An Amazing Day

YES, I was on my motorcycle all morning conducting pastor’s visits. 

Life is good. 

I am not going to lie and say it was “warm”, because that would be…. less than the truth. 

Get this, I gassed up at Chevron – pumped PREMIUM gas – filled the tank and…. (((( drum roll )))) …. $4.97 cents. 

Life is good. 

A motorcycle that gets 60 mpg is much more fun to gas up than a pickup that is lucky to manage around 23 mpg.

Now, part 2 of my amazing day in the sunshine.  Join me in reading Psalm 97….  

 You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects the lives of his godly people
and rescues them from the power of the wicked.
Light shines on the godly,
and joy on those whose hearts are right.
May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord
and praise his holy name!

Psalm 97:10-12 NLT

The heart of this Psalm is, “Love what God loves and hate what God hates.” 

If you say you are a “spiritual person” – then the Spirit of God lives in your heart and will, every day, draw you closer to God – and that will be revealed in what you love and what you hate. 

If you say you have “faith in God”  -- then your faith will be grounded in your love for God and your love for His Word.  And your faith will, every day, draw you closer to God, making you naturally love what He loves and hate what He hates. 

If you say you have “made peace with God” – then that simply means that you spend every moment of every day walking in step with Him and you love what He loves and hate what he hates.

Your spiritual take-away from this is obvious,

“What do you love and what do you hate?” 

 Your answer to this question will reveal the true condition

of your relationship with God.

Now, lets go back and reread Psalm 97…..

You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He protects the lives of his godly people
and rescues them from the power of the wicked.
Light shines on the godly,
and joy on those whose hearts are right.
May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord
and praise his holy name!

Psalm 97:10-12 NLT

Who does God protect?  Those who hate evil.

Who does God rescue from the wicked?  Those who hate evil.

Who does God make His light of blessing on?  Those who hate evil.

Who experiences the JOY of God in their hearts? Those whose hearts are right.

So the obvious question is: “What is evil?” 

If we make a list of the most reprehensible, offensive gut wrenching sins that offend us on every level THEN compare our list against God’s list of terrible sins – how do you think they will match up? 

There are six things the Lord hates—
no, seven things he detests:
haughty eyes,

(egotistical, arrogant, condescending)
a lying tongue,
(deceptive, manipulative, less than the truth)
hands that kill the innocent,
(babies, children)
a heart that plots evil,
(self centered, destructive, divisive)
feet that race to do wrong,
(enthusiastic, willing participants)
a false witness who pours out lies,
(intended to destroy, divide, deceive)
a person who sows discord in a family.
(talks in dark corners spreading disunity)
Proverbs 6:16-19

So, what do you love AND what you hate? 

What does this reveal about you and your relationship with God?

What Are Your Boundaries?

Tonight I had a refreshing FaceBook conversation with a lifelong friend and a good friend of hers.  The conversation began with my friend commenting that her favorite TV show “Criminal Intent” had an episode that had disturbing content. 

So I tossed out Ephesians 5:12 NLT, “It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.” My intent was to nudge her toward questioning what is appropriate to be used as entertainment and what is “over the line”. 

Her friend commented that she missed the connection between Ephesians 5:12 and the TV show.  For me, having someone admit they don’t see the practical application of Scripture to a real world problem is like throwing gas on a fire.  I love it. 

I have been a Law & Order junkie since the beginning, September 30^th 1990.  There will never be another detective like Lenny Briscoe with his witty banter and raw personality.  However, when they expanded the series to L&O SVU, I began to struggle with appropriate boundaries on what is entertainment and what crosses the line. 

L&O SVU seemed to focus on graphic sex crimes and graphic crimes against kids.  Both of these fall under the Ephesians 5:12 rule.  This is not entertainment.  These are topics that shock and violate the conscience.  

Our conscience is a programmable gift from the good Lord. 

If you program your conscience with reliable boundaries and appropriate material, it can be trusted as a guide. 

However, if you program your conscience with graphic evil, guess how trustworthy your conscience will become? 

You program your conscience by making decisions on what you will and will not allow through your eyes and ears. 

Think of a computer.  If you put corrupt viruses into your computer, what type of data can you expect to get out of it? 

If you put inaccurate data in your computer, what type of information will you get out of it? 

If you feed your conscience a diet of perversion and filth, it will become confused and unreliable. 

My point?  For every minute you spend watching TV ~ spend a minute reading God’s Word.  Grab a New Living Translation.  I love the quality and readability.  And you will be fine tuning your conscience with God’s Word. 

Finally, when you are watching a TV show or a move, ask, “Does this glorify God?”  If God walked in the room and sat down next to me, would I be ok sharing that show with Him?  Or would I be embarrassed? 

“I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.”  Psalm 101:3

 “one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”  Philippians 4:8 

“anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:28

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. “ 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” Romans 12:2

“Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life” Proverbs 4:12