What's Real Spirituality?

The soundness of current Christianity is assumed because of so much Bible study. I believe there's hardly been a time when there's been more Bible study than today. Groups all over are holding Bible Study. Yet, out of that study, godliness and Bible living seems to be wanting. With all this activity and study, Christianity appears to be falling short of a sound healthy condition. An article I recently read implied that where Christianity was weak, the cults were very powerful, and there's a direct relationship with that. Man is religious by nature, and because Christianity is in such a weakened, condition today, men are truning to other things.

This is no time to compromise or let down. We have to hold right to the standard of God's Word. In too many cases, religious activity is substituted for real spirituality. Let me share a definition for what I believe is real spirituality:

Real spirituality never exceeds the amount of direct contact that we have with God. We can say what we want, be as moral as we want to be, and do all the rest of it that we want to do, but our real level of spirituality can only be measured by our direct contact with God. We need to let the truth appear.

Worldliness, in too many incidents, has eaten away the heart of real spirituality. People are sold out to the world, trying to seek its favor to win them, and that never works. We've measured ourselves by others too long. We can measure ourselves by others until we lose our incentive to seek the things of God. We can lose that "holy urging" to go deeper and to reach higher in the things of God until we become like the Laodiceans---satisfied.

Too many times, we have to manufacture delights and entertainments to replace the joy of the Lord. We rejoice over material blessings more than the spiritual blessings, and we ought to thank God for our material things---don't misunderstand me. But when that's the only thing we can thank God for, we've missed something. Righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost are ingredients of the Kingdom of God.

Seeing Clearly

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."
1John 3:2

Heading towards Tennessee...going over Black Mountain, there is a stretch of Interstate known for heavy fog that causes massive pileups of vehicles. Several times each year horrific accidents happen as drivers enter the thick fog. There are periods where you can't see the front of your own vehicle, much less beyond.

Drivers involved in accidents on this stretch of Interstate will tell you the same story. They saw the fog but didn't think it was as thick as it turned out to be. They hoped to pass through it safely by using their emergency flashers and driving slowly. However, these driver's weren't aware of the vehicles ahead who have already come to a stop. And so, the pile-up increases, sometimes ending in the tragic loss of lives.

In this life, we may see things through a fog of sin or circumstances. But the day will come when we can stand before Christ, when we will see Him clearly just as He is, in all His glory. Nothing will be able to cloud the true and living Christ from our vision when we go to meet Him.

The good news is that we don't have to wait. Today, right now, we can see Him clearly through His Word! May God bless you with a "clear" passage.

Influence

Somebody has his eyes on you,
Waiting to see if you are true;
Somebody's watching you today,
Listening to hear just what you say.

Someone will step in the footprints you make---
Be sure that the trail is narrow and straight,
Someone will walk in the pathway you trod---
Will it lead him upward and nearer to God?

It may be a child, it may be a man
Who is ready to stumble if you don't stand.
Be Careful then, lest you lead them astray,
You must follow the footsteps of Jesus alway.

You are helping or hindering---you cannot tell who
By the thing you say and the things you do.
For no man lives to himself alone,
Be sure then, to help lead that somebody HOME.

Are We Following the Spirit or the Flesh?

Not very long after an individual becomes a Christian, he or she begins to sense an inner struggle. They begin to realize that there's something within their members that wants to have its own way. While the Spirit of God is trying to lead and direct them one way, the flesh is trying to direct them another way. It boils down to this: Will we walk in the Spirit or after the flesh?

Throughout the Word of God, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Churches to listen to the Spirit, live and walk in the Spirit, and obey the Spirit. As it was a problem in Paul's day, so it is a problem in our day. One of the most difficult things that we have to do, as people who profess to love the Lord, is to let the will of God have the right of way over our will. Wherever we find Christians, there will always be a need to remind, exhort, and admonish them to a more intimate walk in the Spirit.

The reason for the urgency of such exhoratations and admonition is, if we're not careful, we can very easily be kept from being what God wants us to be. We'll never achieve what God wants us to achieve, and we'll just dangle as loose ends with no purpose of mind. It's time well spent that we take another look at our spirituality and at our walk. Am I living in the Spirit? Am I walking in the flesh? Am I walking in the flesh and trying to live in the Spirit?

Paul said in Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness..." In 1 Corinthians 3:1, he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual..." He implies that there are Christians who live on a higher plane than others, and we know this is true. There are Christians who just don't walk in the Spirit as well as other Christians. Yet, it is the desire and the will of God that every Christian, everywhere, walk in the Spirit and on as high a level as he possibly can with the understanding in which God has given him.

Are We Grateful?

A little boy said, "Salt's what spoils potatoes when it's left out." Using the same kind of negative definition, we can say, "Gratitude is what spoils life when it's left out."

A disposition of continual thankfulness comes from an unshakable confidence in God's wisdom, power, and goodness no matter what our circumstances may be. People who possess the quality of gratitude may be poor in this world's goods, but they're truly rich spiritually.

Some of the most grateful people I know, have few material possessions and little money in their bank accounts. A character in one of Charles Dickens' stories remarks, "My not knowing at one meal where I shall get the next is a great help to thankfulness."

Riches, on the other hand, may be a handicap. A wealthy woman told her doctor that she was frustrated by a restless desire to accumulate more and more things. He replied, "These are the usual symptoms of too much ease in the home and too little gratitude in the heart."

No matter what our circumstances, let's count our blessings. Psalm 105 reminds us, "Give thanks to the Lord!...Remember His marvelous works" (vv.1,5). The salt of gratitude helps to make all of life taste better.

The Part Of Me I Like Most

I’ll not forget the picture I once saw of Jesus. He was standing, dressed in a rust-colored robe, open in the front, revealing a white garment underneath. A halo circled his head. His brownish hair had a tint of red. His face was not the golden-brown you see in most portraits, but a whiter skin. Then I saw it. The skin. The hair. The structure of the face. The shape of the eyes.

He looks like me!

Not exactly like me, but remove the halo, cut the hair, shave the beard, put on some bifocals, add twenty years, and there was a definite resemblance.

We're told that one day “we will be like Him.” It seems a destiny too incredible to imagine, let along believe. However rough the sketch appears, we are works in progress on our way to becoming masterpieces.

It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to be objective when we talk about ourselves. At least it is for me. But I do know that I have a great tenderness in my heart for the missing (the people Jesus misses), as well as the underdog—those people who don’t fit in, who have been left on the outside.

I gravitate to such people. I don’t think about it beforehand, nor do I pat myself on the back afterward, but these are the people I find the most comfortable to be around. It is their eyes I want to make contact with. It is their heart I want to touch. I want to listen to them the way Jesus would listen to them, communicate to them by listening in a way that their stories matter, their pain matters, they matter.

I think of Jesus and the people he gravitated toward. It wasn’t the rich, the religious, the intellectuals, or the powerful. By and large, it was just the opposite. This is the part of me that is most like Jesus. And the part of me I most like. But I never really thought about it until I saw that picture of Jesus. In it I saw something of myself. Through it I saw something of His delight .

What Does God Mean To You?

The following letter is in response to a 15 year old girl named Elizabeth. She wrote saying that her mother had given her a summer project to write to people in many parts of the world to ask the question, "What does God mean to you?"

Dear Elizabeth,

"What God means to me" is potentially a very large subject! I'll try to condense it, however, and get to the real heart of it. I thought of something Jesus said in prayer to his Father in John 17:3: "And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

It is one thing to be aware of certain facts and beliefs about someone. It is something else to know them through personal acquaintance. Men may believe, as a matter of religious doctrine, that God is loving, gracious, merciful, constant, yet being the object of God's love, grace, mercy, and faithfulness through ongoing personal experience goes beyond words! Men live and die believing this or that but knowing God is forever.

Yet God in His essence is beyond human power to know. He is too great, too high, too pure, too far removed from our base existence. Were it not for His own sovereign initiative we could never know Him. He chose to make Himself known to us by sending His beloved Son to this flesh and blood realm to be a perfect expression of His Father. That is why Jesus said, "... and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

Still, most men remain blind to the glory of God that was revealed through His Son. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They hate and resist divine light when it comes. They crucified Christ and would do it again, the religious leading the parade. How is it that some do come to know Him?

I could tell you from the Bible that coming to know God is not based on human merit but I can do more than that! As I examine my own heart, I am utterly at a loss to account for His favor. I find no reason that He should love me above the vilest sinner upon the earth. It is by grace and grace alone!

Grace is a choice to extend favor to someone without reference to any deserving on their part. I find that for His own reasons He chose me before He even made the world. He has plans for me beyond my power to imagine, plans that will be forever unfolding long after this world has been forgotten!

He knew about all of my sins---and dealt with them perfectly and completely at the cross. His Son is alive and on the throne and prays for me---and I need it!

Knowing Him brings rest. I know that it is not because of what I am or have done or will ever do that He loves me. He has blotted out my sins. He has given me His Spirit to dwell in my heart. His hand is upon me to finish what He has started. Who can withstand Him? I deserve none of this! If there is any goodness or righteousness in me, it is the fruit of His doing. I have no grounds for pride. I can take no credit.

I can, however, love Him back. He has given me the power to do that. I can cooperate with Him that His light and life in me might become evident to those who have eyes to see. Yet all the glory goes to Him!

My prayer for you is, that you too might come to know Him and His Son. If there is in you a true desire to that end, cherish it! It didn't originate in you.

You can be like Cornelius in Acts 10. Cornelius had a desire toward God yet all he could do was to pray, do what he knew to do, and wait. In God's time He sent someone to Cornelius, someone who was divinely chosen to give out His living Word. Through that Word, the God to Whom he had been praying and Who had seen his heart made Himself known to Cornelius and Cornelius entered into eternal life!

Many are they who preach religious sermons; few who have the Word of Life. Hold out for the latter. Religion without Christ is a deadly trap.

He knows all about you and loves you anyway! Nurture any desire you have towards Him. Keep your ears tuned for His voice when He calls.

Our lives here are so brief and so meaningless if in the process we do not come to know Him. All that men live for apart from Him will in the end come to nothing. If He should interrupt your life to turn your feet from the world's way to His---bow to Him in loving surrender. You'll never be sorry!

"I Would Cry With Her"

It was a poignant scene, one that touches the heart. An elderly lady was sitting in the lobby near the registration desk at the nursing home I often visit. She was sobbing, with the intermittent cry, “I don’t want to be here. I want to go home.” Her daughter was at the desk signing her in. She went over to her mother and said once more, “Mother, we’ve gone over this again and again. You can no longer take care of yourself. You will be all right here. They can take care of you. We will come to see you.”

The mother continued to cry and to plead “Please take me home. I don’t want to be here.” There I was, only a few feet away, frozen in my tracks, watching this drama unfold. And of course I always have the right thing to say! I wanted to quietly intervene and say a word of comfort to the one about to be incarcerated, as she saw it. But I didn’t know what to say. I passed on, thinking I might visit her later.

When I was visiting with Marie, one of those I had come to see, I told her about what I had seen in the lobby. I told her how I pitied the poor soul, but didn’t know what to say to her. “Now, Marie, you’ve been in this place for nine years, and you know your way around, and you’re in a position to say the right word. What would you say to her.” That's when Marie taught me an important lesson.

“Come on, there’s nothing to say to her. I’d sit down beside her and cry with her.” There's a similar story about my wife's mother, whom I always called Mother Pitts. Back in 1944, the year Wife and I married, Mr. Pitts suddenly died of a heart attack, after the trauma of helping a man who had accidentally shot himself while the two of them were out hunting. It was a tragedy that substantially affected Wife’s and my life, for we always felt a certain responsibility for her and, at last, in her advanced years and failing health—either Alzheimer’s or Senile Dementia—we took her into our home for the last decade of her life. Those years proved to be very difficult for my wife—and sometimes for me. Her mother had a way of falling in the most inauspicious places!

At the time she was widowed, she had two children still in school. She had always been a stay-at-home Mom and had no marketable skills. What would she do? How would she make it? It was a shocking, wrenching time for her. Friends called and offered condolences. Church folk were there for her. But of all those that called, Mother Pitts often told the story of one Hamby Kelpen who called on her during her time of grief. Hamby was one of those sweet, gentle souls that everyone liked. He started an ice cream business, making his own. One could see signs across several small East Texas towns—“Kelpen’s Ice Cream.” He was a successful businessman. In my mind’s eye, I can see his smiling face to this day, and it has been 64 years. Hamby, too, died young.

Mother Pitts told how Hamby called at her front door, quietly entered and sat down near her, all without a word. She said he just sat there in silence, but his anguished face spoke volumes. He at last stood, held her hand for a moment, and was gone. He never said one word! For the rest of her life she recalled that visit as especially comforting.

I'm not telling these stories to suggest that we should not sometimes speak words of comfort. The Scriptures urge us to “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18). Words fitly spoken can be powerful, touching the heart as well as the mind.

But I am saying that the message is to be the same, whether in silence or in words, and that message is, “I feel your pain.” If we feel the person’s pain, he or she will sense it, words or no words.

That's what Marie taught me in the nursing home. In crying with the dear, frightened soul she was saying, “I’ve been in this stinking place for nine years, and I know what its like, so I cry with you.” They call that empathy. I watched the sad scene with sympathy, still a virtue, but not on the gut level as is empathy.

As for Hamby’s silent presence before Mother Pitts in her time of grief, he didn’t have to say anything. Words might have even detracted. He at least teaches us that we might sometimes say too much. Remember, it’s the message that is to be conveyed—“I feel your pain.” If you have to use words, well and good.

An interesting instance of this is the story that Charles Allen, then pastor of a large Methodist church in Houston, told at a North American Christian Convention. One of his parishioners, a prominent businessman, had suddenly lost a young son, run down by a truck. Charles told that when he called at the man’s home he didn't try to say any of the usual platitudes, such as “He’s now in the hands of a loving God.” He just sat with him for a time, then at last said, “Jim, I don’t see how you stand it!” The man then opened up and began to talk, for he now saw that his pastor felt his pain.

Back to that nursing home. Perhaps I could have found helpful words after all. I could have sat beside her, taken her hand and said, “My name is Leroy and I can see that you’re hurting. I’ve got good news for you! I have a Friend in this nursing home, a very special Friend—so special that He died for me, and He died for you. And yet he lives, and he’s right here in this God-forsaken place. I’m asking my Friend to watch out for you. He never sleeps. Even when you’re in bed at night crying, He will be there to wipe away your tears. He’s your Friend, too. You can talk to Him and tell him how you feel, however bad it is, and it can’t be so bad but what He listens.”

Perhaps I have her attention. I go on: “I want to be your friend, too. Would you let me visit with you? What's your name?”

Notes About My Wife's Condition:
Now that the staff here at the nursing facility knows that Wife has been diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), they're supplying me with data on how to care for an AD patient, including do’s and don’ts. Don’t reason. Don’t argue. Don’t confront. Don’t remind them they forget. Don’t take it personally. Do accept the blame when someone is wrong, even if its fantasy. Do respond to their feelings more than to their words. Do be patient, cheerful, and reassuring. Do remember that an AD patient is scared all the time. Do elevate your level of generosity and graciousness.

Beside this wisdom, I take what may well be our Lord’s most significant advice for living in a troubled world, “Be not anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” These days I live in day-tight compartments, taking the days one at a time. I pray with Wife every morning, “strength for today, hope for tomorrow.” I somehow find strength for each day. I don’t let myself worry about next month or next year or where all this might lead.

Though I still keep her somewhat active—walking, church, our home study group, eating out, she is now almost totally non-responsive. But when I tell her I love her, which I do several times a day, she always responds, “I love you too.” And sometimes she says when I am doing something for her, “You are so good to me.” But her words are few.

Remember To Take Your Vitamins Every Day!

Anxious- Take Vitamin A
"All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Blue- Take Vitamin B
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy name." (Psalm 103:1)

Crushed- Take Vitamin C
"Cast all your care on Him, because he cares for you."(1Peter5:7)

Depressed- Take Vitamin D
"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." (James 4:8)

Empty- Take Vitamin E
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name." (Psalm 100:4)

Fearful- Take Vitamin F
"Fear not, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God." (Isaiah 41:10)

Greedy- Take Vitamin G
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put unto your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." (Luke 6:38)

Hesitant- Take Vitamin H
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces Salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" (Isaiah 52:7)

Insecure- Take Vitamin I
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."(Philippians 4:13)

Jittery- Take Vitamin J
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."(Hebrews 13:8)

Know nothing- Take Vitamin K
"Know this that the LORD is God, it is He that made us and not we ourselves. (Psalm 100:3)

Lonely- Take Vitamin L
"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."(Matthew 28:20)

Mortgaged- Take Vitamin M
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Nervous- Take Vitamin N
"Never, no never will I leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

Overwhelmed- Take Vitamin O
"Overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)

Perplexed or puzzled?- Take Vitamin P
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

Quitting- Take Vitamin Q
"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong."(1 Corinthians 16:13)

Restless- Take Vitamin R
"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." (Psalm 37:7)

Scared- Take Vitamin S
"Stay with me, and do not be afraid; for the one who seeks my life seeks your life; you will be safe with me." (1 Samuel 22:23)

Tired- Take Vitamin T
"Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

Uncertain- Take Vitamin U
"Understand that I am (the LORD). Before Me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after Me." (Isaiah 43:10)

Vain- Take Vitamin V
"Vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.(Acts 5:16)

Wondering what to do?- Take Vitamin W
"What does the LORD require of you but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)

Exhausted?- Take Vitamin X
"Exercise thyself rather unto godliness." (1 Timothy 4:7)

Yearning for hope?- Take Vitamin Y
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)

Zapped- Take Vitamin Z
"Zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:14)

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