A Life Worthy

Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).

The wellspring  

The source

If you live in the desert, a clean, pure water source is something to treasure and protect.  If it dries up, you are lost.  If something gets in that pollutes it, you are equally doomed. Actually, one great way to defeat an enemy in days of yore was to poison his water source, often by throwing dead things into it.  

Lovely image, hmm?

God has given each of us a new heart, and it is a spring of his living water, nourishing and refreshing us.  

We’ve gotta guard that wellspring, Beloved.  If we fall out of fellowship with the Father, he cannot replenish the spring, and it dries up.  Do you know what happens to life in a desert with no water?  Yes, you do.

If we let the world in, the wellspring gets polluted, fouled, undrinkable.  If we let our Enemy poison it with his lies, it produces death rather than sustaining life.

Guard your heart today, my friend.  Be oh so careful what, and who, you let in.  Keep in close contact with the One who refreshes and replenishes.

Drink deeply, Beloved.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure…(Philippians 4:8).

Ivory soap bugs me.

Oh, the soap itself is fine–smells nice and lathers well.

It’s the advertizing.

They say that the stuff is 99.44 percent pure.

You can’t say that.  “Pure” is an absolute.  You can’t have partly pure.

You can’t even have mostly pure.

It’s either pure

or it isn’t.

Paul tells us to think about what is pure.   

Good luck with that.

I mean it.  Well, not the luck part.  Instead, I wish you grace as you plow through the sociocesspool that we call Thursday.  Keep your eyes fixed on Christ and your thoughts centered on glory, and try not to slip in the muck.

And if, by chance, you do, the One who calls you Beloved will clean you up–and he’s got something much better that Ivory soap.

Although I do like Ivory soap.  Please don’t sue me, Proctor and Gamble, I’m a poor and simple man.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble…(Philippians 4:8)

Noble

As in, “Worthy of or befitting nobility.”  That’s just my definition.  I don’t know if Mr. Webster would approve, but I like it.

You, Beloved, are nobility.  Better than that, you are royalty.  You are a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Don’t rush through that.  

Soak in it for a bit.  

Repeat it…roll it around your soul for a moment.

OK…good.

God has pulled you out of the muck and glop of this world.  He has cleansed you, clothed you, and called you his own.  He has stood you before all the universe and said, “Hey!  This one’s mine.  Back off!”

Or something like that.

So, why would you dive back into the muck?

Why do I?

Oh, Beloved.  Our thought life should befit our new station.  The sinful thoughts, the base, the petty, the immoral–they are not just wrong; they are beneath us. They are not worthy of who we have been called to be.

Lord, help me to be the man you see when you look beneath the muck.

Can I get an “Amen?”

Yesterday’s conversation got me thinking about how I sometimes wish God were not so gentle with us, that he would just muscle his way past our sins and fears and guilt–and will–and make us what he has called us to be.  I know that’s not his way, and I know that his way is infinitely better.  But still…sometimes…

Anyway, the following poem by John Donne came to mind.  I’ll let him be our guest blogger for Friday.

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp’d town to another due,

Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Happy Friday, Beloved.

Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near (Philippians 4:5).

Not wimpiness

Not weakness

Not wishy-washy-namby-pamby-milquetoastiness

Gentleness

To have great strength and choose to restrain it.

To reach out a hand when you want to shake a fist.

To use a tack hammer when you could wield Mjolnir.

OK, that last one was over the top, but I hope you get the picture.

The God of all strength chooses to be gentle with you.

What do you choose, Beloved?

Today I will spend seven hours with seventh-graders.  I will have endless opportunities to practice gentleness. Will I take those opportunities?  

Will you?

Let’s pray for each other today, Beloved.

And, uh, put the hammer down.