Secretly Open

Matthew 6: 1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly  
5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly

 

Jesus is secretly open.  What He does in secret, He does not to hide, but not to bring attention.  It isn't that He is trying to be secret.  He just is not interested in men's approvals and accolades.  He is interested in His Father's approval and His Father's will being done in secret.  It is for our example not our preoccupation.

 

The right thing just seemed so obvious to Greg.  Why did others not see what needed to be done?  Over and over he worked to convince other managers of the prudence of his actions on the project.  They just kept acting like he was promoting himself and his team.  That was not the point at all.  He just wanted to see the company advanced and his team had the best opportunity to take it forward on this project.  Greg mulled over his options with the team.  Finally, they concluded they just needed to act and not talk about it anymore.  Just get the job done, they decided.

 

ACT! Take inventory of your "good works."  Are they done for the Father and for example to provoke others?  Are they done to be noticed?

 

PRAY!  Father, increase in me attention to Your will and ways.  Let my friend and I concentrate on the private days of our lives and the private  moments of our days.  Let us excel in secret that exposure of our lives life would only reveal Your activity.

 

 

Phil Larson, 508 Tumbleweed Dr., Yukon, Oklahoma 73099  405-388-8037

 

Perfect

Matthew 5: 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

Now this is stiff to face.  A perfect Jesus is here asking us to be perfect.  How in this world can we accomplish such a challenge?  Jesus and the Father are one.  The Father is perfect.  Jesus is perfect.  The conversation exactly before this relates to relationships.  Even working at being even keeled and just and equitable in all our dealings with others in love and graciousness is tougher on perfection than we can match.  But, thanks be unto God, He did it for us.  Jesus was perfect for us to follow.

 

Greg liked to think he was strong.  Then the pressure came.  The challenge to do more in less time with less staff was causing him to stay up at night.  Over and over, he would think of reasons the project was late.  Every time, he concluded he just wasn’t the right person for the job.  This night, he decided to read a little and pray.  It was coming down to looking for a new job.  As he read through the gospel of Matthew, the verse on being perfect disturbed him.  Then he thought it through.  The thought wasn’t to do it all according to man’s perfection.  The challenge was to love and greet and meet each situation with the mind of Christ.  Whether the situation was good or bad made no difference.  Just meet it with confidence in Christ.  Love always.  Greet always.  Believe always.  He was the right man because God placed him there.  These were the right staffers.  Immediately he began to review plans and pray for wisdom.  What would he do if it were all in great shape?  Do the right thing.

 

ACT!  Start now.  Remove an imperfection, an attitude, a glitch in your treatment of someone today.  Don't worry about everything.  Do work on one thing.

 

PRAY! Whew! Father, You sure want a lot out of me.  But, Father, You gave a lot.  You gave Your only begotten Son, Jesus.  Jesus gave His life's blood for me to be perfect with You.  Encourage me, Father, to stand tall to the task and declare, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me fully and completely and perfectly."

 

 

 

Phil Larson, 508 Tumbleweed Dr., Yukon, Oklahoma 73099  405-388-8037

 

From The Prayer Closet

In 1987 Don hand carved this Elijah with Raven to keep me reminded of my call in the kingdom. Elijah and his bird challenge me to pray and believe big.

Even Ground

http://joesaddiction.com/

 

Matthew 5: 43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

 

The Father is consistent in His world creation.  The environment, the rules, the principles, the laws, and whatever else happens is the same for good and evil, just and unjust.  What goes up comes down (gravity).  What goes down comes up (seedtime and harvest).  The wages of sin is death.  When it rains, everybody gets wet.  There are certain principles that affect us all.  Acting like Him means being the same with those around us whether we like them and their lifestyle or not.  Sin does not invalidate principles; it invokes them.  Think about it.

 

It was a blessing recently to visit a great new coffee shop. Set in the middle of the red-light district of our metro, along with coffee the proprietors offer a listening ear and hope for a better future.  The place has become an oasis in a hard community of drugs, sex offense, violence, and negativity.  On this particular day, the shop was full of pastors and ministers wanting to connect with each other and some new ideas of reaching other people.  In the middle of  “the event” a woman from the community wandered in looking for a little heat and respite.  With a lost look, she was wandering and looking for a place to sit.   A friend and I were on a coach back in the corner, this young woman and my eyes connected as we scooched down a little to create a place on the couch.  A few minutes later, the host of the event asked everyone to link hands for prayer.  The woman pulled her hands back up into her overly long coat and slumped a little in the shoulders as she was clearly out of her normal element.  I reached over and put my arm on the back of her coat.  It was sticky and maybe had been her only comfort on many nights in some hard places.  Through the prayer, I found myself thinking how different this lunchtime moment was.  On the woman’s right was the only black couple in the room of Caucasian ministers.  On her left was me, the only businessman in a suit with a tie on.  Next to me was the only Latina in this sea of compassion.  It did not strike me until some hours later that our little corner was the “diversity” corner of a packed room.  I am thankful for that moment.  I am thankful I got to be there and hear the stories and pray and meet V., who sat and stood next to me.  She blessed me by her strength to be able to press into such a different group of people and find a spot on a couch. 

 

ACT!  Is there someone you are treating rudely because they have a lifestyle different than yours?  Do you hold at arm’s length a homosexual but not a gossiper?  Think about it, and make sure you are like your Father.

 

PRAY!  Consistent Father, You treat us all the same.  You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  The principles of life and death rule over me as much as anyone who hates you.  Thank you for offering that to me when I was outside of Your family.  Help me offer even ground to others that they might see Your goodness and enter also alongside me and Jesus.

 

 

Phil Larson, 508 Tumbleweed Dr., Yukon, Oklahoma 73099  405-388-8037

 

Welcome to a new decade.
Resolve to live fully.
Pray to enjoy every friend as a special gift.

Hmmm... Perfect, Perfected, Perfecting

Matthew 5: 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 

The Message of Christ

The message of Christ can be merry or lonely.   During the depth of winter and the shortest days of the year, we offer celebration and tinsel and gift giving. The world groans for rescue from loneliness.  People duck behind computer screens in bedrooms and living rooms.  Time is consumed with fish and farm that will never be smelled, touched, or bite back.  Churches are full of services meant for the indoctrinated while extending meaningless invitations to the leprous.  When the invited come, few really connect, we are too busy with each other and our secret handshakes and vocabulary.   Sterile relationships can never share a cold or a Christ.  

Our world is full of shallow and painful relationships.  Jesus offers friendship that can be felt.  The message of Christ offers acceptance and friendship that is fellowship to all of us.  Jesus stepped out from the great beyond of the untouchable and brought God face to face and hand to hand to us. 

Catching Christ

 

Christ can be caught.  While Christ is a title indicating the anointed, the messiah, the savior, there is a man/God behind the tile.  Jesus is contagious.  His attitude is contagious.  His thoughts are contagious.  His approach to living is contagious.  God reached to us to touch us and infect us.  He makes us perfect.  He makes us like Him.

 

Perfected

Being perfect is less about being perfect than it is about being God-like and infected and perfected.  Love the unlovely and the lovely.  Greet with honest appreciation and thanksgiving, each.  Each person is placed as a gift of God to us.  Receive the gift offered.  Make a place.  Don’t get hung up so much on “your thang” than you leave out the person sitting next to you.  Quit breeding loneliness in others by focusing so much on “your thang”.  That is perfection.

 

Perfecting

Be a perfecting person that changes the world in which you live.  Who do you need to touch?  Who could use a face to face visit?  Who could use a hug outside the foyer of the church building?  Who needs a smile that locks and looks eye to eye longer than an uncomfortable quickie at the checkout counter?  Who could use a word of encouragement that is thought through and covered with prayer?

Repentance = Mind Change

Okay, I am feeling convicted at this moment.  Every time the word’s of God and the example of Christ touch me, I get a little uncomfortable.  That is purposeful on His part.  He is contagious.  To repent means to change your mind.  That might be a good vocabulary change for the Christ folk.  Who in the heck understands that religious idea of repentance?  Most of us struggle to accept a new thought.  Most of us struggle to give up an old thought.  There, try that one.

Right now, I am thinking of some not so close relationships that should be closer.  Over time, I have let them become distant.  They are unlovely.  They are painful to the touch.

 

Let’s Pray

Father, how do I get beyond my own resistance to change?  Touch me.  I am unlovely in so many ways.  Maybe, I think I am super lovely.  But, there are ways in which I am really unlovely.  You keep touching me.  You keep coming to me.  You never let up.  Teach me to do the same with those around me that seem unlovely.  Really, they are most lovely.  You love them.  You offer them friendship and fellowship.  Jesus sat with the blatant prostitute and the thief and the sloppy drunk.  He even took time for mother-in-laws and government tax agents and politicians and lawyers and whiny busybodies.  He called them friends.  Break me out of my shell to do the same.  That is the real message of Christ.  All are human and fragile and flawed and failed.  All are worth being loved and changed and infected and perfected.

 

 

Phil Larson, 508 Tumbleweed Dr., Yukon, Oklahoma 73099  405-388-8037

 

The Extra Mile

Matthew 5: 39: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40: And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41: And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42: Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

 

Going the extra mile for others is the essence of longsuffering.   Suffering is quiet.  To suffer means to allow.  Longsuffering means to allow for a long time.  Jesus defines it even further.  He looks for opportunity to suffer, to allow others to use Him and His resources.  Jesus is absolutely bent on being used by others.  The quest for Him is not about what others ask of Him, but about how He can offer beyond the asking.

 

Working with a team that was split on commitment was tough.  Each had valid points.  Each was entrenched in opposite directions.  Longsuffering was tested.  The division had been ongoing in the company for six years and then some.  Jack decided to be the walking mat.  Someone had to let others “take advantage” to gain some trust and ground.  It was tough, but over time some of the animosities began to turn into friendships.  He was hopeful to really seem some team progress.  This last meeting had been half the team directing criticisms at his area.  Not much was founded in present reality, but at least they were venting openly instead of behind his back.  There was hope.

 

ACT!  Who is asking for a piece of you or your time?  What can you do that goes beyond the asking?  Do it.

 

PRAY!  Holy, Gracious Father, the light and love of Jesus are beyond me.  When I ask, He does more.  When I impose, He expands the request to more.  It seems I cannot put more demand than He can answer.  Help me to suffer-long with others, Father.  Help me to be like Jesus and go the extra mile with a smile.

  

 

 

Phil Larson, 508 Tumbleweed Dr., Yukon, Oklahoma 73099  405-388-8037