Thoughts to Ponder

By Charlotte Lowrie

This week, I'll share some of the thoughts, questions, and insights from recent prayers and studies.

• What have you done with what the Lord has given you?

• Creativity is the awakening of what God instilled within us.

• "Snow is silent because the weight has been lifted."

• When I think I'm not learning fast enough, the Lord tells me to, "Be patient. Make peace with waiting."

• We are never defeated. Times of trouble are the times to claim His victory; to restrain Satan by the authority in and of the name of Jesus.

• "It isn't a matter of you trying. It's a matter of you believing in My power to carry you through all things, and that those things will work to My glory."

• "You think that life centers within the mind. But the heart is where you hold your passionately held beliefs. The heart holds what is dear to man, not the mind. So it's the heart that must be cleaned. It's the heart that makes the judgment of what the mind knows and remembers."

May your Easter season be filled with His peace and joy.

I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are suffering persecution for His name's sake.

Which Do You Love Most: Glory from Man or God?

By Charlotte Lowrie

As I was reading the Gospel of John, I came across a familiar passage that describes the reaction of many who saw the miracles that Jesus performed.

“Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (John 12:42-43 ESV)

This passage made me stop and think. In a world of pervasive social networks where the goal is to collect the most “friends,” “likes,” “followers,” “+1’s,” or be in the most “circles,” I thought about how we chase the glory that comes from man now more than ever before. But more specifically, I questioned how much of what I do is to glorify myself rather than to glorify God.

So I asked myself questions. When I write articles or books, do I write in such as way as to glorify God, or do I write what I think will be popular with readers? When I make pictures, do I choose scenes and subjects that I think will gain recognition for me as a photographer, or do I photograph subjects and scenes that will help others “see” God? While I can honestly say that most of the time I want to glorify God through the work He gives me, it’s still tempting to slip into the popularity-contest syndrome, or to do what I or my client thinks will sell best.

And then there is the problem of experience and habit. Once I get deeply involved in a project or I’m facing a deadline, I fall back into my years of experience and forge ahead, neglecting His presence and leading. I hate it when that happens, so I’ve learned to do two things.

First, every morning, I ask for the Lord to guide me in all that I do. And, second, at the end of the day, I evaluate what I’ve done during the day. Almost always, I can pinpoint times when I went off on my own. So I talk to the Lord about why it happened and ways to keep it from happening tomorrow. For me, it’s an ongoing process of learning to be attuned to His presence in every moment.

Doing work that glorifies God begins at the outset of whatever work we do—at the stage of conception. With photography, it is looking for the light and subject that illuminates the stunning beauty of God’s creation. And the focus on glorifying God continues as I edit images with integrity toward what I saw and photographed. The same is true with writing, and with any work. From beginning to end, the goal is to glorify God in every step. The beauty of it is that if I ask for His help, He graciously and generously provides the ideas, light, subjects, and words that I need. And what the Lord provides is always far better than anything I could come up with on my own. (And while I'm talking about work in this post, glorifying God applies to all that we do in our lives.)

Earlier in the book of John, Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’” (John 12:27-28 ESV) Our work is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ so that He, in turn, can glorify the Father. And Jesus promised, “If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:26) It is for this purpose—to glorify God—that we have life.

Called to Love

I remind myself very often that Christ called us as believers to first love God with all our hearts, all our strength, and with all our minds, and to love others as ourselves. But once in awhile, I have to be reminded that we are to love others as they are, not as we want them to be.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:12-13 NIV)

Looking to the Bible for New Year's Resolutions

New Years is a time of new beginnings, fresh starts, and resolutions seem especially appropriate today with the unique calendar sequence of 1/1/11. We resolve all sorts of things, but at the heart of them all is to the desire and conviction to change one thing or another in our lives. Of course, all the resolutions in the world pall by comparison to the life transformation that comes through Jesus Christ.

But when we "resolve" in unison with the Lord, we can experience success in our goals. I looked in the Bible for resolutions, and I found many. These resolutions inspired me, and I share them that they may inspire you as you look forward to this new year.

"Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar' (that is En Gedi). Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help form the Lord; Indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek Him. (2 Chronicles 20:2-4, New International Version)

"The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way." (Daniel 1:7-9)

"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word." (Psalm 119:16 NIV)

"Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name." (Psalm 18:49 NIV)

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2)

And my favorite resolution from the Bible is in Joshua:

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

May the Lord richly bless you and keep you now and always.

Insights

By Charlotte Lowrie

Here are some notes from recent Bible study and prayer that I hope will strengthen you in your walk with Christ.

* Love looks through the lens of eternity with Kingdom values in sight. Love endures through eternity, for God is love. And without forgiveness, there can be no love.

• “Stop limiting yourself in your thinking. You have all of the resources of heaven at your disposal. Do you need more than that?”
  
  
• Stewardship is moving the Father’s resources to new places to advance the work of the Kingdom. It is using what He gives you for His purposes.
  
  
• There are not two sets of priorities—yours and God's. There is only one set of priorities—the Kingdom priorities. There is no division. There is one purpose in heaven and on earth—that the Father’s will be done. That simplifies everything.

Running to Win the Prize

If you’ve trained for an athletic competition, then you know the commitment and dedication necessary to qualify, compete, and win the competition. And even if you’re not competing for a prize, but rather for a personal best, the regime is still demanding — requiring over and above what you normally give to the sport.

In fact, is you Google Olympic training, you’ll find that six training sessions of four to eight hours a week is a minimum for a person training for a triathlon. And for gold medalists, training is year-round and often 10-12 hours a day. For Michael Phelps, peak training involves swimming 80,000 meters—nearly 50 miles—every week during two-a-day practices, and sometimes three times a day, every day including Sundays.*

Winning an Incorruptible Crown

The Olympic games must have been familiar to the Apostle Paul, a Roman citizen living and traveling during the height of the ancient games in 55 AD. During the time of Paul, the games were held every four years. (Note: the games ran from 776 BC to 393 AD when they were banned by the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I.) The victors were crowned with wreaths made from a sacred olive tree that grew behind the temple of Zeus. Legend had it that Hercules, the founder of the games, planted the olive tree. Victors paraded around a grove to the music of a flute while fans chanted songs written by prominent poets.

In fact, Paul uses the games when he writes to the church at Corinth. As a thriving city of trade, Corinth was home to at least 12 temples, including a temple in the center of the city dedicated to Apollo, the son of Zeus and a pagan Olympian deity. And Corinth held foot races in their own Isthmian games every other year. These games were second only to the Olympics.

So when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he used an analogy that most Corinthians would identify with immediately—a regimen of athletic training. But Paul wasn’t talking about training for athletic competition. Rather he referred to the race we as Christians run in following Christ.

In I Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV), Paul says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Keeping an Eye on Training

I can’t help but read Paul’s words and know that Christian discipleship requires far more training and has far more at stake than any Olympic race. Paul continues, “Therefore, I do not run as a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Clearly, Paul refers to the need to train himself to resist temptation and sin even as he preaches the Gospel. And like Paul, we must be vigilant and unyielding in resisting temptations of our sinful nature. Our goal, like Paul’s, is to glorify the Lord Jesus in all that we do. Ours is not an aimless race toward a finish line that is arbitrarily set for the duration of a competition. Our finish line is winning the incorruptible crown of life.

The Lord calls us to run like winners. As I considered Paul’s words, the Lord reminded me that winning requires all that we are and all that have. It’s easy to compete for personal glory and for the accolades of bystanders. But He reminds us not to listen to the world. Rather we are to listen only to the Lord, and He will guide us over the finish line.

* From USA Today