God's Kindness

The cloudless Kentucky sky was powder blue, the sun was scorching hot, and the three feet of fresh water in our new above-ground pool in the backyard was cool and beckoning. The only thing standing between my energetic little 6-year body and that sparkling water was the bologna sandwich my mom said I had to eat before I could get back in. She was out in the backyard hanging up freshly laundered white towels on the clothesline as I wolfed down the sandwich and shot toward the back door, headed for the pool.
     Then I did something my father had told me a million times not to do. Instead of pressing on the door frame to push open the rickety old storm door, I pushed my hand right on its glass window pane. The glass gave way, and my small hand shot right through as shards of glass splintered everywhere. Blood from my skinny wrist landed on the concrete stoop of our back porch.
     The crash startled my mom, and she whipped around, clothespins in her mouth and a white towel still in her hand, beholding the gruesome sight of what had just happened. She ran over with the towel and quickly wrapped my wrist in it. The thirsty white towel soaked up the bright red blood as she led me through the house and out the front door toward the car. Halfway down the driveway, I looked up at her and asked a question, what seems now like quite a peculiar question, but to my 6-year-old mind, it was something I needed to know above anything else at the moment.
     “Mommy, do you still love me?”
     Compassion and bewilderment flitted across her face. “Yes, honey, I still love you…”
     I don’t really remember what else she said because once I heard the words, “Yes, I still love you,” nothing else mattered.
     In my small mind, I asked the question because I had broken a glass window, ruined one of her good towels, and was causing a major catastrophe. I wasn’t sure if she still loved me after all that. How little I understood about love. The value of windows and towels were the furthest thing from her mind right then. All she wanted was for her little boy to be alright.
     A few stitches later, I was just fine, but I had learned three important lessons that day. 1. Never press on the glass to open a door. 2. Dad knows what he’s talking about. 3. Mom will love me no matter what I do.
     Despite that lesson, and many others since, I still often suffer from small-minded thinking and an inability to grasp unconditional love when it comes to my Heavenly Father. How many times have I broken windows, ruined towels, or cut myself to shreds and then looked up at my Heavenly Father and doubtfully asked, “Do you still love me?”
     “How could you love me…after I did that? Again? And again? And again? And again?…”
     How little I still understand about God’s love. He’s not concerned about breaking glass and ruining towels. He’s concerned about us being alright. Like my earthly father, when God says, “Don’t do that,” He’s really saying, “Don’t hurt yourself.”
     We expect His wrath. And as His children, we get His mercy. Yes, we may get some discipline, as I did from my father after the dust settled over that broken window pane. But we always get His love.
     “Thou shalt not…” means “Don’t hurt yourself.”
     “Thou shalt…” means “Help yourself to some happiness.”
     And yet Satan, the world, and sin have really done a number on me. I believe the lie. I believe sin can satisfy. And even more sadly, I believe that God doesn’t love me when I sin.
     All my life, I’ve felt like I was such a disappointment to God.
     How could He love me, when I keep going around breaking windows and ruining towels? Never learning from my mistakes, I keep pressing my hand through that glass pane over and over. And then doubting the Father’s love for me. Over. And over. And over. And over…
     Eventually, I have the courage to look up at His face and ask, “Do you still love me?”
     The answer always comes back, “Yes, of course, I still love you.”
     After all, He bled first.

My Journey

Still Another To-Do List

Like the boy who ran home on the last day of school and made a to-do list for the dawning summer break, the first thing I did as a brand-new, 19-year old Christian was make a to-do list of sins that I needed to stop doing. I had resolved to stop doing some of these things in the past—which usually lasted a day or so. But now I was a new creation in Christ. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come” @2 Corinthians 5:17.
     Jesus Christ—He was certainly a doer. He made a voyage to Earth, had an amazing ministry filled with miracles and powerful preaching and teaching, allowed Himself to be crucified, and then arose from the grave. Now, it is finished. He did it.
     What’s more, I had a powerful new Helper on my side. The Holy Spirit. Now there’s a doer. The Bible even calls Him a “Helper.” “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” @John 14:26.
     Of course, I also had a new Father, the Father of all Doers, God the Father, the One Who created the Heavens and the Earth, along with the other two Persons of the Trinity. The One Who gave, gave His Son and gives us life. The One Who will call His children home one day. The One Who will judge.
     So, I was in pretty good company when it comes to getting things done. And I began working my way down the list. Stop smoking pot. Check. Stop drinking. Check. Stop looking at women. OK, still working on that one. Start reading my Bible daily. Check. Start having a daily quiet time. Check. Start sharing my faith. Check.
     Before you know it, I was fitting in pretty well down at the church where I had learned that the key to the Christian life could be summed up in one word:
     Do.
     After all, you had the Ten Commandments—the ultimate To-Do List—and a whole bevy of commands throughout the Old and New Testaments, enough to keep me busy for eternity. All I needed to do was focus on the to-do list and not forget to enlist the help of the Holy Trinity.
     I think I’ve got this figured out.

I Have a Confession.

Hi, my name is Larry, and I am a recovering legalist.
     It didn’t take me long to figure out that I didn’t have this figured out. Along the way, I began to become aware of this concept of “legalism.” It turns out it’s nothing really new or unique to the church. In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote a whole book about it to another church that suffered from the same malady, the Galatians.
     Legalism focuses on the externals, the behaviors, the things others can observe about you. It’s one ditch on the side of the road. The ditch on the other side of the road is “libertinism.” This one is also focused on outward behaviors, but whereas Legalists know what they believe and tend to be mad about it, Libertines revel in God’s lavish grace, and they are delighted about it. Legalists make lists of to-dos and not-to-dos. Libertines can’t think of much that shouldn’t be on the to-do list in the first place—it’s all good.
     So the goal of the Christian life, I surmised, was to keep it between the lines. Of course, with my background, I walked as close as I could to the edge of the Legalism ditch. In fact, I formulated my philosophy into a pithy slogan which I shared with my legalistic friends.
     “Legalism and love have the same behavior but different motives.”
     Actually, there’s a lot of truth in that, and I was beginning to think more and more about motives. “If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal” @1 Corinthians 13:1. That Scripture kept ringing in my ear. I was beginning to understand that there was something deeper than merely the external doing. The inner man was emerging in my Christian consciousness. I was beginning to discover that there was another dimension to the Christian life behind do, and that was…
     Be.
     When I was saved I became a new creation. I wasn’t the same person I was before. The old Larry was dead. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” @Galatians 2:20. They should have made me an honorary member of the First Church of Galatians, because Paul has to keep reminding this ol’ legalist of the same thing: I am all-new.
     As this began to sink in, doing seemed to become easier, more natural—or maybe I should say, more supernatural—because I was focused on being who I am in Christ, and letting Christ be Who He is in me. All the self-effort I put into mustering up the unction to do what I should looked like a little kid trying to act like a grown up compared with the Strongman I was and am in Christ. So I felt like I’d cracked the code. Focus on be, and do will take care of itself. Cool!
     I even invented a little shorthand motto for my new discovery:
     Be = Do
     It’s actually a pretty good definition of integrity. In the life of a person of true integrity, Be = Do. If the two don’t align, there’s no integrity.
     Do without Be is hypocrisy.
     Be without Do is complacency.
     But when Be = Do, that’s integrity.
     So I focused on being who I am in Christ. I read an excellent book entitled The Search for Significance by Robert McGee that really helped me see myself as God sees me:
     “I am deeply loved by God. I am completely forgiven and am fully pleasing to God. I am totally accepted by God. I am a new creation, complete in Christ.”
     Remarkably, this new self-concept full of Christ-esteem fueled a drive for obedience that legalism could never muster. I was growing and learning to love the Christian life all the more.
     I look back at my years of focusing on do as my Christian childhood. It was a time of learning to obey. When I became more aware of who I am in Christ, I grew up some, and began to focus not just on “what” but also on “why.” “Be” was progress, but I was essentially a Christian adolescent. And just when I thought I knew it all, God showed me that Be wasn’t the final destination. There was one more door to go through, one more room to abide in, the inner sanctum, the “Holy of Holies”…
     Know.
     Knowing God. If God lives in me, and Who I am is defined by Who He is, then I can never fully be who God wants me to be until I understand more about Who He is. The Great I AM. I AM changes who I am. His being gives life and light to my being. Focusing on knowing Him informs who I am which in turn inspires what I do.
     So I had a new focus. Knowing God. Know God, and Be takes care of itself. Be who you are in God, and Do takes care of itself.
     Know. Be. Do.
     It all made sense now. But I hadn’t arrived spiritually. I had really just begun.

Our Highest Calling

I’ve always had a drive inside me to distill things down to their simplest form. The irreducible essence. It’s a game I play to help me remember and focus on the most important things. In journalism and advertising school this was ingrained in us—take the complex and make it simple. David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” wrote in a memo of 10 tips to his employees, “Never write more than two pages on any subject.” Consequently, it’s actually a real challenge for me to write a full-length book.
     So as I related in the first chapter, I began this distilling process when I became a Christian. I thought I had it with the word do. And then be superseded do. And now I see that know is the highest calling of the Christian. To know God.
     Billy Graham put it this way:
Have you ever wondered why God put you on earth, what is the purpose and meaning of life? It is to know Him, and to know His love.
     But wait a minute, you may say. Isn’t love our highest calling?
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. @1 Corinthians 13:13
     But how can you love someone—or love others because of someone—that you do not know?
     How can you have faith in someone that you do not know?
     How can you have hope in someone that you do not know?
     To the degree that you know someone, you can love more deeply. You can believe in more faithfully. You can hope in more earnestly.
     But, you may say, isn’t praising and worshipping our ultimate objective?
     Again, I say, how can you praise and worship someone that you do not know?
     But, you may protest, what about evangelism and discipleship? Isn’t that our primary assignment?
     How can you tell others about someone that you do not know yourself?
     But, you may say, what about bringing Him glory? Surely that is the chief end of man. After all, it’s right there in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
     Indeed, glorifying God and enjoying Him forever is our purpose, the reason we were created. But again, how can you bring glory to and enjoy someone that you do not know?
     Knowing God supersedes everything else because it is the supreme cause. Everything else—being, doing, loving, believing, hoping, praising, worshipping, evangelizing, glorifying, enjoying—is an effect.
     Knowing God is priority one. Out of it flows all the rest of the Christian life.
The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. @1 John 4:8
     Are you not loving? It’s because you don’t know God.
     Cause: Knowing God.
     Effect: Love.
     The more you know Him, the more you will love. The more you know Him, the more you will praise Him. The more you know Him, the more you will tell others about Him. The more you know Him, the more you will glorify and enjoy Him.
     Note Paul’s inspiring charge to the Philippians:
My goal is to know (ginosko) Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. @Philippians 3:10–11
     To know Him is power. It is fellowship. It is eternal life.

But I Already Know God

At this point you may be thinking, “I already know God. I’m a believer. But I don’t feel like I’m living out the Christian life to the fullest. I sin. I fail. I feel defeated. I act like a lukewarm Christian most of the time. I’m not getting this.”
     I can relate. For years, I struggled with trying to muster up the faith to resist temptation. To do great things for Christ. To live “the victorious Christian life.” To live up to standards of the Bible heroes—and the Christian “self-help” books. In fact, often one of the most discouraging exercises I inflicted on myself was reading Christian discipleship books. They were always well-intentioned, and I’m sure I often missed their point. But the picture of the biblical Christian that they painted seemed unattainable. After reading them, I felt like the puny 7th grader who was the first to be cut from my junior high school basketball team. I just wasn’t close to measuring up.
     That’s when I began to understand that I was focusing on the measuring stick instead of the Measurer. I was beginning with do instead of with know.
     My wife is a wonderful Christian woman who is extremely gifted in discipling women and providing biblical guidance. God sends her a steady stream of ladies with various hurts, habits, and hang-ups. She meets with them for Bible study, and a few months later, an amazingly high percentage of them get back on their feet, hit their stride in their spiritual walk, and go on with life recovered and revived. How does she do it?
     Some might be suffering from eating disorders. Some are having marriage problems. Some are overcoming the pain of divorce. Some just feel they are at a dry place in their Christian journey. You might think she would pull out verses that address their situation or go through a Christian book about their particular problem. But that’s not how she approaches the problem at all.
     She takes them through a study of the names of God.
     That’s it. No magic bullet verses. No pop psychology books wrapped with Christian self-help packaging. Just a simple, straightforward study of God using His names and titles to learn about His attributes and benefits.
     “My goal is to know Him and the power…” @Philippians 3:10
     Get up close and personal with God and everything becomes clearer. Once, a man was browsing through an art gallery when he came across a curious abstract painting. It was distorted, almost grotesque, yet intriguing. He stared at it, tilting his head and squinting his eyes, trying to make sense of the shapes. Finally, a man approached him, and said, “Get closer to it.” So he moved closer. “Now get lower.” So, he bent over, never taking his eyes off the painting, yet still, it didn’t look right. “Get closer, lower.” He moved in some more and crouched down. “Closer, lower,” the stranger urged. Now he was on his knees right next to the wall, looking straight up at the painting. Suddenly, a glowing amazement broke across his face as his mouth opened, “The Cross!” Viewed from the right position and at the right perspective—closer and lower—the “abstract” painting revealed an amazing rendering of the Cross.
     Come to the foot of the Cross.
So that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. @Isaiah 43:10
     Get to ginosko know Him as you grow in understanding and trust. Get up close and personal with Him. As you get closer and lower, your relationship will get warmer and deeper. It’s at the foot of the Cross that your perspective on life comes into focus. It’s under His care that you’ll live secure and satisfied. It’s by His side that you’ll discover who He wants you to be and what He wants you to do. It all starts with knowing Him. And that’s really All you need to know.

From Duty to Delight

Do is the easiest thing to fake. The Pharisees made a living at that. But while we can do without truly knowing God, but we can’t truly know Him without doing.
This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands. @I John 2:3
     Again, notice the cause and effect. Cause: Knowing Him. Effect: Keeping His commands. Don’t get these reversed and think that keeping His commands is the way to God. Holiness isn’t the way to God. God is the way to holiness. Remember the right order: Know. Be. Do. Knowing Him is the key to being in Him, and being in Him is the door to doing.
     It’s that simple. I didn’t say easy. But simple.
Activity Does Not Equal Action
One of the most depressing books I’ve ever read was a book about how to be an effective Christian leader. The book contained a circle graph that showed how the leader should divide up his 24-hour day. It was so full of spiritual activities, it made me tired just reading it. There was no time allotted for watching basketball. For lingering around the dinner table. For watching a sunrise. For reading a novel. For writing a letter to an old friend. For discovering how jet engines work. For just sitting around wondering why God made so many different species of animals and so many planets we’ll never probably even see, let alone visit.
     Most of us lead frazzled, stressed, and distressed lives trying to do too much—and that includes doing too much for God, too much for Him and not enough through Him.
     I saw a TV show about a Hindu man who believed a divine voice told him to roll to Pakistan. Literally, lie down and roll 1,500 miles across India. He brings new meaning to the term “holy roller.” He ended up getting stopped at the border and didn’t make it to his destination.
     Too many of us are spending our lives rolling along doing things for God. Sometimes God never asked us to do it in the first place. Sometimes we’re doing it in our own strength. Maybe we’re doing the right thing in the wrong way or for the wrong motive. Maybe we’re doing the wrong thing for the right motive. Maybe we’re doing the right thing at the wrong time. I could go on and on with the pitfalls.
     We don’t start with us and see what we can offer God. We start with God and what He offers us.
     When we know Him so intimately and we abiding in Him and who we are in Christ, doing just flows. It’s not a chore. As Adrian Rogers puts it, “Duty turns to delight and mandates become melodies.”
     Maybe He’ll tell you to roll across the country. More likely He’ll tell you to slow down and spend some more time with Him.
     We have two wonderful daughters. When they were teenagers, they were busy doing anything and everything. School. Church. Hobbies. Boys. It was non-stop activity. But I will always remember one night during their busiest teenage years, when they pulled out an old family photo album. They started looking through it and asking me questions about my life, about seasons in my life that were unknown to them. Where I went to college my first year. How I landed my first real job. What my dad did for a living. Why we moved to this city or took that job. They were soaking it up.
     There were plenty of things around the house that night that needed doing. But I didn’t need them to do anything for me. Truth be told, I could do it myself easier. Or I had enough money that I could pay someone else to do it. I didn’t want them to do anything except just be my daughters. All I wanted that evening was to just milk every moment of that time when my girls wanted to know me better.
     How long has it been since you’ve taken an evening or a morning off, and didn’t do a thing for God? Just sat down next to Him, talked to Him, and let Him talk to you. It’s a refreshing time. It will change the way you think about Him (know). It will change the way you see yourself (be). And it will turn doing things for Him from duty to delight.

Us-Inspiration

By now, I hope you’re getting the idea that Christianity is not a to-do list. And contrary to what some think, it’s not a “to-don’t-do” list either. In fact, it’s not a list at all, it’s a life.
     It’s a to-know life, which fosters a to-be life, which flows into a to-do life.
     Life. It’s one of my favorite words. It’s a word that defies the darkness. Defeats depression. Decimates death.
     It’s a word that’s full of light and love. Promises and possibilities. Revivals and renewals.
     And quite literally, life is full of “ifs.” L-if-e. There are lots of ifs in the middle of life. And that’s a good thing. Not regretful ifs, as in “If only I’d…” But possibility ifs as in “What if I…”
     The “What ifs” of life are what keep us growing. They are what helped me go beyond the cold legalism of “to-do” Christianity. “What if there’s more to the Christian life than merely doing?” I posited. And then, after discovering that being supercedes doing, “What if there’s more to the Christian life than being?” Now I explore the Christian life seeking to know God more. What facets of His infinite character have I yet to discover? I’ll never plumb the depths.
     This section of the book explores the “What ifs” of the Christian life. The possibilities. The problems. The prospects. Using Know Be Do as a framework, we’ll look at questions, such as:

• How do you discover God’s will?
• How do you overcome stubborn sin?
• How do you answer life’s doubts and difficulties?
• How do you grow in your Christian walk?
• How do you apply Know Be Do to your work, finances, and relationships?
• How do you study the Bible using the Know Be Do framework?

     It’s a different approach because you won’t find “Seven easy steps” or any other kind of “to-do” list that begins with you. That’s because it all begins with Him. Knowing God. Then being who you are through Him. And finally doing life unto Him.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. @Romans 11:36
     That’s the idea of the next section of the book. In Book Two, we focused on knowing God. In Book Three, we focus on knowing yourself—from God’s perspective. It’s letting God’s life inspire yours.
     Renowned Shakespearian actor John Barrymore once said, “A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” He was no theologian, but he was on to something there. Paul put it another way:
Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. @Philippians 3:13–14
     Indeed, our goal is not a “to-do” list. And certainly not a “to-don’t-do” list. Our goal is not a place or a thing. It’s a Person. Jesus Christ. To know Him is to know God. To have His life is to live in Him and Him in you. Pursue Him, and you will fulfill all the “What ifs” of life. It’s the only thing to do.