Somebody Up There Is Watching Me

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
–Hebrews 12:1 (New Living Translation)

Every once in a while I wish I could ask some of my deceased relatives their opinion of how I am living my life. Before you get worried, I am not talking about conversing with them in some type of séance. It’s just that sometimes I find myself missing them and I just wish they were still alive and could give me advice from their wisdom. I wonder how they would warn me concerning the pitfalls of my life based on their own successes and failures. I wonder how they would encourage me in facing difficulties and in facing victories. I wonder if there would be more cheers than jeers from them for how I am running my race of faith.

I know that these conversations with them will never take place. But for those of my deceased relatives who, because of their own faith, are now with their Savior Jesus Christ, I know they have joined the other saints of old and are watching my life of faith from the bleachers in heaven.

Each of us has been preceded by a heritage and legacy of faith. Some of our faith heroes may have been relatives or close friends, or they just may have been believers in history or the faithful from the Bible. These heroes of the faith surround us and observe the strides we make as we grow in and live out our faith. When we fall on our faces in sin, maybe a collective moan comes from them. When we fight the good fight in a given situation, maybe there is a round of thunderous applause and hurrahs. I am sure they are watching us on the edges of their seats pulling for us and booing our enemy Satan for the cheap shots and dirty tactics his evil team of minions throw at us.

The Bible says “we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT). The writer is referring specifically to the heroes of the faith listed in the previous chapter. Some of the faithful were referred to specifically—like Abraham, Moses, etc.—while others were just generally mentioned. Some were faithful throughout their lives. Some were even killed for their faith. Many of the early readers of the book of Hebrews probably knew someone personally who had been persecuted because of faith in Jesus Christ. So the writer is encouraging his readers to live their lives mindful of the faithful examples that had preceded them and to honor those heroes with holy and faithful lives.

The writer encouraged his brothers and sisters in faith to join him by choosing to “strip off every weight”—all the easily ensnaring sin—so that they could run the race of faith more efficiently with less trip-ups. He wanted them all to continue to endure the race of faith which God laid out before them so that they would finish strong.

But for each of us, as with the early readers, Jesus Christ is the greatest observer of our lives. From the best seat in the “Heavenly Stadium,” He not only watches our progress but He is the One to whom we must aspire to emulate. Jesus Christ is “the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (v. 2). This means, because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, He makes our faith and relationship with a loving God possible in the first place. And second, Jesus is the One through whom the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit makes running the race of faith victoriously feasible for every believer. When we consistently shed the excess baggage of sin in our lives and when we focus on our Champion’s victorious example for us and made available to us, we will run our races of faith better and receive great cheers of “Well Done!” from the One seated on the throne.

When life’s race gets hard, we must remember the examples of those who have run before us. We must remember their successes and failures and run accordingly. But we must never take our eyes off of our Champion—Jesus Christ. He is the One for whom we are running and the One who gives us everything we need for the victory. We must run by faith in the example of our Savior who receives the glory for our races run well. Keep your eyes on Jesus. His eyes are always on you.

Beneath the Surface

[Jesus said,] “…First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean”—Matthew 23:26 (NIV)

Recently in our church's parsonage, we noticed evidence of termites. Whatever the termites were doing beneath the surface deep inside the structure of the master bedroom walls had become evident due to the debris they left on the outer surface of the wall in the room. At first, I just cleared away the mounding debris from the wall and made the wall nice and clean again on the surface. But a few days later, the mound was back.

After talking to our church's property committee chairman, it was decided we needed to treat the termite problem beneath the surface in the structure of the house or the damage would get worse, and dirty termite mounds on the surface would be the least of our troubles. So the “termite guy” came and investigated, and sure enough, the termite problem was bad beneath the surface, but not so bad that the house was going to fall down around us (unless we chose to ignore the problem). He then began to treat the termite problem beneath the surface, digging trenches around the perimeter of the parsonage's foundation, which he filled with chemicals. He sprayed vital areas underneath the house, and drilled holes through the concrete areas around the house, putting chemicals in the soil beneath. It was a long process, but time will tell how well it worked. Nevertheless, periodic re-treatments in the future will help control them at least or prevent their return at most.

Spiritually speaking, we have to be careful with just dealing with the surface affects of self-serving religion and self-indulgent sin. Sometimes we just try to be busier with religious activity, giving an appearance that everything is hunky-dory, but beneath the surface our souls are being eaten away. Busyness is not an accurate determiner of a person’s spiritual health. It takes a deep, prayerful investigation by God in our hearts to show us how healthy we actually are in our relationship with Him.

Jesus dealt with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and sought to expose to them the heart problems they had beneath the surface of their lives. He told these religious leaders that, spiritually, they were just cleaning “the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they [were] full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25). He also described them as being like “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27-28). Other times, Jesus quoted Isaiah to describe the problem of surface religion, saying “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Mark 7:6-7; also Matthew 15:8-9, quoting Isaiah 29:13-14). Left unchecked, Jesus said to them, “Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). These religious people needed their “insides” cleaned—their hearts cleaned—and then they would be cleaned from the inside-out (Matthew 23:26).

As people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, saved by God’s grace, and filled with the Holy Spirit, we constantly need to have deep surface scans, spiritually speaking, of our hearts. We need to seek the Lord as David did in the Psalms: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139:23 - 24 – NIV). And, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalms 51:10 - 12 – NIV).

We must get beneath the surface of our lives and pursue God with hearts desperate for Him. Then our house will be strong and God will be truly praised.

Never Surfing the Same Wave

“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.” … “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? …”
– Isaiah 42:9; Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)

There is an old saying that goes, “You can never step in the same river twice.” Oh sure, you can go to the river over and over and place your feet in the water, but the river water you first stepped into, will have either gone down stream, been consumed or absorbed by some living thing, or have been evaporated, only to rain down and enter the water cycle somewhere else at some other time.

Similarly, you can never surf the same wave. The ocean moves in waves and the same formation of water molecules will never realign on any shoreline anywhere to form the same exact wave you surfed before. But you keep on surfing, even if you feel like it couldn’t get any better than yesterday or if you feel like yesterday’s waves were as good as waves gets. Some years, in certain times of the year, at certain places on the planet, surfing is better than others for those who patiently pursue the waves. So you keep pursuing the waves because you just love to surf.

Although the only waves around here may be “amber waves of grain,” there can be some huge spiritual waves for us to surf. I have experienced some great spiritual waves in my past, great times of spiritual renewal, discipline, worship, and fruitfulness. But, I am not satisfied with what I have experienced with God so far in my Christian life. I want to know God more. I want to love Him more and experience more of His blessings. I want to serve Him more and see more people come to experience God in greater ways in their lives.

We have to be careful of trying to re-surf old spiritual waves, especially when God wants to do something new in and through our lives. We can only frustrate ourselves in the present trying to realign the same elements from our past which the Holy Spirit of God orchestrated to bring about something glorious and remarkable. That wave may never happen the same way again. Times change, people change, hearts change, and so that particular spiritual wave has come and gone and can never be experienced the same way again. And I know that makes us feel reflective and melancholy, nostalgic and sad as we realize that wave of experience with God is gone and can’t be re-experienced the same way. Wisdom, then, would ask why pursue something that will never be the same and is constantly changing?

Instead, we must pursue with fresh passion the unchangeable God. He wants us to experience Him in new ways for a new day. We must actively and prayerfully seek out the movement of God in our hearts and lives and in our churches—letting Him create new waves of faith, hope and love in us. Sometimes, that may require us to get a new “surfboard” to ride the new waves, but, in some cases, our old boards may just need a new coat of wax to help us surf more efficiently.

I say all that to say, I know you want to experience God like you did in the past. But I know that you don’t necessarily want to or expect to experience the same exact waves—because they have come and gone. However, I believe you truly want to experience anew the exhilaration of changed lives, the excitement of renewed passion, and the explosive power of God’s love moving in our midst. That’s what I want, and what I believe God also wants for us.

So what’s it going to take?

The LORD says, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 – New Living Translation). We must be prepared for when God’s spiritual wave moves. But we have to get ready now, humbling ourselves, praying to God and seeking Him earnestly, confessing and turning from our sins, so that God will hear us, heal us, and carry us to new waves of blessing.

Will you prepare your lives for a new wave of spiritual revival? Will you seek a fresh and powerful new move of God in your hearts, lives, churches, and communities? Surf’s Up!