Monday, April 27, 2009

YOUR ROYAL LINEAGE

“When you deny that personal lineage, you abdicate your royal standing in God’s community to one of poverty and peasantry. Like Isaac’s son Esau, you surrender your holy birthright for a bowl of stew when you have been promised a King’s banquet!” – Noble Plans, p. 11

In the story of Esau and Jacob, I often think that Jacob gets the short end of the stick. Our theological heritage has painted this son of Isaac into the usurper’s corner. Yes, Jacob means “supplanter,” but maybe, just maybe that was by design as a matter of who Jacob was not what Jacob did. God designed Jacob to supplant for His perfect purposes, to supplant the wicked and unrighteous.

It is often overlooked, but in Genesis 25:27, the text says, “Jacob was a perfect man . . .” Some of your translations may call him a “peaceful” or “plain” man, but the Hebrew is quite clear: “perfect, undefiled, upright,” or “wholesome.” It’s my belief that some translators could not harmonize their perception of Jacob as a smarmy usurper with someone “perfect,” so they compromised on “peaceful.”

But to the matter at hand.

It is an often-told story: Esau comes home hungry—some translations say “famished,”—and he flippantly trades his birthright as Isaac’s firstborn for a bowl of “that red stuff there” (Genesis 25:30). In a heartbeat, with no seeming regard for consequences, this father of the Edomites has not been supplanted; Esau surrenders his royal standing as technically, the Prince of the Holy Land.

Esau is not alone.

How often do we abdicate our royal standing to pursue earthly pleasures? How often do we chase after being right over being righteous? How often do we, like Esau, surrender our royal station for some of that “stuff” – whatever that “stuff” may be?

Lords and Ladies, you have been invited to eat at the king’s table. Yours is a position of high favor. A crown awaits you. Why settle for poverty and peasantry when you are of royal lineage?

“And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:6).



“A noble man devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands”

Sunday, April 26, 2009

CHECK YOUR COMPASS

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do
and your plans will be established.”
—Proverbs 16:3

It's likely time to address a topic that is not covered in total in the book Noble Plans. It was always my hope that there would be an internet-based opportunity to develop and augment the content in the book, and am thankful for this blog.

Proverbs 16:3 above is also translated as "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed," in the NIV. That's not what is in the above verse, out of the New American Standard Bible.

In a nutshell: just because you commit to noble plans for your own life, there is no guarantee they "will succeed" as the NIV translators put it. That's not how it works.

The Hebrew word for "established" or "succeed" in these two translations is kuwn, which means "prepare, be ready, direct," or "confirmed." There is no inference that "success" is a natural byproduct.

Noble Plans is about how you live, how to bring your heart and mind into greater harmony with one of God's bigger pictures. But as with anything, there are always obstacles and temptations, and often, ignobility will sneak in and win the day.

But if your plans are noble, if you stand by them, they do become who you are rather than what you do, and as long as you remain committed (established) – that is to say as long as you stand by your plan – you will do well – even if you do not always succeed, even if you do not win each and every battle.

If you approach noble living with that attitude, rather than, "If I do it this way God must guarantee my success," then in truth, you will succeed.

Noble Plans the book as well as noble plans the biblical principle, are a spiritual compass to keep you pointed in the right direction. But for a compass to work, you have to look at it – often. Otherwise, you can drift degree by degree until your ways are no longer as established.

Make your noble plans, commit them unto God, stand by them, and check your compass routinely.

"The noble mane devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands."

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

M'LADY

My lovely wife bears the legal title, “Lady” under Scottish law and she has the certificate to prove it. She has never been to Scotland. In fact, she is 100% Italian. But she owns a small plot of land (it could accommodate a lawn chair, it is so small) that affords her the privilege to use the title “Lady.”

Of course, it was a birthday gift several years ago, and a well received one at that, but here it makes for a wonderful illustration.

Centuries ago, the only way a woman could gain the title “Lady,” or any royal title shy of being the king’s princess, was to marry into one. Now before anyone thinks me a chauvinist for bringing it up, it remains true for everyone who claims Jesus as Messiah.

We all, whether man or woman, are the betrothed Bride to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Our inheritance as the Bride, with the prophesied privilege to reign and rule with Him is wholly dependent upon the holy Bridegroom. To that end, all who call on Jesus as Savior and Lord, bear the title prince and princess, lord and lady.

Now imagine if you will, what would life be like in the Body of Christ if we all thought of one another as regal inheritors of the Throne – far from common and everyday – but noble and high? How might relationships change if we recognized one another as royal?

Now that’s a noble plan! Give it a try, and leave comments here how it changes you!


"The noble man devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands."

Monday, April 20, 2009

A NOBLE RESPONSE TO PAIN

No one in the Bible seemed better acquainted with pain than King David. In psalm after psalm, we find this son of Jesse struggling with emotional stresses. His kingdom was often in peril with attacks from sons, generals, and the very citizens of Israel. There were seasons when it seemed as though everywhere David turned, there was strife.

Few in this world are as honest about their pain as King David was. Consider for example, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and Thou dost lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15, NASB).

Ever feel like that?

I wish there was an easy out, a quick fix for pain, but on the whole there are none. Yes, there are miracles that inject themselves into our world, but they are far and few between, the purview of the King of kings and his omniscient will. We may want God to remove our pain, but what if there is something the Lord wants us to learn from it, some treasure that would be missed by its elimination? Which is more important: feeling good or being faithful?

A. W. Tozer wrote: “We know that the emotional life is a proper and noble part of our total personality. But by its very nature, it is of secondary importance, for religion lies in the will, and so does righteousness. God never intended that such a being as mankind should become the mere plaything of his or her feelings.”

Jim Gorrell, a pastor friend of mine once said, “The real question about pain is, ‘How well do we suffer?’” That stopped me in my tracks and I have pondered it ever since.

Suffering is not a popular position in which to be – but it is a realistic one. Rev. Gorrell’s question offers no fix, and it does not make the problem go away, but it does shake the foundations of how you perceive and can deal with pain.

How well do you suffer?

David’s noble response to pain was to speak his heart and then praise God. His enemies were still at the door. His son was still usurping the crown. His people still railed against him. But David, a man after God’s own heart, knew the appropriate and righteous response to private pain – praise and worship. The book of Psalms is replete with example after example.

Now that you know the biblical response . . . what is your noble response?

“The noble man makes noble plans and by noble plans he stands”

Saturday, April 18, 2009

WHAT WAS YOUR DEFINING MOMENT?

"Whoso Pulleth Out the Sword of the Stone and Anvil,
is Rightwise King Born of All England."
(T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone)


Our films and books are rife with defining moments, that moment in time when one reality passes and something new emerges. For Bruce Wayne, it was the death of his parents that transformed him into the Batman. For Gandalf, the wizard in Tolkein’s classic The Lord of the Rings, it was standing toe-to-toe with the maleficent Balrog, when he changed from “the Grey,” to “the White.” For the youngest son in the line of Jesse, it was picking up five smooth stones to fell the great giant Goliath.

But perhaps no defining moment has been told and re-told, as many times as King Arthur, when he drew the sword from the stone. In the span of a heartbeat he went from being a commoner to High King of all England, and whether fact or fiction, the legend set in stone the ideal and noble standard for all of Western civilization.

Many of you have had defining moments. Character transformations born out of grief, abuse, and trauma, and those events forever shaped who you are today. They color every relationship in your life.

Let me ask this . . . when did you pull your sword from the stone? By that I mean, when did you take hold of your destiny as heir to the Throne of the Most High King and become an “heir according to promise” (Gal 3:29)? Was there that defining moment in your life when you turned it all over to the Messiah of Israel – the anointed One – and became not just a citizen of the everlasting kingdom, but an inheritor, a prince or a princess?

My friends, there could be no more noble plan than that, no intention more meaningful or delightful, ripe with promise and Providence! If you look back on your life and see a hurtful moment that forged who you are today, then you have not yet pulled your sword from the stone.


"The noble man devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands."

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

WHAT IS MISSING IN YOUR LIFE?

There is a secret waiting to be discovered. There is an ingredient lacking in the lives of many Christians today, and few are able to recognize why their salt has lost its flavor. Believers zealous for the Lord and serious about their relationship with Jesus have dabbled with books to increase their borders and find a purpose for their life, but they have not yet touched the deeper spiritual reality waiting for them.

What is missing in the Christian life that makes the difference individually and in our congregations? The secret is found in one biblical concept – nobility.

From the Netflix to the local bookstore, shelves are filled with the answer. It’s been staring you right in the face the whole time but because it’s so obvious, it’s easy to overlook. Best-sellers have heroes— champions for truth, justice, and the American way. Box office hits promote the kings, queens, prices and paupers who rise up to defeat the odds, hold on to their integrity and principles, and overcome. The answer is universal, and it’s deeply routed in both our culture and in biblical themes throughout the Scriptures – nobility.

Spiritual nobility is not something into which a person is born, but is a quality, a characteristic that requires a noble plan, determination, and faith. As the prophet Isaiah writes, “The noble man devises noble plans, and by noble plans he stands” (Is 32:8).

Today’s believers need a noble plan, and Noble Plans: Living As Heir to the King, gives men and women of faith the tools they need to transform their lives, their families, and their congregations. Noble Plans reveals the hero within, and helps you realize your fuller potential as children of the King of kings.

"The noble man devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands."

Monday, April 13, 2009

EVERY HOPE OR DREAM

“Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God” (Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest).

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Almost every day of my life begins with the daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest. This sentence from the February 22 reading is a two-pronged statement. “Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled” 1) “if it is noble” and 2) if it is “of God.” The two principles cannot be separated or you will always have imbalance and undesirable consequences..

Oswald Chambers ads to this principle in his March 22nd devotional: “The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way.”

In the days of yore, when there was a “noble class” in charge, they rarely ever turned out to be noble in character. They were more often than not little more than thugs, legal thugs taking what was not theirs, over-taxing the poor, and seeing to it that their own interests were paramount. Some acted in “the name of Christ” to their deeds, but that was only a means of slathering a foul stench with much perfume.

If you have the true and undefiled mind of Christ nurturing in your soul, then you cannot help but be turned toward the noble-minded. If your hopes and dreams are of God, then they are noble because they cannot be anything else.

That of course, is no guarantee that God is obligated to fulfill hopes and dreams. Hopes and dreams are to be brought subject to God’s will, not the other way around. Chambers also writes, “If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified.”

If you are experiencing disappointments and frustrations, consider recasting your hopes and dreams, carefully taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). “We will readily give up sin and worldliness, but God calls us to give up the very closest, noblest and most right tie we have, if it enters into competition with His call” (So Send I You, Oswald Chambers).

“The noble man makes noble plans and by noble plans he stands”

Saturday, April 11, 2009

WHAT DOES "NOBLE" MEAN?

From the introduction to Noble Plans: Living as Heir to the King

The apostle Paul tells us, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent, whatever is praiseworthy: think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, NIV). He goes on to promise that when you “think on these things” the “peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”

My mind grasps the concepts of true, lovely, excellent, and praiseworthy easily enough. The Bible and the world God created provide ample examples from which to learn true, lovely, excellent, and praiseworthy. My mind can take hold of these concepts and process them readily—but what about “noble?” If the Bible provides examples and instruction on “true, lovely, excellent, and praiseworthy,” then certainly there are models for “noble” and nobility.

This raised new questions. What does “noble” mean in today’s society? What did it mean in the biblical age? How does the Bible define this word “noble” that finds its way into everything from classical literature to action hero movies? For me, noble had always been some vague notion in the back of my mind born out of my high school European history class or classic literature like Sir Walter Scott’s Ivenhoe or Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur. How could I—an average “nobody”—sincerely follow Paul’s admonition to “think about such things” as nobility without a biblical and therefore, foundational understanding of what it means to be noble?

Dr. Warren Wiersbe, referencing Romans 5:17, writes, “Because we belong to the family of the King, we can ‘reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.’”* In other words, if you are of the household of faith dear reader, then you are of noble re-birth, and that is a pedigree worth celebrating!

The emphasis of Noble Plans (and this blog) is based on an oft-overlooked passage of Isaiah: “The noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands” (Isaiah 32:8). When I first read this verse, I was enthralled with its implications. Paul’s admonition in Philippians—to think on noble things—was brought home in a new way as I rolled Isaiah’s words around in my mind. Soon I found more and more references to “noble” in the Bible like threads of continuity woven into the majestic tapestry.

I wondered at writing on the subject and committed to this plan, and stand behind the plan that God desires all of His children to be noble. It is my hope that God will plant in you noble plans and that these plans will see you through all of your days.

"The noble man devises noble plans, and by noble plans he stands"

*Heirs of the King, Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI

Friday, April 10, 2009

PRINCESS POWER

“Kings’ daughters are among Thy noble ladies” (Psalm 45:9).

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Okay, I admit it. I refer to each of my daughters as “princess.” Yes, it’s a stereotypically “dad” thing to do and I am exceedingly pleased to use the label. I likely always shall.

Sadly, in today’s world, “princess” is also oft considered chauvinistic. In my opinion, that’s a deleterious move to once again rob young women of dignity and respect. The thinking goes that if she is a “princess,” then she needs a prince to save her.

One might think that the princess appellation would be driven from our culture, relegated to history books and twisted into examples of female oppression. In fact, there is a move afoot to erase it from our cultural expression.

Thankfully, that’s unlikely to happen if the Disney Corporation has anything to do with it. Last fall I attended a workshop by marketing guru, Ira Mayer. His inside information is that every three years, Disney rotates their marketing campaigns between fairies and princesses. Why would they do this? Because they know that within the heart of every little girl, lives a princess waiting to get out.

In Noble Plans I write: “I believe that there is within each and every person, both inside and out the community of the redeemed, a deep and residing passion for personal nobility; a nobleness mirrored in the One in whose image we were created. Every person on earth, as the Scriptures tell us, is created in the “image” of God – the Lord of the universe – and as such, we have implanted within our core the image of nobility, a resemblance of the Sovereign Creator. If the Almighty God, Supreme Ruler of the universe and King of all the earth is the image reflected in us, then by default, we have within our souls the potential for a most royal bearing.”

Of course, “prince” and “knight” resonates in the hearts of boys in much the same way. Robert Lewis writes, “Who among us as boys didn’t thrill to the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? The knight survives in our collective consciousness like an ancient Superman, committed to a code of conduct . . .” (Raising a Modern-Day Knight, (c) 1997, Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, IL, p. 12)

As noted in the verse above, the psalmist speaks of the King’s daughters. The king in this context is of course, God Almighty, making the daughters what? Princesses. These daughters are among God’s “noble ladies.”

But here’s the crux of the matter. As a society, we have relegated knights and princesses to the world of children. Let’s be honest. We all want to be lifted up. Somewhere inside you is a prince or princess waiting to be released.

“He raises the poor from the dust, And lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, With the princes of His people” (Psalm 113:7-8).

Don’t wait any longer. Be that person. You are royal. You are of a supreme lineage!

“The noble man makes noble plans and by noble plans he stands”

Thursday, April 9, 2009

KNIGHTING – A NOBLE PLAN

Most summers, we make the trek to a Renaissance Faire (yes, these “faires” are usually spelled with an “e”). It’s often a journey into the imagination of books like The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia, with costumes both regal and outrageous – where kings and queens hold court, and magicians work their slight of hand.

Several years ago, on kids’ day, the Queen had activities for the young lads and lasses, and if they accomplished them all, she would declare each one a knight or a lady of her court. My son, then seven, took all of this very seriously, and went about the faire seeking to fulfill all the queen’s quests and in the end, kneeled to be knighted. He was so proud!

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Children seem to have an innate understanding of what is knightly and what is not. Ever since his “knighting,” all we have had to do is ask, “is that something a noble knight would do?” Invariably, the answer is no, and we can then discuss biblical principles of right and wrong.

I know some would rather ask, “is that what a Christian would do?” but somehow, there seems to be a difference in how he receives the rebuke. It may just be my son and how he takes correction, but deep down inside, even if children do not have the biblical background, they knows how a knight or lady should behave.

The goal is to mold young people into Christlike sons and daughters, and to find ways to introduce and reinforce biblical, noble living, in their lives. Knighting has certainly been a noble plan that has worked for us.