Guarding Our Hearts: From What?

By David Ryser & Arla Speer

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.  (Proverbs 4:23, NIV).

It began innocently enough as a discussion of Proverbs 4:23 among friends.  It was great fun sharing our insights about the subject of guarding our hearts…until someone asked the question:  “Does God guard His heart?”

Good question…too good.  A question that good will kill a discussion.  You could’ve heard a gnat sneeze.

Does God guard His Heart?  We’d never thought about it before.

And the question is worth thinking about.  Especially if you believe, as we do, that God Himself is our example in life.  Our model of behavior.  It is His character that is being formed in us as we walk in relationship and fellowship with Him.  We are being transformed into His image as the Holy Spirit works in us.

Does God guard His heart?  And if He does, from what and/or from whom does He guard it?

One of the primary reasons Jesus came to earth was to reveal the Father.  To see Jesus was to see the Father, and to hear Jesus was to hear the Father’s words (John 14:7-10).  Jesus is our example of a human being walking with God and doing His works on this earth, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Did Jesus guard His heart?  From what?  From whom?

Actually, He did.  And one thing both the Father and Jesus guard their hearts against is flattery.  In Isaiah 29:13a, God rebukes the people of Israel because they draw near to Him with their mouths, but remove their hearts far from Him.  This is a perfect description of flattery.  Flattery is dishonest.  Flattery is manipulative.  The purpose of flattery is to get something out of someone by pretending to put something into them.  We do it with people.  We do it with God.

When either figures out what we are doing, they do not react well to it.

In John 3:1, 2, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and begins his conversation with Him by appearing to praise Him.  Praise and flattery look very much alike.  Praise puts something into someone.  Flattery, as previously noted, seeks to take something out of them by pretense.  Jesus cut Nicodemus’ gush-fest off at the knees, and immediately got to the heart of the matter.

Flattery is wicked.  Flattery is evil.  Flattery has selfish motives that drive it.  Flattery can be dangerous…if a person receives it. 

All of us want to feel loved, accepted, and valued.  These are good things, and we need them.  We are born with these desires, and they are intended to be met through a personal and intimate relationship with God.  When we attempt to receive these things outside of our relationship with God, we are susceptible to the flattery of man.  And when we allow ourselves to be flattered, we open ourselves up to be manipulated, taken advantage of, and even mistreated.

My experience with a spiritually abusive church began when I allowed myself to be flattered.  Because I believed I was loved…accepted, admired, and valued…I allowed myself to be used.  My gifting and anointing were merchandised.  This is typical of an abusive, utilitarian church.  You are valued as long as you are of use.  If you cease to be useful…for whatever reason…you are discarded.

And when you are no longer functional, you are tossed aside like a broken toy.

This sort of thing doesn’t only happen in church.  It occurs in the workplace.  It occurs in families.  It occurs among those who consider themselves friends.  It causes our relationships to be unhealthy…or even toxic…because it is counterfeit intimacy.

We should…like Jesus…guard our heart against flattery.

Because Jesus guarded His heart against flattery, He was able to guard His heart from other things that people…or the devil…tried to maneuver Him into as well.  Jesus guarded His heart against the desire for physical comfort/provision (Luke 4:1-4), power (John 6:15), messiahship without rejection & suffering (Luke 4:5-8; Luke 22:42), personal safety (John 11:7-15), approval of man (John 2:23-25), fame (Mark 4:1, 35; Mark 1:34b), acceptance by the social and religious elite (by accepting outcasts and refusing to see…or speak to…Herod, among many examples), expanding His ministry beyond His calling (John 12:20-22), and other things too numerous to mention.  If Jesus had allowed Himself to be flattered, He would have pursued these other things…things that would have distracted Him from His relationship with the Father and the work He was sent to do.

But there was no place in Jesus’ heart for flattery.  The only words He ever longed to hear were, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

So what about us?  What do we yearn to hear?

And from whom?

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

Taking Responsibility: Overcoming Spiritual Abuse

By David Ryser

We live in a world that awards love and respect on the basis of possessions, accomplishments, and reputation.  (Fil Anderson)

The events…or more accurately the non-events…of the last several years of my life are driving some of my Christian friends crazy.  They occasionally ask me what I’m doing for God.  What am I doing with my life and the gifts that God has given me?  They have even suggested that I am failing God and wasting my gifting and anointing by not actively pursuing a ministry of some kind.

Maybe I’m reading the wrong version of the Bible.  In my Bible, I’m not commanded to pursue ministry.  I’m commanded to pursue God.

Anyhow, this season of my life has been a time characterized by dying to self, falling more in love with Jesus, and allowing the Father to form Christ in me so that His life will flow out of me and touch people.  Not real sexy stuff, spiritually speaking.  Most Christians don’t seem too impressed by it.

Maybe if I referred to it as an extreme spiritual makeover….

Recently I’ve experienced a breakthrough emotional healing.  Prior to this, I had been tormented by painful memories of my past failings.  My shame over these events caused me to hide myself and live behind a mask.  This kind of living is hard on relationships…even my relationship with God…because it’s hard to have an honest relationship with me when you can’t even see the real me.

And honesty and transparency are necessary ingredients for intimacy.

Now the shame is gone.  So my conversations with God are more honest.  Actually they might be better described as less diplomatic.  It’s difficult to communicate hard truths to someone when you have to walk on eggshells around them.  Once God took away my shame, He could now speak plainly to me about my shortcomings without being a diplomat about it.

And this in itself has led to other breakthroughs.

For example, I have for the past several years been working to resolve some lingering resentments stemming from having been a member of a spiritually abusive church.  Whenever I’ve tried to talk to God about how I’d been wronged and what rotten rascals those church leaders were, He has steadfastly refused to listen to me.  Once He shut me up by saying about these leaders, “You wouldn’t have done half as well with half as much.”

Needless to say, I wasn’t too pleased with this answer.

As it turns out, God always wanted very much to help me resolve the hurt, anger, and bitterness I was experiencing.  But I couldn’t handle what He needed to say to me yet.  So He continued to work on me until I came to the place where we could talk about this.  When the shame was gone, God could speak into this place in my life.  And I would listen to Him.

What did He say?

Well, He lovingly pointed out that the one big reason I was in a position to be abused in that church was because of flaws in my own character.  Specifically, He said, “You were abused because you were for sale.”

And He was right.

I sold myself.  I sold myself for title, position, recognition, and admiration.  I welcomed the flattery…thrived on it…and believed I was loved and valued.  The leaders of the church did not make me like this.  I was like this when I got there.  They simply took advantage of it.

I was a spiritual prostitute.  And they bought me.  And I got screwed.  Prostitutes get screwed.  It’s an occupational hazard.

And I didn’t even get to keep the stuff I sold myself for!

I have no one to blame but myself…and that’s good news.  It’s good news because the whole point of God bringing this to my attention was to give me insight into the cause of my hurt and to transform my character in this area.  In the process, I have become aware of this potential hazard in my life and the means to overcome it.  This provides me with some immunity to spiritual abuse because I now receive my sense of being loved and valued through my relationship with my heavenly Father.  When I’m walking with God…experiencing His love and approval…man’s flattery and manipulation no longer have a place to hook onto me.

And this transformation of character that protects me from spiritual abuse also makes it possible for me to overcome the temptation to manipulate and abuse others. It’s a win-win deal.

Yea, God!

Recently I received an e-mail from a friend who was particularly in touch with God’s love for her.  She described not only feeling loved, but the things God had done during the course of the day that made her feel valued, special, and loved.  She summed up her experience with God that day by saying, “I not only love that God loves me, I love the way He loves me.”

I know the feeling.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com

"Are We There Yet?": Life in the Religious Ark

By David Ryser & Martha Paterik

If we’re called to walk on the water, then why do we need an ark?  (Mark Squires)

These things always seem to begin innocently enough…just before they spin hopelessly out of control.  My friend Martha had run across the term “sacred desk” referring to the pulpit.  She’d never heard this term before and was somewhat bewildered that anyone would call a piece of furniture sacred.

And I was reminded of my grandfather.

My grandfather was a dairy farmer.  At the time of the evening milking, the cows would be herded into the barn and locked into stalls to be milked.  Behind the cows, a trough was cut into the floor.  The trough was needed because the cows were not barn-broken.  As the evening wore on, the trough filled with cow waste.

As useful as this trough was, I never heard my grandfather refer to it as the “sacred trough.”

Referring to the pulpit as the “sacred desk” makes about as much sense as calling my grandfather’s muck-trough the “sacred trough.”  After all, both are pretty much full of the same thing.

I explained to Martha that the pulpit is the Protestant version of the Catholic altar.  It can…and has…become just another fixture of religious idolatry.  Pick your poison.  Martha noted that religious people have done much the same thing even with biblical objects.

She mentioned the term “ark.”  And I experienced a religious flashback.

Years ago, I was sitting in the Sunday service at a church whose pastor strongly preached commitment to the Kingdom of God.  By “Kingdom of God” he meant his church, which was growing increasingly unhealthy.  On this particular morning, the speaker was proclaiming that this local church was the modern day version of Noah’s ark.  This “ark” was the only place of safety in a world that was becoming increasingly unsafe.  We needed to get into the ark.

And stay in.

I can’t decide if this preacher’s declaration is more arrogant or stupid.  It’s a big dose of both.  For one thing, it is absurd to assert that any local church is the only place…or even the best place…where a person can be safe in Christ.  What about the almost 8 billion people on the planet who don’t even know this particular church exists?  And are there no other Christian fellowships where Jesus is Lord?

For another thing, is any ark intended to be a permanent dwelling place?  What if Noah…and the people and animals with him…had stayed in the ark and never left it?  Would they have been safe, secure, and blessed?  Or would they have died of hunger, buried in their own waste?  And what about the world they were supposed to populate and subdue?

The ark-church is no different.  If we are ever going to make a difference in the world…advance God’s kingdom in the earth…we must leave the ark.  This is something that should be encouraged by church leaders…not discouraged.  

So what about the people who leave the ark-church?

I eventually left it.  So did Martha.  So did several other people over the years.  Some before us.  Any exodus from that local church was treated as a departure from the Christian faith.  They had “left the ark” and were at risk.  We were sternly charged not to follow their example.

So just when did the word ark come to be a synonym for the word prison anyhow?

Others have continued to jump ship, so to speak.  Those of us who left before them have made the effort to get in contact with some of these people and encourage them that there is life outside the ark.  I’ve remarked that the question is not so much whether there is life outside of this ark-church as whether there is life inside of it.

Martha’s response is instructive.

“I guess the real question is which ark?  The ark of Noah’s day carried all that represented life in it.  They were fed and kept safe until it was time to be sent out into the world and carry that life to it.  No one [ever] mentions a regular trek back to the boat.  It had served its purpose, now it was time to go out.”

Wow.

And then she went on to reference another ark…the Ark of the Covenant. Unlike the pulpit, if any piece of furniture could be called “sacred” it would be the Ark of the Covenant.  She noted:  “It had a thing that represented life (manna), the miracle staff of Aaron, and the stone tablets.  The glory of God even rested on or above this ark.  But He doesn’t anymore.  God has left the box, so to speak.  He wants us to take His Glory into the world, to be His Glory.”

You see, both of these arks had been constructed at God’s direction.  And both of them had a purpose…for a season.  When their purpose was fulfilled, both were emptied.  And the world was benefited because what had once been in the arks was now released into the world, engaged with it, and bringing life to it.

And in the end, Martha accurately sums up the fate of both of these biblical arks:  “[B]oth arks were mighty tools of God in the time they were needed; but at the risk of killing sacred cows, neither would be too effective today.”

I don’t know about you, but I think sacred cows make great steaks.

Responses to this article are welcomed.  You may contact the author at drdave1545@yahoo.com