I just had my employee evaluation at work. What they ask of us is to do a self-evaluation. They give us a list of things that we are to know how to do and you check off if you can do them or not. This is the easy part of the evaluation. The hard part comes with the next page, here are a list of things that you are expected to do and now you must evaluate yourself on whether you just meet the minimum requirements or go beyond what is asked and then give an example of where and when you went beyond the minimum requirements. Every now and them I think we should do a spiritual self-evaluation. There are things that God asks is to do then there are things God demands that we do. To often we can become complacent in our walk with God, getting by with just meeting what we consider the minimum standard. When that happens our growth as a Christian comes to an abrupt stop. In todays podcast we are going to look at some of God’s requirements and in the process perhaps we can also do a self-evaluation.
Deuteronomy 10:12
And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Hebrew word used here for require, is a word that means to inquire or ask of. So, these are things that the Lord asks of us. They are like the task on my self-evaluation that ask if you meet the minimum or if you exceed the minimum standard. It does not take much effort to meet the minimum standard and as with all things you get out of it what you put into it. At work if you constantly exceed the standard you may be rewarded with a raise or promotion. In the cases of our spiritual evaluation the reward is an unwavering faith and closeness with our Creator. What does God ask of us?
“To fear God.” The word used hear has two meanings, the first is to be afraid, to physically fear. And rightly so, we should fear God. For the God we serve is just and holy and has promised that the wicked and the unrighteous will not go unpunished. The other meaning is to be awe and to show reverence to God. We throw around the word awesome very causally today, and often we attach it to people that are not worthy of being called awesome. We can be delighted and amazed by many people and the things they have accomplished, but they really are not awesome. Awe as defined by Webster dictionary is, fear mingled with admiration or reverence. There is only one person who meets the qualifications, for us to be awestruck and that is God. The book of proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. For it is a wise man that is awestruck by the glory of God. The opposite is that a fool says there is no Good. God has given us so much evidence that he is the Creator and that he is Lord that Paul tells us we are without excuse.
If we truly fear the Lord and hold him in reverence and awe, then we will hate what is evil. Some might say that hate is wrong, and it is if it comes from a selfish and prideful heart. There is a proper hate, a righteous hate and a righteous anger. Even the Lord hates and gives us a list of the things he hates.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things that the Lord hates and seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breaths lies, and one that sows discord among the brothers.
If we fear the Lord and walk in his ways we to should hate these things and they should have no part in our lives. Looking at the state of the church today one might wonder if we really do fear the Lord and walk in his ways. There is a church that just opened a brewery and is donating the profits to Planned Parenthood. Plan Parenthood is one of the largest abortion providers in the world, they have spilled more innocent blood that even the most despicable dictator. The Episcopal church just recently changed their book of common prayer to say the “union of two people” instead of” the union of husband and wife” all to appease man. They have accepted the lie that the culture should influence the church when it is the church that should be influencing the culture and leading people in the truth of God’s word. We see churches teach a less offensive and watered-down gospel, that will lead people to believing they are saved and are not. They are bearing false witness with their tongues, telling people that there are many ways to heaven, when there is only one. To walk in the ways of the Lord is to keep his commandments, all his commandments not just the ones we think are relevant in an ever-changing culture. We are to walk in this world but not be a part of this world, we are not to embrace the evil but to oppose it and stand firm in the faith. We cannot be the light and embrace the dark.
Webster dictionary defines the word all as: The whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, and degree. We are asked by God to love and serve him with all of our hearts and souls. We are to hold nothing back when we serve the Lord. There has been, is and never will be such a thing as part time Christian. Walking with Christ is a fulltime commitment, there are no days off. Our focus needs to be on the things of God, serving others , and standing firm in our faith. The bible tells us not to be double minded, focusing on God every Sunday and living as he never existed the rest of the week. The Bible tells us that such a person is unstable and tossed about by the winds of change. When we do not commit all to God and live such a double life, not only does our personal life suffer, but so do those around us. Most of all our witness for the Lord suffers. Jesus tells us we cannot serve to masters, as we will hate one and love the other. You cannot love God on Sunday and love the world on Monday. These things we read about in Deuteronomy are things that God asks of us.
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
There are certain things in my employee evaluation that are set in stone. You either do them or you do not ad to not do them means you lose your job. The word used here for require, means to demand, these are the things that we must do. These things are nonnegotiable you either do them our you do not. There is a set standard for these things.
To do justice. What does it mean to do justice? At its core we are not to judge, we are to treat all people with love and respect. James reminds us that there is but one Leaguer and Judge and that person is not us. James ask who you are to judge your neighbor. To often we do judge. We judge without having all the facts and can and do make snap judgments with what we know or perceive that we know. We have no idea of there past or present situation. You do not know what this person is or has gone through, to place them in where they are. There is much truth in the adage, do not judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. Rather than being judgmental we are to be empathetic and loving. We are in to position to judge anyone by there past, remembering and being thankful for our own sins having been forgiven. To do justice also requires us to forgive. Forgiveness should not be thought of as an option for a Christian. All I have to do to forgive, is remember all the sins that I have been forgiven for. The bible tells us to excel in grace. Grace and forgiveness should come natural to those who are in Christ. And yet it does not. To often we withhold forgiveness, because of some petty, desire we have to be right. So, we hold on to our hurt, we hold grudges. And in doing so we distance ourselves not only from the one we refuse to forgive but from the One who forgave us and showed grace to us Christ Jesus.
To love kindness. There is not a person alive who has read Scripture who can say they have a right to withhold kindness. Repeatedly throughout the Word of God we see over and over again the command to be kind and love on one another. When comes to the requirement that we be mind and love, there is no distinction between friend or enemy, family or neighbor, Christian or Atheist, in all cases we are to be kind and loving. Jesus said, “Be kind to one another even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you.” Love your enemies, love your neighbor, and to love one another. People should always see that ten Christian is a person who is kind, forgiving and filled with love for their fellow man. Having compassion on the lost remembering that we to were once lost, children of wrath and are now a child of the One true King.
Walk humbly with your God. A prideful man cannot walk with God. A prideful sees no need in God. It is only through humility that we can be strong. Of course this goes against everything we have been taught, the culture demands we be proud and self-centered to succeed, and strong person will never humble themselves as thanks a signor weakness. In God’s economy it is the ultimate sign of strength. The Greta prophet Isaiah when he encounters God declared “Woe is me”. The proud person should be warned that God will use what ever means he can to humble you. The Bible declares that God will humble the proud and exalt the humble. God has no use for the proud, throughout the Bible we see time after time God uses the lowly, razing them up as his servants, for his glory. He raises up s lowly shepherd to be king, he choose the weakest clan and the lowest son to save Israel, and he chooses sinners and fishermen to grow his kingdom. There are times when we all need to be humbled and God is more than willing to humble us. So my suggestion is to do as he demands and speaking from experience avoid being humbled.
On the form for my employee evaluation we are rated on a scale of 1-5.
1- You do not meet the minimum standard
2- You barley meet thru standard but are work b on it.
3- You meet the minimum standard
4- You exceed the minimum standard
5- You far exceed the minimum standard.
So where do you rank on your spiritual self-evaluation? Did you score a 6 or a 30? Personally when every I look at these things, I often see that I fail more than I succeed. That is because the standard that God requires us to meet is perfection. Jesus says, “You therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The reason we will always fail to meet God’s standard is because of sin. The primary sin that gets in the way is pride.
In each and every person we have a split personality, there is our ideal self, that is are super-ego, it is the way er perceive ourselves and often we see ourselves in s much different light than what is real. Which brings us to our other personality and that is our real self or our ego, this is exactly who we really are. The closer these to are in comparison the more balanced we are, and the farther away they are the more unstable we become. To achieve perfection these to selfs must be in complete and perfect balance. And whole there are not many of us who are so out off balance we are considered mentally ill, none of us is capable of perfect divergence of these to characteristics. There is only one person who achieved a perfect balance and that is Christ. As for us the Bible tells us that there no one righteous not one, that we have all sinned and fallen short, that no one seeks God. If you ever meet anyone who claims they are perfect and righteous in always you might want to refer them to s specialist as they are mentally unstable. No person in their right mind thinks of themselves as perfect. I recall the account of TB rich young ruler who proudly pointed out to Jesus that he had kept all the commandments. But when Jesus told him that to follow he must give all that he has away, he walked away. Perfection in following God means to hold nothing back, we are to give him all.
Knowing we can never achieve even God’s minimum standard, should cause us to fear, and ask of ourselves what we are to do? Jesus gives us the answer, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whim he has sent” The Greek used here means to believe and to entrust. Our main job one where we can succeed is to put our trust in Christ and what he accomplished on the cross. It is only by trusting in him that whenesyand before God we are seen as perfect, not by anything we have done nut by what Christ has done. Paul makes this clear when he says, “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” What we cannot overlook here is the statement that we are to confess he is Lord. To often we want a Savior and not a Lord when the reality is you cannot have one without the other. Jesus tells us that if we love him we will follow his commandments. We must humble ourselves and serve him in all ways and it is then that we can declare that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The other good news is that we are not in this one our own, because by our own power we would never succeed. So God has given us a helper, in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit will guides and teachers , leading us to the truth. We must be careful not to become puffed up thinking that just because we have accepted Christ we are not better than others. Paul wrote , “The good that I would do, I do not, that which I would not I do. O wretched man that I am” He also wrote, “ I have not yet apprehended that for which I was apprehended by Jesus Christ , neither do I count myself perfect, but I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” We press on we continue to grow in our walk and whole we will never be perfect we can strive for that goal.
When I read and write these things that I speak of, I am brought to the reality that I am far from being even close to perfect. I am also reminded of the joy, peace and grace I find in trusting in Christ. For I know with all, that is the whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, and degree of my heart mind and soul I believe he is my Lord and Savior. I wait for the day when he will call me home and pray that I might hear him say, “ Well done good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your master.
