This morning I am reflecting on one of the last verses from John's first letter - 1 John 5:20 NIV: "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."
I like the way John lays out this simple truth - Jesus came to show us the Father, to give us understanding about Him and to represent Him, so that we could know Him. There are many reasons Jesus came, but I believe the over-riding reason was to show us what the Father is really like.
All of Jesus ministry flows out of the Father's heart! (John 8:28)
When we see Jesus, we are seeing the Father! (Jesus said this very thing in John 14:9)
The forgiveness of sins, salvation through faith, the gospel of grace, are all from the Father, all originate in His heart.
The healings, miracles, signs and wonders, the mercy towards sinners, the compassion for the downtrodden, poor, and outcasts all reflect the heart of the Father.
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth and the life" (John 14:6) and this was true of Him because it is true in and of the Father.
John reaffirms this here, for the Father is the one who is true. And we are in Him, if we are in His son Jesus - the only way to be in the Father. And He is eternal life. Thus if we are in Jesus, we have found the way to the Father, who is truth and who is eternal life.
I know it seems a bit like circular logic, but in reality it just all points back to the Father. This is what Jesus came to do, to give us understanding about the Father that we might know Him truly for who He is! It is through relationship with Jesus that we then are able to encounter the Father for ourselves, no longer just taking what we have heard as fact, but actually experiencing this for ourselves! The Father wants relationship with us, as crazy as that sounds! Jesus is our proof that this is true. In every encounter Jesus has we can see the heart of the Father revealed towards us. We are all his sons and daughters, deeply loved and what is true for any of our brothers or sisters in this heavenly family, is true for us as well. Although we are each unique, God's love for us is the same. He shows no favoritism (Rom 2:11). He desires each and everyone of us to have relationship with Him, regardless of our sin, our ideas, our past, our pain, our weakness, our failures. He loves us in spite of all of this!
Oh, that we might know the depths of God's love for us! I pray that we might truly understand His heart for each of us!
Amen!
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Goodness as a Weapon!
In addition to the reflection I did on goodness yesterday, I ran across this from Graham Cooke:
“In every situation there is only one challenge facing you. It is the challenge of God’s goodness to overcome everything in you and around you. You are only being challenged by the goodness of God. No matter how difficult, how hard, you are being challenged by the goodness of God. Don’t put the blame on somebody else. God is saying to you, “The way into that person’s life is My goodness. The way to overcome here is My goodness. The way to maintain who you are in the Spirit is through goodness.”
You are only being challenged by the goodness of God!
But here’s the thing: When you meet a difficult person, God is challenging you to bring a higher measure of good into their life than the difficulty they are bringing into yours. He is saying, “See that person? Their difficulty level rating is seven out of ten in your life. I want your goodness rating to be eight out of ten at least. I want you to submerge their difficulty in My goodness. I want you to be at least as good for them as they are bad for you.”
But that’s just a tie. That’s no good! We want to win the championship. You don’t win the championship through tying every game. You want all the points. Yeah? You are in a fight! You should be in it to win it!”
As I read this, I was reminded of a story from the life of St. Theresa of Lisieux, from her own words in the book, "Story of a Soul". She used goodness to overcome the temptation to do evil towards someone who annoyed her in every way. Here is the story in her own words in the late 1800's so the language is a bit antiquated, it has also been translated from French:
"A holy nun of our community annoyed me in all that she did; the devil must have had something to do with it, and he it was undoubtedly who made me see in her so many disagreeable points. I did not want to yield to my natural antipathy, for I remembered that charity ought to betray itself in deeds, and not exist merely in the feelings, so I set myself to do for this sister all I should do for the one I loved most. Every time I met her I prayed for her, and offered to God her virtues and merits. I felt that this was very pleasing to Our Lord, for there is no artist who is not gratified when his works are praised, and the Divine Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but, penetrating to the inner sanctuary He has chosen, admire its beauty."
"I did not rest satisfied with praying for this Sister, who gave me such occasions for self-mastery, I tried to render her as many services as I could, and when tempted to answer her sharply, I made haste to smile and change the subject, for the Imitation says: “It is more profitable to leave everyone to his way of thinking than to give way to contentious discourses.” And sometimes when the temptation was very severe, I would run like a deserter from the battlefield if I could do so without letting the Sister guess my inward struggle."
"One day she said to me with a beaming face: “My dear Soeur Thérèse, tell me what attraction you find in me, for whenever we meet, you greet me with such a sweet smile.” Ah! What attracted me was Jesus hidden in the depths of her soul— Jesus who maketh sweet even that which is most bitter."
Wow, what an awesome description of using goodness to win the battle against the enemy of God. Jesus speaks of something very similar in His teachings when he talks about loving our enemy. Those have always been some of the most difficult verses to embrace, for it certainly goes against our natural inclinations. Here are several verses from Luke's Gospel - Luke 6:27-31,35-36 NIV:
[27] “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. [29] If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. [30] Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. [31] Do to others as you would have them do to you."
[35] "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Oh, that we might fully embrace this in our lives. That we might overcome evil with goodness! That we might hold out to the world the mercy of God, living in and through us! That we might embrace His goodness to such an extent that it just pours out of us in every direction! Who knew the goodness of God could be such an effective weapon? Let us be encouraged to choose goodness in every circumstance!
Amen!
“In every situation there is only one challenge facing you. It is the challenge of God’s goodness to overcome everything in you and around you. You are only being challenged by the goodness of God. No matter how difficult, how hard, you are being challenged by the goodness of God. Don’t put the blame on somebody else. God is saying to you, “The way into that person’s life is My goodness. The way to overcome here is My goodness. The way to maintain who you are in the Spirit is through goodness.”
You are only being challenged by the goodness of God!
But here’s the thing: When you meet a difficult person, God is challenging you to bring a higher measure of good into their life than the difficulty they are bringing into yours. He is saying, “See that person? Their difficulty level rating is seven out of ten in your life. I want your goodness rating to be eight out of ten at least. I want you to submerge their difficulty in My goodness. I want you to be at least as good for them as they are bad for you.”
But that’s just a tie. That’s no good! We want to win the championship. You don’t win the championship through tying every game. You want all the points. Yeah? You are in a fight! You should be in it to win it!”
As I read this, I was reminded of a story from the life of St. Theresa of Lisieux, from her own words in the book, "Story of a Soul". She used goodness to overcome the temptation to do evil towards someone who annoyed her in every way. Here is the story in her own words in the late 1800's so the language is a bit antiquated, it has also been translated from French:
"A holy nun of our community annoyed me in all that she did; the devil must have had something to do with it, and he it was undoubtedly who made me see in her so many disagreeable points. I did not want to yield to my natural antipathy, for I remembered that charity ought to betray itself in deeds, and not exist merely in the feelings, so I set myself to do for this sister all I should do for the one I loved most. Every time I met her I prayed for her, and offered to God her virtues and merits. I felt that this was very pleasing to Our Lord, for there is no artist who is not gratified when his works are praised, and the Divine Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but, penetrating to the inner sanctuary He has chosen, admire its beauty."
"I did not rest satisfied with praying for this Sister, who gave me such occasions for self-mastery, I tried to render her as many services as I could, and when tempted to answer her sharply, I made haste to smile and change the subject, for the Imitation says: “It is more profitable to leave everyone to his way of thinking than to give way to contentious discourses.” And sometimes when the temptation was very severe, I would run like a deserter from the battlefield if I could do so without letting the Sister guess my inward struggle."
"One day she said to me with a beaming face: “My dear Soeur Thérèse, tell me what attraction you find in me, for whenever we meet, you greet me with such a sweet smile.” Ah! What attracted me was Jesus hidden in the depths of her soul— Jesus who maketh sweet even that which is most bitter."
Wow, what an awesome description of using goodness to win the battle against the enemy of God. Jesus speaks of something very similar in His teachings when he talks about loving our enemy. Those have always been some of the most difficult verses to embrace, for it certainly goes against our natural inclinations. Here are several verses from Luke's Gospel - Luke 6:27-31,35-36 NIV:
[27] “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. [29] If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. [30] Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. [31] Do to others as you would have them do to you."
[35] "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Oh, that we might fully embrace this in our lives. That we might overcome evil with goodness! That we might hold out to the world the mercy of God, living in and through us! That we might embrace His goodness to such an extent that it just pours out of us in every direction! Who knew the goodness of God could be such an effective weapon? Let us be encouraged to choose goodness in every circumstance!
Amen!
Saturday, September 23, 2017
God Keeps Getting "Gooder"!
This morning as I sat down to prayer, I was asking the Lord where to read in scripture and I thought I heard Him ask the following question, "Why do you call me good?" This is a direct quote from Mark 10:18 NIV: “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good---except God alone." I figure I should probably spend some time reflecting on God's goodness.
The first use of 'good' in scripture comes from the beginning of Genesis, where God is reviewing His creation and calls it good. In fact He uses that term seven times. It is important to know that which is good comes from God. The first place where the word 'goodness' is used is when Moses asks to see God's glory, in the Book Exodus 33:18-19 NIV:
[18] Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
[19] And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
I find it very interesting that Moses asks to see God's glory, and God responds that He will cause all His goodness to pass in front of him. So clearly goodness and glory are closely related. In addition, the goodness of God is also closely related to His name, and mercy and compassion, so we are talking about a core attribute of God.
I also find it interesting that the primary attack against God always seems related to His goodness. Questions like "how could God allow this?"; "If God is real why didn't He intervene?"; "Why would God do this?" The primary characteristic that is being called into question in these statements is God's goodness. The word used in Ex 33:19 is the Hebrew word "Tuwb" and it would normally be defined as:
1) goods, good things, goodness
a) good things
b) goods, property
c) fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity, goodness (abstract)
d) goodness (of taste, discernment)
e) goodness (of God) (abstract)
These make sense, but I believe there is more depth to what God is communicating. I was able to do a bit more digging and came across this the following bit, which is from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology and it's entry on Good and Goodness:
"The main Old Testament words for good/goodness come from the Hebrew word tob [טָב] while the most common New Testament words are kalos [καλός], agathos [ἀγαθός , ἀγαθοεργός],chrestos [χρηστός], and their cognates. These words often appear in a nonmoral sense; a "good" or "good-of-appearance" woman is beautiful (Gen 6:2; 24:16; 26:7; 2 Sam 11:2; Est 1:11; 2:2-3, 7) and a "good" man is handsome (1 Sam 9:2). A land may be good (Deut 1:25,35) and so may gold (2 Ch 3:5,8), soil (Luke 8:8), a tree (Matt 7:17), wine (John 2:10), or all of creation (seven times in Gen. 1). But the most theologically important uses of these words have to do with moral qualities.
God's goodness is a bedrock truth of Scripture. His goodness is praised in the psalms (25:8; 34:8; 86:5;100:5; 118:1; 136:1; 145:9). Jesus affirms the Father's goodness when speaking to the rich young ruler (Matt 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). In 1 Peter 2:3 Peter echoes the language of Psalm 34:8: "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"'
Although we might discuss God's goodness in some abstract philosophical sense, in Scripture his goodness appears most clearly in his dealings with people. He is not only good in general, but he is good to us (Psalm 23:6; 68:10; 73:1; 119:65; 145:9; Lam 3:25; Luke 6:35; Rom 2:4; 11:22; Eph 2:7; Titus 3:4). Human goodness is modeled on divine goodness (Matt 5:48). For human beings goodness involves right behavior, expresses itself in kindness and other praiseworthy qualities, includes avoiding evil, and springs from the inner person.
It is nearly impossible to think about goodness in the abstract. In Scripture goodness always involves particular ways of behaving. Because God is good, he is good to his people; when people are good they behave decently toward each other, based on God's goodness to them. Moses' invitation to Hobab expresses this emphasis: "Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel" (Num 10:29). The general biblical words for "good/ goodness" include this idea of right behavior, although the idea is often expressed by means of a more specific term like "upright/uprightness" or "righteous/righteousness."
The goodness God's people exhibit shows itself in various moral qualities, notably kindness; hesed[חֶסֶד , חֶסֶד], translated "goodness" or "kindness, " serves as one of the major synonyms of tob [טָב], "good, " in the Old Testament. In the New Testament many words describe the specific characteristics and behaviors of good people, including "just/justice, " "righteous/ righteousness, " "holy/holiness, " "pure/ purity, " "gentle/gentleness, " and "kind/kindness." If "goodness" is the general term, these other specific terms show what goodness means in daily living.
Goodness involves not only right behavior but also avoiding its opposite, evil. The choice between good and evil has lain before people since the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate fruit from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9). Since then God's curse has fallen on "those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isa 5:20). A wise ruler like Solomon, or indeed anyone who wants to obey God, needs the wisdom to tell good from evil (1 Kings 3:9; Heb 5:14). Those who serve God will "seek good, not evil, … hate evil, love good" (Amos 5:14-15).
For the Christian or the faithful Israelite, goodness has never been a matter of outward behavior alone; it comes from within. An evil person is evil within (Gen 6:5; Mark 7:14-23; and parallels). In the same way a good person's good behavior shows a good heart (Matt 12:33-35).
In the Old Testament God's goodness to his people and their goodness in response is based on the covenant between them. God's appeal to his people to return to the covenant relationship finds expression in a call to simple goodness (Mic 6:6-8). In the New Testament goodness is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), while moral excellence is one of the steps on the "ladder of virtue" (2 Peter 1:5)."
AUTHOR: Carl B. Bridges, Jr.
That is very helpful. I like the statement, "Because God is good, He is good to His people!" This isn't an attribute that God turns on and off, it is His core characteristic, so whenever our observation or opinion of a situation would lead us to think God isn't good, then we clearly do not understand the whole situation or God's motivation. When I run into situations like this I am always directed back in my mind to Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. [9] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
God doesn't think like us, nor are His ways our ways, and thus we do not fully understand His goodness. We look at a situation and think God can't be good because of what is happening or happened, yet that is clearly not true, based on what God says about Himself. This is where we need to engage our faith and trust God! This is where we must recognize that we don't know the whole story, or don't have the right perspective. We only see and understand a very small part of the big picture that God operates within. I am reminded of the old story of the 5 blind men who are describing an elephant. They can't see the whole thing, so they describe it based on the limited area they are able to touch. The trunk, foot, tusk, ear and tail are all very different and taken by themselves do not offer a good representation of the elephant. In the same way, any of our perspectives when looking at anything this side of eternity, is going to be limited by our humanness.
I had a dream once where God took me to heaven and was showing me through the mansion He had for me. I remember that each room was better than the preceding room. I would have been happy to stop in any of those rooms, but God just kept opening new doors and I was compelled to walk into the new room, because it was better than what I was in presently. I remember waking up and having the smallest sense of the Goodness of God, and yet it was absolutely overwhelming. I believe this is what God's goodness is really like! It is always expanding and increasing, just like His greatness, His Kingdom and His rule. If I were to step back to the days before I had gone to school, I believe I would have referred to this increasing goodness as "gooder" God just keeps getting "gooder"! :-)
God is Good and He keeps getting Gooder! In fact everything about Him keeps getting better and better! What an amazing God we have!
The first use of 'good' in scripture comes from the beginning of Genesis, where God is reviewing His creation and calls it good. In fact He uses that term seven times. It is important to know that which is good comes from God. The first place where the word 'goodness' is used is when Moses asks to see God's glory, in the Book Exodus 33:18-19 NIV:
[18] Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
[19] And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
I find it very interesting that Moses asks to see God's glory, and God responds that He will cause all His goodness to pass in front of him. So clearly goodness and glory are closely related. In addition, the goodness of God is also closely related to His name, and mercy and compassion, so we are talking about a core attribute of God.
I also find it interesting that the primary attack against God always seems related to His goodness. Questions like "how could God allow this?"; "If God is real why didn't He intervene?"; "Why would God do this?" The primary characteristic that is being called into question in these statements is God's goodness. The word used in Ex 33:19 is the Hebrew word "Tuwb" and it would normally be defined as:
1) goods, good things, goodness
a) good things
b) goods, property
c) fairness, beauty, joy, prosperity, goodness (abstract)
d) goodness (of taste, discernment)
e) goodness (of God) (abstract)
These make sense, but I believe there is more depth to what God is communicating. I was able to do a bit more digging and came across this the following bit, which is from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology and it's entry on Good and Goodness:
"The main Old Testament words for good/goodness come from the Hebrew word tob [טָב] while the most common New Testament words are kalos [καλός], agathos [ἀγαθός , ἀγαθοεργός],chrestos [χρηστός], and their cognates. These words often appear in a nonmoral sense; a "good" or "good-of-appearance" woman is beautiful (Gen 6:2; 24:16; 26:7; 2 Sam 11:2; Est 1:11; 2:2-3, 7) and a "good" man is handsome (1 Sam 9:2). A land may be good (Deut 1:25,35) and so may gold (2 Ch 3:5,8), soil (Luke 8:8), a tree (Matt 7:17), wine (John 2:10), or all of creation (seven times in Gen. 1). But the most theologically important uses of these words have to do with moral qualities.
God's goodness is a bedrock truth of Scripture. His goodness is praised in the psalms (25:8; 34:8; 86:5;100:5; 118:1; 136:1; 145:9). Jesus affirms the Father's goodness when speaking to the rich young ruler (Matt 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). In 1 Peter 2:3 Peter echoes the language of Psalm 34:8: "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"'
Although we might discuss God's goodness in some abstract philosophical sense, in Scripture his goodness appears most clearly in his dealings with people. He is not only good in general, but he is good to us (Psalm 23:6; 68:10; 73:1; 119:65; 145:9; Lam 3:25; Luke 6:35; Rom 2:4; 11:22; Eph 2:7; Titus 3:4). Human goodness is modeled on divine goodness (Matt 5:48). For human beings goodness involves right behavior, expresses itself in kindness and other praiseworthy qualities, includes avoiding evil, and springs from the inner person.
It is nearly impossible to think about goodness in the abstract. In Scripture goodness always involves particular ways of behaving. Because God is good, he is good to his people; when people are good they behave decently toward each other, based on God's goodness to them. Moses' invitation to Hobab expresses this emphasis: "Come with us and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel" (Num 10:29). The general biblical words for "good/ goodness" include this idea of right behavior, although the idea is often expressed by means of a more specific term like "upright/uprightness" or "righteous/righteousness."
The goodness God's people exhibit shows itself in various moral qualities, notably kindness; hesed[חֶסֶד , חֶסֶד], translated "goodness" or "kindness, " serves as one of the major synonyms of tob [טָב], "good, " in the Old Testament. In the New Testament many words describe the specific characteristics and behaviors of good people, including "just/justice, " "righteous/ righteousness, " "holy/holiness, " "pure/ purity, " "gentle/gentleness, " and "kind/kindness." If "goodness" is the general term, these other specific terms show what goodness means in daily living.
Goodness involves not only right behavior but also avoiding its opposite, evil. The choice between good and evil has lain before people since the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate fruit from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9). Since then God's curse has fallen on "those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isa 5:20). A wise ruler like Solomon, or indeed anyone who wants to obey God, needs the wisdom to tell good from evil (1 Kings 3:9; Heb 5:14). Those who serve God will "seek good, not evil, … hate evil, love good" (Amos 5:14-15).
For the Christian or the faithful Israelite, goodness has never been a matter of outward behavior alone; it comes from within. An evil person is evil within (Gen 6:5; Mark 7:14-23; and parallels). In the same way a good person's good behavior shows a good heart (Matt 12:33-35).
In the Old Testament God's goodness to his people and their goodness in response is based on the covenant between them. God's appeal to his people to return to the covenant relationship finds expression in a call to simple goodness (Mic 6:6-8). In the New Testament goodness is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), while moral excellence is one of the steps on the "ladder of virtue" (2 Peter 1:5)."
AUTHOR: Carl B. Bridges, Jr.
That is very helpful. I like the statement, "Because God is good, He is good to His people!" This isn't an attribute that God turns on and off, it is His core characteristic, so whenever our observation or opinion of a situation would lead us to think God isn't good, then we clearly do not understand the whole situation or God's motivation. When I run into situations like this I am always directed back in my mind to Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. [9] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
God doesn't think like us, nor are His ways our ways, and thus we do not fully understand His goodness. We look at a situation and think God can't be good because of what is happening or happened, yet that is clearly not true, based on what God says about Himself. This is where we need to engage our faith and trust God! This is where we must recognize that we don't know the whole story, or don't have the right perspective. We only see and understand a very small part of the big picture that God operates within. I am reminded of the old story of the 5 blind men who are describing an elephant. They can't see the whole thing, so they describe it based on the limited area they are able to touch. The trunk, foot, tusk, ear and tail are all very different and taken by themselves do not offer a good representation of the elephant. In the same way, any of our perspectives when looking at anything this side of eternity, is going to be limited by our humanness.
I had a dream once where God took me to heaven and was showing me through the mansion He had for me. I remember that each room was better than the preceding room. I would have been happy to stop in any of those rooms, but God just kept opening new doors and I was compelled to walk into the new room, because it was better than what I was in presently. I remember waking up and having the smallest sense of the Goodness of God, and yet it was absolutely overwhelming. I believe this is what God's goodness is really like! It is always expanding and increasing, just like His greatness, His Kingdom and His rule. If I were to step back to the days before I had gone to school, I believe I would have referred to this increasing goodness as "gooder" God just keeps getting "gooder"! :-)
God is Good and He keeps getting Gooder! In fact everything about Him keeps getting better and better! What an amazing God we have!
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
How is the World to Know?
This morning I am reflecting on a few verses from Luke's Gospel. Oh, that the Church would be able to answer the same way that Jesus answer's the question He is asked. Here are the verses - Luke 7:20-23 NIV:
[20] "When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?' ”
[21] "At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. [22] So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. [23] Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Wouldn't it be great if we could answer the questions, "How do I know God is real?" or "How do I know if your church is for me?" or "What is your church service like?" or "How can I tell if you are preaching the truth?" with the same response that Jesus gave in verse 22?!! It is my belief that this is exactly what the Lord wants for us, for we are called to continue His ministry to all the nations (Matt 28:18-20), and Jesus was describing His ministry.
I think social justice is critical, and programs are helpful, and teaching is important, but schools and all sorts of organizations that do good are all capable of doing those things with just human strength and determination. I believe the world is looking for that which truly separates, that which is the truth. God's interaction, His experiential in-breaking into our lives is something that human strength and determination cannot replicate, and that is what Jesus' ministry demonstrated.
Just before these verses in Luke's Gospel, Jesus raised the dead son of a widow in the town of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). He stopped the funeral procession, went up the bier and told the young man to get up, and he did. The response of the people was immediate and consistent as described in Luke 7:16 NIV: "They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”
My prayer is that this would be the response to our churches! That the people would recognize that God, through us, is helping His people! That all those around us, both believers and not-yet-believers would come to know that God is alive and well, and working among us! That people would invite others to our churches saying this is what they have seen and heard, "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor."
Yes, Lord! Help us! Call us back to representing You in the fullness of all Your ministry! We want the world to know that You love them and are helping them! Amen and amen!
[20] "When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?' ”
[21] "At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. [22] So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. [23] Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Wouldn't it be great if we could answer the questions, "How do I know God is real?" or "How do I know if your church is for me?" or "What is your church service like?" or "How can I tell if you are preaching the truth?" with the same response that Jesus gave in verse 22?!! It is my belief that this is exactly what the Lord wants for us, for we are called to continue His ministry to all the nations (Matt 28:18-20), and Jesus was describing His ministry.
I think social justice is critical, and programs are helpful, and teaching is important, but schools and all sorts of organizations that do good are all capable of doing those things with just human strength and determination. I believe the world is looking for that which truly separates, that which is the truth. God's interaction, His experiential in-breaking into our lives is something that human strength and determination cannot replicate, and that is what Jesus' ministry demonstrated.
Just before these verses in Luke's Gospel, Jesus raised the dead son of a widow in the town of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). He stopped the funeral procession, went up the bier and told the young man to get up, and he did. The response of the people was immediate and consistent as described in Luke 7:16 NIV: "They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”
My prayer is that this would be the response to our churches! That the people would recognize that God, through us, is helping His people! That all those around us, both believers and not-yet-believers would come to know that God is alive and well, and working among us! That people would invite others to our churches saying this is what they have seen and heard, "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor."
Yes, Lord! Help us! Call us back to representing You in the fullness of all Your ministry! We want the world to know that You love them and are helping them! Amen and amen!
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Submit, Resist, Draw Near - an Action Plan From James
This morning I felt like reading the Letter of James to the Twelve Tribes scattered among the nations. I add that note, because that does actually help with context and understanding when reading his letter. He is writing to fellow Christians who were also Jewish. This is a different dynamic then that of Paul who was often writing to churches that were primarily Gentile, or a solid mix of Gentile and Jew. This fact doesn't seem to matter much in the particular verses that I am reflecting on this morning, but in general it is always important to understand context. As one of my pastor friends said, the three most important things in understanding scriptures are context, context and context. With that introduction, here are the verses I am reflecting upon this morning - James 4:7-10 NIV:
[7] "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
I love the first three sentences in these verses. We are given three actions, and solid promises based on those actions.
Actions:
1) Submit yourselves to God.
2) Resist the devil.
3) Come near to God.
Promises:
1) the devil will flee from you
2) God will come near to you!
That is an excellent summary of a life strategy for those of us who want to be close to God.
James continues into more specifics, and these are very pointed. Wash your hands you sinners. Purify your hearts you double-minded. As fellow believers, we understand that the way to wash our hands of sin, is to bathe them in Blood of Jesus (Matt 26:28, Eph 1:7 and Heb. 9:22), through confession ad forgiveness - see James 5:15-16).
The second direction, to 'purify your hearts you double-minded', at first reading seems to make no sense to me. We have scriptures where Jesus talks about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27) and in that encouragement from Jesus, differentiates between heart and mind, yet here we have James prescribing action on one which then is affecting the other. Looking at the original Greek, the word James used that has been translated heart is the Greek word Kardia. Its definition is pretty straight-forward and it means both the physical heart (the organ that pumps blood) and the center of the person from a spiritual perspective. One of the secondary definitions says it this way- 1) the centre and seat of spiritual life A) the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours. The word James used that has been translated double-minded is the Greek word Dipsuchos which is basically a compound word made up of Dis - meaning twice, and Psuche, meaning the the soul, the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.). So, effectively, although it is translated in English double-minded, we could just as easily translate it double -hearted, double-souled or maybe split-affections.
With that refined definition, we can see that James is really addressing those that are trying to walk the fence, having a foot in the world and foot in the Body of Christ, and split in their mind, heart and affections between the two. A bit earlier (James 4:4), he called those that tried to maintain friendship with the world and with Christ, adulterous people. He is calling for them to purify themselves, or to choose one over the other and be done. Purity of heart is the equivalent of having one love, one over-riding affection. The Greek word translated purify is the word Hagnizo and it means to cleanse, to make clean ceremonially, or to purify. I believe this could be accomplished by deciding to choose the Lord, over the competing affections. Hagnizo is closely related to another Greek word that would be translated set apart or sanctified, and they have the same basic root. I don't think we would be far off base to say James is encouraging us to choose to separate ourselves from the other.
Continuing, James gives an interesting charge to His recipients, that they should, "Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom." This seems a bit strange, but in essence it appears to be a call to repentance. This would clearly be appropriate if one was confronted with one's friendship with the world, as causing separation from God. Sometimes, especially when we are blinded to our true condition, we think we are doing just fine, when in reality we need a serious course correction. No one is so lost as the person who is, but doesn't think they are!
Finally, James calls his listeners to humility, to bowing before the Lord! The word he used here is best defined as to bring down one's soul or one's pride; to have a modest opinion of one's self; to behave in an unassuming manner; devoid of all haughtiness. Humility is always a good thing before the Lord, for when we compare ourselves to Him, we should seem as a speck compared to a mountain, yet somehow pride lives within us easily. Thinking that we have things under control, or that we understand life, our purpose, or have a plan, are all forms of pride in the face of an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God. If we look to Him and bow before His Lordship, He will lift us up! What an encouragement! The Greek word is Hupsoo and it means to lift up on high, to exalt even! I like to think that this means that we get to participate in His glorification before men. I also believe it has to do with receiving God's favor and blessing.
So today, I am encouraged to submit myself to God, to resist the devil, to draw near to God, and to do so in humility. He promises to come near to me, to cause the devil to flee, and to lift me up! I will take God up on those promises any day and every day!
Amen!
[7] "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
I love the first three sentences in these verses. We are given three actions, and solid promises based on those actions.
Actions:
1) Submit yourselves to God.
2) Resist the devil.
3) Come near to God.
Promises:
1) the devil will flee from you
2) God will come near to you!
That is an excellent summary of a life strategy for those of us who want to be close to God.
James continues into more specifics, and these are very pointed. Wash your hands you sinners. Purify your hearts you double-minded. As fellow believers, we understand that the way to wash our hands of sin, is to bathe them in Blood of Jesus (Matt 26:28, Eph 1:7 and Heb. 9:22), through confession ad forgiveness - see James 5:15-16).
The second direction, to 'purify your hearts you double-minded', at first reading seems to make no sense to me. We have scriptures where Jesus talks about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27) and in that encouragement from Jesus, differentiates between heart and mind, yet here we have James prescribing action on one which then is affecting the other. Looking at the original Greek, the word James used that has been translated heart is the Greek word Kardia. Its definition is pretty straight-forward and it means both the physical heart (the organ that pumps blood) and the center of the person from a spiritual perspective. One of the secondary definitions says it this way- 1) the centre and seat of spiritual life A) the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours. The word James used that has been translated double-minded is the Greek word Dipsuchos which is basically a compound word made up of Dis - meaning twice, and Psuche, meaning the the soul, the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.). So, effectively, although it is translated in English double-minded, we could just as easily translate it double -hearted, double-souled or maybe split-affections.
With that refined definition, we can see that James is really addressing those that are trying to walk the fence, having a foot in the world and foot in the Body of Christ, and split in their mind, heart and affections between the two. A bit earlier (James 4:4), he called those that tried to maintain friendship with the world and with Christ, adulterous people. He is calling for them to purify themselves, or to choose one over the other and be done. Purity of heart is the equivalent of having one love, one over-riding affection. The Greek word translated purify is the word Hagnizo and it means to cleanse, to make clean ceremonially, or to purify. I believe this could be accomplished by deciding to choose the Lord, over the competing affections. Hagnizo is closely related to another Greek word that would be translated set apart or sanctified, and they have the same basic root. I don't think we would be far off base to say James is encouraging us to choose to separate ourselves from the other.
Continuing, James gives an interesting charge to His recipients, that they should, "Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom." This seems a bit strange, but in essence it appears to be a call to repentance. This would clearly be appropriate if one was confronted with one's friendship with the world, as causing separation from God. Sometimes, especially when we are blinded to our true condition, we think we are doing just fine, when in reality we need a serious course correction. No one is so lost as the person who is, but doesn't think they are!
Finally, James calls his listeners to humility, to bowing before the Lord! The word he used here is best defined as to bring down one's soul or one's pride; to have a modest opinion of one's self; to behave in an unassuming manner; devoid of all haughtiness. Humility is always a good thing before the Lord, for when we compare ourselves to Him, we should seem as a speck compared to a mountain, yet somehow pride lives within us easily. Thinking that we have things under control, or that we understand life, our purpose, or have a plan, are all forms of pride in the face of an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God. If we look to Him and bow before His Lordship, He will lift us up! What an encouragement! The Greek word is Hupsoo and it means to lift up on high, to exalt even! I like to think that this means that we get to participate in His glorification before men. I also believe it has to do with receiving God's favor and blessing.
So today, I am encouraged to submit myself to God, to resist the devil, to draw near to God, and to do so in humility. He promises to come near to me, to cause the devil to flee, and to lift me up! I will take God up on those promises any day and every day!
Amen!
Sunday, September 17, 2017
New Generations and New Wineskins
Yesterday I was meditating on some verses from Mark's Gospel, concerning Jesus and children. This morning when I woke up I felt like I needed to add a statement about the importance of children, our children, and all the children we meet. It is absolutely right for churches to have children's pastors and youth pastors focused on our children! It is essential that we pour resources into them, and their care. It is even more important that we pour into them relationally, so that they feel connected, important and heard in our churches.
I believe it is also essential that we understand the God might be releasing new wineskins for the new wine that are our children. What I mean by this is that often churches want to raise children up in the ways they have known and loved, so that the children embrace the same patterns and liturgical life that we treasure and enjoy, yet the present day statistics coming out of churches show that our children are not growing up to embrace the church models we love. The vast majority of children in America who are raised in the church are leaving the church once they leave home. (For a good summary of the many studies that have looked at this issue checkout this link: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2016/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/). The question that we should be asking, and I believe many churches are asking is why? There is much talk out in the world about the different generations, the Millenials, the X, Y and Z generations, and plenty of discussion in the world (See: http://genhq.com/faq-info-about-generations/), but we also must understand these generations as they refer back the Body of Christ.
Clearly something of our value for the church is not transferring over to our youth. Having watched both of my children exit the church, it is a question I have thought long and hard about. Many years back I had an encounter with the Lord one morning and it revolved around the teaching Jesus gave regarding new wine and new wineskins. This teaching is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels, and this morning I am going to pull the quote from Mark 2:21-22 NIV:
[21] “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. [22] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
The understanding the Lord gave me in that encounter was that the wineskin was related to our pattern of life in the church, our ways of doing things and our focus. He talked about blended wines, and taking several distinct wines with distinct flavors and characters and blending them together to create something new and better. The problem was that this new blended wine can't be poured into old wineskins. Not that the old wine and old wine and wineskins were bad, in fact most people prefer aged wine, but it had to do with inflexibility of the structure we are used to for our churches. The problem with old wineskins is that they are not able to flex any more as the new wine finishes its fermenting and they burst. As Jesus says in the verses above, both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. In other words we lose the new wine and the old wineskins at the same time. Thus, if we want to preserve the new wine we must supply new wineskins, and at the same time we will preserve the old wineskins.
So, if the wineskins are our structure, our ways of doing things, our liturgies, maybe even some of our man-inspired beliefs, what do the new wineskins look like? That is, I think, the question of our age. Presently there are many different models being tested and tried. There are the mega-churches, the seeker sensitive churches, the churches that run Sunday services like entertainment shows, with smoke and well orchestrated music and presentations. There are home church models, those that focus on social justice, charismatic, evangelical, young adult focused and everything in between. I don't think there is any one correct answer but I suspect there is one answer that is incorrect, and that is trying to maintain things the "way we have always done it!"
We must be open to new revelation and understanding, new ways of doing things that stretch our comfort level, thinking outside the box of our present way of doing things. We must be willing to listen to the youth and hear what they are saying. We must seek the Lord's direction and counsel, for He loves this new wine, and and it is part of His plan for His church.
From my reading and research, I know that this present young generation is looking for authentic experiences in things that matter. If I listen to my own children they speak of the hypocrisy that they experienced in the traditional church. They were unconvinced by the well meaning, put a good face things, Sunday experience. They saw the fallen, the wounded and unrepentant, the judgment, the back-stabbing and outright harmful treatment of some and they didn't want to have anything to do with that. They saw and experienced the good things, but their perspective was tainted by the ugliness that oftentimes exists in the church. That is just their perspective, but it certainly got me thinking about things.
This morning as I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a relatively new technique that is being used in the whiskey making process. Companies are aging the whiskey in old wine, port and sherry barrels. I know this isn't the same thing as new wineskins, but it is certainly related. These makers have discovered that aging or finishing a whiskey in an old barrel that was used to make a different type of liquor, will impart to the new liquor some of the flavor and character of the previous. The whiskey will take on nuances of the sherry or port and have a very different taste than that which is aged in neutral barrels. One could say the new whiskey is influenced by the old wine, sherry or port, and becomes something new. In this example the new liquid is of a different character than the old (whiskey and wine) and yet the old influences the new.
So, back to the question of the new wineskin? I think that there are two main areas where we have lost our focus in the church, and that must be restored as part of the wineskins, relationship and power. These are probably the two most common themes in my prayer and meditation, and I think they are very important. As Bill Johnson says, 'at some point in our communal history as the church, we have stopped gathering around the presence of God and instead gathered around the preaching'. In other words, we have lost the importance of a personal encounter with the Living God (both relationship and power) and replaced that with listening to someone expound on their experiences or their understanding of the Word (Bible). We have made it ok to be an observant rather than participants. We have focused on programs and entertainment value rather than personal relationship and experience with the Lord! We have shied away from the messy movements of the Holy Spirit, and favored nice clean choreographed services. We no longer expect God to move, no longer expect to hear from Him, no longer expect people to be changed through their encounter with Him on a daily basis. We have lost the sense that God is real and personal and in our midst!
I was reading a book recently and the author was talking about the importance of experience. He was discussing the people that were touched by Jesus in scripture, Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the woman who touched His robe, the Lepers that were healed, the Gerasean Demoniac, and all the others, and describing how important their experience was to their faith. Imagine trying to convince any of them that they had not been touched by God! Their faith and their experience of God was very personal, and very much affected by God's power. They met Jesus and followed Jesus because they had experienced His love for them personally, and been a witness to His power. My question to the church is how often do we preach and teach about personal relationships and personal encounters with the Lord? Do we enable people to encounter Him themselves? Do we expect Him to speak and move and interact with each of us in our daily lives? Do we make His presence our priority? Do we have times for people to share about their experiences? Do we make way for all to experience, all to share, all to be encouraged, all to be built up, all to be strengthened?
I believe that these are the types of questions we need to ask ourselves and our churches, for in the encounter with the Living God we discover authentic experience as a core component of our faith lives. We no longer are following the wise or charismatic leader because we like them, or because that is what we have always done, but instead we are involved in church because we have encountered God!
Oh Lord, I pray that You would help us to embrace new wineskins, and new wine (Generations) and re-discover how we can gather around Your presence once again, for our sake and the sake of our children!
Amen!
I believe it is also essential that we understand the God might be releasing new wineskins for the new wine that are our children. What I mean by this is that often churches want to raise children up in the ways they have known and loved, so that the children embrace the same patterns and liturgical life that we treasure and enjoy, yet the present day statistics coming out of churches show that our children are not growing up to embrace the church models we love. The vast majority of children in America who are raised in the church are leaving the church once they leave home. (For a good summary of the many studies that have looked at this issue checkout this link: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2016/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/). The question that we should be asking, and I believe many churches are asking is why? There is much talk out in the world about the different generations, the Millenials, the X, Y and Z generations, and plenty of discussion in the world (See: http://genhq.com/faq-info-about-generations/), but we also must understand these generations as they refer back the Body of Christ.
Clearly something of our value for the church is not transferring over to our youth. Having watched both of my children exit the church, it is a question I have thought long and hard about. Many years back I had an encounter with the Lord one morning and it revolved around the teaching Jesus gave regarding new wine and new wineskins. This teaching is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels, and this morning I am going to pull the quote from Mark 2:21-22 NIV:
[21] “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. [22] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
The understanding the Lord gave me in that encounter was that the wineskin was related to our pattern of life in the church, our ways of doing things and our focus. He talked about blended wines, and taking several distinct wines with distinct flavors and characters and blending them together to create something new and better. The problem was that this new blended wine can't be poured into old wineskins. Not that the old wine and old wine and wineskins were bad, in fact most people prefer aged wine, but it had to do with inflexibility of the structure we are used to for our churches. The problem with old wineskins is that they are not able to flex any more as the new wine finishes its fermenting and they burst. As Jesus says in the verses above, both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. In other words we lose the new wine and the old wineskins at the same time. Thus, if we want to preserve the new wine we must supply new wineskins, and at the same time we will preserve the old wineskins.
So, if the wineskins are our structure, our ways of doing things, our liturgies, maybe even some of our man-inspired beliefs, what do the new wineskins look like? That is, I think, the question of our age. Presently there are many different models being tested and tried. There are the mega-churches, the seeker sensitive churches, the churches that run Sunday services like entertainment shows, with smoke and well orchestrated music and presentations. There are home church models, those that focus on social justice, charismatic, evangelical, young adult focused and everything in between. I don't think there is any one correct answer but I suspect there is one answer that is incorrect, and that is trying to maintain things the "way we have always done it!"
We must be open to new revelation and understanding, new ways of doing things that stretch our comfort level, thinking outside the box of our present way of doing things. We must be willing to listen to the youth and hear what they are saying. We must seek the Lord's direction and counsel, for He loves this new wine, and and it is part of His plan for His church.
From my reading and research, I know that this present young generation is looking for authentic experiences in things that matter. If I listen to my own children they speak of the hypocrisy that they experienced in the traditional church. They were unconvinced by the well meaning, put a good face things, Sunday experience. They saw the fallen, the wounded and unrepentant, the judgment, the back-stabbing and outright harmful treatment of some and they didn't want to have anything to do with that. They saw and experienced the good things, but their perspective was tainted by the ugliness that oftentimes exists in the church. That is just their perspective, but it certainly got me thinking about things.
This morning as I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a relatively new technique that is being used in the whiskey making process. Companies are aging the whiskey in old wine, port and sherry barrels. I know this isn't the same thing as new wineskins, but it is certainly related. These makers have discovered that aging or finishing a whiskey in an old barrel that was used to make a different type of liquor, will impart to the new liquor some of the flavor and character of the previous. The whiskey will take on nuances of the sherry or port and have a very different taste than that which is aged in neutral barrels. One could say the new whiskey is influenced by the old wine, sherry or port, and becomes something new. In this example the new liquid is of a different character than the old (whiskey and wine) and yet the old influences the new.
So, back to the question of the new wineskin? I think that there are two main areas where we have lost our focus in the church, and that must be restored as part of the wineskins, relationship and power. These are probably the two most common themes in my prayer and meditation, and I think they are very important. As Bill Johnson says, 'at some point in our communal history as the church, we have stopped gathering around the presence of God and instead gathered around the preaching'. In other words, we have lost the importance of a personal encounter with the Living God (both relationship and power) and replaced that with listening to someone expound on their experiences or their understanding of the Word (Bible). We have made it ok to be an observant rather than participants. We have focused on programs and entertainment value rather than personal relationship and experience with the Lord! We have shied away from the messy movements of the Holy Spirit, and favored nice clean choreographed services. We no longer expect God to move, no longer expect to hear from Him, no longer expect people to be changed through their encounter with Him on a daily basis. We have lost the sense that God is real and personal and in our midst!
I was reading a book recently and the author was talking about the importance of experience. He was discussing the people that were touched by Jesus in scripture, Bartimaeus, Zacchaeus, the woman who touched His robe, the Lepers that were healed, the Gerasean Demoniac, and all the others, and describing how important their experience was to their faith. Imagine trying to convince any of them that they had not been touched by God! Their faith and their experience of God was very personal, and very much affected by God's power. They met Jesus and followed Jesus because they had experienced His love for them personally, and been a witness to His power. My question to the church is how often do we preach and teach about personal relationships and personal encounters with the Lord? Do we enable people to encounter Him themselves? Do we expect Him to speak and move and interact with each of us in our daily lives? Do we make His presence our priority? Do we have times for people to share about their experiences? Do we make way for all to experience, all to share, all to be encouraged, all to be built up, all to be strengthened?
I believe that these are the types of questions we need to ask ourselves and our churches, for in the encounter with the Living God we discover authentic experience as a core component of our faith lives. We no longer are following the wise or charismatic leader because we like them, or because that is what we have always done, but instead we are involved in church because we have encountered God!
Oh Lord, I pray that You would help us to embrace new wineskins, and new wine (Generations) and re-discover how we can gather around Your presence once again, for our sake and the sake of our children!
Amen!
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Children and God's Presence and Kingdom
This morning I was continuing my reading of Mark's Gospel, and saw something I found interesting regarding Jesus, children and the disciples. There are two sets of verses.
Mark 9:35-37,42 NIV:
[35] "Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
[36] "He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, [37] “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
[42] “If anyone causes one of these little ones---those who believe in me---to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea."
Mark 10:13-16 NIV:
[13] "People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. [14] When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. [15] Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” [16] And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them."
What caught my attention this morning was the relative density of the disciples. We don't really know how much time elapsed from the verses in Chapter 9 to the verses in chapter 10, but apparently dealing with children was a regular issue for the disciples, for it is mentioned two times in relatively short order, and the basic rule is if Jesus says it once, its obviously important, but if He says it two times, we really need to make sure we grasp this issue in our heart and mind. However, it appears that the disciples missed the significance of Jesus placing a child in their midst and then taking the child in His arms! I mean look at what He says, if we welcome a child in His name, we welcome not only Him, but His Father. That raises the question, if we want to welcome the Father, and we want to welcome Jesus, why do so many churches not welcome the children into our worship gatherings?
Secondly, if we look at the verses from Chapter 10, we see Jesus again absolutely making room in the midst of His discussions with the disciples for the children to come to Him. I can just imagine the disciples saying to the parents, 'bring your kids another time when Jesus isn't teaching us', or maybe, 'don't interrupt the Teacher, can't you see he is busy?' Again I wonder how often this is the thinking behind our separating out children into their own Sunday services? We can think of children as distracting and Jesus clearly rebuked the disciples for that type of thinking. In fact, He goes on to say something quite radical, " the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
The Kingdom of God was Jesus' primary message, the very message He sent the 12 and then the 72 out to proclaim, and here He says that the Kingdom belongs to them, or such as these. The Greek word translated "such as these" is the word Toioutos. It is a compound word made up of two root words, the first being Toi, meaning certainly, and the second being Houtous, meaning this or these. The word translates belongs is the Greek word Eimi, and it means to be, to exist, to happen, to be present and in the King James version was most of the time translated I Am, a clear reference to God's presence. In other words, a possible translation could be the Kingdom of God, (and by reference My presence) is certainly present in these (Children). Wow!
So I ask myself, have I missed something really important here? Is there some richness of the Kingdom and the Lord's presence that we are meant to experience through our children? Am I so worried about singing the song, or focusing on God during worship that I miss what is apparently available through welcoming children? More importantly for our churches, is separating the children out from the adults during worship actually hindering our pursuit of God and His presence? Is there grace in Him to be able to welcome them into our midst and experience God's pleasure and intimacy in new ways? I think that answer is clearly yes!
My experience at many of our churches is that they run a clean program, a certain number of songs, all carefully orchestrated to stay within certain time allotments. There is not much openness to deviating from the worship set. The children are removed from the service for the teaching, and oftentimes the worship time for several reasons, but often one othose reasons is because we adults don't want to be distracted, and yet we see clearly here the Lord making a very strong statement concerning children. I am always aware of how Jesus made time each person he encountered, and by His words and actions we see that He considered children just as important as His disciples and followers. I have read some things that say children in His day were considered second class citizens, and I don't know if that is true or not, but regardless, we see Jesus specifically taking a child and placing them right in the midst of the Apostles and disciples, and then taking them in His arms. He wasn't worried about the distraction they might cause, in fact He specifically took time for them.
I have a feeling that Jesus was not at all concerned about staying with certain allotted time frames, nor worried about taking too much time on one person, nor concerned about what we call distractions. He loved each and every person He encountered, and welcomed them into relationship and His embrace if possible. Maybe we can learn to emulate Jesus and worry less about distraction and time and more about personal encounter with Him, and each other.
Amen! Lord, help us to step out of this mindset that church is just for an hour or two on Sunday, and instead embrace the fact that our whole lives are meant to be full of You, and our membership in the Body of Christ includes loving one another all the time, not just on Sunday. Help us to put the proper value on each other, and work to encourage and build one another up! We don't want to just put in our time and go, but rather have our Sunday celebrations just flow out of our normal lives of fellowship and community. Help us to welcome our children as equal members of Your Body, and carriers of Your presence and Kingdom.
Mark 9:35-37,42 NIV:
[35] "Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
[36] "He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, [37] “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
[42] “If anyone causes one of these little ones---those who believe in me---to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea."
Mark 10:13-16 NIV:
[13] "People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. [14] When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. [15] Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” [16] And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them."
What caught my attention this morning was the relative density of the disciples. We don't really know how much time elapsed from the verses in Chapter 9 to the verses in chapter 10, but apparently dealing with children was a regular issue for the disciples, for it is mentioned two times in relatively short order, and the basic rule is if Jesus says it once, its obviously important, but if He says it two times, we really need to make sure we grasp this issue in our heart and mind. However, it appears that the disciples missed the significance of Jesus placing a child in their midst and then taking the child in His arms! I mean look at what He says, if we welcome a child in His name, we welcome not only Him, but His Father. That raises the question, if we want to welcome the Father, and we want to welcome Jesus, why do so many churches not welcome the children into our worship gatherings?
Secondly, if we look at the verses from Chapter 10, we see Jesus again absolutely making room in the midst of His discussions with the disciples for the children to come to Him. I can just imagine the disciples saying to the parents, 'bring your kids another time when Jesus isn't teaching us', or maybe, 'don't interrupt the Teacher, can't you see he is busy?' Again I wonder how often this is the thinking behind our separating out children into their own Sunday services? We can think of children as distracting and Jesus clearly rebuked the disciples for that type of thinking. In fact, He goes on to say something quite radical, " the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
The Kingdom of God was Jesus' primary message, the very message He sent the 12 and then the 72 out to proclaim, and here He says that the Kingdom belongs to them, or such as these. The Greek word translated "such as these" is the word Toioutos. It is a compound word made up of two root words, the first being Toi, meaning certainly, and the second being Houtous, meaning this or these. The word translates belongs is the Greek word Eimi, and it means to be, to exist, to happen, to be present and in the King James version was most of the time translated I Am, a clear reference to God's presence. In other words, a possible translation could be the Kingdom of God, (and by reference My presence) is certainly present in these (Children). Wow!
So I ask myself, have I missed something really important here? Is there some richness of the Kingdom and the Lord's presence that we are meant to experience through our children? Am I so worried about singing the song, or focusing on God during worship that I miss what is apparently available through welcoming children? More importantly for our churches, is separating the children out from the adults during worship actually hindering our pursuit of God and His presence? Is there grace in Him to be able to welcome them into our midst and experience God's pleasure and intimacy in new ways? I think that answer is clearly yes!
My experience at many of our churches is that they run a clean program, a certain number of songs, all carefully orchestrated to stay within certain time allotments. There is not much openness to deviating from the worship set. The children are removed from the service for the teaching, and oftentimes the worship time for several reasons, but often one othose reasons is because we adults don't want to be distracted, and yet we see clearly here the Lord making a very strong statement concerning children. I am always aware of how Jesus made time each person he encountered, and by His words and actions we see that He considered children just as important as His disciples and followers. I have read some things that say children in His day were considered second class citizens, and I don't know if that is true or not, but regardless, we see Jesus specifically taking a child and placing them right in the midst of the Apostles and disciples, and then taking them in His arms. He wasn't worried about the distraction they might cause, in fact He specifically took time for them.
I have a feeling that Jesus was not at all concerned about staying with certain allotted time frames, nor worried about taking too much time on one person, nor concerned about what we call distractions. He loved each and every person He encountered, and welcomed them into relationship and His embrace if possible. Maybe we can learn to emulate Jesus and worry less about distraction and time and more about personal encounter with Him, and each other.
Amen! Lord, help us to step out of this mindset that church is just for an hour or two on Sunday, and instead embrace the fact that our whole lives are meant to be full of You, and our membership in the Body of Christ includes loving one another all the time, not just on Sunday. Help us to put the proper value on each other, and work to encourage and build one another up! We don't want to just put in our time and go, but rather have our Sunday celebrations just flow out of our normal lives of fellowship and community. Help us to welcome our children as equal members of Your Body, and carriers of Your presence and Kingdom.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Leaving the Old, Living as New!
This morning I am reflecting on the verses that I quoted at the end of my reflection yesterday, Paul writing to the Church of Corinth about their call to be ambassadors of reconciliation. Here are the verses - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV:
[17] "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! [18] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [19] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [20] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. [21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
While yesterday I focused on the reconciliation part, today I am caught by Paul's statement about the old and new creation in verses 17 & 18. This is one of the most important messages of the Gospel of Grace! Paul is basically writing this from God's perspective. Here are the facts outlined in those two verses:
Again, these are from God's perspective.
1) If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation!
2) The old creation HAS gone.
3) All this is from God (in other words, not due to us).
This morning as I read these verses I am reminded of adoption and our new identity, which is essentially the same thing that Paul is writing about here. I had a pretty thorough reflection on adoption a while back and the basic principal Paul was describing was one of a new identity, a new persona that is created when we accept our adoption by God. (See http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2017/06/adoption-as-gods-sons-and-daughters-its.html - for a more complete reflection on this topic). In other words, from God's perspective when we become His adopted sons and daughters, our old identity no longer exists, and God creates a new identity for us, gives us a new name and everything from our old identity ceases to exist. While the choice to accept this adoption is ours, the work is done by the Lord. Paul writes that here in verse 18, and finishes with a summary of that in verse 21 - " God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Wow! The new creation is so complete that rather than being "sinful" humans, we become the "righteousness of God!"
So, in light of these facts, how should we treat on another? How should we think about ourselves? How should we act?
Again, this is from God's perspective. Our actually living this out in our life might be different experientially, but this is God's perspective of us. I am blessed to work with a ministry that works with foster children, and some number of those children have gone on to be adopted. They have experienced what Paul was writing about concerning adoption (Gal 4:4-7). Their names have been changed, their legal identity is new, and it is as if the old identity no longer exists. This is true, except for in their own minds and hearts. Many of these young people have been wounded and scarred from their previous lives, and their new life will be one of learning to embrace their new life, their new identity, their new family, without being greatly affected by their old life. How much they are able to be healed and set free from the bad things that happened in their previous life, will in large part be affected by those who have adopted them. Their new families understand that the transition from old to new takes time, and sometimes takes healing, and counseling, and always takes patience and love. While the young adopted person's legal identity changes the day they are adopted, it often takes years for them to fully transition internally to their new identity.
In the same way, Paul is writing about the change that occurs legally in the Kingdom, we become new creations with a new identity, but most of us struggle with making the full transition internally to this new identity. This is where we must learn to love and accept one another as being in process. Expecting newly joined members of the Body of Christ to think and act like those who have been in the Body, and thus hopefully learning to live in our new identities, for decades is foolishness. We must have patience and love, offer support and encouragement to those that are learning to live with their new identity as sons and daughters of God.
In our ministry, we sometimes have to explain to the children that they don't need to hoard food, because there will be enough to eat. This is because in their previous experiences, sufficient food was not always available. We don't discipline them if they do hoard food, but rather we understand why and help them understand that at least during the time we are working with them, that food will always be sufficient! Sometimes, they react strongly or are triggered by certain occurrences, words, or even smells that they associate with something bad that has happened. Again, we don't punish them for this, but understand that these things are vestiges of their previous lives (hopefully).
In the same way, my prayer is that we would learn to encourage and support and love each other in the Body of Christ. I pray that we would understand that God sees us as new creations, with new identities, but also understands that we can still be affected by our old. We must learn to give each other the same understanding, grace and mercy that God gives us. We must learn to encourage each other in our healing and learning to live fully in our new identities. We must not judge those that are still dealing with old wounds and old mindsets, allowing for God to work in their lives to bring healing and deliverance. We must be ministers of reconciliation, embracing the process of reconciliation and working to allow people to discover and embrace their new identities, their new creation nature which is available in and through Christ Jesus.
So, let us celebrate our new creation, our new identity! Let us embrace one another and encourage one another as we learn to live as true sons and daughters of God! Let us extend understanding, mercy and grace, even as the Lord does, to ourselves and to each other. Let us learn how to leave our old creation and identity behind and learn to live as new creations with new idenitities. Finally, let us thank God who makes all this possible!
Amen and amen!
[17] "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! [18] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [19] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [20] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. [21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
While yesterday I focused on the reconciliation part, today I am caught by Paul's statement about the old and new creation in verses 17 & 18. This is one of the most important messages of the Gospel of Grace! Paul is basically writing this from God's perspective. Here are the facts outlined in those two verses:
Again, these are from God's perspective.
1) If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation!
2) The old creation HAS gone.
3) All this is from God (in other words, not due to us).
This morning as I read these verses I am reminded of adoption and our new identity, which is essentially the same thing that Paul is writing about here. I had a pretty thorough reflection on adoption a while back and the basic principal Paul was describing was one of a new identity, a new persona that is created when we accept our adoption by God. (See http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2017/06/adoption-as-gods-sons-and-daughters-its.html - for a more complete reflection on this topic). In other words, from God's perspective when we become His adopted sons and daughters, our old identity no longer exists, and God creates a new identity for us, gives us a new name and everything from our old identity ceases to exist. While the choice to accept this adoption is ours, the work is done by the Lord. Paul writes that here in verse 18, and finishes with a summary of that in verse 21 - " God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Wow! The new creation is so complete that rather than being "sinful" humans, we become the "righteousness of God!"
So, in light of these facts, how should we treat on another? How should we think about ourselves? How should we act?
Again, this is from God's perspective. Our actually living this out in our life might be different experientially, but this is God's perspective of us. I am blessed to work with a ministry that works with foster children, and some number of those children have gone on to be adopted. They have experienced what Paul was writing about concerning adoption (Gal 4:4-7). Their names have been changed, their legal identity is new, and it is as if the old identity no longer exists. This is true, except for in their own minds and hearts. Many of these young people have been wounded and scarred from their previous lives, and their new life will be one of learning to embrace their new life, their new identity, their new family, without being greatly affected by their old life. How much they are able to be healed and set free from the bad things that happened in their previous life, will in large part be affected by those who have adopted them. Their new families understand that the transition from old to new takes time, and sometimes takes healing, and counseling, and always takes patience and love. While the young adopted person's legal identity changes the day they are adopted, it often takes years for them to fully transition internally to their new identity.
In the same way, Paul is writing about the change that occurs legally in the Kingdom, we become new creations with a new identity, but most of us struggle with making the full transition internally to this new identity. This is where we must learn to love and accept one another as being in process. Expecting newly joined members of the Body of Christ to think and act like those who have been in the Body, and thus hopefully learning to live in our new identities, for decades is foolishness. We must have patience and love, offer support and encouragement to those that are learning to live with their new identity as sons and daughters of God.
In our ministry, we sometimes have to explain to the children that they don't need to hoard food, because there will be enough to eat. This is because in their previous experiences, sufficient food was not always available. We don't discipline them if they do hoard food, but rather we understand why and help them understand that at least during the time we are working with them, that food will always be sufficient! Sometimes, they react strongly or are triggered by certain occurrences, words, or even smells that they associate with something bad that has happened. Again, we don't punish them for this, but understand that these things are vestiges of their previous lives (hopefully).
In the same way, my prayer is that we would learn to encourage and support and love each other in the Body of Christ. I pray that we would understand that God sees us as new creations, with new identities, but also understands that we can still be affected by our old. We must learn to give each other the same understanding, grace and mercy that God gives us. We must learn to encourage each other in our healing and learning to live fully in our new identities. We must not judge those that are still dealing with old wounds and old mindsets, allowing for God to work in their lives to bring healing and deliverance. We must be ministers of reconciliation, embracing the process of reconciliation and working to allow people to discover and embrace their new identities, their new creation nature which is available in and through Christ Jesus.
So, let us celebrate our new creation, our new identity! Let us embrace one another and encourage one another as we learn to live as true sons and daughters of God! Let us extend understanding, mercy and grace, even as the Lord does, to ourselves and to each other. Let us learn how to leave our old creation and identity behind and learn to live as new creations with new idenitities. Finally, let us thank God who makes all this possible!
Amen and amen!
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Turning Darkness Into Light!
This morning I am reflecting on some verses from Paul's letter to the Church in Ephesus. This letter is so full of good things, I am pretty sure you could spend a few months working through it daily and have plenty still to mine, for the richness of the Lord's wisdom is beyond us.
Here are the verses - Ephesians 5:8-13 NIV:
[8] "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light [9] (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) [10] and find out what pleases the Lord. [11] Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. [12] It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. [13] But everything exposed by the light becomes visible---and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."
What caught my eye this morning was the combination of the end of verse 11 and the end of verse 13, for you can read these verses just leaving out verse 12, and that is the completed thought of Paul. They would read as follows, " Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them... But everything exposed by the light becomes visible---and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."
Look at what happens to the fruitless deeds of darkness when they are exposed, they actually become a light! Talk about turning the tables on the works of the enemy! The enemy would love nothing more than for us in the Body of Christ, to keep any bits of darkness in us, hidden and festering, hooked to shame and fear. He works hard to cause us to stray from the path the Lord leads us down, and then condemns us for our faltering when we do! He is no friend of ours, and the these things bear no good fruit in our lives. So Paul says just expose them, and they become light! In other words they bear good fruit in our lives if we expose them.
Now this requires a mature church, a non-judgmental church to make this a reality. We are supposed to be encouraging one another forward in the Lord, to be brighter lights! As C.S. Lewis writes in his book "The Last Battle" from "The Chronicles of Narnia", the call from the Lord is come "higher up and farther in!" We are called forward in the Lord, and we must help one another do this! Inflicting punishment on fellow members when they confess sin, when they expose areas of their lives to the Light, has the exact opposite effect.
The enemy has convinced much of the church that the way to shine the light is to BE pure, but Paul writes that the way to make these things shine is to expose them. The light is shined forth as they are exposed! We have pursued the end goal of purity, to the detriment of the process of becoming pure. In my opinion, in much of the church, someone's confession of sin, or areas of darkness, is something that can bring shame, guilt, and condemnation. We can cheer people who transform their lives through weight loss, exercise, stepping free from alcohol or drugs or any such thing, but we often judge these same people as sinners in the Body of Christ, not really acceptable or trustworthy for leadership. We don't encourage them through recognition of these areas actually becoming light.
In the Church, we want to hold up this "WE ARE PURE" light to the world, but the truth is that we are sinners and we should be holding up a sign saying "VICTORY OVER SIN AND DARK THINGS" or maybe "CHANGING DARKNESS TO LIGHT". Holding up the "pure" sign only sends the wrong message. We don't want to expect people to be pure, for that sets an impossibly high bar for anyone who is struggling with areas of darkness. We want people to come to us because they know they won't be judged and there will be help to set them free. That is one of the great things about programs like AA, people are not judged for their confessions, because everyone there has similar experiences. They know that it is safe to share, because rather than judgment they will receive support and help in getting free.
Oh that the church would learn to fully embrace her role as ambassador of reconciliation. As Paul writes in his letter 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NIV: "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [19] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [20] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. [21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We are called not to count people's sins against them, but rather to encourage all to embrace the Lord and receive from Him, His righteousness. As we do, we are transformed, and shine His Light to all men! In Him we can turn darkness into Light!
Amen!
Here are the verses - Ephesians 5:8-13 NIV:
[8] "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light [9] (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) [10] and find out what pleases the Lord. [11] Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. [12] It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. [13] But everything exposed by the light becomes visible---and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."
What caught my eye this morning was the combination of the end of verse 11 and the end of verse 13, for you can read these verses just leaving out verse 12, and that is the completed thought of Paul. They would read as follows, " Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them... But everything exposed by the light becomes visible---and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."
Look at what happens to the fruitless deeds of darkness when they are exposed, they actually become a light! Talk about turning the tables on the works of the enemy! The enemy would love nothing more than for us in the Body of Christ, to keep any bits of darkness in us, hidden and festering, hooked to shame and fear. He works hard to cause us to stray from the path the Lord leads us down, and then condemns us for our faltering when we do! He is no friend of ours, and the these things bear no good fruit in our lives. So Paul says just expose them, and they become light! In other words they bear good fruit in our lives if we expose them.
Now this requires a mature church, a non-judgmental church to make this a reality. We are supposed to be encouraging one another forward in the Lord, to be brighter lights! As C.S. Lewis writes in his book "The Last Battle" from "The Chronicles of Narnia", the call from the Lord is come "higher up and farther in!" We are called forward in the Lord, and we must help one another do this! Inflicting punishment on fellow members when they confess sin, when they expose areas of their lives to the Light, has the exact opposite effect.
The enemy has convinced much of the church that the way to shine the light is to BE pure, but Paul writes that the way to make these things shine is to expose them. The light is shined forth as they are exposed! We have pursued the end goal of purity, to the detriment of the process of becoming pure. In my opinion, in much of the church, someone's confession of sin, or areas of darkness, is something that can bring shame, guilt, and condemnation. We can cheer people who transform their lives through weight loss, exercise, stepping free from alcohol or drugs or any such thing, but we often judge these same people as sinners in the Body of Christ, not really acceptable or trustworthy for leadership. We don't encourage them through recognition of these areas actually becoming light.
In the Church, we want to hold up this "WE ARE PURE" light to the world, but the truth is that we are sinners and we should be holding up a sign saying "VICTORY OVER SIN AND DARK THINGS" or maybe "CHANGING DARKNESS TO LIGHT". Holding up the "pure" sign only sends the wrong message. We don't want to expect people to be pure, for that sets an impossibly high bar for anyone who is struggling with areas of darkness. We want people to come to us because they know they won't be judged and there will be help to set them free. That is one of the great things about programs like AA, people are not judged for their confessions, because everyone there has similar experiences. They know that it is safe to share, because rather than judgment they will receive support and help in getting free.
Oh that the church would learn to fully embrace her role as ambassador of reconciliation. As Paul writes in his letter 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NIV: "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: [19] that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. [20] We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. [21] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
We are called not to count people's sins against them, but rather to encourage all to embrace the Lord and receive from Him, His righteousness. As we do, we are transformed, and shine His Light to all men! In Him we can turn darkness into Light!
Amen!
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Approaching Our Father in Prayer
Yesterday, I was reading from Jonathan Welton's book, "Normal Christianity" and he had section on praying with authority, and out of our identity as sons and daughters of the Father. It was a really good read and reflection. This morning I felt like I should read from Luke's Gospel, Chapter 11, and the first several verses are Jesus' teaching on prayer. Many times teaching on these verses stops with the traditional "Our Father" prayer, but my recognition this morning was that Jesus continued on teaching about prayer over the next several verses and that is what I wanted to reflect upon this morning.
Luke 11:1-13 NIV:
[1]"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
[2] He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread. [4] Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ' ”
[5] Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; [6] a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.' [7] And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' [8] I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
[9] “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
[11] “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The first thing that strikes me this morning is that Jesus starts and finishes this teaching with The Father. Essentially He is teaching the disciples about the Father, for we approach Him in Prayer. Skipping past the familiar verses that we know as the "Our Father", in the next verses He instructs the disciples in their approach to be shamelessly audacious (NIV translation). Note: I reflected on these verses about 3 years ago - http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2014/07/approaching-father-with-shameless.html and am basing my comments off some of my reflection at that time. This term could just as easily be rendered "expectant faith", for the story He uses to explain the approach is about going to someone in the middle of the night for bread, because you know they have it.
There is no shame in asking for that which You know the Father has and that which You know He wants to give you! This is exactly what Jesus describes next, the Father's desire to give us what we need. He uses the example of earthly fathers as a comparison, but explains that the Father is much better (how much more) than earthly Fathers.
Finally, His teaching is to approach the Father as OUR Father, not His, not The, but OUR Father. He was trying to help the disciples understand that they could approach their Father in the exact same way He approached the Father, for we have essentially the same relationship, that of son and daughter to the Father.
Recently I have been reflecting on the fact that Paul describes us as follows in His letter to the Romans 8:29 NIV: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Jesus is leading the disciples down this same path, He is showing them the way to relate to the Father, to Our Father (Jesus and us) as a loving Father who desires to give good gifts. In the same way that Our Father answers Jesus' prayers, He desires to answer ours. Matthew records Jesus closing statement as follows - Matthew 7:11 NIV: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
In Summary, Jesus teaches us to pray by approaching the Father with no shame, no fear of His refusal, no doubt as to His love! We are to approach Him as our loving Father who desires to give us good gifts! He has what we need, so we just need to approach Him and ask, seek and knock! We are to do this with expectant faith in the Father's character and ability as the All-Powerful Father. We don't need to beg, to try to convince Him of our need, to ask forgiveness, to grovel, to offer up so many works or acts of goodness to move His heart. We are to approach Him as our Loving, Happy to pour forth Blessing, Daddy, for He is OUR Father. He is so much better than the best earthly Father! So let us approach Him with confidence, and engage Him through our relationship, as we would our early Father. He loves us!
Luke 11:1-13 NIV:
[1]"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
[2] He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread. [4] Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ' ”
[5] Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; [6] a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.' [7] And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' [8] I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
[9] “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. [10] For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
[11] “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? [12] Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? [13] If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The first thing that strikes me this morning is that Jesus starts and finishes this teaching with The Father. Essentially He is teaching the disciples about the Father, for we approach Him in Prayer. Skipping past the familiar verses that we know as the "Our Father", in the next verses He instructs the disciples in their approach to be shamelessly audacious (NIV translation). Note: I reflected on these verses about 3 years ago - http://amomentwithgod-srh.blogspot.com/2014/07/approaching-father-with-shameless.html and am basing my comments off some of my reflection at that time. This term could just as easily be rendered "expectant faith", for the story He uses to explain the approach is about going to someone in the middle of the night for bread, because you know they have it.
There is no shame in asking for that which You know the Father has and that which You know He wants to give you! This is exactly what Jesus describes next, the Father's desire to give us what we need. He uses the example of earthly fathers as a comparison, but explains that the Father is much better (how much more) than earthly Fathers.
Finally, His teaching is to approach the Father as OUR Father, not His, not The, but OUR Father. He was trying to help the disciples understand that they could approach their Father in the exact same way He approached the Father, for we have essentially the same relationship, that of son and daughter to the Father.
Recently I have been reflecting on the fact that Paul describes us as follows in His letter to the Romans 8:29 NIV: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Jesus is leading the disciples down this same path, He is showing them the way to relate to the Father, to Our Father (Jesus and us) as a loving Father who desires to give good gifts. In the same way that Our Father answers Jesus' prayers, He desires to answer ours. Matthew records Jesus closing statement as follows - Matthew 7:11 NIV: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
In Summary, Jesus teaches us to pray by approaching the Father with no shame, no fear of His refusal, no doubt as to His love! We are to approach Him as our loving Father who desires to give us good gifts! He has what we need, so we just need to approach Him and ask, seek and knock! We are to do this with expectant faith in the Father's character and ability as the All-Powerful Father. We don't need to beg, to try to convince Him of our need, to ask forgiveness, to grovel, to offer up so many works or acts of goodness to move His heart. We are to approach Him as our Loving, Happy to pour forth Blessing, Daddy, for He is OUR Father. He is so much better than the best earthly Father! So let us approach Him with confidence, and engage Him through our relationship, as we would our early Father. He loves us!
Friday, September 8, 2017
Paul's Drive and Determination - A Great Encouragement
This morning I have been reading through Paul's letter to the Romans, basically from Chapter 8 -15. It is so good to just bathe in Word, to let it wash over my heart and mind. There are so many points where I could reflect for days, weeks and even years, in this single letter. Recently I have been rereading my journal entries from 2 years ago, and I so encouraged by the depth of insight the Lord has put into me. I have been praying and spending time with the Lord, as I am this morning, for 37 years and I have never even come close to feeling like I have read and understood everything about a single area. I am constantly refreshed and renewed, deepened and restored.
I wish I could say that everything that I have written and learned is now active in my life, captured in my heart and the foundation of my mind and thought, but that is simply not the case. Rather, I find that the Lord is patient and loving and forgiving of all my faults and errors, and inability to fully grasp and grow in His word. He just constantly takes me by the hand and revisits His truths over and over again, gently guiding and leading me as He has done every day of my life. I am so grateful for His endless mercy!
After reading through so much of Paul's letter I was drawn to a few verses in the fifteenth chapter where He was discussing his call to ministry, reflecting back, as it were, on what he has done. Here are the verses - Romans 15:17-19 NIV:
[17] "Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. [18] I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done--- [19] by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ."
I love Paul's straight forward assessment of His ministry, and His clear understanding of the fact that it was the Lord who was responsible for His works. He speaks of Christ accomplishing things through him. He understood that His service was to be an avenue for God's glory to be made known! He spoke, He preached but it was God's power, through the power of the Holy Spirit, displayed in signs and wonders that bore witness to the Gospel of Christ that he preached. He reflected and saw that His message "Christ's Gospel", through God's power alone, had gone out to the peoples from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
One a side note, when I read a name of place, I often like to look it up on-line so that I full grasp what area Paul was speaking about. "Illyricum was a Roman province that existed from 27 BC to sometime during the reign of Vespasian (69-79 AD). The province comprised Illyria/Dalmatia and Pannonia. Illyria included the area along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland mountains. With the creation of this province it came to be called Dalmatia. It was in the south. Pannonia was in the north. Illyria/Dalmatia stretched from the River Drin (in modern northern Albania) to Istria (Croatia) and the River Sava in the north. The area roughly corresponded to modern northern Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and coastal Croatia. Pannonia was the plain which lie to its north, from the mountains of Illyria/Dalmatia to the westward bend of the River Danube. It was in the modern Vojvodina (in northern Serbia), northern Croatia and western Hungary. As the province developed Salona (near modern Split, Croatia) became as its capital." ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyricum_(Roman_province)).
So, Paul, through God's power working through Him, had been able to preach the Gospel to everything between Jerusalem and the Eastern coast of the Adriatic sea. That is quite the impressive range of ministry, and yet it certainly doesn't seem like Paul was taking any credit, other than that of a faithful servant. He understood his call and the source of his strength and his success.
I also love the fact that Paul was in no way content to rest on his accomplishments. Instead we find him expressing his desire to visit the church of Rome (Rom 15:23-33), and in reading Acts, we see that he was able to finally visit the church in Rome, arriving in chains, but still able to minister effectively (See Acts 28:11-31). I am encouraged by Paul's example and his firm resolve to fulfill the purpose for which Christ Jesus apprehended him. He describes his perspective well in his letter to the Philippians 3:12-14 NIV:
[12] "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. [13] Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Lord, that I would have a similar drive and determination in my walk with You! My desire is that I would faithfully serve You every day, and be able to constantly press forward to complete all that the You have purposed me to do, not resting on my past, but pressing forward! I certainly am no Paul, but that does not disqualify me from being a part of Your overall plan, and for that I am grateful!
Amen and amen!
I wish I could say that everything that I have written and learned is now active in my life, captured in my heart and the foundation of my mind and thought, but that is simply not the case. Rather, I find that the Lord is patient and loving and forgiving of all my faults and errors, and inability to fully grasp and grow in His word. He just constantly takes me by the hand and revisits His truths over and over again, gently guiding and leading me as He has done every day of my life. I am so grateful for His endless mercy!
After reading through so much of Paul's letter I was drawn to a few verses in the fifteenth chapter where He was discussing his call to ministry, reflecting back, as it were, on what he has done. Here are the verses - Romans 15:17-19 NIV:
[17] "Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. [18] I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done--- [19] by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ."
I love Paul's straight forward assessment of His ministry, and His clear understanding of the fact that it was the Lord who was responsible for His works. He speaks of Christ accomplishing things through him. He understood that His service was to be an avenue for God's glory to be made known! He spoke, He preached but it was God's power, through the power of the Holy Spirit, displayed in signs and wonders that bore witness to the Gospel of Christ that he preached. He reflected and saw that His message "Christ's Gospel", through God's power alone, had gone out to the peoples from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
One a side note, when I read a name of place, I often like to look it up on-line so that I full grasp what area Paul was speaking about. "Illyricum was a Roman province that existed from 27 BC to sometime during the reign of Vespasian (69-79 AD). The province comprised Illyria/Dalmatia and Pannonia. Illyria included the area along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland mountains. With the creation of this province it came to be called Dalmatia. It was in the south. Pannonia was in the north. Illyria/Dalmatia stretched from the River Drin (in modern northern Albania) to Istria (Croatia) and the River Sava in the north. The area roughly corresponded to modern northern Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and coastal Croatia. Pannonia was the plain which lie to its north, from the mountains of Illyria/Dalmatia to the westward bend of the River Danube. It was in the modern Vojvodina (in northern Serbia), northern Croatia and western Hungary. As the province developed Salona (near modern Split, Croatia) became as its capital." ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyricum_(Roman_province)).
So, Paul, through God's power working through Him, had been able to preach the Gospel to everything between Jerusalem and the Eastern coast of the Adriatic sea. That is quite the impressive range of ministry, and yet it certainly doesn't seem like Paul was taking any credit, other than that of a faithful servant. He understood his call and the source of his strength and his success.
I also love the fact that Paul was in no way content to rest on his accomplishments. Instead we find him expressing his desire to visit the church of Rome (Rom 15:23-33), and in reading Acts, we see that he was able to finally visit the church in Rome, arriving in chains, but still able to minister effectively (See Acts 28:11-31). I am encouraged by Paul's example and his firm resolve to fulfill the purpose for which Christ Jesus apprehended him. He describes his perspective well in his letter to the Philippians 3:12-14 NIV:
[12] "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. [13] Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Lord, that I would have a similar drive and determination in my walk with You! My desire is that I would faithfully serve You every day, and be able to constantly press forward to complete all that the You have purposed me to do, not resting on my past, but pressing forward! I certainly am no Paul, but that does not disqualify me from being a part of Your overall plan, and for that I am grateful!
Amen and amen!
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Destined to Look Like Jesus
This morning I am reflecting on a few verses from Paul's letter to the Romans 8:28-30 NIV:
[28] "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
These are some of those verses that you could think about for a really long time and never fully grasp, for they speak about God's sovereignty. He is so far beyond our human minds and wills that I think it is difficult to even grasp the most minute understanding of His true meaning. We can thank the writers for recording what was put on their hearts, but in no way do the words used completely grasp the infinitude of God's perfect words and purpose.
It seems to me that Paul is trying to correlate God's perspective from outside of time, and understand that within the context of what He had understood about God's purpose and help, His calling and provision within that calling. These verses bring into our minds questions about predestination versus free-will (Gospel of Grace), which seem to be opposites in our human logic, but in God are not. How that works is beyond me, but that both ideas are birthed out of God's word is clear. (For an introduction to this theme - the following link provides an excellent foundation of the discussion , the history and the philosophical underpinnings of this theme - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm#arg )
This morning, my attention was on verse 29, and Paul's statement that we are "predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Jesus). I was thinking about what good news that is, that there is in God's purpose and thus in His provision, a plan and destiny for me that enables me to be conformed into the image of Christ. That is something I greatly desire, and something that I have difficulty doing on my own. In my estimation, I make progress and then slide back into old ways of acting and thinking. However, Paul writes, under the encouragement and direction of the Holy Spirit, that God has predestined me to be confirmed to the image of Christ. Praise God!
I believe this is more than the doctrine of being hidden in Christ, for Paul speaks of us conforming, the Greek word used is Summorphos, and it means to having the same form as another. The word is actually a combination of two words that together speak of a uniting of external appearance. So, as Paul writes we are united in our appearance with the image of Christ Jesus, and this can only happen if we appear like Him in our character, our words and actions, for clearly we do not change our physical appearance to look like Jesus looked. This gives me hope for my on life, as I pursue Christ, that I might one day look like Him reminding people of His character, His actions and His words. While I bear a very similar physical appearance to my Dad, it is my way of speaking, joking and interaction that remind people more of Him. In the same way, I desire that might be said of me concerning Christ, that I might remind people of Him.
In the same way as brothers and sisters in a physical family often resemble one another, Paul writes that this being conformed to the image of Christ Jesus is so that we, and the world, will know that we are His brothers and sisters. Jesus is the first born of many brothers and sisters, all of whom are destined to look like our eldest brother! Wow! That puts a different spin on this familiar, or should I say familial verse. :-)
Paul continues writing about the provision of the Father for this very reality. This looking like Jesus is not something that we can just decide to do, unless of course we choose radical plastic surgery, which only deals with the external features, not our character and behavior. I am reminded of the movie "Shallow Hal" starring Jack Black. The premise of the movie is that he gets cursed to only see the person on the inside, since his shallowness would only allow him to relate to "beautiful" people. After he is cursed, he sees people as their internal character is, and sees beauty where others don't. He falls in love with a very overweight woman who he sees as a beautiful woman. My point is that our insides are what matter and God has made provision for us to look like Jesus on the inside, in our character and in our actions. When God looks at each of us, He sees the image of His Son being developed in us, so that we look just like him. Paul says that "those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." In other words, He has made provision in His Kingdom for us to be like Jesus, we are called, justified, and glorified, all by Him.
The Gospel of Grace is full of this truth! It is God's choice, His determination that accomplished this in our lives. He has determined to include us in His family as His sons and daughters, through His will. There are no mistakes in His family, no accidents of conception. God chose each of us, and has made a way, His way, for us to look just like our oldest brother, Jesus. Clearly we must accept this invitation, for His desire is for loving relationship with sons and daughters, not robots programmed to love Him with no choice of their own. The desire for relationship, the desire to join us to Himself, within His family, is so far beyond our ability to fully grasp! Why would God want me to be His son? I certainly don't have a good answer other than that He loves me.
I know that for each of my children, it doesn't matter what they would ever do or say, I would always love them, because the moment I was aware of their conception, there was in me a love for them that I couldn't understand. When each of them was born, I had this revelation of love unlike anything I had ever experienced. They hadn't done anything and yet the love I had for them in my heart was overwhelming! I remember thinking about my love for each of them, marveling at this incredible connection I already felt with them. Holding them in my arms and just loving them more than anything, I understood that I gladly would lay down my life for them!
I believe that this is exactly the way the Lord loves us, even more so, for His love is eternal! He has had us in His heart since before the creation of the world, and He has made a way for us to join His family as His son or His daughter! He has determined to make this possible, through no effort on our behalf! Just like neither of my children had any ability to make themselves, to create themselves, so also us, in God. Yet, just like my children can choose to be in relationship with me, so I can choose to be in relationship with God. As I said before there is nothing either of my children could ever do to cancel my love for them, so also we have this same opportunity in God. He Loves us, and will always love us! He has made a way for us to be a part of His family. He has chosen us, called us, justified us and plans to glorify us as His sons and daughters! What an awesome opportunity and invitation we have to be in relationship with Him.
So, this morning I am encouraged that God wants me to be apart of His family, and that He has made the way for me to do exactly that! Not only that, but He has destined me to look like like my oldest brother Jesus! Thank You Lord! Help me Lord, for I know that it is only through Your working in me that I will ever look like Him. This morning I am encouraged that You have made that exact provision and help available to me!
Amen and Amen!
[28] "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."
These are some of those verses that you could think about for a really long time and never fully grasp, for they speak about God's sovereignty. He is so far beyond our human minds and wills that I think it is difficult to even grasp the most minute understanding of His true meaning. We can thank the writers for recording what was put on their hearts, but in no way do the words used completely grasp the infinitude of God's perfect words and purpose.
It seems to me that Paul is trying to correlate God's perspective from outside of time, and understand that within the context of what He had understood about God's purpose and help, His calling and provision within that calling. These verses bring into our minds questions about predestination versus free-will (Gospel of Grace), which seem to be opposites in our human logic, but in God are not. How that works is beyond me, but that both ideas are birthed out of God's word is clear. (For an introduction to this theme - the following link provides an excellent foundation of the discussion , the history and the philosophical underpinnings of this theme - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm#arg )
This morning, my attention was on verse 29, and Paul's statement that we are "predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Jesus). I was thinking about what good news that is, that there is in God's purpose and thus in His provision, a plan and destiny for me that enables me to be conformed into the image of Christ. That is something I greatly desire, and something that I have difficulty doing on my own. In my estimation, I make progress and then slide back into old ways of acting and thinking. However, Paul writes, under the encouragement and direction of the Holy Spirit, that God has predestined me to be confirmed to the image of Christ. Praise God!
I believe this is more than the doctrine of being hidden in Christ, for Paul speaks of us conforming, the Greek word used is Summorphos, and it means to having the same form as another. The word is actually a combination of two words that together speak of a uniting of external appearance. So, as Paul writes we are united in our appearance with the image of Christ Jesus, and this can only happen if we appear like Him in our character, our words and actions, for clearly we do not change our physical appearance to look like Jesus looked. This gives me hope for my on life, as I pursue Christ, that I might one day look like Him reminding people of His character, His actions and His words. While I bear a very similar physical appearance to my Dad, it is my way of speaking, joking and interaction that remind people more of Him. In the same way, I desire that might be said of me concerning Christ, that I might remind people of Him.
In the same way as brothers and sisters in a physical family often resemble one another, Paul writes that this being conformed to the image of Christ Jesus is so that we, and the world, will know that we are His brothers and sisters. Jesus is the first born of many brothers and sisters, all of whom are destined to look like our eldest brother! Wow! That puts a different spin on this familiar, or should I say familial verse. :-)
Paul continues writing about the provision of the Father for this very reality. This looking like Jesus is not something that we can just decide to do, unless of course we choose radical plastic surgery, which only deals with the external features, not our character and behavior. I am reminded of the movie "Shallow Hal" starring Jack Black. The premise of the movie is that he gets cursed to only see the person on the inside, since his shallowness would only allow him to relate to "beautiful" people. After he is cursed, he sees people as their internal character is, and sees beauty where others don't. He falls in love with a very overweight woman who he sees as a beautiful woman. My point is that our insides are what matter and God has made provision for us to look like Jesus on the inside, in our character and in our actions. When God looks at each of us, He sees the image of His Son being developed in us, so that we look just like him. Paul says that "those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." In other words, He has made provision in His Kingdom for us to be like Jesus, we are called, justified, and glorified, all by Him.
The Gospel of Grace is full of this truth! It is God's choice, His determination that accomplished this in our lives. He has determined to include us in His family as His sons and daughters, through His will. There are no mistakes in His family, no accidents of conception. God chose each of us, and has made a way, His way, for us to look just like our oldest brother, Jesus. Clearly we must accept this invitation, for His desire is for loving relationship with sons and daughters, not robots programmed to love Him with no choice of their own. The desire for relationship, the desire to join us to Himself, within His family, is so far beyond our ability to fully grasp! Why would God want me to be His son? I certainly don't have a good answer other than that He loves me.
I know that for each of my children, it doesn't matter what they would ever do or say, I would always love them, because the moment I was aware of their conception, there was in me a love for them that I couldn't understand. When each of them was born, I had this revelation of love unlike anything I had ever experienced. They hadn't done anything and yet the love I had for them in my heart was overwhelming! I remember thinking about my love for each of them, marveling at this incredible connection I already felt with them. Holding them in my arms and just loving them more than anything, I understood that I gladly would lay down my life for them!
I believe that this is exactly the way the Lord loves us, even more so, for His love is eternal! He has had us in His heart since before the creation of the world, and He has made a way for us to join His family as His son or His daughter! He has determined to make this possible, through no effort on our behalf! Just like neither of my children had any ability to make themselves, to create themselves, so also us, in God. Yet, just like my children can choose to be in relationship with me, so I can choose to be in relationship with God. As I said before there is nothing either of my children could ever do to cancel my love for them, so also we have this same opportunity in God. He Loves us, and will always love us! He has made a way for us to be a part of His family. He has chosen us, called us, justified us and plans to glorify us as His sons and daughters! What an awesome opportunity and invitation we have to be in relationship with Him.
So, this morning I am encouraged that God wants me to be apart of His family, and that He has made the way for me to do exactly that! Not only that, but He has destined me to look like like my oldest brother Jesus! Thank You Lord! Help me Lord, for I know that it is only through Your working in me that I will ever look like Him. This morning I am encouraged that You have made that exact provision and help available to me!
Amen and Amen!
Friday, September 1, 2017
For Such A Time As This! An Encouragement to Re-engage!
I had two very interesting dreams this morning, and I believe they are significant to me personally and also to the greater Body of Christ.
In the first dream the situation is a bit strange, but I will try and explain. In my dream it was like I was woke up after a long sleep (multiple years - even decades), and things had changed radically in our society for the better. God had clearly been at work and His Kingdom presence was evident, and all of society (that I saw) was positively affected. It felt like I had been asleep, but I saw that indeed I had been right there all along, but that I had been in a state where my memories didn't register.
An analogy for this would be when you fall asleep in the car, and wake up a few hours later in a completely different state. You were there the whole time, maybe even subconsciously aware of what was happening, but definitely not engaged in either the driving or the conversation. However, when you wake up you are refreshed, and you have benefitted from the driving of someone else and are now much further along than you would have thought.
In the second dream, I was at an international meeting of people who were very active in the Body of Christ. I had been invited and knew most of the people there, and had been in training with many of them. At this meeting the leaders starting calling people out and assigning them new positions and roles, giving them significant new opportunities and callings. I waited patiently for my name to be called, and at the end no one had called my name. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been selected, and was feeling a bit dejected. I had even been used during the event to speak some pretty powerful words to different leaders, and pray for other leaders and the Lord was clearly present in both situations. I was sitting in the back wondering about this all and guy from Europe came over and felt like he should pray for me. He received a sense from the Lord and said, "It isn't so bad that you haven't been chosen for this time." That's where I woke up.
As I sat in bed mulling over these two dreams, I felt like the Lord gave me some insight and completed the message. I felt like He said that in war the great generals win not always by sheer numbers, but by knowing when exactly to deploy their troops and in what areas of the battle to deploy them. They always hold certain troops in reserve, and deploy them at the exact right time, with maximum impact. The strategic deployment of different types of troops, for instance calvary, can completely change the course of the battle.
I understood then that these dreams were a picture of that strategy being played out by the Lord. In the first dream, which was a ministry related dream, I had woken up, or essentially re-engaged after what seemed like many years. God had been moving powerfully the whole time, and I just wasn't aware of His work, but I immediately saw the results upon waking. In the second dream, I was thinking I had been overlooked, but the Lord had a final word and completed the statement of the young man who prayed for me. The Young man said, "It isn't so bad that you haven't been chosen for this time." The Lord added, "Because your day of deployment is fast approaching, and when Your name is called, it will be at the exact right time in the exact right location, and you will be fresh and ready! That is what I mean when I say, 'for such a time as this!'" (For reference this is from Esther 4:14).
So, here is the encouragement for the Body of Christ:
Don't worry if it seems you missed out, or have been disengaged over the last several years. God has been at work and Your day is approaching. For many, it is time to wake and re-engage and rejoin the Body of Christ. For others who have been actively engaged, that time of deployment is right now! For others, the Lord's timing is perfect, and if your time isn't right now, it is because He is holding you in reserve for the perfect time and perfect day to engage. He is the greatest strategist of all time, and His timing is perfect. He hasn't overlooked you, He hasn't forgotten about you, He wants you refreshed and ready for that day. Each of us will have our 'for such a day as this' moment in our lives! So get ready, let the Lord's encouragement speak to you, regardless of your particular situation, and do not lose faith or hope, for He has a perfect plan and you are part of it.
Amen Lord!
In the first dream the situation is a bit strange, but I will try and explain. In my dream it was like I was woke up after a long sleep (multiple years - even decades), and things had changed radically in our society for the better. God had clearly been at work and His Kingdom presence was evident, and all of society (that I saw) was positively affected. It felt like I had been asleep, but I saw that indeed I had been right there all along, but that I had been in a state where my memories didn't register.
An analogy for this would be when you fall asleep in the car, and wake up a few hours later in a completely different state. You were there the whole time, maybe even subconsciously aware of what was happening, but definitely not engaged in either the driving or the conversation. However, when you wake up you are refreshed, and you have benefitted from the driving of someone else and are now much further along than you would have thought.
In the second dream, I was at an international meeting of people who were very active in the Body of Christ. I had been invited and knew most of the people there, and had been in training with many of them. At this meeting the leaders starting calling people out and assigning them new positions and roles, giving them significant new opportunities and callings. I waited patiently for my name to be called, and at the end no one had called my name. I couldn't understand why I hadn't been selected, and was feeling a bit dejected. I had even been used during the event to speak some pretty powerful words to different leaders, and pray for other leaders and the Lord was clearly present in both situations. I was sitting in the back wondering about this all and guy from Europe came over and felt like he should pray for me. He received a sense from the Lord and said, "It isn't so bad that you haven't been chosen for this time." That's where I woke up.
As I sat in bed mulling over these two dreams, I felt like the Lord gave me some insight and completed the message. I felt like He said that in war the great generals win not always by sheer numbers, but by knowing when exactly to deploy their troops and in what areas of the battle to deploy them. They always hold certain troops in reserve, and deploy them at the exact right time, with maximum impact. The strategic deployment of different types of troops, for instance calvary, can completely change the course of the battle.
I understood then that these dreams were a picture of that strategy being played out by the Lord. In the first dream, which was a ministry related dream, I had woken up, or essentially re-engaged after what seemed like many years. God had been moving powerfully the whole time, and I just wasn't aware of His work, but I immediately saw the results upon waking. In the second dream, I was thinking I had been overlooked, but the Lord had a final word and completed the statement of the young man who prayed for me. The Young man said, "It isn't so bad that you haven't been chosen for this time." The Lord added, "Because your day of deployment is fast approaching, and when Your name is called, it will be at the exact right time in the exact right location, and you will be fresh and ready! That is what I mean when I say, 'for such a time as this!'" (For reference this is from Esther 4:14).
So, here is the encouragement for the Body of Christ:
Don't worry if it seems you missed out, or have been disengaged over the last several years. God has been at work and Your day is approaching. For many, it is time to wake and re-engage and rejoin the Body of Christ. For others who have been actively engaged, that time of deployment is right now! For others, the Lord's timing is perfect, and if your time isn't right now, it is because He is holding you in reserve for the perfect time and perfect day to engage. He is the greatest strategist of all time, and His timing is perfect. He hasn't overlooked you, He hasn't forgotten about you, He wants you refreshed and ready for that day. Each of us will have our 'for such a day as this' moment in our lives! So get ready, let the Lord's encouragement speak to you, regardless of your particular situation, and do not lose faith or hope, for He has a perfect plan and you are part of it.
Amen Lord!
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