WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH
Scott Pontier

Deuteronomy 6:4-9: Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

In the second phrase of this section of text, we are told to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your me’odecha (pronounced “may-o-day-ha”). Literally, the phrase means “with all your ‘very’ or ‘muchness’,” which sounds very odd to our ears. The definition in the biblical glossary is “exceedingly, much, force or abundance,” and traditionally it has been translated as “Love the Lord your God with all… your ‘strength’” or “might.”

But what is “all your me’odechah?” A few years ago I had signed up for a trip to the middle east to tour the land the Bible was written in and a teacher had prompted us to get in shape for the rigorous journey of hiking and climbing by saying “if your body is flabby, your faith tends to be flabby.” A bit frightened of spending time in a land where everything seems to be uphill, I took the prompting to heart. I learned much in my preparation time; but the main thing I learned was the meaning of the word me’odecha.

If you have ever undertaken a fitness regimen like Body for Life or something similar, you know the challenge of lifting that weight for just one more repetition or adding just one more pound to your weight-lifting routine. The result can bring tears to your eyes. This kind of straining with all of your being is to experience what the word me’odecha means. Some people describe it simply as “oomph.” But it means so much more – to have all of your body, soul and heart single-minded in its pursuit of one thing with all the intensity and energy you can muster – this is the call of Jesus on our lives. Are you up to it?

We often tend to disconnect the pieces of our life: Social, physical exercise, spiritual, financial mental learning, emotional, etc. It can be hard to learn how to love God with all of ourselves if we live in this schizophrenic understanding of ourselves. What would happen if you began to put those pieces together, one by one, and pursued God, truly with everything that you are and have – down to every penny in your wallet and minute in your day?

What areas of your life are “out of shape”? What areas are atrophied and not fully giving everything they could to the pursuit of God and His power in your life?
Are you seeking God’s power in your life in only some areas but not others?
What needs to be a part of your “fitness plan” to strengthen your pursuit of God?

Scott Pontier is the Student Ministries Pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Grove City
www.gcvineyard.org

Praying to the Right God
Tom Pauquette

Matthew 6.13: [Jesus said] “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In His model prayer (Matthew 6.9-13), Jesus taught them to begin and end with a certain form of praise. He began, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name.” The word “hallowed” means “holy”. Jesus is teaching us that all good prayer begins with a surrendered recognition of the holiness of God.

The holiness of God is, in essence, the combined total of all of His individual attributes (righteousness, purity, wisdom, mercy, judgment, omniscience…). Holy is what God is. When we pray, “Holy is Your Name”, we are beginning with a surrendered recognition of the full nature and character of God Himself. It is very much meant to be an expression of worship.

At the end of the model prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to finish with the praise expression, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.” The prayer comes full circle. Riveting our attention on three of God’s many attributes which contribute to His holiness; Jesus calls us to praise God for His own motivation for even hearing, let alone answering, our prayers. God hears and answers our prayers so that His kingdom will be established “on earth as it is in heaven.” God hears and answers our prayers so that His loving and mighty power can find avenues of expression in His creation. Ultimately God hears and answers our prayers for His own glory. Whatever God does, He does to glorify Himself (see, for example, John 2.11). That’s a good thing – a very good thing.

Jesus teaches us to begin our prayers in praise so that we are sure we understand the nature of God. He is holy. That is the sum total of His self-designed character. Jesus teaches us to conclude our prayers in specific praise so that we can, among our other things, check our own motivations. Believer, why are you praying today? Are you praying so that God’s kingdom will break in on the affairs of the earth? Are you praying so that you will be available as an avenue of God’s power to be displayed in His creation? Are you praying so that the glory of God will be evident to all?

The power of prayer is unmistakable. Let’s be sure to begin and conclude our prayers with the kind of praise Jesus taught us in the model prayer. If the beginning and the end are authentically the way Jesus taught us, what happens in between will have a way of righting itself.

Have a power day!

Tom Pauquette is the Senior Pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Grove City
www.gcvineyard.org

“GET RID OF THE RATS”
Bob Stiles

According to an AP news story in early 2006, about 9,500 Riverside CA, residents found themselves in the dark after a rat chewed through power equipment at a substation. The rodent had to gnaw through two barriers before it reached the 12,000-volt equipment that it shorted out on Tuesday night, Public Utilities deputy director Steve Badgett said. “We found him. What was left of him,” Badgett said. The rat made it to the live wires despite traps and rat poison placed in the substation, he said. Some 1,100 customers went without power until early Wednesday morning. Badgett said he braced for the worst when he realized that residents lost their power just as the semifinalists of “American Idol” were to perform on television.

Isaiah 59:1-2 “Listen! The LORD is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. But there is a problem–your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.”

When a rat chewed through a wire in Riverside, people were without power. They were in the dark and couldn’t see ‘Idol’. When you and I idolize the things of this world rather than giving ourselves to God in complete worship, we will find ourselves cut off from His power and light in our lives.

Get rid of the ‘rats’!

Take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify any “rats” in your life that cut you off from God’s power. Confess them and receive Christ’s forgiveness. Thank God that He will restore you to a right relationship with Him. Thank Jesus for His love, His guiding light and power to live in obedience to Him. Thank Him that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you through the Holy Spirit to live every day. Praise God for His ultimate power!

Bob Stiles is the Worship Pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Grove City
www.gcvineyard.org

WITH ALL YOUR SOUL
Scott Pontier

Deuteronomy 6:4-9: Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Jesus tells us that the command to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength is the greatest commandment. It is part of the section of the Scripture known as the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9) – the prayer that Jesus and Jews since him have prayed morning and evening to commit themselves to follow the Lord. When we think about those words we tend to pass by the phrase “heart and soul” quickly, attributing the idea to loving God with our spirit and emotions, very passionately.

Our understanding can be enriched by understanding the word “soul” (Nephesh) better. Nephesh means “life” as well as “soul.” So the Jewish interpretation of “love the LORD with all your soul” is actually that we should love God with all of our lives – every moment throughout our lives. Think about that for a moment. Could you catalog each of your moments in your life today? Yesterday? Would each one of those moments characterize a love of God? On one episode of “The Simpsons,” Marge urges Homer out of bed on a Sunday morning claiming that “God only asks for one hour a week” to which Homer replies, “the God should’ve made the week an hour longer!” Loving God with all our nephesh, “life,” is the opposite of being a one-hour-a-week Christian whose thoughts are largely filled with distractions of work, politics, hobbies, investments, sporting events, and entertainment. While many of those things are good, squeezing God in as an afterthought is exactly the opposite of this phrase in the Deuteronomy. This is hard in today’s world, even for those of us involved in paid ministry – the “professional Christians” in the room. For each of us, we must take stock of our choices and realize that choosing the “good” things in our lives can often be the enemy of choosing the “best” things instead.

What does it really mean to love God with all of your life? One traditional interpretation of “with all your nephesh” is the idea that we should love God even to the point of sacrificing our lives for him. There is a powerful story told to illustrate this idea. Rabbi Akiva, a greatly respected Jewish thinker and rabbi who lived in the first century AD, was tortured to death publicly by the Romans because he refused to give up teaching and studying the scriptures. It was the time of saying the Morning Prayer, and during his torture, his students heard him reciting the prayer from Deuteronomy instead of crying out in pain. His students called out to him, “Teacher, even now?” The dying rabbi said, “All my life I have wondered about the phrase that says ‘Love the Lord your God with all of your soul,’ wondering if I would ever have the privilege of doing this. Now that chance has come to me, shall I not grasp it with joy?” He repeated the first verse, “hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” until his soul left him.

What would it take for you to love God with all of your life? What keeps you from this?

What are the “good” things you are choosing that are keeping you from choosing the “best” things?

What do you need to submit to Christ in your life today?

Scott Pontier is the Student Ministries Pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Grove City
www.gcvineyard.org

The Real Fight
Tom Pauquette

Matthew 11:11, 12: [Jesus said] “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

Here, again, we see that according to Jesus the way to greatness is through authentic humility. John the Baptist was a crazy guy. He wore crazy clothes, ate crazy food, preached a crazy message, and generally lived a pretty crazy life. He lived out in the desert with the wild animals which, I’m guessing, were probably afraid of him!

At the center of John’s life was a radical humility. Certainly John had passed up many other options on his way to the desert. He had been born in to a prominent family. He had the discipline and personal sacrifice that enabled him to run with the toughest of his peers. He displayed a genuine intelligence in his stifling responses to his critics. John could have been anyone, he could have accomplished anything.

But John left his life of opportunity and went to the desert. John laid down his options and his free moral agency and he followed God. He set aside his inherent rights to fulfill his own destiny and live up to his own potential. All this he did to be faithful to the call of God on his life.

Speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus made a fascinating comment: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Interesting. Jesus insists that the Kingdom of God comes by “force.” As western Christians we are inclined to automatically think we need to pray “harder” or “louder” or become more “commanding” in the tone of our spiritual lives. While there may be times to step up to that plate with this kind of force, this can’t be what Jesus is saying here. What He’s saying is that there is, perhaps, nothing in your life that will require more of your personal force (determination, dedication, perseverance, etc.), than laying down your personal rights in order to humbly follow after the call of God. So much of our own human (sinful) nature is dedicated to self-advancement and self-protection that we will literally have to fight in order to find the place of humility in our lives.

Clearly you want to find and follow God. You would not be bothering to read this if you didn’t. But do you want to find and follow God deeply enough to fight this fight against your own pride and sense of entitlement in order to get to the place of humbly seeking and obeying Him? The real “force” of laying hold of the Kingdom of God is not going to be about praying louder or shaking our fists toward Satan. The real force of laying hold of the Kingdom of God is first to be exerted toward our own selves as we humbly lay down our lives to follow after Christ.

Have a power day!

Tom Pauquette is the Senior Pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Grove City
www.gcvineyard.org