daily java

Daily Java:

Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin. (Proverbs 21:4)

The Bible says it is the attitude that will condemn you, not just the action.

In other words, you haven’t actually done a bad thing. But you sat around thinking about it. You are just as guilty. You haven’t taken things from poor people to enrich yourself, but you look at them as if you were better than they. So the guilt is there as much as if you actually stole from them.

What does that mean? Does it mean thoughtcrime – a word coined by George Orwell in the book 1984 – has been invented by God? We may not do something but because we thought of it, we are guilty and going to hell?

No. What it means is that you can keep the body clean but unless you also keep the mind clean, it does no good. It also means that legalism will not save you. Simply by not doing something you are not made holy. Your holiness comes from your attitude, from your heart, from the very way you conduct yourself.

God is not looking for ways and reasons to send us to hell. If he had been, we all would have gone long ago. If he had been, it would have been a waste of time to send Jesus to die for us to bring us back to him.

It was Jesus himself who said he did not come to condemn, but to save. It was he who said he had come to bring people back to the Father.

If it were true that he was looking for reasons to send us to hell, why bother with the bringing back part? Just forget it, look around for those who had managed to not actually do anything and save them.

That is what we do with politicians. We are looking for those who have never done anything wrong (and maybe never really done anything period). Maybe they are greedy, or grasping, or lustful, but they have never actually been caught in a sin so they are fine.

God looks at the heart, not at the actions. He knows the actions are going to be bad because we have all sinned. We start off sinning. We’re lost from the beginning. So what is the point of trying to pretend we are anything we aren’t?

It is the insides, not the outsides that will save a person. I would rather have a child who makes a lot of mistakes but whose heart is good than a perfect child with no real feeling for me either way.

daily java

Daily Java:

Who may climb the mountain of the LORD?
      Who may stand in his holy place?
 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,
      who do not worship idols
      and never tell lies.
 They will receive the LORD’s blessing
      and have a right relationship with God their savior.
 Such people may seek you
      and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. (Psalm 24:3-6)

It is not what we do that saves us, it is who we are.

Who are the ones who will stand before God? Those, he says, that have clean hands and pure hearts, who have remained loyal to him in spite of what the world demands, who keeps his ethics true.

Coming to the world is not something that we earn, or something we accomplish. Yes, the Christian life is hard and it is, as the apostle Paul said, a fight.

But there is a mindset that the Christian has that is what saves him. It is not his actions, because all sin. Everybody has already made too many mistakes to be saved on merit. The few things we can do in this short life can never be enough to merit, or earn, eternity with God.

So what is the point? The point is that it is our attitudes, our mindsets, our character that saves us. It is the condition of our hearts that brings us close to God.

Those are the ones who have the proper relationship with the Lord. Those are the ones who seek him. Otherwise, we just seek what it is that we can do, what we can accomplish in him.

It is he who saves. When we recognize that, it takes all the pressure off of what we have to do. And we recognize that he loves us, even when we fail.

But as long as we are trying, as long as we are making the effort, we have his heart.

And he has ours.

daily java

Daily Java:

What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

In the denomination I spent most of my life and ministry, we had communion every Sunday. We also, though I began to think it totally useless, had communion on Sunday nights for those who had missed the morning service for one reason or another.

The rationale was that God felt weekly communion was mandatory and if you missed it, you were in danger. Therefore, if you couldn’t be there Sunday morning, you could always fulfill your obligation Sunday night.

At the end of the service, someone would always get up behind the Lord’s table and say that communion was prepared for those who were not able to be there that morning. Sometimes the words providentially hindered were used, as if an angel with a flaming sword had prevented them from coming that morning.

One evening, before church began, a woman came up and said she couldn’t stay for church and needed to take the Lord’s Supper. We commented that it wouldn’t be offered until after services. She became angry and said she couldn’t stay and she wanted it now.

So one guy stood and gave her the communion. She bowed her head reverently at the prayers and took the elements. Then she left feeling justified.

She had fulfilled her duty so she was fine until next week. The fact that her attitude was wrong was totally beside the point. She had sinned by her attitude.

Which would be better in your life? You have a birthday, so the kids bring in a package still in the plastic sack from WalMart and also containing the sales receipt. They slap it down in front of you and say, There’s your present. No love, no fun in giving, no consideration, just the fulfilling of a duty.

Would you keep the present? I wouldn’t.

I would much rather have the love than the present. And God is the same.

Today is Sunday. Just because we come to church doesn’t mean anything. Just because we sit in the chairs and sing and try to stay awake during the sermon doesn’t mean anything. If our hearts are not right, we are wrong, no matter how ornate or perfect our sacrifice, or the amount of our offering.

Samuel, the prophet/high priest of Israel told the disobedient King Saul this very thing. God does not want a sacrifice if the sacrifice is offered in the wrong attitude or frame of mind.

Just like you or me, God wants our love, not our stuff. And we do what we do because we love him, not in order to be saved.