The Eyes or The Heart?

It’s been said that the eyes are a window into our soul. These windows connect the material world around us with our hearts and what our hearts desire. Lust, greed and pride in our hearts find their way into the world via our eyes. So where should we start in an effort to address the problem with lust, greed and pride? Is it an eye problem or a heart problem? Do we start with our eyes or do we follow a deeper and complex path into our hearts?

At times we need to say “no” to what our eyes want to look at—beauty I want to have, fame that props my perceived identity up, things I must have to give me a sense of being alive, or that social media feed or wall that any of us could become addicted to—in order to clear the path into our heart.

At times we need to say “no” to what our eyes want to look at while examining the motives that drive our hearts in that moment—and hopefully shift the objects we treasure to the life-giving Christ who promises abundant life here in the now and through eternity.

And then there are times when our windows—eyes—are clear and we see the world around us through godly filters, like the ones the Apostle mentions in Philippians 4:8-9:

whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

So, whether or not your eyes are seeing the material world through godly filters, here is where we need to start or land on:

“My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.”

This is the verse God used a couple of weeks ago to speak to me. It was so encouraging! What God ultimately desires is not an external behavior by which I manage the restrain of my eyes to prevent my heart from lusting, being greedy or leaning on pride. God wants my heart, and so He tenderly says to me, says to you: “give me your heart” first, then your eyes will follow “my ways”.

What are you looking at? Are your filters godly? Does Jesus have your heart?

—Diego Cuartas

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A short time ago, a well- respected church leader wrote an article about worship and how it is handled in many of today’s churches. And he mainly doesn’t very much like it. These are some of the things he didn’t like, and how he would fix everything were he given the opportunity, and other practices he misses that we rarely do any more. Several of us then commented on this, and I intend here to look a bit into my 88 years, and reflect on this subject.

He doesn’t approve of large screens in churches. He doesn’t like the words of the worship songs portrayed on the screens; he longs for the old hymns, and for hymnals held in our hands, where we can read the music. He remembers fondly how people dressed respectfully in their “Sunday best” to come to church. This was not just an expression of what he preferred; he felt strongly that in times past we focused more strongly on God than we do now. I disagree, but I think I now understand a little better. So this was my experience over the years.

My earliest church was in Vincentown, where the name of my great-great-grandfather, William Branin, is part of the stained glass window in the little Baptist church. I suppose he paid for it. There were hymnals and an organ and a choir. I was sometimes embarrassed by my dearly loved grandmother, because she often shed tears when she sang those old hymns. I was young and clueless. Our church at home in Philadelphia was larger, but much the same. It was that time, the 30’s and early 40’s.

Big change came in the 70’s, with the Jesus movement, which was when I was really saved, and I loved it! All my teen-aged children were saved then too, and I loved the songs and the guitars and the Bible and everything that was different from the stiff way things had been. Of course I now realize that my attitude was really fed by my new relationship with Jesus. Nevertheless, I loved the new music and took loads of children to the first Creation festival and even slept in a tent for the first time (and the last!).

By then we had built a house on LBI; my husband was then a ‘head-hunter’;  I had loved the island all my life, and he could work anywhere, so we picked Ship Bottom, where my parents had our summer home. Heaven on earth. When I was young, we had to search for our shoes in September to go back to school. And I never again could really feel at home in a strictly traditional church.

When I read the aforementioned article, my first reaction was that it was just an example of legalism. The idea of dressing up for church; the need to go back to what someone sees as the old tried and true ways of worship: with hymnals and no large screens.  

Even though I was in my 50’s, my Christianity was truly born in a Bible study I was invited to attend on LBI in the early Jesus movement of the 60’s. I flourished in this new life; I loved the whole atmosphere. But now I wonder if some of what I see as legalism might not have simply originated in what was common in the time of THEIR life when THEY first met Jesus, when life was more structured, and when their Christian honeymoon period was very different from mine. Who can blame them for thinking that we might be doing it all wrong?

When God opens my mind to a new idea, there’s ALWAYS a lesson! In this case, does God want me to remember that He dearly loves ALL of us? Does He want me to be slower to judge?

I suspect that He does.

—Norma Stockton

What Did You Think Of The Halftime Show?

Here in February of 2020 there have been quite a few noteworthy news stories to follow: the impeachment trial and acquittal of President Trump, the alarmingly rapid spread of corona virus, Iowa’s democratic caucuses, the State of the Union address that happened last week, Nancy Pelosi’s non-verbal statement of ripping that speech in two…and…right there, smack in the middle of it all, a large online debate about the appropriateness or not-appropriateness of the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Have you read some of the things written on either side of this particular controversy? Have you seen some of the polarized articles and social media posts from both or either side about J. Lo and Shakira’s highly debated performance?? There are arguments all over the place for every way of interpreting what happened on that stage. There are people saying that ‘nothing about that debacle was family-friendly,’ that it was ‘pornographic,’ ‘indecent,’ and ‘offensive to little eyes watching the football game.’ There are arguments for the ‘beauty and inclusivity’ of the performance: that these two Latin women did something powerful in providing a powerful voice for a people group that has been systematically oppressed and overlooked. There are arguments for the ‘athleticism,’ ‘creativity' and ‘confidence’ of a 40- and 50-something year old woman who haven’t succumbed to cultural norms for health and beauty. And guess what? That’s just the beginning. You might know this. You might’ve read it. The arguments go on and on. The potential for debate is as far as the internet is wide.

In such a plethora of opinions, such a widespread dichotomy of options for how to think, I would like to clearly state that I wrote this blog with ‘the people of the church,’ Christians, people adopted into the family of Christ, in mind. That is my target audience. How should a Christian, one who has been chosen to belong to the family of Christ, choose to think? Which path should one choose?

Well, I would of course assume that even within the Church, there continues to be various ways to think- the Bible says that we are all parts of one body, that we are all different, all gifted, and all needed. No one is excluded, and no one is the best and the standard for perfection. (1 Corinthians 12)

However. I would like to submit to you, again making the assumption that I am speaking to ‘people of the church,’ that there is, in fact, a light for our path for how to think. We are called to steady ourselves in our thinking, in how we interpret our world, through what God has already said, in the Bible. We are not called to chose what seems right to us, based on our own minds, based on what our eyes see, or based on any article or social media post we’ve read that seems compelling or logical. We’re called to be steady people of the Word of God.

So. What does the Word of God say about a performance like the NFL Halftime Show?

Does it say to get online and condemn J. Lo and Shakira for shamefully doing such a sexually charged dance in front of millions?

Does it say that we should loudly complain about how not family-friendly the halftime show was while watching every second with ‘little eyes’ present?

Does it say we should champion and approve of J. Lo and Shakira for their athleticism and cultural inclusion?

Does it say we should get ourselves to the gym because if they can be 40-something and 50-something and the world around is saying that’s simply athletic and the human body is amazing, then we better join that spinning class…or better yet pole dancing?

I’m not saying that I have all the answers for you: as I mentioned earlier, I deeply believe God has gifted us each uniquely and we need each other and our different ways of interacting with the world and God’s Word. BUT I will share my personal answer to each of those questions with you: NO!

My answer for each question is NO.

And here is how I counsel myself to think, based on steadying myself on what God has already said in His Word. When I come across something like this year’s NFL Halftime Show, and I follow the aftermath of commentating sprees, I ask myself what has God’s Word said? Here’s what I came up with this time. See what you think:

1. I can expect a lost world to act lost. In Ephesians 2, Paul describes that before God makes someone alive to Him, we are dead in our sins. Unable to choose God’s way of living. So I would say, why are we as Christians getting online and insisting that the world live by the standard of God’s way? Why are we expecting unbelievers to live like members of God’s family? They’re lost. I can expect them to live like that.

2. Yes, it’s sad! Yes, when I see corporate large-scale lostness, it affects me in my soul. I don’t just see the lost-ness and shrug it off, saying, “Well, they’re lost. That’s normal.” Romans 1 describes what I can expect to see when I look at the world, and even how and why. So when I happen to see what the Bible describes as a ‘depraved mind ,‘ and the actions that flow out of a depraved mind, I don’t really need to be surprised. I don’t turn my emotions off or grow numb to it, but I don’t allow surprised rage at expressed lostness to be the emotion I grab ahold of.

3. What should be the emotion I embrace, then, according to the Bible? In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus WEEPS over Jerusalem, saying, ‘Oh that you would have known the things that made for peace.’ Again when he sees the crowds, Matthew 9:36 says, “When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion and pity for them, because they were dispirited and distressed, like sheep without a shepherd.” ‭‭Hence, when I see depravity in the world, my call isn’t to lash out, expecting the world to be different, but to join with Jesus in mourning for the lost. There are things that ‘make for peace’ clearly lacking at the NFL Halftime show. When I look together with Jesus, I see that this crowd, too, including the performers, are dispirited and distressed underneath all the hype, and compassion arises. They’re real people, needing a real Savior, trying to make life work, and guess what? No matter how ‘successful’ it looks, it’s not working out for them. I need to engage more than my physical eyes and look with my spiritual eyes.

4. Why should I mourn what was displayed prominently on the world stage last weekend? What’s actually grief-producing about it? Well, the question produces another question: what is beauty for? Is the glorious beauty of a woman meant to be on display for anyone and everyone? Is beauty meant to be used to get something? I can’t answer those questions fully in a paragraph, but here is what I can quickly steady myself with what I know from God’s Word: women were created to carry the image of God, personally and corporately (Genesis 1:27). A huge, powerful aspect of the image of God that we carry in who we are, and in our physical bodies, each one of us is beauty. We are called to carry that glorious gift in a restful, God-glorifying and honoring way, imaging our Creator (1 Peter 3:5-6, Isaiah 43:7), but sadly, we humans take many, many things that are good gifts, and we use them as our own personal savior, a false savior, a savior that isn’t the real Savior, Jesus, as a way to get. We have needs that we need to be met. We need to be told we are significant. We need to be deeply and profoundly accepted. We need to be loved. We need to be validated. We need to be told we are worthwhile and valuable and lovable. What happens in a narrative like this is that instead of getting all of those needs met in the great narrative of the Creator God, God’s redemptive story of humanity, in Jesus Christ, we as humans are really good at trying to get our needs met in something else. So there are women all over the place, prominent on the stage women, and every day all around us women, myself many times included, trying to say without words, “I’ll find my loveliness, I’ll find my security, I’ll find my significance, I’ll find my value, not in settledness, in rest and trust (Isaiah 30:15) but in giving away something precious of myself in order to get (actually to get what I already have but I don’t understand that I have it).” Is beauty meant to get something? To prove something? I would say no. We already have significance, love, value, acceptance, and beauty, physical and in the essence of who we are, in our created selves and in the great narrative of God’s story. We can’t find what we need in the small story of our own glory and greatness, or in this case, in celebrity. We can only find what we need in God (1 Cor 10:31, Matthew 5:16).

5. There is a call, from the world, for me and many others to join with them in declaring something not right as right. The world would say, “You’re ridiculous if you can’t see a performance, if you have to complain about it.” Well, the end of Romans 1 talks about not only participating in evil, but approving and calling what is evil as good. That’s what the argument of athleticism is all about. Sure, that performance was athletic! Yes! There is no denying it. But there is something deeper than athleticism at play. And I have the right, and the call, to use my spiritual eyes to call what is not right as ‘not right’. I (and you, Christian reader) have a call on my life for purity and wholeness, to walk in the ways of honor and dignity (and fun and full of life) that the Lord designed for me, sexual and otherwise. There is nothing wrong with seeing past the argument of athleticism and cultural inclusivity to see the death being broadcast and passed to the next generation.

6. Death is being broadcast all the time, all over our culture, not solely in that performance. I am a mom, and it’s my job to learn to notice it more and more, for my own soul, to call it out, and within my own family, to shepherd my family through my increasing awareness of it. I was surprised at articles and social media posts I saw where people were complaining about how these ladies were not providing a family-friendly experience. Um…people? Hello? Again, why would we expect it to be? WHY would we expect the NFL to shepherd our families, for crying out loud??? That’s not their job! So I remind myself that I have a call (Eph. 6:4, Prov. 22:6) to myself shepherd my children. It’s me who has that call. I’m the gatekeeper. Not the TV. Not the NFL. Not J. Lo or Shakira. And within that call, I have so many options. The first step, probably, is to doing something. Maybe it’s to talk to my family about performances beforehand, before the game is on the TV, to talk through that performances almost always loudly declare so many messages that aren’t true. Maybe it’s time to start looking together for what messages the media is trying to promote. Based on how I’ve handled or not handled things in the past, I can talk about my past silence or my lack of not doing anything previously. I can talk to my kids about the way I myself was raised and the things I was allowed to see and who did or did not talk me through them. I can (my current choice because of my kids’ ages) choose to not even make the halftime show a thing and simply turn it off. I can talk my children through how there will always be choices for what to watch and what not to watch, and Mommy and Daddy make those choices all the time, and here’s how we make those choices. The NFL won’t shepherd my kids. They never have, and they never do. Every game already sends messages about the misguided use of sexuality and beauty. The proclamation and celebration of a false savior to a watching and vulnerable world is already a part of that culture. It’s a part of our modern cultural all over the place. It’s my job to see what’s right and not right and to filter it through God’s Word (as much as I’m able at this stage of my development), and to try to learn to talk to the precious ones that I’ve been given to shepherd about it.

7. And lastly, I remember how I was lost. There are still many parts of me that are desperately confused. I have followed countless false saviors. I have passed death on. I have broadcast death in my own circles of influence to women, to men, to the next generation. I have said with my actions, “This false savior is a compelling way to get life, follow this!” And I have forsaken my Creator and I have tried many other ways to get life. Jesus took the punishment for my sin, and He has welcomed me with delight into His family, regardless. He hasn’t rejected me. He hasn’t asked me to be different or better while staying far away from Him. He hasn’t turned a blind eye to my sin and lostness and called it good. He welcomed me and washed me, took on Himself the punishment, and put His Spirit in me to, bit by bit, make me like Him. That’s the narrative I should remember when I look out and see the lostness of the world.

So how about you? How well would you say you do at steadying yourself in the Word of God, in what He has already said, whatever your situation is that you are interpreting? I feel like I am just a little baby on the journey of agreeing with Him and aligning myself with His Words, but I feel that this is a very significant work to which I am called. So, if you sense the call too, I invite you, steady yourself. His Word is true. He is true. Steady yourself.

—Sarah Howard

Faith in the 11th Hour

This past Sunday Pastor Greg talked about Faith. Powerful message. So as my schedule goes on, I get to see first hand where my faith starts to crumble.

It’s early Tuesday morning. I am committed to submit this blog entry today. I have already written most of a note that could work, but I have been praying and there’s this unsettling feeling about it. So I ask the Lord again, “Please guide me to what you want me to write.” Listening for His answer…crickets.

I get to work before I have to start, expecting that’s when I should write. But the network is down. There’s no way to get to my last written document. There was an accident last night up the street, and the power crews are working on it. We have power, but something is still not working correctly. I have a dentist appointment first thing, and I have to get some work done. “Lord, what do I do? I know you have this in some way, just like you did last month…you provided.” Very very quietly I hear, “Write what’s happening.” You said ‘Fear not’ so many times in the Bible. So why am I getting anxious? The tension is building within me. I only have a few short hours.

I’m a do it ahead of time, scheduler type of person. I’m intentionally early for everything. When something cracks that mold, yes, I get uneasy and admit that I don’t understand why things don’t always work out so smoothly. But I just try to move on. But why am I that way? Because deep down, If I mess up in just a little way, I assume I will be labeled as a fake. What I fear is how I will come out of this. Not about what God will do.

BIG RECORD SKREEETCH TO A GRINDING HALT!!

“Fear is expecting the devil to move, Faith is expecting God to move.” Jimmy Evans 

Psalm 91:1-2, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'” 

So I’m back from the dentist, and it’s the 11th hour. So what has happened in the previous few hours? No Novocain at the dentist!! He had to grind a little, but the fix is good. The network is back up, so I can work. I have access now to the note I wrote, but it’s not necessary. What I’m sharing with you is a very real picture of life, how we can step right out of the dwelling place of the Most High. Even when we are doing something good.

Fear will drag me right to ‘ME’; Faith will, as in Ephesians 6:16, “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” 

God had this.

Submitted with minutes to spare.

Have a great day!

—Brian Rainey