A New Standard

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In today's communion we are asking God to help us implement a new standard into our lives. Down below is an excerpt from my book The 8th Date on the Standard of Grace. 

Several years ago, a good friend of mine was leading a Bible study. “The Bible tells us to set our minds on the things above or the things of heaven,” he said, “but can anybody tell me what these things are? Because I want to know.”

No one among the 15-20 men had an answer for this question. This seemed like an important question, so I started seeking God for an answer. And he began to teach me about the things above. 

God’s standards for our lives are the things above. This is what we are supposed to focus on. However, his standards are different from the world’s standards. His standards become the “high thing,” which is like true north on a compass. If we want to see the fruit of the kingdom, and navigate our lives successfully, we must constantly be comparing our lives to true north.

“The 8th Date,” has to do with a resetting of things, where we restore the standard God has for our lives. This standard will be used as the “high thing.” In the Bible, we are told to set our minds on the high things of God. I would like to propose to you that the high thing of God is his standard or original design for our lives, and we are to cast down anything that tries to exalt itself against the standard or high things of God. We are also told in the Bible that when the enemy comes, we must raise our standard (Isaiah 59:19).  

Standards are for direction. In this book, we will be covering God’s standard and using it as a GPS to navigate our lives, course-correct, and make decisions by. Whenever we are off course or not seeing results in our lives, God’s standard will help us course-correct and get back on track. 

Walking in Circles

Before understanding the 8th Date, I needed a new beginning. I had learned a lot over the years and I felt like I was making progress, but in reality, I wasn’t moving forward; I was still walking in circles. In a 2009 study at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, people were dropped off in a wilderness or forest with no landmarks or navigation. What happened? It turns out that without navigation, the default is to start walking in circles. People think they are walking straight, but they keep making small turns that are biased more to one side than the other, which causes them to walk in circles. 

In order for us to move forward in life and stop walking in circles, we must have navigation, and God meant for us to navigate our lives with his standard. Without his standard in place, we have no true north. If we are in the middle of nowhere but we have a compass, we can always find true north, to keep from spinning around and around in the same place. God’s standard is meant to be the compass that we use to navigate our lives with. 

God’s Standard: Grace

In the Bible, God models the power of grace. He is trying to lead stubborn, rebellious people into a land that they are not prepared to manage. In the Bible, God models a progression for how he leads people. God is good all the time—and I believe he modeled this for us so that we would have an example. Here are the three levels, or phases, that God led the people through. 

Level 1: The Law: You do good, you get blessed; you do bad, you get cursed. At this first level, it is eye for eye and tooth for tooth. If someone messes with you, you retaliate and get back at them. This only causes the people to rebel even more.

Level 2: Give the Silent Treatment: After hundreds of years of God trying to do good for the people despite their constant rebelling, God finally moves to the silent treatment. He removes his presence, and for around 400 years, the word of the Lord is rare (1 Samuel 3:1). This doesn’t work either. It is a step of growth on our part to learn how to shut our mouths, but there is another level. 

Level 3: Grace: Finally, God said that he is going to make a new covenant or arrangement with the people (Jeremiah 32:40). He is only going to do continually good for them, even though they don’t deserve it. It is this grace that actually causes the people to change at the heart level. 

Our standard is to also be functioning at this third level in our lives. When we are functioning at the third level, God’s grace changes our hearts and brings his kingdom to the earth. If we are ever falling short of Level 3, then we need to repent and make adjustments so that grace flows again and brings the kingdom. 

Today's Workout/Health Tip

One of the ways we have discussed implementing new standards into our life is by writing short phrases at the top of our journal every night before bed. Here is a standard for health that can be written at the top of a journal... My body is God's temple. Then we can use this standard as a filter to help us walk out our day. 

I am praying for you. 

Daniel

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