Not “Ra Ra” but “Yes and Amen!

Fresh Manna 2008© by Pastor Tim Burt

Happy New Year to all of you – our precious friends in Christ around the world! We are praying for you!

This past year some friends of ours took Renee and I to a Minnesota Vikings Football game. We hadn’t been to one in years. The stadium was full and the energy level of the people, the excitement, and the hype – and there was plenty of it, was surging continuously. The people that organize these games make sure that there is always something going to keep the people interested and visually occupied. What was and always is amazing to me is how excited the fans get. They get wild! The noise seems like it’s off the decibel range! And hey, I was just as caught up in it. It’s fun!

Any Christian has had the thought I’m about to express and yet it’s worth verbalizing again. Can you imagine if we could live our life this excited for and about Jesus? As Christians, we all know there is nothing more exciting that what Jesus did for us, what Jesus does within us, and the unfolding of His plan in the earth. If we seriously sit down and read about it and study it, God brings revelation and insight and it does become so stirring and exciting. When we hear those that preach the word well, it moves and excites us. We love when the word convicts us and compels us to step up to all God has called us to be. And so why the lulls that we go through in God?

I believe a large part of it is because of what we spend the bulk of our time focused and meditating on. Countless people over the years have said their Bible reading carries more the feeling of duty and obligation than the desire they know they should feel. The devil tries to make a psychological mountain out of this whole thing when the answer is really simple. The feelings of your heart and your emotions are stirred and stoked by what you give yourself most over to. Read newspapers and watch news and financial broadcasts and you’ll think about stories and events that usually aren’t positive. Watch tons of television and you’ll think about your favorite shows. Whatever you give yourself over to and fill your heart with is what you’ll be filled up with. So then, again, the answer is simple and it’s not hard or complicated. Make a simple change and don’t over think it. Just do it! Choose to pick up your Bible more often in place of what you have let become a more favored pastime. Do it with the desire to learn, study, and grow and it won’t be long till you’ve stoked a fire. Do it more and more and soon your life won’t be about the ra-ra hype of football games or the fantasies of television and movies, or the intellectual bla of the endless conversations of “experts.” Do it and your heart will be filled with inspiration and hope and the greatest stories every written – and the “Yea’s and Amen” promises of God’s Word. Pray and thank God those promises are God’s covenant over your life. Then spill over and be contagious with zeal and encourage and invite others into your excitement. It’s not hype. It’s real and life changing. It’s “Yea and Amen.” Wouldn’t that be the way to start your New Year – filling your heart and mind with hope and faith focused back on the won who loves you and desires to help you?

Romans 12:11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Undermine Poopieness with Goodness!

Fresh Manna 2008© by Pastor Tim Burt

“Do you think you will go to Heaven when you die?” That is a question that most people think about at some point of their life. The most common answer given in various forms is, “Yes I think I’ll get into Heaven because I’ve tried to be a good person.” And then the list of good things and qualifications they have done spills like words on a glowing resume’.

What qualifies someone to be called a “good person?” After all Jesus said to someone who had called Him good – “Why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:17) What was Jesus saying? Was He calling himself bad – that even He didn’t qualify as good? No, not at all. He was qualifying that He was God come in the flesh. He was also leading this man to truth – that all mankind has failed in their ability to be good. Romans 3:23 says,”For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

He was also showing this man how to resolve this problem – “but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments.” Jesus was saying that the way to resolve this issue of “there is none good” – was to receive Jesus personally as Savior. When that happened, he would be washed from sin and covered in Jesus’ righteousness – that which makes us “white as snow” in God’s eyes. And he’d then have the Holy Spirit to teach him within his heart, all of God’s ways and strengthen him in spirit to “keep the commandments” – or keep God’s ways. The bottom line – God wants us to make the effort to “be good” by obeying His ways, but in our shortfall, His gift of righteousness makes up for our shortfall and failures in our efforts.

When we understand this and take these steps and yield ourselves to God – then goodness can grow within us like a nurtured plant grows and produces fruit. This is the foundation of and the beginning of the road to goodness.

God wants us to be energetic in our pursuit of goodness because it is one of God’s ingredients that make this world a richer place to live. But don’t worry; like I did yesterday, you will blow it. Instead of goodness – poopieness will surface on occasion. Don’t let it discourage you. Ask God to forgive you. Realize that true goodness comes only through the help of God. Be energetic to make things right, to get things right, and to let people be touched by the goodness of God working through you!

Titus 2:11 (Message Bible) God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Turned Inside Out

Fresh Manna 2008© by Pastor Tim Burt

How glorious it is to discover Jesus Christ and all He has done for us – to accept Him as Lord and Savior. And then how easy is it before too long to become a cultural Christian? By that I mean one who learns to say and do the right thing around others but doesn’t really hunger or long for God’s intimacy and His plan – that plan of Him continually transforming you and that plan of reaching others with His good news.

I can look like a “good Christian” to others but does that mean I am? I can put the right words on paper, and hopefully influence your relationship with God into one of greater intimacy. But, having done that, am I myself drawing closer to the Lord?

I don’t swear any more. I don’t let my mind be filled with garbage. I try to treat people nice most of the time. I could go on and on… but that is what people say that don’t know Jesus that try to justify why they hope they’ll make it into Heaven. So, I won’t say that to you. My personal righteousness is still filthy compared to the Lord’s. I still struggle at times to walk the walk of love that I should. I still hold back the message of God’s love through Jesus Christ with others – because I am so busy going about religious ways. I’m not always engaged in my heart about what is most important to the Lord. My righteousness – God seeing me washed from sin is a gift. It opens the door to all blessing in my life. God wants my efforts to be godly in obedience to His will, but I am so thankful for His grace when I get caught up in doing my own thing or being a “cultural Christian” – one who goes through motions more than embracing His love by faith.

It is by faith – the moment by moment thinking of Him, crying out to and desperately needing His help and wisdom that He has called us to live. It is by faith – thanking Him continually for rescuing us – rescuing me from the pit I was in before knowing Him – this all done out of His love and sacrifice of Jesus – His life for mine, that He has called us to live. It is by faith – embracing His never ending love and help and involvement in our lives and sharing His willingness to help others that He has called us to love. This is real Christianity and nothing else is. Cultural Christianity is not Christianity. It’s religion – mindless religious action. “Forgive me Lord when I go through motions instead of embracing you by faith. It is the only acceptable sacrifice you are looking for and the one I want to offer!

Romans 12:1-2 (Message Bible) So here is what I want you to do, God helping you: take your everyday ordinary life – your sleeping, your eating, your 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 live in it without thinking. Instead fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2008 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.