Keep Open House

Do you lower your voice to keep non-Christians from hearing a conversation that you are having with another believer? Why? Is it because you think they would not understand? Is it because you would be embarrassed for them to hear your conversation? Are you embarrassed about your relationship with God or your religion?

I want to be comfortable with who I am and my relationship with God. Even in front of others that may not "understand". That is not possible if I am living some sort of goofy religious lifestyle. I want to be real and honest so that I can fulfill my purpose in being here.

Jesus said "Let me tell you why you are here... (salt and light)... Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Mat. 5)

I don't think that we should go out of our way to air all of our dirty laundry for the world to see just for the sake of being open. But, we should allow who we are to be seen, warts and all, so that others will see that we serve a loving, graceful and generous father who loves us through it all.

I am not perfect but I am perfectly loved by a perfect father. That is something worth being open about.

Battle for Freedom

Here is a good question...

In the battle for a whole and free life, what is my part?

The apostle Paul answers the question this way:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Rom. 12:1-2, The Message)

Paul says that you will attain the maturity that you desire (maturity = whole and free) if you make God the center of your live instead of the culture, embrace what he is doing for you, fix your attention on him and respond to his counsel. In other words, walk with God.

Gerald May, in his excellent book, Addiction and Grace, tells us how to find freedom from addiction by this process of engaging with God.

Addiction cannot be defeated by the human will acting on its own, or by the human will opting out and turning everything over to divine will. Instead, the power of grace flows most fully when human will chooses to act in harmony with the divine will. In practical terms, this means staying in a situation, being willing to confront it as it is, remaining responsible for the choices one makes in response to it, but at the same time turning to God’s grace, protection and guidance as the ground for one’s choices and behavior.