Truth in Love

David and Paul both had hard to hear words spoken in love for their contemporaries:


Psalms 14:3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.


I Corinthians 15:33-34 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.


David and Paul were basically saying the same thing: when you base your zeal for your relationship with God on what you see others doing, you all slide away together!


Becoming corrupt together is a problem throughout the Bible. There is a place in man's heart designed to connect our eyes to our desire. If we see others doing something or having something, we tend to try and do the same thing.


This is easy to see among a group of kids. Kids could go all day with it never crossing their mind that they may want something like a balloon, but give one kid a balloon, and suddenly every one of them MUST have a balloon! Adults aren't much different. This was part of our design. We were made to "behold and become." Adam and Eve were made to behold God, the most interesting person in the room, and become like Him...fiery with desire for the relationship. Unfortunately, when they rebelled against God's leadership, mankind could no longer see God. God's bright holiness would kill them, so for love, He withdrew. Now the most interesting person we can see with our eyes is either us, or someone like us!


Most of us, to one degree or another, gauge the desire of our lives on what we see as "normal" around us. If we could take someone who feels poor in the United States, and drop them into everyday life in Ethiopia for a minute, they would suddenly not feel poor anymore.


This dynamic is true with our pursuit of God. It is tempting to gauge our zeal for God compared to what we see in others. We were made to gauge our zeal on God's zeal for us, but most of us have little information about God's zeal. This is very dangerous. Jesus addresses the end-time church in Laodicea, and tells them that they don't see things the way they really are:


Revelation 3:14-22 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ”


This IS the current state of vast majority of the western church. Until way too recently, this was the state of my heart. I had no idea. I thought living in my balanced church-going life, volunteering here and there, taking care of my family, earning a solid income, vacationing here and there, that I was blessed and living about as good as it gets. I thought, for a regular guy, I was rich enough and had no pressing need of anything, but by and large, my spiritual hunger was nearly missing. I thought this mainly because nearly everyone I saw seemed to live the same way. This is the problem with the Western Christian world.


We equate going to church with seeking God, because it is generally how everyone around us thinks. We try to protect our kids to some extent from the vile stuff on tv, but once we put them to bed, we let our souls take in even worse junk for the rest of the night, because we think we are old enough to handle it. We are fascinated with what the world offers, and don't really even know how to become fascinated with God. All together we have become corrupt. We have by and large missed the whole point of salvation! We might be in the gate, but we don't even realize there is a fascinating kingdom of God to explore, not to mention God Himself, still, by far, the most interesting person in the room if we could get a hunger to know Him.


Under a banner of "grace" we have given ourselves permission to believe we are wholehearted for Jesus, even though a quick inventory of our calendar and our checkbook would clearly show He generally gets very little of what we really care about. Instead of true grace, which gives us an ability to press delete and start obeying again (pressing in again) when we stumble, we settle for false grace to escape obedience. Grace is given by God. He owns and distributes it, therefore He gets to define it. He defines it as an ability for weak and broken people to remain under Jesus' perfect leadership, to run to Him when we mess up. Unfortunately, the western church has largely together decided grace means we can belong to Jesus and live outside of His leadership. We have collectively decided that obeying Him is too hard to really be achieved, and so we approach His leadership casually..believing we are rich because we are temporarily comfortable. We are truly poor, blind, wretched, and naked...and we generally have no idea that is the case. Lukewarm for the things of God, with nearly zero sustaining hunger for more.


Discipline and performance will not produce obedience. We need hunger to spend time gazing on God, so we can become fiery like Him, instead of lukewarm like those around us. This is what produces obedience from the heart. God gives food to the hungry, and our hunger is up to us. No one is born hungry, there is only one way to hunger for God: asking for it. That is why Jesus said this:


Mark 10:23-27 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”


Believe it or not, if you can read these words, you are probably rich. Internet access is a luxury! Almost none of us "feel" rich, but the vast majority of us are rich. Jesus was saying in this passage that when the circumstances of life don't hem you in to having to cry out to God for your very survival, hunger and thirst for God won't naturally happen. But what is impossible for man to produce, hunger for God, God is able to provide!


God wants us to be hungry to know Him, because His desire for us is so great. He wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength because He loves us this way. God desires us to be part of His royal family forever, equally yoked...equally invested...in the consuming and jealous love that burns in His heart.


Hunger for God is the greatest blessing, and is a huge part of the kingdom. We get parts of the kingdom only by asking for them like children ask their parents for stuff:


Mark 10:15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”


When my kids were little and wanted something, they didn't try to earn it, they didn't think about what it cost, they just started asking and didn't stop until they got it.


Hunger and thirst for God is one of the most valuable parts of the kingdom. The drive to know more and more about God is a pearl of great price. If you ask for it, it will cost you the less valuable parts of life...the parts that distract from chasing after Him with all your strength: your time, money, and desire. Hunger for God will certainly cost you comfort. It will certainly cost you balance:


Philippians 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ


The problem is, all together, we have bought into the lie that our first responsibility is to ourselves, or our family, instead of to wholehearted zeal for Jesus. We have beheld and become eachother. We want to give God what is left after work, family, and a reasonable amount of "me" time. But the truth is focusing on Jesus and His kingdom first is the only guaranteed way to get everything else we need "added unto" us:


Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.


I want to look at God's jealous desire for me so I can become like Him.

God, give me more hunger and thirst for you today. Let zeal burn in my heart for you like your zeal for me burns in yours!