Living Unfiltered for God

Our last post spoke of how fear can be used by the enemy to discourage us and keep us from walking in God's will and all that He may have in store for us. This post will focus on a couple of specific fears that most of us will struggle with at some point or another and what the Bible has to say about them.  This blog was inspired in large part by the principle that we need to listen to what God has to say and act on it in obedience, without concern about what man may say about it. With that in mind, the first fear we will look at is the fear of man and his opinions. Psalm 27 provides great encouragement for those who are tempted to fear what we my be facing from man. David asks, "of whom shall I be afraid?" With God as our light and salvation, we have nothing to fear! Another, even more direct verse, again in the words of David are found in Psalm 56:11  where he says, "in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?" One approach to dealing with t

What came into your mind when you first read the title above? Did you even think about it? If not, and even if you did, take a brief moment now to think about what it is that causes you fear. I'd like for you to have something in mind as you read what follows.  Now that you have something specific in mind, let me ask you another question... Is God bigger than whatever it is you came up with? Before you start arguing with me in your head, think about it. Whatever that thing is that you're thinking about, don't you think that God, specifically your faith in God, can help you overcome that fear? It has been said many times that the opposite of fear is not courage, but faith. Faith is what gets us through. Faith is what gives us the ability to be courageous. When God spoke to Joshua and told him to "be strong and courageous" it was followed with the assurance that He (God) would be with Joshua "wherever you go" ( Joshua 1:9 ). Joshua had to have faith

I thought it would be good to look at what "living unfiltered for God" looks like using an example from the lives of the apostles. In Luke 5:4-11 , we have a great example of Simon (who would become Peter) being obedient to the words and call of Jesus. The story presents a model that we all (should) go through when living in obedience to God. Recognize His voice. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” (Luke 5:4-5a) At this point in the story, Simon had just been listening to Jesus teach, (from his own boat, actually). By referring to Jesus as Master, he was acknowledging that there was something different, something divine, about Jesus. Simon knew that he should listen and pay close attention to what Jesus had to say. Do what He says (even if it seems a little crazy). But because you say so, I will let down the nets

When you think about worship, what comes to mind? For many, it is most often relegated to that time at the beginning of your church service where you listen to some songs and maybe even sing along. Others, may take it a bit further and consider their giving (of time, talents and treasure) to be an act or worship as well. I think it's a lot more than that, though. I believe that worship is a 24/7/365 kind of thing! In his book The Air I Breathe , Louie Giglio provides a wonderful definition of worship, that is also somewhat challenging. He writes that,  "Worship is...  our response,  both personal and corporate,  to God -  for who He is!  and what He has done!  expressed in and by the things we say  and the way we live." That last part sounds a lot like what we've been talking about as "living unfiltered for God", doesn't it? Since we've established that our obedience to God reflects and exhibits our love for God, then we can look

"The voice of the Lord is powerful;  The voice of the Lord is majestic."   ( Psalm 29:4 ) We've been talking a lot in this space about the importance of doing what God says when He tells us to do something. The idea of which makes up the basis of living the unfiltered life that we desire. He speaks, we act. When we hear His prompting, we obey. This all begs the question though, how exactly do we go about actually hearing what He is saying? How do we hear His majestic voice? How do we know what it is we are supposed to do? We're not necessarily talking about the " What is God's will for my life? " type of question right now. That is more of a big picture, long term discernment type of issue. While that is very much a part of the unfiltered life, what we want to focus on for now are those gentle, subtle promptings and hearing that "still small voice". I don't claim to have a lot of answers on this one but I can share what I've l

Earlier today, while straightening up and rearranging our library a bit, I came across one of my favorite books,  The Call by Os Guinness. It's been nearly ten years since I first read it. It was then that I was introduced to this idea of "the Audience of One." In the chapter dedicated to this concept Guinness writes, "Most of us, whether we we are aware of it or not, do things with an eye to the approval of some audience or other. The question is not whether we have an audience but which audience we have."  So who is your audience? Who are you trying to please? At some level most of us would say our family (spouses and children) is one part of our audience. And it is admirable to try to please them. Also, as Christians, the Bible gives us direction as to how to do that in such a way that it honors God. Many might also say that their employers or their careers in some way provide the audience. Regarding this, the apostle Paul suggests that we are to "...

Have you ever really thought about this question? I suspect, that as Christians, we spend a lot more time thinking about God's love for us, than we do about how we actually love Him? Perhaps during worship at church or elsewhere, we praise Him and offer our love to Him through our words and singing and so forth, but day to day, hour by hour, how do we express our love to the One who created us, beyond just telling Him? Jesus makes it very clear that we are to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." ( Matthew 22:37 ) He tells us in the very next verse that this is the first and greatest commandment, so it's a big deal! But how do we do that? What does that really look like? Fortunately, Jesus makes it similarly clear in the 14th chapter of John, in several different ways that, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching." ( John 14:23 ) So then, it appears that to love God is to obey God. In essence then

“Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55)   I'd like to share a little story. A little story that actually took place a week ago. My Dad had just passed away and my wife and I were taking a walk around the grounds of the beautiful country motel at which we were staying. It was the night before his memorial service. You can imagine the emotions - the sadness of losing a loved one; the poignancy of being back in the small town where I grew up; that realization that we are all mortal. We were enjoying the smell of the fresh air, the sound of the water gently running through the winding creek and looking at some flowers that we don't usually see...  "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15:56-57) Then my wife saw it. There, seemingly "hiding" underneath a flower that was hanging down, was the most amazing moth

How easy is it for you to trust someone? Do you automatically do so, or does the trust have to be earned, or built? What about with God? Does He have to earn it? How do you grow your trust with Him? What types of things grow your trust in the Lord?  I think these questions are pertinent, because if we are going to truly live an "unfiltered" life for God, we have to learn to trust Him. Really trust Him. Trust Him with a "more than we trust anyone or anything in the world" kind of trust. He's going to ask us to do things, to go places and to say things that may not be comfortable. For us to be able to do them, we'll have to trust that it will all work out OK.  So how do we make this happen? Our pastor offered up some clues regarding this last Sunday during his message on  Delighting in the Lord . He said something that really made a lot of sense... That our faith starts with obedience, but then it moves to trust. That the best way to increase your trust

How closely do you pay attention to those little voices in your head? You know,  the one's that say "do this" or "don't do that"? Well, the other day, while crafting a short Facebook post in my head during my commute into work, I heard these voices arguing. (OK, I know what you're thinking, and to some degree I believe commuting in Atlanta can drive one a little crazy!) It was a simple idea I had about understanding stress - that there are some things (and people) that cause it and some that reduce it. That we need to spend more time with the things that reduce it and less with those that produce it. My brain went to a couple of examples of how to do that. Then, this one popped in my head, "more God, less world." Almost immediately, I heard one of those voices say, "Oh, you can't add that, some of your "friends" may not agree with it and they might be offended." I started to think about who might "Like" th

Last week at a family camp retreat, while leading a Creative Writing session (used as an avenue to hear from God through writing), I heard what has become a new motto for my life and which has led to the creation of this blog. God impressed upon me this idea of how those of us who are Christian often have a tendency to "sanitize" the word of God to make it more palatable to others in the world who may not share our faith. Not only do we do this with His Word, but also with our actions and behaviors. We know what we should do or say, but if we don't think it will be received well by whatever audience we may have, we "clean it up". We choose to disobey God for the sake of being socially acceptable. Well, what I heard from God that day was that He didn't want that anymore. What He wants is for us to live our lives "unfiltered" for Him. No longer should we feel we need to put a filter on Him. No longer should we try to dumb God down so that we are more