Archives for February 2009

Enhancing Our Light

February 26, 2009 by Tim Sherfy

“No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see its light. Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light. But when it is bad, your body is also full of darkness. Take care then, that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, the whole body will be full of light, as when a lamp shines its light on you.” – Luke 11:33-36 (HCSB)

Why does Christ focus on the eye in this passage? It has always read a bit strange to me. If our eye is the lamp, how do we control the amount of light we give off? For most of us, our eyes are on the front lines of everything we experience. As we weave in and out of our daily lives, it is the eye that receives much of our input and triggers reactions in the brain. Those triggers store images and feelings and launch reactions. The things we see will affect everything we are. If we allow our eyes to constantly look upon sinful things, our light will dim; as we look only on things that darken our light, we ourselves will be darkened. If we rather train our eyes to only look on good and holy things, the light of those things will enhance our own light. The things we take in directly affect our ability to reflect God (the light) to others. Therefore, the things we allow ourselves to be exposed to become of the utmost importance. If we are constantly exposed to light, then the inevitable exposure to anything dark will immediately be drowned out by the light, and the same light will reveal a path around the darkness. Since exposure to sin is virtually guaranteed in our dark world, we must be very careful and certain to only look upon light things whenever we have a choice. This will protect us when we must navigate the darkness.

Is He Truly Lord?

February 23, 2009 by Tim Sherfy

“The LORD your God is commanding you this day to follow these statutes and ordinances. You must be careful to follow them with all your heart and all your soul. Today you have affirmed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes, commands, and ordinances, and obey Him. And today the LORD has affirmed that you are His special people as He promised you, that you are to keep all His commands, that He will put you far above all the nations He has made in praise, fame, and glory, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God as He promised.” – Deuteronomy 26:16-19 (HCSB)

At times in my life, it has been easy to dismiss scriptures like the one above as being applicable only to the Jews. After all, the book of Deuteronomy was written specifically to the Israelites, long before Christianity came onto the scene. If we view Old Testament scripture this way, we do a great disservice to our ability to live in the manner God intends for us. When Christ died on the cross, He ushered in an explosion in the population of His chosen people: it now included all those who would bow to Him and call Him Lord. With that in mind, let’s examine how this Old Testament scripture can be applied to our lives today.

If we would call Jesus Lord, then we must follow His rules. If we do not, He is not truly our Lord. Calling someone Lord involves an attitude of subservience and devotion. Are we devoted? Do we love Him as we say? Then we will obey Him. Jesus will not force us to obey; He will love us regardless of our response to His directives. He is the Servant King, and those who love Him must become servant subjects.

Notice the wording chosen when He instructs us to follow His instructions: He says we must “be careful to follow them”. Why would we need to “be careful”? I believe there are two reasons. First, when we do something carefully, we are fully engaged, we concentrate to accomplish the task at hand with great precision. Doing something carefully implies we are giving great thought to the task, not haphazardly rushing through what we have to do. Second, I believe we are told to “be careful” because we will be opposed at every turn as we attempt to be faithful. The enemy is lurking around our every move, looking to persuade us to deviate just a little from our destination. We must be diligent to ignore the temptations that would cause us to move off course.

Accepting Christ as our Lord is a marvelous two way street. When we accept Him, He promises to establish us as one of His chosen people. There are no preconditions, there is no entrance exam; our acceptance is automatic. When we believe and surrender to Him as Lord, we are transformed and integrated into the mass of His chosen people. He promises us that if we will simply obey His commands, He will make us a Holy people. He will raise us up above all nations. We are no longer citizens of any earthly kingdom or nation, but rather we belong only to Him, and He to us. From this point forward we must dismiss our sinful need to identify with anything that has been created, and find our identity only in the One who is the Creator. Our attitudes have to change, our lifestyles have to change. We are a Holy people, and if we would call Jesus Lord, we must then act like Holy people.

Study His Word and learn His commands. We must learn to everyday draw closer to God. We do this by carefully following all He will teach us. Just as we don’t take a day off from being a citizen of our country, there are no days off from being a citizen of God’s kingdom. Our surrender to Him provides us a permanent residence among His people, so long as we should want it. Relax in the loving arms of the King; rejoice in the fellowship of His people, who are now your people. Be careful to never shame His name and to always walk in His ways. If we would call Him Lord, we must faithfully live out our proclamation. In return, He will rain love and strength upon us.

Finding Calm in the Storm

February 20, 2009 by Tim Sherfy

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great!” – Matthew 7:24-27 (HCSB)

Living as a Sacrifice

February 19, 2009 by Tim Sherfy

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. – Romans 12:1-2 (HCSB)

In our modern western culture, it is becoming increasingly easy to get distracted by all that surrounds us. Advertisements bombard us at every turn – radio, the internet, television, billboards, etc. We have countless opportunities to engage in activities or to purchase more “stuff” that do nothing to reflect God’s glory.

We are instructed to be “living sacrifices”. How much do any of us truly sacrifice? The vast majority of those in the West have quite enough “stuff”, probably many times over enough! How about surrendering our personal selfishness and greed and instead invest our time and money in things and people that will further the kingdom?

To be a living sacrifice we must learn to devote every second of our lives to God. Whatever we do, we must first make it pass through the “Jesus filter”. It works something like this: before, for example, saying something, test your words with a series of questions: “Will what I’m about to say encourage the person to whom I am speaking? Will it honor God? Will it point others to Christ? Will it demonstrate that we are different?” Before purchasing something, we might ask questions like these: “Will this purchase honor God? Is it something that furthers His kingdom? Does it demonstrate good stewardship of the money He has entrusted us to manage?”

There are many more questions we could ask ourselves, but I’m certain you get the point. I can hear the howls of protest already: “Can’t we buy ANYTHING for ourselves? Can’t we just engage in some mindless conversation or watch some television to just ‘zone out’ and relax?” We think we need these things to be happy, but we miss the point. When we are totally submitted to Christ, presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice, we will be filled with a joy and happiness unlike we have ever known! We were created for this very thing; there is no comfort like that of being what you were created to be.

Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice is not easy, particularly when we first endeavor to do so. We must retrain our minds and bodies to think and act only for God. We must give up all of the so-called treasures of our culture, all those things we’re constantly told that we need, and instead focus solely on Christ. As we sacrifice what we once considered “all” for Him, we will discover that we now have everything through Christ.

Lord, forgive my wandering heart; forgive my lack of commitment in living sacrificially for You. Renew my spirit; renew my mind and my body that I may give them all back to You as a sacrifice of praise. Thank You for Your unending patience and love.

No Turning Back

February 15, 2009 by Tim Sherfy

As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go!”
Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
”Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”
But He told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”
Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:57-62 (HCSB)

Following Jesus is all or nothing. We must at once let go of everything that is of this world and follow Him; no turning back.

We must be willing to give up our comfort. We must be willing to be homeless. We must be willing to be outcast from our families, perhaps being looked upon as rude and disrespectful. We must value Christ above all. We can never look back, but instead press forward at all times.

Lord, thank You for Your holiness and goodness toward me. Let me hold loosely to all the things you have allowed me to manage in this world. I give You my house, my family, my life, for only You are worthy. I need, and I desire, nothing else but You Jesus.