, seeing things from a different perspective. Imagine!

You know, without a shadow of a doubt when someone is loving you with this type of love. It resonates with us even if we speak different languages. We get it, because it’s God’s kind of love. And when we practice it we are a bit more like Him and make others a bit more like Him, too.

“Moral Love” Is A Choice

The fact that this love is a choice is another component which we all get instinctively. We know when someone could have chosen otherwise. We know they didn’t have to put us first, that it makes the most sense to put yourself first. And in some instances, we know that we would have put ourselves first if we were in the same circumstance. We know we would have. And we KNOW when someone choose otherwise, making us the beneficiary of charity, “moral love.”

We know they did it BECAUSE. That they had a reason, one that is higher than being a mere animal scrapping to get what they could. And that reason, without a doubt, points to a God. A higher plane. A higher calling. There is no other reason. There is no other BECAUSE.

We know when people do it, and we know when they don’t. And, if we are honest, we know when we do it and when we don’t.

Of this love the Bible says, “against such [love] there is no law.” (See Galatians 5:22-23).

If sin is the breaking of the law, and loving others with a moral love cannot have a law against it, it is safe to say that this type of love cannot be sin.

[Jhn 13:35 KJV] 35 By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Even if we cannot figure out who gets the biggest piece of pie, or what group or subgroup should trump others, if we are motivated by love BECAUSE it’s right, we will find our way.

Michael Todd, lead pastor of Transformation Church, is well known for many things. He is a captivating preacher and anointed to re-present Christ to a lost world who is in desperate need of Him. He puts things in simple terms that anyone can grasp and yet what he says can be so profound you think about it for years.

One of those sayings is this: “Here is holy.” I have spent many days thinking about this phrase over the last 2.5 years. Here IS holy. Right here. Right in these very circumstances, whatever they may be.

If here isn’t holy then we exclude God from being in this place, for where He is is undoubtedly holy.

This makes perfect sense when we view the Old Testament Heroes through this lens. Yes, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, but we know the end of the story, and so we see a bigger picture, a bigger purpose and we sort of cheer him on. That circumstance was holy.

When Joseph is sold by his brothers we know the end of the story, that he would be over all of Egypt and ultimately prove his brothers wrong and himself right. So we know the journey from the prison to the palace is Holy and his circumstance, his HERE was holy.

And in the New Testament we see the same thing. Friday looked terribly bleak, but Sunday was coming! Paul and Silas sang in the prison at midnight and the doors swung open. Hallelujah we might even say, seeing that this circumstance was holy, too.

Of course it’s harder to walk out in our own lives. We don’t know the rest of the story yet. But isn’t that the very lesson of faith? To walk even when we cannot see the end from the beginning? Trusting that He is right there, guiding our steps, divinely intervening and working on our behalf and the behalf of others?

Aren’t we expected to walk in faith when we cannot know, trusting that this circumstance is Holy and divinely appointed? Obviously, the answer here is yes.

Oh, but isn’t it dark sometimes? Too dark to see. Too dark to know what direction to head? In fact, times when the very direction it seems we are going seems to be the exact opposite of where God told us he was taking us? All the examples above are those sorts of circumstances.

“Abraham, I promise that you will be the father of many nations. Sacrifice your only son to me.”

“Hey, Joseph, I promise you will be in a position of power and authority over your brothers. Hang tight right here in this prison for, oh, let’s say, 20 years.”

“Jesus, you’re my Son, my only Son, and I am well pleased with you. Would you please, hurry up now, let these posers mock you, scourge you, deface you, hurt you, beat you, humiliate you, lie about you, kill you and send you to a devil’s hell to be tortured by Satan for 3 days? Go on now. Time’s a wasting.”

When living it, it is devastating. In these very moments is when we need to remember and know that Here is Holy. Here is exactly when we need it. Not sitting comfortably in our bed reading our Bible, but when we face the worst thing we can imagine. Here is Holy.

The only thing I would add to that statement is that Now is Holy. Here and Now is Holy. It doesn’t really change the meaning, because circumstances include the Now. But we can be so dense sometimes I find it helps to say it so we get it. Now is holy. This very moment in the circumstance. Not just the time period when my kid was sick and in the hospital for weeks (for example), but this moment standing next to him crying, and this moment when the doctor is giving me bad news. Each moment, each Now in which we are living through it. These are holy moments.

When Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, we are told he headed out first thing in the morning. What an agonizing night. Did he ask for a special supper, maybe Isaac’s favorite? Did he watch him across the evening fire with love wanting to burst from his chest, not knowing what would happen. Did he wrestle with the requirement? We aren’t told, but he must have, just as we would.

In the morning, he went about gathering wood, informing his family he was going, preparing for he and his son and his servants to head out.

Then they took the first step, the second, the third. Every step along that path had to be agonizing and full of questions, wondering if he could really do it, trying to see himself actually tying up his son’s hands and feet and lifting him up on the alter he had just made stone by stone and lifting the knife. Picturing his son’s eyes of fear. Every single step.

And, God had told him to go to a place he would show him. Arrgh! He had to be thinking with each step, how long will this go on? I don’t even know where I’m going!

Horrible steps. Horrible moments, minutes, hours.

Imagine coming back down the hill after his obedience to face his servants standing there, and heading home without Isaac. Facing his wife, Sarah. What would he say? Had he told her the night before so she could have that time reveling around the fire? Or had she not known, being busy and not getting to have that special time? How could he have robbed her of it? But facing her was a lot.

Step, step, step. Each step, each thought, each moment spent struggling to submit, to resolve himself, was holy. Just as ours are. Each turn of events, each word from the doctor, each bill in the mail, each newscast. Here and Now is Holy.

A few years ago the Lord started teaching me about the traps the enemy sets for us, the stumbling blocks that cause us to take our eyes off Him and focus on the circumstance, here and now instead of the eternal.

When we do we start to sink like Peter when he took his eyes off Jesus on stormy Galilee. Like Peter, when we do we sink, and the solution is to cry out to God. In other words, we have to put our eyes back on Jesus. If we don’t, well, we sink. We get trapped. The enemy has a heyday in our lives.

And, yes, it looks like he’s having a heyday anyway, causing the storm, causing our son to be sick, but it’s temporary, not eternal.

Charles Capps teaches that temporary means changeable. It can be changed. Whereas eternal means it cannot. We cannot focus on what can change, but instead on what doesn’t change. If it can change, well, it can change! But when we focus on it, when we take our eyes off the one who changes things, they loom over us seeming very permanent. And we make them last longer, give them staying power.

That’s what the enemy wants. He wants us to think for a moment, and then another, that this moment is not Holy. That this step has no God in it. That we are walking alone. That God has abandoned us. Sure looks that way sometimes.

But faith hopes all things. Believes all things.

In the days of Jesus the Scribes and Pharisees where always giving Him grief. And by extension they gave grief to anyone who followed Him, or listened to Him. (They were the first “woke” group, you see!) Pressing people to say what they wanted them to say and act like they wanted them to act. Trying to control even the thoughts and hopes of other people.

They had declared that if anyone followed Jesus, or even said He was from God, that they would put them out of the temple.

Well, being put out of the temple was like being put out of the club, but it also meant being rejected by God, excluded from all family events, all community events, like being doxed. It was the most horrible thing used to pressure people. Something that impacted every facet of your life.

This blind man, who depended on the community for his very livelihood, really couldn’t afford to be ignored by everyone and seen as a traitor to God and their culture.

But one day, Jesus healed his sight. Made him see. Gave him everything he needed to face life and serve God without the obstacle of not being able to see.

Oh, what rejoicing! What dancing and praising and singing to God for His mighty work, that even a blind man, blind from his birth, could see!

Can you imagine those first few moments! Like putting on a VR headset! Unimaginable!

But, he was soon called on the carpet for giving Jesus praise for healing him. That was not acceptable.

His parents backed away and let him take the fall. They didn’t want to be caught up in his mess.

Now, remember, his “mess” was that God healed him! Not that he’d robbed a bank.

His family who should have rejoiced with him threw him under the bus. His religious leaders, who also should have rejoiced with him, are shouting at him and threatening the most horrible things. He is dejected, alone, accused, and in the end, he was thrown out of the temple. Marked by all.

He couldn’t deny the truth. Jesus had been the one. Jesus had healed him.

Imagine the mental confusion and agony. How could receiving his sight have caused all this. What was WRONG with everyone!

He had been born blind. He didn’t do anything to deserve being blind. And now he was healed, and he is thrown away and dejected. He didn’t do anything to deserve that.

What could it mean? What was God doing?

I hope you aren’t familiar with those feelings, but I am. Many have been. It’s a hard place to be. He was a walking talking miracle. Even a fulfillment of prophecy that declared the coming Messiah would actually open the eyes of the blind! He had heard that all his life. And here he was, a fulfilment of prophecy and he was still thrown away by everyone and everything. No hope he could hang his hat on.

His entire worldview system had left him there with nothing. What just happened?

They had tried to make him say that it wasn’t Jesus who did the miracle. Here is holy. Now is holy.

I can feel the despair, the anguish of soul, the questioning disbelief.

And then He heard the voice of Jesus, the voice of the one who had healed him.

That’s what is coming. That’s what changes everything. But we have to hold on and not get distracted. As he felt these things he held fast to one thing, it was Jesus, regardless of what they said or how they acted. Jesus had healed him.

God sent us this way. Why? We don’t always know. But God sent us this way. Right down to the edge of the Red Sea, trapped by Pharoah. Right to the cross. Right to the wilderness with our one and only son to sacrifice.

But God also provides the sacrifice, splits the sea, raises us from the dead, enfolds us in the community.

God is. To come to Him we have to first believe that He is. He is. And if He is, He is Here and Now. And that means, Here and Now is Holy.

Take off your shoes. Bow low to the ground. Acknowledge His presence. His working. His divine intervention and you will walk on water, even if you started to sink. Acknowledge His presence. He is Here. He is Now. Here and Now is Holy. Every second of walking through this event in your life.

Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your path. Your ways and your path. Your moments and times. Your story and scenes. Here and Now is Holy.

There are many ways to reach out to God. We can pray. We can worship. We can beg. We can be still and quiet before Him.

But one of the quickest ways to be ushered into His presence is through praise. How do I know this?

Before I answer that let me point out that praise is not something we find easy to do. In fact, I recently tried to focus on this aspect of communing with God and discovered I have no “muscles” in this area.

I could be, and was, Thankful for many things. I could frequently ask for things in prayer. In fact almost all efforts to spend quality time praising God degenerated into prayers and supplications for others. I was embarrassed before Him that I could not quite find “praise” a ready response to His goodness.

I dare you to try it for yourself and see how you fare before judging me too harshly. I have since challenged a few people I know and we all had the same experience.

Before you can attempt this to see for yourself you’ll have to know what praise really is and how it differs from Worship, Thankfulness, etc.

We hear a lot about being thankful. And we should be, no doubt. Not only is it good manners to be thankful for many things to many people, but God sent His Son, His only Son, to die in our place on the cross, taking all our sins upon Him. What’s not to be thankful for?

I lived without running water for several years and for nearly 2 decades after spent time while showering every day thanking God for hot running water. What a delight!

Sex is pretty good, too, right? And food? I mean, a good many people are thankful for bacon!

God made so many things for us to enjoy and be thankful for and yet many find it hard to do. So much so that we have be reminded all the time, both in church and in the world at large. I mean, Thankfulness is a topic of conversation, when it really should be automatic.

But praise is something else entirely.

In the most simple terms, praise is saying something good about someone or something.

The converse is saying something bad about someone, which, surprise, surprise, is a simple definition for the word curse.

Most of us know that cursing God would be like a bad thing, right?

But when we blame God for something, we are cursing Him because we are saying something bad about Him. If He is good He doesn’t do bad things, so He isn’t the one to be blamed.

Maybe we made a bad decision. Maybe someone else is at fault, like the dude on his phone who just hit my car. Or maybe the enemy of our soul is tempting us to say something bad about God, trying to give Him a bad rap, by applying various types of pressure.

I mean, wasn’t that pretty much what he did in the Garden? Say that God was holding something back and keeping Adam and Even from having even more good stuff? You know, like the knowledge of Good and Evil…

And it seems to have been the devil’s goal in the Book of Job. We keep hearing that even though all those terrible things kept happening to Job, he didn’t sin with his mouth.

His wife even tried to get him to by saying, “just curse God and die”. Curse God. Say something bad about God. But Job wouldn’t. And he’s our example.

Issues at work. Issues with our kids or spouse. Bills in the mail. All kinds of pressures exist in this world. We live in a fallen world and we, and everyone we know, is fallen, too.

Additionally, we do have an enemy who is like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Don’t be that guy! Don’t agree with the devil that God is bad! That’s what we do when we let the pressures make us blame God.

Wherever the pressure comes from, it isn’t from God. The Bible tells us that God isn’t evil and doesn’t tempt us with evil. (By the way, fun note: evil means anything that causes us pain, suffering or loss – you get where I’m going with this?)

Anything that causes us pain, suffering or loss is defined as evil in the Bible. And God isn’t evil, and doesn’t bring evil into our lives. He doesn’t cause us pain, suffering or loss.

Frequently we do. Often others do. And we have an enemy who is very busy at this type of thing. But God is not.

So I guess the first thing I really want to say about Praise is don’t Curse.

Don’t say bad things about God. It is the opposite of praising. Don’t give into the pressure to blame God.

How do you deal with the pressure then? I’m glad you asked!

You Praise instead.

When something comes along that causes you pain, suffering or loss, praise.

• ·        It is an act of faith.
• ·        It is an act of obedience.
• ·        It is an act of worshipping the One who can deliver you or comfort you in your struggle.

He is the only One who can give you a perspective and strength to move forward. He is Good. He is Good. Remind yourself of that in the crisis by praising.

Keep your eyes on Him. I mean, do you believe this Christian stuff or not? Then God’s way of doing things is the answer. He is the answer, not the problem.

Here are 8 really good reasons to Praise when you are dealing with something:

• ·        It is the simplest act of faith, and faith gives God permission to work on your behalf.
• ·        It causes God to come close because it pleases Him
• ·        It brings blessings
• ·        It brings a testimony, that helps others and saves the lost. We will overcome by our testimony.
• ·        It brings reward
• ·        It is your weapon, defending territory and taking new territory, bloodying the nose of the devil
• ·        It gives you boldness before the throne and confidence to fight in faith (faith comes by hearing, even if you are the one who says it) That’s why we do pep talks. It works.
• ·        It leads to Worship that restores your Soul (Mind, Will and Emotions). This makes you able to fight again because you’ve been replenished and recharged.

Praise Is The Simplest Act of Faith

God could require us to go to a certain river and wash 7 times (ask Naaman in II Kings 5). He could ask that we give up our earthly goods, our body to be burned, our very lives, and sometimes He does. He asked one prophet to lie naked on his side for years. He asked another to marry a whore. Many went to prison or were tortured and killed for God.

These are hard asks.

And if we follow Him, He has the right to ask.

We did commit our lives to Him, making Him Lord, the Boss of our lives.

But just saying something good about God? Not hard. Believing He is good and then acting like that’s true, but saying good things instead of bad? By saying good things instead of cursing Him? By saying good things instead of blaming Him?

Not. Hard.

When we praise instead, when we believe God is good instead of buying into what the devil is selling us, we empower God to act on our behalf against the enemy.

God Inhabits The Praise of His People

Read that again. He lives there. That’s where we can get close to God. He inhabits our praises. I don’t pretend I understand all of that. How could I? I have a chicken brain. But it’s true. And if that’s where He is and I need Him, guess how I can get there? Praising Him. Does that make him an ego-maniac? No. It’s not for Him. It’s for us.

Think about it for a second because God gets a bad rap on this because we don’t think it through.

Ask yourself WHY the enemy tries so hard to get us to respond by blaming God? Why is he so focused on pushing us and pressuring us to get us to say something bad about God? Poor Job! Tons of pressure. He lost all his kids, his animals and wealth, his friends and his wife turned on him. But he refused to blame God.

The enemy of our soul has been given authority by Adam and Eve to do pretty much what he wants to us. Authority is an important Word to God, and we very rarely understand it.

God gave authority to Adam and Eve over all His creation. Adam gave it away to Satan. Jesus took it back and gives it to those who follow Him.

But he still has authority over this world. Not us, but the world. The dude on his phone who just hit my car. My boss who cannot find the copier. The tax man. And if he can get those folks to exert pressure on us and we cave in to the pressure, and blame God, then we have sinned.

When we sin, well, let’s just say, we reap what we sow.

So, the enemy gets access to us when we allow him to by sinning. The easiest sin he can get us to commit isn’t adultery or robbing a bank or murdering someone… it’s getting us to blame God for something that causes us pain, suffering or loss. So, he pours it on thick.

He’s a bully. Terrorizing us in as many ways as he can find.

Why? To get access to us. Why? So he can cause more problems in our life? Why? Because if he can get us to sin, and sin more and more, he is rendering us useless in the fight against him, and keeping us from the one who can defend us and stop him.

We are the ones who open the door by sinning and cursing God, giving the enemy more and more permission to attack us. But if we praise, we are calling out to our Defender, Big Brother, Father, and Friend, who will jump in to defend us against the Bully and send him running.

Blessing Flows When We Praise

God’s blessings are on His people, but we can give the enemy permission to block those blessings when we curse and blame God. It’s not a punishment from God where He withholds His blessing, but the enemy is able to intercept them and block them because we gave him permission to do so.

The Benefit of Our Testimony – A Form of Praise

In Revelation we are told that the Church overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. In the most basic sense this is praise. Praise, or saying good things about what God has done in our personal lives. This is how the Church overcomes!

On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the followers of Christ, they spoke in tongues. What did they speak? According to Acts 2, the marvelous works of God. That’s praise, brother!

Seem important to you? Many were added to the church that day. In the thousands. Why? Because they heard the marvelous works of God.

Don’t keep your testimony to yourself.

Praise Makes You Bold

In fact, your testimony of the good things God has done for you and in your life encourage you to have even more faith, fight bigger battles against the enemy and grow in faith. I mean, when you fight an even bigger enemy and win, you have more confidence the next time he shows up.

Praise Is A Weapon

I won’t spend a lot of time on this here because this could be a whole newsletter, but praise is a weapon in the Sprit world.

First, as previously stated it is prevailing in the fight the enemy brings to our doorstep.

But it is also how God operates.

Look at Paul and Silas singing praises in the prison and the earthquake opening all the bars.

Look at Israel’s first battle at Jericho – they marched around the city. They blew the trumpets, broke pitchers and shouted praise.

Battles are won by praising.

Praise Ushers Us Into Worship

We haven’t talked about worship yet, but let’s say that it is being in God’s presence, partnered with Him. You get to there by praising first. It helps to get you to that place. And worship is all the good stuff. It’s where we hear from God and commune with Him.

Like a plant in the presence of sunshine, we can be in His presence and it can activate, and heal all the parts of us that are exposed to Him.

And it can feel pretty awesome, too. Better than anything. Yes, anything…

The Bible calls it being in an ecstasy. For real. It also calls it being in the Spirit, Communing with God. (I bet you never heard that in Church…)

Communing is the same type of intimacy involved in Adam knowing Eve, if you get my drift.

It’s a no holds barred, uber intimate kind of sharing between you and God.

And Praise, is, well, like foreplay. I know that will piss off a bunch of people, but I stand by that statement.

Praise gets us to Worship and Communion with God. There is no better place. Co-Union with God. Knowing Him and Him knowing us.

To not have this kind of relationship is what was discussed way up at the top of this writing as Him saying, depart from me. I never knew you. I never spent time with you like that. I don’t know you like that.

Why? Because we are ugly, or not good enough, or not the chosen, popular ones? No, because WE didn’t come to Him. Because WE wouldn’t spend the time with Him.

He made a way for us to. But we couldn’t be bothered. We were too worried about the cares of this world. Too busy thinking He caused our problems. Too busy thinking He wasn’t really good. Too busy believing the devil instead of God.

God who keeps whispering and yelling that He is good. God who has tried in every way to get through to us that He is good. The word “gospel” literally means good news. News that He is good.

He sent His Son to show us just how good.

He showed us what good looked like in all the stories in the Old Testament.

But a simple flat tire can cause me to lose my religion. A whisper. A look. Waking up late.

Is He good? Or not.

In First John we are told the whole deal in a nutshell. God is light and in Him is no shadow of turning.

Basically, God is good and he isn’t even thinking about changing his ways. He isn’t going to quit being good. You can believe it. You can count on it. Why don’t we?

If you read Song of Solomon in it’s entirety you will find that the whole story is about a woman chosen by the King to love. That simple. She didn’t deserve it. She had nothing to offer. She wasn’t pretty. Didn’t have money. But he chose to love her.

See how we fit in this story?

The rest of the book is about her struggle to believe he loves her, to believe he really, no kidding, really, loves her.

She just cannot quite wrap her mind around it.

She rejects him and pushes him away. And he loves her and shows up.

And after he continues to prove himself, she finally trusts him and belies her loves her.

She starts off by referring to their relationship as “I am my beloved’s. And he is mine” But when she finally gets it, finally believes in her very heart that he really loves her, she says, “He is my beloved and I am His.” Oh, to be His!

So, brass tacks, what do you say? How do you praise Him?

Saying something good about someone can be like a compliment to them or about them.

What do you know about God that is good? What are His characteristics?

Is He gentle? Is He longsuffering and patient?

What does He do? Isn’t He the one who brings life out of death and causes that which was not to be? Isn’t He the one who brings rain to the evil and the good? Redeems the lost and sets the captives free?

But don’t forget to say the good things He has done for your personally. This is your testimony. Like literally the testimony of God being good to you in your life. If He isn’t that, what are you doing being a Christian? If He isn’t good and doesn’t deliver you from real world problems, what good (see what I did there?) is this whole Christian thing?

I mean, even Paul said if this isn’t the real deal Christians are above all men most miserable! Give up things, don’t have fun sinning, for what, exactly? There are supposed to be benefits in this life, here and now, as well as in the Sweet By and By.

We are told “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Is that your testimony? Do you have life and have it more abundantly? Then say so, to God, out loud.

Yes.

Out loud.

Praise is something you say. I could write a lot about this, and will in coming newsletters. But, for real, say it out loud. No one else has to hear it. And you don’t (necessarily) have to say it very loud at all.

But part of the benefit is to get boldness and confidence and that comes from hearing it. It is an act of faith, and faith comes by hearing. It’s a self-contained system.

And if He hasn’t been good to you, if you don’t have a testimony where you know and He knows what He’s done for you in your life, really, what are you doing?

Faith is more than a mental assent. It’s not believing there is a God, a conclusion you have come to through reasoning. It’s a relationship with a real entity or it’s nothing.

Shoot! The Bible tells us even the demons believe in God. Duh! You think believing there is a God is all that’s necessary? Ask the 5 foolish Virgins if it was enough. Ask those that will say, Lord, Lord, did we not heal the sick, and raise the dead and do all kinds of stuff in your name to whom we are told He will reply, depart from me, I never knew you.

What? When was the last time you healed the sick or raised the dead? Folks who can do and can say that will be told, depart from Me…

What chance do we have?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about earning God’s affections. But I am saying it ain’t easy. 

There’s more devotion and commitment involved than saying the sinner’s prayer and then doing whatever the heck we want! Isn’t that how Christians got a bad rep to begin with? Folks thinking that? What are YOU doing?

We are expected to “endure to the end”. Endure what? This evil business of pain, suffering and loss discussed previously. Endure how? By continuing to maintain the belief that God is good and then experiencing in our lives.

That gives us our testimony. That’s what saves the lost. That’s what we will be rewarded for. It’s like the whole enchilada, as we say in Texas.

Those who endure to the end will be saved.

Isn’t that what the parable of the Sower teaches? Seeds were scattered. Some didn’t do anything with it. Some grabbed ahold for a little while, but didn’t really let the roots go down deep. Some let the cares and troubles of this world choke out the growth and never got any fruit. (Guess which one this is? What we are talking about here. Don’t let the pressures turn you back from following.) And some let it take root and let it grow. These got 30, some 60 and some 100 fold reward.

Praise. Simple praise. It is your weapon and your protective armor.

I’ve gotten better at this since I started practicing it. At first I could only say things like He’s patient and good. Then I’d start being thankful. Try it for yourself.

Take 2 minutes and see if you can say 2 minutes of good things about God without repeating things. I would venture to bet you can’t do it. I couldn’t. And there are still days I cannot.

Partly because I’m distracted. But partly because we just don’t think like that very often. I have not exercised that part of my walk.

Even with one another we are not likely to praise others. To tell them they are good at something (even if we think it). We don’t express ourselves like that except on special occasions.

And when we do, it’s like one sentence or something and we have to work ourselves up to it.

Try praising God, whom you say you love and serve for a whole 2 minutes.

He paid the ultimate sacrifice for you. Don’t you have anything nice to say about Him or to Him? I was so surprised how hard this was to do. But I’m getting better. I hope you’ll join me.