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“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Exodus 20:7 NIV

I used to think this was about swearing. But God has a much bigger point to make.

Video here, and/or read on.

We are God’s representatives. We carry His name to the people of this earth. This is particularly true of parents of young children. How we conduct ourselves imprints on our children a lasting understanding of who God is. And we are the only version of God some people will ever know.

So God cares about His reputation just like we care about our reputation. God cares because when we misuse His name, that is, His authority, His reputation, we make it difficult for other people to find their way safely home to Him.

Hmm. That leaves me pondering…

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:3-6

Jealous? Punishing the children? I’m first—no one else. What kind of God is this?

It took me a while to figure this one out.

Video here, and/or read on:

Every decision we make—even in private—ultimately affects everyone else. Our decisions particularly affect those closest to us, and those who have the most to lose if we mess up our lives—our children and our grandchildren.

God knows this. That’s one of the reasons he calls on us to abandon the gods we carved from our own imagination (He knows they can’t save us in our day of trouble), and invite Him into our lives to be what only He can be. God wants to be first not because He has an ego problem, but because He cares deeply about us. He knows we suffer if we depend on our man-made gods to defend us. He doesn’t want that to happen.

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

What do the Ten Commandments teach us about God?

Short video here, and/or read on.

The Ten Commandments are like God’s calling card. In them He let’s us know who He is and what’s important to Him. And He starts with these words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2 NIV)

The first thing we learn about God from the Ten Commandments is this: He wants us to be free. What a contrast from how God is normally portrayed—as the God of rules, the One who wants to shackle us with unreasonable requirements!

No.

God wants us free to achieve our God-given potential, to live free from sin, addiction, life-controlling issues. He wants us free from our own self-destructive tendencies. And He is willing to go to bat for us so that we can be free.

I like that. How about you?

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

How do we see with new eyes?

See short video here, or read on…

Around 1970 my parents bought some new dining room chairs. They were covered with vinyl and had an abstract pattern printed on them. For a long time, I sat in those chairs and looked at those chairs every day. Flowers. That’s what I saw. There were flowers printed on those chairs.

Then one day an amazing thing happened. I was looking at the chair and realized that I wasn’t looking at flowers. I was looking at cows. The pattern was pictures of cows.

What happened?

I experienced a paradigm shift. I saw the same thing a different way, and now I could never go back to seeing flowers again. From that point on, the chairs were covered with cows.

Paradigm shifts empower us to see the reality that was previously hidden from our eyes. God wants to use paradigm shifts to enable us to see everything through His eyes.

When we see ourselves, our world, our lives, our God through the eyes of Jesus, everything changes.

I once had the experience of walking through a restaurant and feeling the love God had for each person in that restaurant. It was amazing, almost overpoweering. Of course, I didn’t say or do anything weird, but it just gave me a whole new perspective on people around me.

More on paradigm shifts for Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/20/2019.

Dwight

“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked. Luke 8:45

See short video here, or read on…

I hate making phone calls. I’m getting better with this, but I’d much rather email someone than call them, as a rule. Why? I hate interrupting people.

Maybe that’s because I hate being interrupted.

Jesus, of course, was interrupted constantly. If you read through the gospels, you’ll find that much—maybe most—of His ministry was responding to interruptions.

In this passage, Jesus is on a mission: to heal a dying twelve-year-old girl. I can imagine how urgent her father’s pleas were for Jesus to waste no time and come to his home right away.

Along the way, Jesus was interrupted—not once, but constantly. The crowd was jostling Him, throwing questions at Him, making requests, pressing in from every direction. Jesus ignored all those interruptions, save one.

“Who touched Me?” He asked.

This was the one interruption that Jesus sensed was different. This interruption merited a stop—even a stop on the way to heal a dying girl.

Why?

It’s a very human story. A woman’s personal physical problem was consuming her life. All she had was gone and her problem was worse instead of better. She knows that God will heal her if only she can touch the edge of the Master’s robe.

I can so relate to this woman. She didn’t want to interrupt the important Healer. She just wanted to sneak in, quietly get her miracle, and steal away. But Jesus said, “Why touched Me?”

In that moment, Jesus validates all of us who are afraid to interrupt. We are important too. He calls us out and He wants to hear our story. He wants to look at us. He wants to listen to us. He wants to speak to us. He wants to send us away with His blessing.

Dwight

PS. This coming week in Inner Wealth we’ll be discussing paradigm shifts—what they are and how God uses them to transform our lives.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed Him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, and she had spent all she had on doctors, but no one could heal her. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed. Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:42-48

See short video here, or read on…

This is so important. Consider this woman. Ponder what her life was like and you have a picture of nearly everyone who sits beside you in church, and, most likely, of yourself.

Nearly all of us have problems that we cannot talk about. Problems that keep us in the shadows. As we scramble from “solution” to “solution,” our hope fades, and our desperation intensifies.

If only Jesus would quietly, unobtrusively, secretly heal us, we pray. But a secret healing is not to be. Jesus brings it out into the light.

“Who touched Me?” He asks.

We want to deny it, but Jesus keeps looking at us until we step out into the light.

“Yes,” we acknowledge. “Yes, I had problems that I could not solve on my own. Yes, I appeared all together on the outside, but deep inside I was hurting. You have healed me.”

The rest of us take note. So, there is someone else, like myself. So, Jesus does care about my secret need. Maybe Jesus will heal even me.

Dwight

PS. For those of you enrolled in Inner Wealth, beginning 4/20/2019, we will be discussing paradigm shifts—how God uses them to transform us.

“Jesus wept.” John 11:35

We will never understand our own suffering until we begin to understand the suffering of God.

See short video here, or read on…

God is not aloof. God is not uncaring. When we hurt, He hurts. Even though Jesus knew full well He would soon raise Lazarus from the dead, He paused and entered into our grief.

Jesus feels our pain.

Dwight

What does peace mean to you?

As I say in this video, for me, it means I can actually relax.

For a long time, that wasn’t possible for me. Years ago, I couldn’t sit at a kitchen table without shaking. Crazy, I know, but that was my experience. Peace means I can relax. I’m no longer tense when I talk to people. I don’t feel the need to drive fast, cut off other drivers, get out in front. It means I can enjoy life, enjoy my family, and the things that once made me blow up or sit up and stew until 3 am no longer bother me. They aren’t issues any more.

All of this is a gift, a gift from God. Because of His work in my life, peace is spreading through my soul. Sure, I’m a work in progress, but I’ve tasted what Jesus offers, and I like it.

What about you? What does peace mean to you?

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this?” Luke 8:25

As I share in this video, this is a major paradigm shift: You need truth in your gut as well as your head.

For many years I had a cerebral faith. I knew about God. I knew the Bible. In fact, I could probably run circles around most people when it came to knowing the Bible. But all that knowledge wasn’t helping me in some critical ways.

I knew I shouldn’t be bitter. I tried very hard not to be bitter. But, deep inside, I was still bitter. I knew I shouldn’t lust. I tried not to lust. But, in my heart, lust was a continual trap. I knew I shouldn’t fear or worry. But inside, I couldn’t stop shaking, even though I hid it from everyone else.

I know I keep coming back to this story, but it’s a good one, so I’ll do it again. The disciples were learning quite a bit about this Messiah, this Jesus. They had theology. They had scripture. They had knowledge. Then the Lord took them across the Sea of Galilee.

In the storm, when they believed they were about to drown, then the poverty of their “gut-level” knowledge was exposed. They didn’t know who Jesus really was, until He taught them—not in a class, but with a gut-level experience.

Don’t be surprised if God takes you on a roller coaster ride through some gut wrenching experiences. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He’s getting truth in all the right places.

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:50

Why did Jesus say this? Why didn’t He say, “My love has saved you,” or “My grace has saved you,” or “My atoning sacrificial death on the cross will save you”?

Clearly, without these things, she wouldn’t be saved. But Jesus calls attention not to these things, but rather to her faith.

See short video here, and/or consider these thoughts:

This may have been the first sincere compliment she had ever received. In the place of flattery that just wanted something out of her, here was Someone who found something good.

Or perhaps Jesus was calling attention to her reckless abandon that pursued God at the risk of rejection and embarrassment. She forgot herself and stopped caring if she looked like a fool in front of everyone else. What a refreshing contrast to the religionists who lived in the comfort of their own cliquish snobbery!

Or maybe Jesus wanted to once again let the human race know how much God values this delicate thing we call faith. I don’t know about you, but someday I will be happy to stand in line and honor those who held on to their faith even when the enemy did everything in his power to rip it from their very being. It will be my great privilege to honor them.

I’m not sure if I’ve found the reason or not. But I do know this. God sees your faith; it is not forgotten—it mixes with God’s love and becomes life changing.

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.