Category: Quoteweaving

Talking Smarts with John and Solomon

Weaving together quotes of a famous one and The Famous One

John Calvin said, “There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our intelligence.”

Solomon said it like this in Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Smarts. Intelligence. These are all good things. Surely it is better to be with them than without them. But wherever we find ourselves on any scale of intelligence matters far less than the role we assign to it. The key to putting our intelligence to its best use, regardless of how we may measure it, is by properly answering the question, “What goes first?”

 

Intelligence Goes First

One thing we can all agree on (can’t we)? God is smarter than us. Here are my answers to a quick test. See if yours are similar:

Has the intelligence to… God Me
Create billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars Able Not able
Create a planet perfectly suited for life Yup Nope
Program a perfect genetic code for all life on earth (DNA) Done it Still working on it
Divine a perfect plan and purpose for [insert your name here]’s life Has it all under control Still can’t quite figure out what it is though He’s told me what it is a hundred times (or more) by now

When we put our intelligence first in line, we limit ourselves to a mere fraction of what is available to us. We screen out a far greater intelligence contained in the Holy Spirit. It’s like racing on a bicycle instead of driving a Formula One racecar. It also closes out an eternal perspective. Our intellect can only deal with the things of this world. If we were only living for this world that might be fine, but we must remember that we are created in God’s image, and thus our existence will extend into eternity. That which seems wise to the world is often, if not always, foolish from an eternal perspective. So… we must adopt a different answer to our question…

Spirit Goes First

When we allow the Spirit to be the primary guide for our thoughts and actions, we are able to approach things intelligently, eternally, gloriously, in a way that fits into God’s grand plan. If we attach our intellect, at whatever level we have it, to the Spirit as it moves us, then we fully leverage God’s wisdom and allow our intellect to be one of the tools He uses to achieve glorious things through us.

Have the Spirit First and the Bigger Picture

Let’s not overlook a fundamental parameter to the “Spirit Goes First” plan—you have to have the Spirit! We secure this awesome Holy Spirit through a personal relationship with God, made possible by His grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus has to happen first before we can put the Spirit first. Without Jesus, we only have our intelligence to work with. If you’re not sure you have the Spirit, check out For God So Loves You to see how you can make it so. Faith in Jesus not only secures God’s smarts, it’s much bigger than that. Faith saves you for His Kingdom for all eternity. The Spirit’s wisdom is only a small slice of the benefits of faith.

Setting Sail with Thomas and Jesus

Weaving together quotes from a famous one and The Famous One

St. Thomas Aquinas said, “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”

Jesus said it like this in Matthew 28:19: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

When you buy a new car, it is perfect. The outside finish has the new car sparkle and shine, the inside has the new car smell. There is one (and only one) way to preserve the car in this pristine condition. Park it in a climate-controlled garage, drape a protective tarp over it, and never drive it. Now if you’ve just purchased a cherry, all-original, ’57 Chevy Bel Air convertible you might do exactly this. But most often, cars are bought to be driven. This subjects them to the dings in the door, pebbles kicked up into the windshield, and the infamous double-dip cone becoming a single-dip cone in the back seat.

When a new ship is commissioned, it is perfect. It’s hull is perfectly smooth, the deck has an unblemished coat of non-slip epoxy, and the bridge has that new-bridge smell (whatever that smells like). If the captain’s highest aim was to preserve his ship he would keep it in port. He might take the additional precaution of keeping it in dry dock and not even putting it in the water. While maintaining his ship is important, it is never the highest aim of the captain to keep it pristine. The captain is to set sail to assigned ports of call, to deliver cargo or passengers to their destinations. Thus, the ship will soon loose its new-ship sheen, the shine will dull, the hull may be damaged, barnacles may jump on for the ride.

Followers of Jesus are captains. And Jesus commands us to shove off from the dock and set sail. Our cargo is the Good News. Our ship is our life’s testimony offered as a living sacrifice to Him. Along the way, we’ll strike the floating logs of indifference, we’ll be tossed on the swells of ridicule, or even run aground in persecution’s shallow waters. But when our battered vessel comes limping into port, Jesus will not chastise us for the damage, but will say something like this: “Well done, good and faithful captain.”

Martin, Jesus, Love and Hate

Quoteweaving-banner-art1-300x63Weaving together the quote of a famous one
and The Famous One

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 5: 43-45: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

God does not want us to hate others. Period. And yet, there is a lot of hate in the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. encountered it in his day. We encounter it in ours. But the truth still remains—even those we love to hate and hate to love should be loved by us. But how do we do it?

At the Core: Forgiveness
In order to love, you must be able to forgive. In order to love your enemy, you must be very good at forgiveness. Forgiveness is vital to loving in a broken world. There are simply no perfect people to love, therefore without forgiveness, you will simply be unable to love anybody for very long, if at all. We find a clue to the importance of forgiveness from one of Jesus’ most familiar teachings. He was responding to the question, “how do we pray?” But Jesus’ answer, the Lord’s Prayer, had much to say about the importance of forgiveness. In fact, Jesus taught that it is so important that God simply will not forgive those who don’t forgive others. Why this emphasis on forgiveness?
Because un-forgiveness is an incredible burden. Here’s how it works. When someone wrongs you and you fail to forgive, you carry bitterness, resentment, anger, hurt feelings, all heavy burdens that God does not intend for you to carry. The struggle to carry these burdens, if attempted for very long, gives rise to hate. The magic ingredient that reverses this process is forgiveness.

Can we do it?
We may say, “I can’t do this!” and we’re right. That’s the whole point. Only God can forgive in every situation. So when we say, “I can’t do this!” God says, “But I can!” When we claim Christ as our Savior and make Him Lord of our lives, we receive the free gift of forgiveness that His grace provides. This is not human forgiveness, but the eternal forgiveness of God Himself. Once we have received this gift we can share it with others. All others. It never runs out. Our ability to forgive, particularly in severe cases, reveals to the world whether we have received God’s forgiveness or not.

Martin Luther King, Jr. had many opportunities to hate those that opposed him. He had countless enemies and persecutors. Yet he remembered that he had the forgiveness of His Father in heaven, and thus had what he needed to love those that opposed him and persecuted him. His Savior had commanded Him and equipped him to do so. He commands and equips us to do so as well.

 

Standing Firm with Abe and Paul

Quoteweaving-banner-art1-300x63

Abe & Paul

Weaving together quotes from a famous one and The Famous One

Abraham Lincoln said, “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

The Apostle Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Paul and Abe have something pretty cool to say here. Follow this two-step plan:

Find the right place. Stay there.

Seems pretty simple, yet I’d dare say many of us may find it hard to do. One of the reasons for this might be that we tend to presume that where we are now is the right place. Once we open our hearts to the possibility that we might not be at the right place, we can actually get started with step one…

Finding The Right Place 

How do we find where the right place is? How do we evaluate the place we are to determine whether we should keep on walking or dig our heels in? Wouldn’t it be great if a large “Right City Exit Ahead” sign appeared along the highway or a “Right Blvd.” sign was posted at the correct intersection?  Well if we search Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians for this signage, lo and behold, I think we find it! Here’s the kicker. Paul’s road sign tells us that the right place is not a place at all, but an attitude. The right place is devotion to the work of the Lord and faith that His glorious purposes will be done through it. Giving ourselves fully to the Lord’s work puts our feet in the right place—on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ. Once there, it’s on to step two…

Standing Firm

The Rock upon which we are stand, is not a fixed location but an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus as our Savior and Lord. This Jesus, is not a passive, stay-put Lord, but one that is always at work in the world, always directing us to those He intends for us to reach in His name. So we must set our feet on the Rock of Jesus and be ready to rock ‘n’ roll with Jesus! Standing firm is not standing still. It is resolving to keep close to Him and the work He has for us, no matter where it takes us.

Lincoln did it. While battle plans changed, political coalitions changed, world affairs changed, He stood firm on the work He felt the Lord calling him to do—unite our nation.

Paul did it. When the Spirit said, “Don’t go there,” he didn’t. When the Spirit said, “Help us over here,”  he went. When he was with Jews, he remembered their customs. When he was with Gentiles, he tailored his witness to their culture. But he stood firm on the truth he preached and the fervency with which he preached it.

We must do it too – We must never refuse to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. We must be willing to follow Jesus where He leads us, to love those He loves (that’s everybody), and to proclaim Him always. We must never stand firm in the place of our choosing if it is not the place of His choosing. We must never stand in firm inaction when loving action is called for.