From Spiritual Bondage to the Promised Land: But How Long?

It’s always a mystery to me how God brings people from a spiritual Egypt (slavery) to the Promised Land through Jesus. It’s been a mystery to me because each person seems to have a different exodus experience. For some it seems like they need all ten plagues to hit their lives before they look up and give up in surrender to Christ. Others only need 3 or 4 plagues. Still others hear God’s plague warning for the first time (either in an experience or through the preaching of the Gospel) and never have to endure a painful plague before they turn to Jesus. I believe Steven is one of those guys on plague number 7.

Jail, drugs, grand theft auto, broken relationships, working a minimum wage job into his 30’s, still living with his parents; all of these things have described Steven’s life thus far, and these are just the things I know about. Some days are better for him than others. There are days when he would rather not live. Other days there are enough positive things happening around him to keep his spirits high for a while. Thankfully, Steven is slowly beginning to see that the straight and narrow path of Jesus is the way to life. He tried his own way for a while and found it wanting.

From my end of Steven’s journey, his exodus is far too slow! I want Steven to just “get it”. I want him to realize that it is Jesus Christ or nothing. I want him to drop every evil way that once brought him an ounce of pleasure and pound of pain and never again contemplate them. I feel like he is so close. An elderly customer approached him at work recently and asked him if he had a church. He said, “Yes, the Brunswick Church of Christ is my church and Shaun is my Pastor”. When he told me this I thought to myself, “Huh? You come to church once every 6 weeks and I have known you for less than a year. How have you concluded that we are your church and I am your Pastor?” He makes me chuckle.

I pray for Steven. I want him to understand the Gospel of Jesus. I want him to lasso the Gospel’s implications for his life. But I can’t force him further than he is. I can open the Scriptures with him. I can share with him Matthew 7:26-27:

"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

I can persuade him. I can counsel him. I can let him know that if he keeps toying with evil he will die. However, I can’t make him repent and be baptized. The reality is that he may need a few more plagues in his life before he turns to Jesus for good. And so I will pray for him.

At least I know this: when God draws Steven for the last time, he has a church he will turn to and a “Pastor” he will call. Please pray,

1. That God will have the patience to bring Steven to repentance, and
2. That Steven will listen to the plagues he has already seen in his life and begin building his life around Jesus.

Freedom: The Right To Do What We Ought To Do

1 Corinthians 8-10

Recently our congregation went through the books of 1 & 2 Corinthians to learn some general truths about “Living Joyfully in Biblical Community”. 1 Corinthians chapters 8-10 were the passages of discussion on June 11^th. I have included a part of that lesson here for discussion because I believe our understanding of “freedom” is very important to understanding how to live for Jesus in these times.

The problem which Paul is going to address in chapters 8-10 is not really food sacrificed to idols, although that seems to be the topic at hand. The theological issue of food sacrificed to idols is limited to two verses in 1 Corinthians 8 which makes me think that the actual issue is not the real issue. In 1 Corinthians 8: 4-6 Paul basically says

Idols are nothing.
They aren’t real.
There is no God but one God.
Jesus is the only Lord.

Then in verses 7-13 the real issue arises: Listen to Paul’s words;

"But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak...”

Did you catch that last verse? It seems that what Paul is really concerned with is how one person’s freedom in Christ, the freedom to eat meat or not eat meat, might hinder another person’s walk with Christ. Many times joylessness in the church has less to do with the issues that arise and a lot to do with the manner in which those issues are handled between people at different places in their walk with Christ. Listen as he continues;

1 Corinthians 8:9-13:

"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”

Notice what our Lord is concerned with regarding food sacrificed to idols; it’s not the food sacrificed to idols. It’s the faith of other brothers and sisters in Christ.

I would venture to say that 90% of people who leave churches today to go to other churches leave not because they disagree with other members on issues of faith, but because they have been hurt by the manner in which those issues of faith were handled.

In Christ we have been given the freedom to do many things, but those freedoms must never weaken the faith of others in the church. True freedom in Christ is not the freedom to do whatever I want to do; it’s the freedom to do what I ought to do for the faith of others.

True Freedom

In approximately 2 weeks, if the Lord answers our prayers as we have been requesting, our brother Ken will be released from jail to finish out a final 90 days in a rehabilitation clinic. When Ken’s final day in jail is up he will stand on the exterior wall of the jail and the guards will say to him, “Ok Ken, you are free”.

And at that point every former prisoner must ask himself or herself one question: “Free to do what?”

To those who have not learned their lesson they will say, “Yippee!! I am free to do whatever I want to do!”

Those who say this forget that the reason they were in jail in the first place was because they took the liberty to do just whatever they wanted to do. The freedom to do whatever we want to do will never, never, never, hardly ever, no never bring us freedom.

When Ken is released from jail I believe he will leave knowing that he is free to do not whatever he wants to do…but free to do exactly what he ought to do. That is the essence of freedom, true freedom. And if the church is going to be a joyful beacon of light to our communities we must preach and exemplify true freedom among us and not some false definition of it.

Contemporary Application:

This is important today because in our society the words freedom and liberty are passed around with different meanings. Many people today believe freedom gives me the right to do just whatever I want to do.

A man and a woman have premarital sex together. Not wanting to have a baby they decide to have an abortion. They believe they are free to do so because the laws of our land give them the freedom to do so. What they do not realize, however, is that if they choose to define freedom in this situation as their right to do whatever they want to do (the type of freedom which got them in their predicament in the first place) they will free neither themselves nor their child. The freedom to do whatever they want to do will result in the death of an innocent child and the further enslavement of the mother and father in sin. That's not freedom, folks; that's death. And we can't give it a softer name.

The Devil has convinced us through the media that in order to be free we must have the right to do just whatever we want to do. The truth is, however, that if I take the freedom to do just whatever I want to do in my life, I will quickly find myself a slave. If a country takes the freedom to do just whatever they want to do they will quickly find themselves in shackles as well.

We can give sin a softer name if we like; but the fact is sin by any other name, be it “freedom”, “tolerance”, “human rights” or “alternative lifestyle” is still sin and will always lead to death, not freedom.

True freedom, according to the Bible, is not the right to do what we want to do…it’s the right to do exactly what we ought to do for the benefit of others.

The question for us as believers is: "Who has the right to tell us what we ought to do? The government or God?" (see Acts 4:19-20).

No Spiritual Navy Seals In This Church

A few weeks ago our congregation talked about how the church of Jesus resembles in many ways that of a military team. In fact Paul the Apostle used military terminology when speaking to Timothy: “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Tim.2:3-4).

 In this lesson we talked about how that if you are a Christian then you are a soldier of Jesus Christ. You experience a daily “training in righteousness” (2 Tim.3:16). You experience a very real war everyday all day. As a member of Christ’s church you are part of a soul saving mission to rescue prisoners of war from their captivity to the Evil one by the power of Christ’s Spirit within you.

We also said that different than the Navy Seals who killed Osama Bin Laden on May 1st, in the church there are no heroes besides Jesus.

It does not matter who we are.

It does not matter what we accomplish

It does not matter what awards we receive or how many people we rescue and lead to Christ; in the church of Jesus there is only one hero in the camp and that hero is Jesus.

We concluded by recognizing that as the church seeks to build herself around and on top of Jesus- her foundation (1 Cor.3:11), the life of the church will be a joyless drag in conjunction with how many people there are vying to be the hero. The quarrels in the Corinthian church in particular were largely because some were following Paul, some were following Apollos and some were following Cephas instead of Jesus alone (see 1 Corinthians chapters 1-3).

We would be kidding ourselves if we did not confess the evil desire within us, especially us men, that wants to be the church’s Navy Seal. We want to be the commando. We want to be the Green Bureau. We want to be the knight in shining armor rushing in to make history and receive the recognition.

But the reality of the church is quite different. The reality is that in the church of Jesus, the church Jesus built, there are no spiritual Navy Seals. Instead, we find a whole assembly of former Prisoners of War. Former POW’s. Today we are either former POW’s or we are POW’s. And when God through Jesus makes us former POW’s, we come hard to the fact that we did not have anything to do with Jesus’ rescue mission.

We didn’t plan for it.

We didn’t train for it.

We didn’t even know it was coming.

So what does that have to do with building life around Jesus?  Well as long as we live by the illusion that the church should be filled with spiritual Navy Seals, we will never be able to love one another for the bruised, scarred and beaten POW’s we really are. This seems to be some of what Paul gets at in this passage:

”Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth" [i.e. there were no spiritual Navy Seals among you]. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, parenthesis mine).

What were these Corinthian Christians before they were Christians? They were spiritual POW’s. They were not wise. They were not influential. They were not of noble birth. They were not the ones chosen to rush in and make the kill. They were prisoners in need of rescuing, and so were we.

How many times have you started a new job thinking it was a perfect match only to discover 2 years down the road that it is not at all what you thought it would be?

How many times have you gone to see a movie that you were told would be spectacular only to leave feeling disappointed?

How many times have you dated someone that you thought was Mr. Right only to realize a year later that he is pretty messed up in the head?

How many times have you bought a new flavor of coffee creamer at the store, maybe a flavor of creamer others raved about, only to get home, try it in your coffee and regurgitate it in your cup because you couldn’t stand it?

How many times have you involved yourself in a congregation that for the first 8 months you truly loved, only to discover that joyous Joyce is not always joyous? In fact she even gets angry.

In each of these situations what do we do? We jump ship! We find a new job. We find a new movie. We find a new date. We find a new coffee creamer. And it’s perfectly fine to do that with some things.

What really blows it for us in all of these situations is not the bad movie: it’s the expectations we attached to the movie. You see if we had gone to the movie thinking, ‘this movie is probably not going to be as great as everyone says it is’, we might have walked out thinking, ‘hey that was a pretty good movie’. The astronomical expectations killed it for us.

In the same way our perfection expectations of the church can sometimes kill the church for us. Forgetting that there is only one spiritual Navy Seal in the camp- Jesus- we often put the church down for resembling former POW’s. Many say, “I don’t go to church because they are a bunch of hypocrites”. My reply is, “Well at least they go to church, which is more than you can say”.

The fact that the church is not perfect by no means frees us from the fight to become perfect by the power of the Spirit; but it should at least grant us the humility to show compassion and patience with other believers who are just as bruised and scarred as we are. Remember...there is only one spiritual Navy Seal in this church- Jesus.

Spiritual Roadblock to Building Life Around Jesus: Pointing the Finger

Suiting up in a high school locker room before a Saturday football game was a serious and energizing experience. Away games in particular were the most intense. We would load up on the bus Saturday morning; shirt & tie, walkman if you had one, you may bring your play book or you may decide to sleep.

When we got to the opposing team’s school a couple hours before game time it was silence from the time you exited the bus till the time the whole team gathered in the locker room facing the coaches. As we faced the coaches about to go onto the field for the first time the coaches were trying to do one thing and one thing only; they were trying to get us fired up. They would have some sort of prepared motivational talk. At times they would tell us a story about why we should really hate this team. They lied about us, or their coach said something nasty in the newspaper, etc. Each of our 4 or 5 coaches would get their say and then came the 3 captains turn to talk.

When the captains talked you really listened. These guys were the best players on the team. They were the ones you were going to follow on the field. They were the ones representing the rest of the team. And the captains also knew that goal of the pre-game talk was to get us pumped up. And so by the time we left that locker room after hearing both the coaches and the captains talk we were like foaming at the mouth. I mean we were ready to tear the doors off the hinges! And as I look back on those experiences I think, “Man it was football not war, what was wrong with us???”

So what does that have to do with Amos? Well in the first chapter of Amos Amos appears to be using his oratory skills to get his own little pep rally going. He seems to be getting them fired up. You can feel it. Listen to the momentum building speech of Amos 1:3ff:

“This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth…This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom…This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood…This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not relent. Because he pursued his brother with a sword and slaughtered the women of the land…This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders…This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not relent. Because he burned to ashes the bones of Edom’s king…”

You can feel the momentum building as the Bethel crowd cheers Amos on. They love it. Amos is the prophet who speaks what the people want to hear. 7 nations which Israel has a few things against are getting verbally thrashed by Amos. You can hear the crowd yelling, "Go Amos! Go Amos!"

And then Amos gets a little closer to home...

“This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of the LORD and have not kept his decrees…” (Amos 2:4).

You can envision the people quieting a little as they think to themselves, “Woa, he’s getting a little close to home. I guess our brothers haven’t been very good down there.”

Then comes the final words from the captains. This is the point in the pregame pep talk where you are supposed to charge out of the locker room ready to make war. Here it is:

"This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines” (Amos 2:6-8).

 

Nobody is cheering anymore. No one leaves the locker room on this day. There is an enemy within that poses a stronger battle that must be dealt with first. The rest of the book of Amos, the next 7 chapters, deal exclusively with the sins of Israel.

 

There is something terribly energizing about pointing the finger, is there not? One of the things that hinders our spiritual growth immensely, I have discovered, is pointing the finger at others around us when we ourselves have our own list of un-repented sins.

 

How many times have you said,

• “If it hadn’t been for my parents things would be different in my life”
• “If my brother had not did what he did I wouldn’t have these problems”
• "If it wasn’t for my boss my job wouldn’t be so horrible”
• “If it wasn’t for the Governor, life in NJ wouldn’t be so bad
• “If my wife was a good wife I wouldn’t struggle with sexual addiction
• “If my husband would actually be the spiritual leader of our family I could really grow spiritually"
• “If my uncle had not abused me as a child I wouldn’t be so messed up today”
• “If it wasn’t for the incompetent lawyer I would not have had to spend any time behind bars”

Off we going pointing the finger at everyone around us.

 

Don’t get me wrong; I understand that people have hurt you and some have hurt you really bad. I understand that what they did to you was not right. And Amos is not saying that Israel’s neighbors were right either. They all did wrong and would eventually face justice. But Amos’ message to God's people is this: “If you want to grow spiritually, if you really want to be God’s people you need to take a deep look at yourself before you point the finger at anyone else.”

Reward versus Goal

On Monday evening my family and I took a dinner drive to the ocean. It had been one of those days, if you know what I mean, and a quick get-a-way was in store. Pt. Pleasant this time of year is a great place to be in my book. It’s cool. People are clothed. There’s free parking. There’s available parking, and you can have any space on the beach you want. And so we parked at Jenkinson’s Aquarium right off the boardwalk, loaded up the stroller with dinner and beach toys and walked our way to the beach. It was colder on the shore than we anticipated so we didn’t stay too long. We set up shop on the beach, prayed over our dinner and ate.

At one point after dinner Marci and I stood close to one another gazing out at the ocean pondering all the power of our awesome God. Standing there at that moment looking out at the ocean was the reason we went to the ocean that day. Our goal in going to the ocean that day was to stand before the ocean and be reminded of our smallness. It was to experience God’s power as seen in the ocean. It was to ask God to put our lives back into perspective for a few moments.

I remember glancing to my right as we stood there and watching Mason dig in the sand with his toy truck. If you could have seen him at that moment he had his back to the ocean, his face toward the boardwalk and his eyes fixed in the deepening sand as he dug. I felt like saying, “Mason, have you seen the ocean?”

For Marci and I, playing on the beach and watching the kids dig in the sand was the reward for having gone to the ocean; but it wasn’t the goal. In other words we did not set out to play on the beach and build sandcastles. We set out to see the ocean. Playing on the beach was simply the reward. But if you were to ask Mason why he went to the ocean he probably would have said, “To build sandcastles of course”.

You see the youthful mind can innocently confuse reward with goal. And if we are not careful reward can become our goal too. This happens all the time. Consider these items;

1.       World Peace: We all want world peace, but world peace is not the goal. World peace is the reward that comes with the goal of loving Jesus.

2.      Strong Families: We all want strong families, but strong families are not the goal. Strong families are the reward God gives to parents who love Him.

3.      Civil Rights: We all want justice in our land, but justice is not the goal. Justice is the reward that comes when a society builds life around Jesus.

4.      Freedom: All of us want freedom. But freedom is not the goal. Freedom is the reward people receive as a result of following Jesus.

5.      Balanced budgets, health care, education: All things we want. But they are not the goal. They are the reward of a society for whom life revolves around Jesus! We don’t spend more than we have. We care for one another’s health. We teacher our children about life. We take responsibility for those who brought us into the world and those we brought into the world.

6.      Or how about Eternal Salvation: Everyone needs the eternal salvation Jesus offers. But eternal salvation is not the goal. Eternal salvation is the reward for following Jesus.

Listen folks, when I married Marci I did not marry her for the inheritance I might one day receive from her family. I married Marci to have more of Marci. Everything else is a perk. If I get an inheritance that’s simply one reward for having married Marci. And if my goal for marrying Marci had been to ensure myself a handsome reward, you might question my love for Marci. In the same way we can often approach walking with Jesus youthfully. We know about Canaan. We know what’s there. We know what it’s like. We try our best to take the Bible’s description of Heaven and imagine being there one day. But Canaan is not the goal. Canaan’s the reward! The goal is more of Jesus! And if we are not careful we can easily confuse reward with goal and turn our walk with God into nothing more than a greed for ultimate gratification.

I believe Moses’ trek to Canaan serves as a powerful example of a youthful heart that begins to slowly long for the ocean.

Moses was an outcast for 80 years in both Egypt and Midian. After 80 years he is finally on his way to the promised land where he can finally set down roots and call it home. But just at the peak of freedom, just when everything seems to be working out to his favor, God tells Moses, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Num.20:12).

What sobs must have flooded his chest on that day. After 80 years of being a stranger Moses learns that he will spend his last four long decades wandering a trackless and hostile “no man’s land” in the desert. Let me tell you folks if anybody wanted to get to Canaan’s land in a hurry it was Moses! Canaan would be the home he never had. It would be the place where he could finally settle. The place where he actually belonged. The place, however, that he would never see.

And then we come to Deuteronomy 34: the last chapter of Moses' book, the last day of Moses' life. Up walks Moses to Mt. Nebo alone, probably lonely. Through glistening eyes he listens to God speak these last words to him; “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it” (Deut.34:4).  

Were there tears? I’m sure. But maybe not the kind we would expect. You see after 120 years of life you learn something about goals and rewards. I believe that on Mt. Nebo that day Moses knew he had finally reached the goal: In less than 24 hours Moses would never again leave the presence of God. He knew that Canaan down below was just a perk of the journey. On Mt. Nebo Moses actually stood much more firmly on the promised land than those who would settle on the real estate beyond the river.

When The Struggle Defeats The Dream

(excerpt from "Going Deeper With Christ" teaching series, 3/27/2011)

My Junior hear of High School I had the opportunity to play in a state championship football game against the Kingswood Knights from Kingswood, NH. For anyone unfamiliar with HS football, the state championship is the ultimate dream game for any HS team. The championship was what you worked so hard for. It was what made all the hard work worth it. I remember the game quite vividly. Fans surrounded every square foot of the field. Television crews were there to take brief shots to show on the news that night. Bands, cheerleaders, parents, old alumni players and radio announcers. I remember the lockeroom conversation prior to the game. I remember the quiet and serious bus ride to Kingswood. I remember walking out to the field suited up, pumped up, wondering if I would ever get this chance again. It was a dream day.

Go back 2 months, 6 or 7 games prior, to a weekday practice after school. Practices were brutal for me. 2 ½ - 3 hours, hot, tiring, non-stop running, non-stop yelling, non-stop put-downs from coaches who seemed to know only swear words. All I wanted to do some days was take off all my equipment and go jump in the river that ran beside the practice field because it was so physically and mentally strenuous.

I remember on 3 or 4 different practice days the practices became so hard for me that I literally said to myself, “This is my last day playing football. This is not worth it to me.” And as I think about the championship game that we played in Kingswood that year that we lost, and next year’s championship game in Kennett that we won, I think to myself, “How sad it would have been if I let the struggle defeat the dream."

Sometimes life becomes so strenuous for so long that we let the struggle defeat the dream of wholeness. We come to points in our lives where we say, “It’s easier to go jump in the river than it is to keep fighting for the dream”. It is easier to stay the way I am than it is to go through this struggle. I give up. I turn in my pads. I resign from the team. It’s too difficult. And jump in the river we can. Stay the same we can. Remain lame we can; but not if we want to see a championship.

When Jesus asked the lame man in John 5, "Do you want to get well" I believe Jesus knew something about the lame man we don't. After 38 years of lameness I think it is reasonable to assume that the man's 38-year struggle may have defeated his dream of wholeness. It could be that this man's main problem was not his paralyzed body, but his paralyzed will. Perhaps he no longer wanted to get well. The solution to a paralyzed will begins with a gut check from Jesus, "Do you want to get well?"

Going Deeper With Christ: Discipline Desire

My family and I recently watched the movie Hachi, a story about a dog who shows incredible loyalty to his master. Hachi was found abandoned at a train station back in the 1930’s by a man returning home from work. A puppy with no one to care for him the man picked him up, asked the train station manager what to do with the puppy and ended up taking him home for the night intending to bring him to a pound or locate its owner the following day.

As the story goes one thing leads to another, the owner cannot be located, the man does not have the heart to put Hachi in a pound, and so he keeps the dog.

Over time Hachi grows to love his master and his master loves him. One day the master came home his usual way on the train to find Hachi sitting outside the train station waiting for him. Surprised and bewildered by the fact that Hachi found his way to the train station all by himself, the master walked home with Hachi. From that point on Hachi would faithfully meet his master at the train station each night, day after day, year after year to walk him home.

But then one day while Hachi was waiting for his master the master did not show. Hachi waited and waited and waited until a car pulled up late that night. It was the master’s son-in-law arriving to take Hachi home. The master had died of a heart attack while at work that day.

Hachi went to live with the master’s daughter in a nearby town. The master’s home  was sold and all that was familiar to Hachi was now gone. Something was not right with Hachi from this point forward. He lived in a nice home with familiar people but he was not the same. He was depressed. Escaping one day out of the house, the daughter and son-in-law searched all day for Hachi finally finding him sitting at the train station waiting for his master.

Hachi was brought home that night but the daughter knew that Hachi was not well. And so, compassionately, she let Hachi go. For the next 9 years Hachi lived under an abandoned rail car close to the train station. Every day for 9 years Hachi would make his way to the train station to sit in his special place and wait for his master's return.

Folks, Hachi had a one-desire heart. Nothing would ever again satisfy Hachi’s heart except the presence of his master. Not a plush dog house. Not flavored kibbles n bits. Not a new home with laughing children. For Hachi his heart desired nothing other than to be with his master.

Hachi’s desire for his master’s return dictated everything he did. It dictated where he lived, what he ate, what he spent his time doing. Everything in Hachi’s life was centered around his desire to be with his master.

This is exactly what building life around Jesus is for us: It is an intentional centering of all of life around Jesus our Master. It is not that we abandon all that we are currently doing in our lives in order to live for Jesus; although some may be called to that. Instead, we bring Jesus into everything we are doing. Everything we do gets transformed into God's work as we bring Jesus into it. Now some things we cannot bring Jesus into. There are just some things Jesus will have no part of, and those things must go. But for most people there are ways to do what we are currently doing in Jesus name.

The story of Hachi reminds us that if we desire to go deeper with Christ we must discipline our desires such that we do not desire anything other than our Master. Listen to what Paul said,

"I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.  Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Phil.3:7-11, NLT).

Let me suggest three practical things we can begin to do today to discipline our desires for Christ alone. There are surely more and perhaps better things to try, but here's a place to start:

• Make Every Thought Captive To Christ. We need to question every thought and every intention we have. Never assume that what you automatically think about is what you automatically should be thinking about. Paul said to the Corinthians, “We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor.10:5). 

If, when you have nothing to think about your mind automatically goes to your Fantasy Football League, you may a divided heart. If in your downtime your automatic thoughts go to food or alcohol or drugs or women: let’s face it, you have a divided heart. We need to clean out our minds so that Christ can reside there.

• Understand the Urgency: Death and damnation are real! Earthquakes and other natural disasters are all too frequent reminders of the reality of death. None of us are promised another day. For this reason we must heed the urgent call of the bible to get on board with the Savior: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

We must discipline our desires now because the consequences of a many-desire heart are eternally real.

• Lastly, Make time to go to the train station (figurative of course) to sit before the Master and pray. Pray big prayers. Make note of this passage: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generation, for ever and ever! Amen" (Eph.3:20-21).

This passage reminds us that God is able to do more than we can ask Him to do and more than we can imagine He can do. As you sit before the Master be bold enough to ask God for big things. Not cars, houses and other perishable things; but ask for people. Ask for souls. Ask for revival. Ask for miraculous change from the inside out. Ask for those you know to be released from the debilitating way of life they have been lured into. We can even ask God to heal people of their diseases and ailments. The important thing is that we pray believing and we pray humbly.

Let me encourage today to go deeper with Christ by disciplining your desires. Let me encourage you to desire One.