This morning I am reminded of the famous "Armor of God" scripture from Paul's letter to the Ephesians 6:10-17 NIV:
[10] "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
[11] Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
[12] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
[13] Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
[14] Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
[15] and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
[16] In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
[17] Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
I know there have been many reflections and sermons written about these verses. However, I am just so aware of the truth of these verses. Lately I have been battling and feeling a bit beat up by circumstances outside my control. In that place I tend to feel sorry for myself, and take on a bit of a "woe is me" attitude. One day while recounting to the Lord my worries, I felt like He said, "What are doing sitting there letting the enemy beat up on you? Your are my son, stand up and proclaim my truth over your life!"
I can tell you that instantly my perception of my situation changed and my mind and heart were buoyed up! I realized that I had been sitting there allowing the enemy to beat me up in my mind and in my spirit. I was listening to his accusations against the Lord, and His goodness, and finding that I was agreeing with some of the accusations. What a terrible place to be!
The truth is that I need to learn to be strong in the Lord and in HIS mighty power. I am not strong but He is! I need to put on His armor, and take my stand against the schemes of the enemy! He comes to steal my joy, color my perception and sow division, fear and deception. This is my real battle, and in God I have the right armor and His strength and authority! My job is to stand my ground! I am to hold that which He has won and paid for (me).
His Truth, His promises are to protect me, to guard my soul! His righteousness is to guard my heart! He gives me shoes that allow me to stand firmly in the Gospel of Peace!
As I wrote those words, I was reminded that for any combatant, whether in the boxing ring, on the football field, in the batters box, or on the battlefield, foot work is one the keys to victory. It is our footwork that allows us to maintain our balance, that keeps us from falling, that helps us stay focused on our battle. The Gospel of Peace is what allows this, for God has promised the peace that passes understanding, available to us through the Holy Spirit!
Anyone that regularly fights, needs to know how to get into the zone - where they are not distracted, not caught off guard, or off balance, but totally focused and aware. This may not sound like peace, but I have heard its like everything else just is shut out, and their ability to focus is greatly enhanced, and time seems to slow down. The movies always portray this by having everything get quiet and the object of focus becoming the only thing one sees. It is usually in that place where greatness is remembered and strength and ability are unleashed. That is what peace can bring us in this crazy busy world in which we live!
Next, take up the shield of faith that allows us to block and extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. He is trying to enflame us! He is trying to cause us to be offended, to get angry, to be overcome with fear! The shield of faith, the knowledge that God is in control, that He is the one whose shield and armor you are wearing will enable you to cast aside those fiery arrows.
I need the helmet of salvation to protect my thoughts, to remind me of who I am and the price that has been paid for me! I need to protect my thinking, guarding it and keeping the enemy from having access to a strike a deadly blow. Make no mistake the enemy tries to strike a deadly blow to our minds!
Finally, the Lord gives us the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God! We see Jesus use this mighty weapon during His temptation in the wilderness (See Luke 4:1-12). Oh to be reminded of scripture in the midst of the battle, that we might proclaim the truth and remind the enemy that he is already defeated!
At the end of the day, I just need to remember who I am, and whose I am, and stand on that. I need to remember that I have God's armor to wear, and it doesn't do me any good if I don't wear it!
Amen!
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
New Levels of Awareness and Authority
This morning I am reflecting on some verses from Mark's Gospel, the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. It has always been a story that interested me, but this morning the last verses are what caught my attention. Here are the verses - Mark 7:24-30 NIV:
[24] "Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. [25] In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. [26] The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
[27] “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.”
[28] “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
[29] Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
[30] She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone."
What struck me this morning was the awareness Jesus had of the demonic presence, and how He knew it had left the daughter without ever visiting her, praying for her or even seeing her. This seems to me to be a whole new level of Spiritual Authority and intimacy being demonstrated by Jesus. We know of the instance with the Centurion's servant as well, who was healed from a distance (Matt 8:5-13).
Often times when I read these stories, I just think they are normal because Jesus is the Son of God, and of course He would be able to do these things. What I just don't keep fresh in my mind always is that Jesus had voluntarily emptied Himself of His Divinity (Phil 2:6-8), and came as a humble man. He wasn't operating in His divine nature here, instead He was demonstrating the power of obedience and hearing God the Father, and operating a simply a man. In this case we can say He was demonstrating to us what is possible for us to do. That is certainly beyond my present experience.
We certainly believe God can answer prayers, and that we don't need to be present to the person for whom we are praying, so that is not surprising , but what caught my eye was His sureness that the demon had fled and His clear authority. He knew the demon was gone and proclaimed it. He wasn't hoping, He wasn't proclaiming something, for the sake of proclaiming it, He knew.
Lord, there is clearly a whole level of stuff I am not even aware of in my life. When I pray for someone, I usually am hopeful, sometimes expectant and even at times confident, but never to the point that I know exactly what has happened and why. Lord, I am encouraged that this level of awareness and intimacy is surely possible for each of us. I am encouraged that You called us to do the same and greater still (John 14:12). I am encouraged that I am not limited to my natural and actual setting, but able to effectively minister even at a distance. Lord I pray that You would help me to grow in my understanding and intimacy that I might walk in this level of spiritual awareness and authority.
Amen!
[24] "Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. [25] In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. [26] The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
[27] “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.”
[28] “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
[29] Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
[30] She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone."
What struck me this morning was the awareness Jesus had of the demonic presence, and how He knew it had left the daughter without ever visiting her, praying for her or even seeing her. This seems to me to be a whole new level of Spiritual Authority and intimacy being demonstrated by Jesus. We know of the instance with the Centurion's servant as well, who was healed from a distance (Matt 8:5-13).
Often times when I read these stories, I just think they are normal because Jesus is the Son of God, and of course He would be able to do these things. What I just don't keep fresh in my mind always is that Jesus had voluntarily emptied Himself of His Divinity (Phil 2:6-8), and came as a humble man. He wasn't operating in His divine nature here, instead He was demonstrating the power of obedience and hearing God the Father, and operating a simply a man. In this case we can say He was demonstrating to us what is possible for us to do. That is certainly beyond my present experience.
We certainly believe God can answer prayers, and that we don't need to be present to the person for whom we are praying, so that is not surprising , but what caught my eye was His sureness that the demon had fled and His clear authority. He knew the demon was gone and proclaimed it. He wasn't hoping, He wasn't proclaiming something, for the sake of proclaiming it, He knew.
Lord, there is clearly a whole level of stuff I am not even aware of in my life. When I pray for someone, I usually am hopeful, sometimes expectant and even at times confident, but never to the point that I know exactly what has happened and why. Lord, I am encouraged that this level of awareness and intimacy is surely possible for each of us. I am encouraged that You called us to do the same and greater still (John 14:12). I am encouraged that I am not limited to my natural and actual setting, but able to effectively minister even at a distance. Lord I pray that You would help me to grow in my understanding and intimacy that I might walk in this level of spiritual awareness and authority.
Amen!
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Love, Faith and Brokenness
This morning I have been thinking back over some reading I have been doing lately on Theology and Disability, which is a very interesting topic. It forces one to look at our faith and our beliefs and evaluate them in light of God's presence and desire for relationship with all of us, even with those who are severely limited cognitively (in our modern ideas of cognitive abilities) or significantly disabled. I have discovered some excellent books and am working through them, but I can quickly summarize that for all authors that I have read so far, they point to relationship as the core aspect of faith, relationship with God and relationships with each other. This has long been my understanding of faith and it is my belief that relationships are key to the Kingdom of God, and that which is most valuable to God. However, I also realized that my thinking was relatively limited to my own experience and my own educational and life purpose paradigms, and I had never really spent any time thinking about how my paradigms of faith could be applied to those that we would label severely disabled. I am very grateful for the opportunity to expand my thinking and my understanding of the Lord's heart.
It is clear that the Lord loves us all! Regardless of our abilities, our gifts, our lives, our sin or our present thinking, He loves us. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans 5:8 NIV: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The love of God is previous, it has existed since before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4-6) and is unaffected by our behavior or abilities. His love is our greatest gift and the foundation of our existence.
It is within this context of love that we must understand our life and our own uniqueness. It is also in this context of love that we should view our interactions with each other. One of the authors I read recently talks of our ability to love as being our primary witness to God within us. He describes how this ability and natural propensity to love is the one thing we all possess and are all able to participate in, regardless of our gifts and abilities. It is within this context that our faith must find its meaning and definition. Jesus described it quite simply - we are called to love God (Matt 22:37) and love one another as He loved us (John 13:34).
One of the thing that each of the authors has highlighted is that in coming to Earth, and humbling Himself to being fully man, Jesus completely understands our human weakness and frailty. In fact, in allowing Himself to beaten and crucified, He embraces weakness and brokenness at a level that is completely opposite of what we would think and all-powerful God would ever do. There is something in His brokenness and humility, His being stripped naked and beaten, His own abilities and gifts nailed to the cross that expresses God's love and character like nothing else could.
We like to think of God as all powerful, sitting on His throne, and this is true, but His primary revelation of Himself and His heart is seen in Jesus, in His humility, love, mercy, compassion and brokenness. This is so true that after His resurrection, Jesus still bore the wounds to His Body, symbolizing the depth of His love and His own nature embracing brokenness. We tend to not want to embrace the idea of a wounded God, a broken savior, and yet it was those wounds and brokenness that bought us complete redemption (Isaiah 53). Paul writes the following in his letter to the Philippians 3:10 NIV: "I want to know Christ---yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,..." Paul recognized that in the depth of God's love for us, we find a suffering Christ, and he wanted to know this overwhelming mystery of God's love.
So this morning, I am encouraged to look at my faith, to recognize that there is more that I must understand and embrace, and some of that is found in uncomfortable places of suffering and brokenness. I am encouraged to look to love, to express love and to embrace love for God and love for all as the primary means of communicating my faith. God Loves me, and I am overoyed that is the case. God loves each of us, and that should be my witness in my life, words and actions.
Amen!
It is clear that the Lord loves us all! Regardless of our abilities, our gifts, our lives, our sin or our present thinking, He loves us. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans 5:8 NIV: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The love of God is previous, it has existed since before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4-6) and is unaffected by our behavior or abilities. His love is our greatest gift and the foundation of our existence.
It is within this context of love that we must understand our life and our own uniqueness. It is also in this context of love that we should view our interactions with each other. One of the authors I read recently talks of our ability to love as being our primary witness to God within us. He describes how this ability and natural propensity to love is the one thing we all possess and are all able to participate in, regardless of our gifts and abilities. It is within this context that our faith must find its meaning and definition. Jesus described it quite simply - we are called to love God (Matt 22:37) and love one another as He loved us (John 13:34).
One of the thing that each of the authors has highlighted is that in coming to Earth, and humbling Himself to being fully man, Jesus completely understands our human weakness and frailty. In fact, in allowing Himself to beaten and crucified, He embraces weakness and brokenness at a level that is completely opposite of what we would think and all-powerful God would ever do. There is something in His brokenness and humility, His being stripped naked and beaten, His own abilities and gifts nailed to the cross that expresses God's love and character like nothing else could.
We like to think of God as all powerful, sitting on His throne, and this is true, but His primary revelation of Himself and His heart is seen in Jesus, in His humility, love, mercy, compassion and brokenness. This is so true that after His resurrection, Jesus still bore the wounds to His Body, symbolizing the depth of His love and His own nature embracing brokenness. We tend to not want to embrace the idea of a wounded God, a broken savior, and yet it was those wounds and brokenness that bought us complete redemption (Isaiah 53). Paul writes the following in his letter to the Philippians 3:10 NIV: "I want to know Christ---yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,..." Paul recognized that in the depth of God's love for us, we find a suffering Christ, and he wanted to know this overwhelming mystery of God's love.
So this morning, I am encouraged to look at my faith, to recognize that there is more that I must understand and embrace, and some of that is found in uncomfortable places of suffering and brokenness. I am encouraged to look to love, to express love and to embrace love for God and love for all as the primary means of communicating my faith. God Loves me, and I am overoyed that is the case. God loves each of us, and that should be my witness in my life, words and actions.
Amen!
Thursday, July 26, 2018
The Kingdom Comes in Power!
This morning I am meditating on a few verses from the end of the eighth chapter of Mark's Gospel, and the beginning of chapter nine. Here are the verses -
Mark 8:34-38 NIV:
[34] "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. [35] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. [36] What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? [37] Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? [38] If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”
Mark 9:1 NIV
And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
I wanted to focus on the verse from chapter nine, but I think it is always important to understand the context in which Jesus was speaking. In this case he was speaking to a crowd of people who were desiring to follow Him, and was speaking of the the cost of that discipleship. It is within that context that His comment about the kingdom of God coming in power is spoken. He isn't speaking about the end of the age here, but rather is referencing the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in power at Pentecost.
I find it interesting that Jesus references an experience of the Kingdom coming in power in light of the fact that he had been already ministering in power and authority. In the few preceding chapters to this statement in Mark's Gospel, Jesus had healed blindness, the deaf, fed four thousand, fed five thousand, and walked on water. It seems to me that Jesus is pointing to a significant increase in power. He had already sent out the 12 and they had ministered healing, deliverance and miracles, and yet this was going to be greater than that, and I believe He was clearly referencing the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).
I believe it is also important that we not separate Mark 9:1 from Mark 8:34-38, for without it, the teaching of "taking up one's cross daily" just sounds tortuous! There is certainly self-denial in the Kingdom, but it is supposed to balanced by a release of power. As I was just reflecting on these verses, it seemed to me that Jesus was describing a journey of transformation. We start by deciding to follow Him, secondly we learn that not everything in us, fits with Him and we must choose to let those parts go (deny oneself). Third we invest ourselves in representing Him and representing the Gospel. Fourth, we stand our ground in the face of persecution and trial. Fifth, we receive real power, and see to the expansion of the Kingdom of God, for what else would that power be for?
I thought that there is some parallels to what Jesus is describing and the basic training regimen that people go through in joining one of this nation's armed forces. Boot camp is all about transformation and learning to deny oneself to follow directions. There is a breaking down of individuality to take on a more unified and communal perspective and outlook.
In this case, as described by Jesus, we have eternal reward and our souls profit, and that is a great blessing and privilege. However, it doesn't stop there, but instead is meant to be empowered by the Power of the Holy Spirit. This is greater than what Jesus had already demonstrated, so much so that He felt required to mention it. I am reminded of Jesus' words found in John 14, where He speaks of the greater things we would do in His name - John 14:10-12 NIV:
[10] "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
Amen! Lord we want to see the Kingdom of God coming in power!
Mark 8:34-38 NIV:
[34] "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. [35] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. [36] What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? [37] Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? [38] If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”
Mark 9:1 NIV
And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
I wanted to focus on the verse from chapter nine, but I think it is always important to understand the context in which Jesus was speaking. In this case he was speaking to a crowd of people who were desiring to follow Him, and was speaking of the the cost of that discipleship. It is within that context that His comment about the kingdom of God coming in power is spoken. He isn't speaking about the end of the age here, but rather is referencing the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in power at Pentecost.
I find it interesting that Jesus references an experience of the Kingdom coming in power in light of the fact that he had been already ministering in power and authority. In the few preceding chapters to this statement in Mark's Gospel, Jesus had healed blindness, the deaf, fed four thousand, fed five thousand, and walked on water. It seems to me that Jesus is pointing to a significant increase in power. He had already sent out the 12 and they had ministered healing, deliverance and miracles, and yet this was going to be greater than that, and I believe He was clearly referencing the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).
I believe it is also important that we not separate Mark 9:1 from Mark 8:34-38, for without it, the teaching of "taking up one's cross daily" just sounds tortuous! There is certainly self-denial in the Kingdom, but it is supposed to balanced by a release of power. As I was just reflecting on these verses, it seemed to me that Jesus was describing a journey of transformation. We start by deciding to follow Him, secondly we learn that not everything in us, fits with Him and we must choose to let those parts go (deny oneself). Third we invest ourselves in representing Him and representing the Gospel. Fourth, we stand our ground in the face of persecution and trial. Fifth, we receive real power, and see to the expansion of the Kingdom of God, for what else would that power be for?
I thought that there is some parallels to what Jesus is describing and the basic training regimen that people go through in joining one of this nation's armed forces. Boot camp is all about transformation and learning to deny oneself to follow directions. There is a breaking down of individuality to take on a more unified and communal perspective and outlook.
In this case, as described by Jesus, we have eternal reward and our souls profit, and that is a great blessing and privilege. However, it doesn't stop there, but instead is meant to be empowered by the Power of the Holy Spirit. This is greater than what Jesus had already demonstrated, so much so that He felt required to mention it. I am reminded of Jesus' words found in John 14, where He speaks of the greater things we would do in His name - John 14:10-12 NIV:
[10] "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
Amen! Lord we want to see the Kingdom of God coming in power!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Shut the Door on Your Past
On Saturday morning I was listening to Bill Johnson speak and he quoted two different scriptures when discussing our need to put our past in right perspective. They are from Romans 8, and 1 Corinthians 3 - as follows:
Romans 8:37-39 NASB:
[37] "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
1 Corinthians 3:21-23 NASB:
[21] "So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, [23] and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God."
Reading these verses carefully, the thing missing from both lists is the past. It is interesting, especially if we are to read into the verses from Paul to the Corinthians, all things belong to us today and into the future, but the past apparently does not belong to us. If we look at the list of things that are listed as not being able to separate us from the Love of God, again the past is left off of the list. The question is why?
We can gain some wisdom regarding this from 2 Peter 1:5-9 NIV:
[5] "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; [6] and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; [7] and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. [8] For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."
In Christ, our past has been paid for, our sins have been expunged, our wounds have been healed. It is the application of these truths that must occur, or as Peter indicates, we need to remember these truths. Each day we have fresh mercies, a new start with the Lord, and as we ask forgiveness for our sins and wrong ways the Lord, forgives us completely.
Regarding this forgiveness, a couple of verses come to mind -
Isaiah 1:18 NIV: “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV: "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Psalm 103:10-12 NIV: "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. [11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; [12] as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
These are such great verses to meditate upon and allow the truth to settle deep into our hearts. The Lord (in Isaiah 1) wants to settle the matter. In other words, it is finished, it is completed, it has been paid for by the Lord. In His view, these are true. We need to get His view into our mind and hearts. He does not hold our sins against us, so why should we?
The enemy tries to convince us that these truths are false. He tries to get us to hold onto our pasts, to live in the shame and regret of things we did or didn't do. These are all in the past, and if they would be considered sin, they are forgive and the matter is settled. We can't change the past, it is settled. We can learn from the past and do better next time. In God's perspective, we have been forgiven, cleansed, paid for, healed, and loved.
It is like each day we are given a new clean robe to wear. The enemy tries to get us to put on the old stained and torn one. He wants us to think of ourselves before God from the point of view of our sin, and the whole while God is looking at us as His sons and daughters. Psalm 103 above is a great example of this - as the Psalmist writes from a point of reference knowing his sinfulness and his iniquities, yet realizing that God DOESN'T treat us as one would expect. Instead of punishment he experiences great love and forgiveness. This is true for us all.
In the same way we are forgiven, the Lord calls us to forgive those that have sinned against us. I think this is for a couple of reasons. First, we are invited to model forgiveness so that we can understand the Lord's forgiveness towards us. Second, forgiveness provides us a path to freedom and healing in Him. Third, unforgiveness keeps us living in the past, not able to move forward and not stepping into the things that belong to us, the present and future. We can't move effectively forward if we are always looking backwards. We can move forward somewhat, but not effectively. Forgiveness allows us to step beyond our past and move forward into our present and future.
The Lord wants to have us to shut the door on our past, and move on. As Paul says in his letter to the Philippians 3:13-14 NIV: "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."
Our future, and our present are what belong to us. Let us step into them with an understanding of the great gift of forgiveness and love that the Lord has poured upon us. Let us step into this new day with our new clean robe, washed clean by the Lord!
Amen!
Romans 8:37-39 NASB:
[37] "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
1 Corinthians 3:21-23 NASB:
[21] "So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, [23] and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God."
Reading these verses carefully, the thing missing from both lists is the past. It is interesting, especially if we are to read into the verses from Paul to the Corinthians, all things belong to us today and into the future, but the past apparently does not belong to us. If we look at the list of things that are listed as not being able to separate us from the Love of God, again the past is left off of the list. The question is why?
We can gain some wisdom regarding this from 2 Peter 1:5-9 NIV:
[5] "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; [6] and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; [7] and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. [8] For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."
In Christ, our past has been paid for, our sins have been expunged, our wounds have been healed. It is the application of these truths that must occur, or as Peter indicates, we need to remember these truths. Each day we have fresh mercies, a new start with the Lord, and as we ask forgiveness for our sins and wrong ways the Lord, forgives us completely.
Regarding this forgiveness, a couple of verses come to mind -
Isaiah 1:18 NIV: “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV: "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. [5] But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Psalm 103:10-12 NIV: "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. [11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; [12] as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
These are such great verses to meditate upon and allow the truth to settle deep into our hearts. The Lord (in Isaiah 1) wants to settle the matter. In other words, it is finished, it is completed, it has been paid for by the Lord. In His view, these are true. We need to get His view into our mind and hearts. He does not hold our sins against us, so why should we?
The enemy tries to convince us that these truths are false. He tries to get us to hold onto our pasts, to live in the shame and regret of things we did or didn't do. These are all in the past, and if they would be considered sin, they are forgive and the matter is settled. We can't change the past, it is settled. We can learn from the past and do better next time. In God's perspective, we have been forgiven, cleansed, paid for, healed, and loved.
It is like each day we are given a new clean robe to wear. The enemy tries to get us to put on the old stained and torn one. He wants us to think of ourselves before God from the point of view of our sin, and the whole while God is looking at us as His sons and daughters. Psalm 103 above is a great example of this - as the Psalmist writes from a point of reference knowing his sinfulness and his iniquities, yet realizing that God DOESN'T treat us as one would expect. Instead of punishment he experiences great love and forgiveness. This is true for us all.
In the same way we are forgiven, the Lord calls us to forgive those that have sinned against us. I think this is for a couple of reasons. First, we are invited to model forgiveness so that we can understand the Lord's forgiveness towards us. Second, forgiveness provides us a path to freedom and healing in Him. Third, unforgiveness keeps us living in the past, not able to move forward and not stepping into the things that belong to us, the present and future. We can't move effectively forward if we are always looking backwards. We can move forward somewhat, but not effectively. Forgiveness allows us to step beyond our past and move forward into our present and future.
The Lord wants to have us to shut the door on our past, and move on. As Paul says in his letter to the Philippians 3:13-14 NIV: "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."
Our future, and our present are what belong to us. Let us step into them with an understanding of the great gift of forgiveness and love that the Lord has poured upon us. Let us step into this new day with our new clean robe, washed clean by the Lord!
Amen!
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Q & A - Who Do You Say I Am??
This morning I was again reflecting on a question and answer session between Jesus and the Pharisees, this one found in Mark 11:27-33 NIV:
[27] They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. [28] “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
[29] Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. [30] John's baptism---was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”
[31] They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' [32] But if we say, 'Of human origin' ” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
[33] So they answered Jesus, “We don't know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
As I was reflecting on these verses, I was not so focused on the trap they were trying lay for Jesus, but rather was thinking about Jesus and his merciful response. So often I read about Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees, and I always think they were contentious and that Jesus was hammering on them, but the more I have reflected on Jesus, I just don't get that sense any more. Instead I tend to see His heart for them, and the invitation He gives them to change the way they are thinking.
It is true that they were looking for ways to trap Him, looking to ensnare Him in such a way as to be able to arrest Him and kill Him, but I just don't think Jesus was that concerned by that threat. Instead, I think His response was always loving and merciful. In this case, He turns their question into a question for them to consider. They were at a decision point, where if they chose correctly they would have realized that He was the Messiah. If they chose to believe John was from God, then they would have had to believe that He was the one that John was preparing the way for, the Messiah. They knew scripture, they knew the passages from Isaiah 40:3 speaking of the one in the wilderness crying "prepare the way for the Lord." Jesus was giving them the opportunity to repent! He was ready to tell them the truth, if they would have chosen to believe. They had the choice, they saw it clearly before them, and they chose to deny Him.
I think that most of the time this is how He leads us as well. The question is always a variant of the following verse - Matthew 16:15 NIV: “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” When we receive this question from the Lord, He is always giving us the opportunity to draw nearer to Him, to change the way we think, to repent in our thinking and recognize His truth! He loves us and wants us to see Him for who He is, and to see who we are in Him!
For example, when we are confronted by difficult circumstances, we have the choice to believe that He is our provider, that He is faithful, that He is all powerful, and that He is sovereign, or not. Our choice affects our relationship with Him, we either go deeper and entrust ourselves to Him at a deeper level, or we deny or doubt Him or His characteristics and turn to something else. We may not see the choice as clearly as that, but if we distill our thoughts down, that is what we are deciding.
He either is God, or He isn't. His Word is either true or it isn't. There really isn't any in-between options. He isn't mostly powerful, mostly faithful, and sometimes our provider. Somehow we convince ourselves that is the case though, when we choose to believe otherwise. I love the fact that Jesus is never surprised by our struggle, nor only willing to give us one chance. I love that He is always merciful, and compassionate and loving! He came to reveal the Father to us, and He continues to do that every day! He wants us to be in relationship with Him and wants to remove anything that is impinging our faith and experience of His faithfulness and blessings.
So today, I am encouraged to see the opportunity in my circumstances to answer the question, "who do I say He is?" Every time I am confronted with that question I know there is an opportunity to go deeper in relationship and revelation of Him!
[27] They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. [28] “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
[29] Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. [30] John's baptism---was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”
[31] They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' [32] But if we say, 'Of human origin' ” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
[33] So they answered Jesus, “We don't know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
As I was reflecting on these verses, I was not so focused on the trap they were trying lay for Jesus, but rather was thinking about Jesus and his merciful response. So often I read about Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees, and I always think they were contentious and that Jesus was hammering on them, but the more I have reflected on Jesus, I just don't get that sense any more. Instead I tend to see His heart for them, and the invitation He gives them to change the way they are thinking.
It is true that they were looking for ways to trap Him, looking to ensnare Him in such a way as to be able to arrest Him and kill Him, but I just don't think Jesus was that concerned by that threat. Instead, I think His response was always loving and merciful. In this case, He turns their question into a question for them to consider. They were at a decision point, where if they chose correctly they would have realized that He was the Messiah. If they chose to believe John was from God, then they would have had to believe that He was the one that John was preparing the way for, the Messiah. They knew scripture, they knew the passages from Isaiah 40:3 speaking of the one in the wilderness crying "prepare the way for the Lord." Jesus was giving them the opportunity to repent! He was ready to tell them the truth, if they would have chosen to believe. They had the choice, they saw it clearly before them, and they chose to deny Him.
I think that most of the time this is how He leads us as well. The question is always a variant of the following verse - Matthew 16:15 NIV: “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” When we receive this question from the Lord, He is always giving us the opportunity to draw nearer to Him, to change the way we think, to repent in our thinking and recognize His truth! He loves us and wants us to see Him for who He is, and to see who we are in Him!
For example, when we are confronted by difficult circumstances, we have the choice to believe that He is our provider, that He is faithful, that He is all powerful, and that He is sovereign, or not. Our choice affects our relationship with Him, we either go deeper and entrust ourselves to Him at a deeper level, or we deny or doubt Him or His characteristics and turn to something else. We may not see the choice as clearly as that, but if we distill our thoughts down, that is what we are deciding.
He either is God, or He isn't. His Word is either true or it isn't. There really isn't any in-between options. He isn't mostly powerful, mostly faithful, and sometimes our provider. Somehow we convince ourselves that is the case though, when we choose to believe otherwise. I love the fact that Jesus is never surprised by our struggle, nor only willing to give us one chance. I love that He is always merciful, and compassionate and loving! He came to reveal the Father to us, and He continues to do that every day! He wants us to be in relationship with Him and wants to remove anything that is impinging our faith and experience of His faithfulness and blessings.
So today, I am encouraged to see the opportunity in my circumstances to answer the question, "who do I say He is?" Every time I am confronted with that question I know there is an opportunity to go deeper in relationship and revelation of Him!
Monday, July 16, 2018
A Life of Heavenly Affluence
This morning I am reflecting on a couple of amazing verses from Paul's letter to the church in Galatia. Here are the verses - Galatians 4:4-7 NIV:
[4] "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship [daughtership]. [6] Because you are his sons [and daughters], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba , Father.” [7] So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."
This is one of those verses that it would be good to read over and over again until the reality of it settled into our hearts! We are God's sons and daughters! He loves us like a Daddy! He desires a Father / son or Father / daughter relationship with us. REALLY!!!
In fact, He loves us so much that He made us an heir, as in, He wrote us into His will! We will inherit eternal Life! (Matt 19:29) Even better this is not just limited to the end of our life, but we get to experience this life even now! What heir or heiress of a billionaire, lives out their lives in basic poverty here in the natural, on earth in our day? If we think about the Walton Family whose father founded Wal-Mart, they all lived lives of significant affluence even before their father passed away. In the same way, every rich family I know of, the heirs are living lives of affluence even before they inherit their main inheritance, after their parents pass away. If earthly parents understand how to bless their children and heirs, how much wore does the Father!
I am reminded of a couple of verses from Luke 11:9-13 NIV: “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!”
I am so encouraged to ask for more this morning - more faith, more power from the Holy Spirit, more authority, more encouragement, more opportunities, more understanding, more hearing, more of Jesus in my life! I am encouraged that the Father wants me to live a live of eternal affluence, even now! I was just wanting to make sure I was using the appropriate noun, so looked up the definition of affluence from Websters:
1 a : an abundant flow or supply : profusion
b : abundance of property : wealth
2 : a flowing to or toward a point : influx
1a: Think Holy Spirit!
b: Think Spiritual Gifts and fruit of the Spirit, and general fruitfulness in the Kingdom
2: Think of the lost, the lonely, the unsaved - all of this Holy Spirit empowered eternal life has been given to us to flow out of us to the them!
I am reminded of Jesus' words to the woman at the well in Samaria, "Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." (John 7:38-39 NIV).
Amen! Father, I ask for more that Your river of life, the living water would flow out of me! Help me learn to live a life of heavenly affluence here and now!
[4] "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship [daughtership]. [6] Because you are his sons [and daughters], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba , Father.” [7] So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."
This is one of those verses that it would be good to read over and over again until the reality of it settled into our hearts! We are God's sons and daughters! He loves us like a Daddy! He desires a Father / son or Father / daughter relationship with us. REALLY!!!
In fact, He loves us so much that He made us an heir, as in, He wrote us into His will! We will inherit eternal Life! (Matt 19:29) Even better this is not just limited to the end of our life, but we get to experience this life even now! What heir or heiress of a billionaire, lives out their lives in basic poverty here in the natural, on earth in our day? If we think about the Walton Family whose father founded Wal-Mart, they all lived lives of significant affluence even before their father passed away. In the same way, every rich family I know of, the heirs are living lives of affluence even before they inherit their main inheritance, after their parents pass away. If earthly parents understand how to bless their children and heirs, how much wore does the Father!
I am reminded of a couple of verses from Luke 11:9-13 NIV: “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!”
I am so encouraged to ask for more this morning - more faith, more power from the Holy Spirit, more authority, more encouragement, more opportunities, more understanding, more hearing, more of Jesus in my life! I am encouraged that the Father wants me to live a live of eternal affluence, even now! I was just wanting to make sure I was using the appropriate noun, so looked up the definition of affluence from Websters:
1 a : an abundant flow or supply : profusion
b : abundance of property : wealth
2 : a flowing to or toward a point : influx
1a: Think Holy Spirit!
b: Think Spiritual Gifts and fruit of the Spirit, and general fruitfulness in the Kingdom
2: Think of the lost, the lonely, the unsaved - all of this Holy Spirit empowered eternal life has been given to us to flow out of us to the them!
I am reminded of Jesus' words to the woman at the well in Samaria, "Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." (John 7:38-39 NIV).
Amen! Father, I ask for more that Your river of life, the living water would flow out of me! Help me learn to live a life of heavenly affluence here and now!
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Our Questions Allow Jesus to Speak to Our Hearts!
Yesterday I was reflecting on some verses from Mark's Gospel where the Pharisees ask Jesus a question and He answers in a way that they were not expecting. Today I am reflecting on another question and answer session, this time recounted in Matthew's Gospel and the story of a rich young man. Here are the verses - Matthew 19:16-26 NIV:
[16] "Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life ?”
[17] “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
[18] “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “ 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, [19] honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' ”
[20] “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
[21] Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
[22] When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
[23] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
[25] When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
[26] Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
This is such a powerful and simple interaction. It is recorded by Mark, and Luke as well, so it must have been one of the many key teachings, and memories of the Apostles. I would like to add one verse from Mark's Gospel, because I think it is important in understanding this exchange. Here is the verse - Mark 10:21 NIV: "Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
I believe it is very important to understand that Jesus' motivation in this interchange was love and the invitation was to intimacy with Him. In fact, this is always Jesus motivation in every single interaction we have with Him! He loves us, and will always love us, and always wants relationship with us! To receive anything from Jesus in any other understanding is wrong, His only motivation is Love (John 3:16-17). It was love that drove Him to come to earth and love that caused Him to endure the cross. It is Love that motivates Jesus in all his dealings with us.
Back to the story, the first thing to note is that the individual coming to Jesus was not a proud and self-righteous Pharisee, but rather a rich young man. Luke adds that He was a ruler (Luke 18:18). He came to Jesus asking a question not in judgment, but in sincere desire to do better. His focus was eternal life, and he had come to the right place - for Jesus holds the Key to eternal life, at the Father's direction. Jesus speaks of this in John 17:2-3 NIV:
[2] "For you (The Father) granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. [3] Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
Jesus deals gently with this young man, drawing Him into deeper conversation and inviting him to relationship with Him, for we can certainly understand verse 21 as that invitation. I think that many times people get so caught up in the first part of that statement "go, sell your possessions..." that they miss the second part (recorded in Mark 10:21) of Jesus' invitation to follow Him (implied here in Matthew's retelling. Jesus is expressing love towards this young man, and is once again extending the invitation to relationship, and literally making the same offer that He does in Matthew 11:28-30 NIV: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is offering the young man a way to release his burdens, those things that wear him down, but the young man has too much at stake, in his own heart, too much identity wrapped up in his wealth. Jesus offers the invitation that will set him free of all those bonds, and His motivation is love and desire for relationship. Jesus saw in this man the things that limited his pursuit of God, and showed him what was in his (Young man's) heart. He gave the young man the opportunity to repent, to change the way he thought and acted, but the young man was unable to take that step forward.
Jesus, in His following statements (verses 23-26) was expressing His understanding of the young man's plight, and I don't think He was judging the rich, only identifying the difficulty they have in stepping free of the bonds of responsibility and greed that can so easily ensnare us. I love the fact that Jesus finishes this with one of His most significant statements - "with God all things are possible!" This is so important for us to grasp, God is beyond capable, He is arguably the only one who is truly capable!
Although we don't hear anymore about this young man, as far as we know, I like to think that this was not the one and only encounter between Jesus and him. I am sure Jesus' words stayed with the young man for the rest of his earthly life. Maybe his name was Zaccheaus?? Whatever his future, you can be sure that he saw life differently after this encounter with Jesus. That is how Jesus draws us and leads us with His gentle touch. He is always wanting to lead us in deeper paths of relational intimacy, as well as to freedom from those things that bind us up.
I find it interesting that Jesus only went down this path once the man asked his second question, "What do I still lack?"(Matt 17:20) As I mentioned yesterday, if we ask Jesus a question we can be sure He will answer, but He might answer in ways we don't want Him to answer. The young man was probably thinking of some additional task he could do, and instead Jesus totally switched it up and went for his heart. Jesus doesn't just want platitudes and offers and intentions to do good, He actually wants to see us become more like Him in words and deeds, in faith and love! I think in some ways Jesus' answer to pretty much any question is going to be the same, 'come follow me". To respond to this invitation is a daily decision on our part. This is not like the French foreign legion where once you say yes they own you, instead, we get to make our decision every single day, even multiple times every day. Our choice to follow Him must be re-upped every day, and we must choose to step free of the things He shows us that still bind us.
Jesus understands that this invitation can be a struggle for many of us. He understands our weak nature. He loves us patiently, and always provides us as many chances as we need to change our lives! With our own will it is impossible to fully embrace His invitation, but with Him all things are possible!
Thank You Lord for Your loving invitation! Thank You for understanding us and helping us! Thank You for making the impossible in our grasp!
Amen!
[16] "Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life ?”
[17] “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
[18] “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “ 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, [19] honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' ”
[20] “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
[21] Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
[22] When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
[23] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
[25] When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
[26] Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
This is such a powerful and simple interaction. It is recorded by Mark, and Luke as well, so it must have been one of the many key teachings, and memories of the Apostles. I would like to add one verse from Mark's Gospel, because I think it is important in understanding this exchange. Here is the verse - Mark 10:21 NIV: "Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
I believe it is very important to understand that Jesus' motivation in this interchange was love and the invitation was to intimacy with Him. In fact, this is always Jesus motivation in every single interaction we have with Him! He loves us, and will always love us, and always wants relationship with us! To receive anything from Jesus in any other understanding is wrong, His only motivation is Love (John 3:16-17). It was love that drove Him to come to earth and love that caused Him to endure the cross. It is Love that motivates Jesus in all his dealings with us.
Back to the story, the first thing to note is that the individual coming to Jesus was not a proud and self-righteous Pharisee, but rather a rich young man. Luke adds that He was a ruler (Luke 18:18). He came to Jesus asking a question not in judgment, but in sincere desire to do better. His focus was eternal life, and he had come to the right place - for Jesus holds the Key to eternal life, at the Father's direction. Jesus speaks of this in John 17:2-3 NIV:
[2] "For you (The Father) granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. [3] Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
Jesus deals gently with this young man, drawing Him into deeper conversation and inviting him to relationship with Him, for we can certainly understand verse 21 as that invitation. I think that many times people get so caught up in the first part of that statement "go, sell your possessions..." that they miss the second part (recorded in Mark 10:21) of Jesus' invitation to follow Him (implied here in Matthew's retelling. Jesus is expressing love towards this young man, and is once again extending the invitation to relationship, and literally making the same offer that He does in Matthew 11:28-30 NIV: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He is offering the young man a way to release his burdens, those things that wear him down, but the young man has too much at stake, in his own heart, too much identity wrapped up in his wealth. Jesus offers the invitation that will set him free of all those bonds, and His motivation is love and desire for relationship. Jesus saw in this man the things that limited his pursuit of God, and showed him what was in his (Young man's) heart. He gave the young man the opportunity to repent, to change the way he thought and acted, but the young man was unable to take that step forward.
Jesus, in His following statements (verses 23-26) was expressing His understanding of the young man's plight, and I don't think He was judging the rich, only identifying the difficulty they have in stepping free of the bonds of responsibility and greed that can so easily ensnare us. I love the fact that Jesus finishes this with one of His most significant statements - "with God all things are possible!" This is so important for us to grasp, God is beyond capable, He is arguably the only one who is truly capable!
Although we don't hear anymore about this young man, as far as we know, I like to think that this was not the one and only encounter between Jesus and him. I am sure Jesus' words stayed with the young man for the rest of his earthly life. Maybe his name was Zaccheaus?? Whatever his future, you can be sure that he saw life differently after this encounter with Jesus. That is how Jesus draws us and leads us with His gentle touch. He is always wanting to lead us in deeper paths of relational intimacy, as well as to freedom from those things that bind us up.
I find it interesting that Jesus only went down this path once the man asked his second question, "What do I still lack?"(Matt 17:20) As I mentioned yesterday, if we ask Jesus a question we can be sure He will answer, but He might answer in ways we don't want Him to answer. The young man was probably thinking of some additional task he could do, and instead Jesus totally switched it up and went for his heart. Jesus doesn't just want platitudes and offers and intentions to do good, He actually wants to see us become more like Him in words and deeds, in faith and love! I think in some ways Jesus' answer to pretty much any question is going to be the same, 'come follow me". To respond to this invitation is a daily decision on our part. This is not like the French foreign legion where once you say yes they own you, instead, we get to make our decision every single day, even multiple times every day. Our choice to follow Him must be re-upped every day, and we must choose to step free of the things He shows us that still bind us.
Jesus understands that this invitation can be a struggle for many of us. He understands our weak nature. He loves us patiently, and always provides us as many chances as we need to change our lives! With our own will it is impossible to fully embrace His invitation, but with Him all things are possible!
Thank You Lord for Your loving invitation! Thank You for understanding us and helping us! Thank You for making the impossible in our grasp!
Amen!
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Questions and Answers with Jesus
This morning I am reflecting on some verses form Mark’s
Gospel. Lately I have been reading of
Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees in a different light, since reading
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book “Ethics”. In
his book, Bonhoeffer discusses the interactions between the Pharisees and Jesus,
and describes them as having two completely different perspectives, thus it
often seems that when Jesus answers them, He isn’t even answering their
questions. These verses are a good
example of that dynamic. Here are the
verses – Mark 7:1-8 NIV:
1”The
Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were
defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their
hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do
not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the
washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])”
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law
asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the
elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is
written:
“‘These
people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]
8 You have let go of the commands of God and
are holding on to human traditions.”
This is such an interesting exchange, as Jesus doesn’t
slowly turn the discussion towards His perspective, He comes right out and sets
the Pharisees back on their heels, calling them hypocrites (literally two-faced). His point is that they didn’t really care
about worshiping God, loving God and serving God, their concern was with
keeping focus on outward observances, rules and practices that had been modified
and refined, and that they were missing the whole point.
Jesus was directing them to review their actions and their
hearts, and see what motivation was really present. This is actually a great question for us to
consider. Why do we do the religious
expressions and observances that we do?
Where is our heart, what is our goal?
Are we working to look holy and pure to others, or are we trying to
worship God? Are our hearts turned
towards Him, or are we turned towards ourselves? Do we put rules and regulations before things
on God’s heart?? Are we more concerned
about what others think, than God? Do we
actually have a relationship with God or are we following our parent’s faith
with little thought of God?
The question the Pharisees raised was about observance of external
religious practice and Jesus answered with a call to examine one’s heart. This pretty much summarizes the difference
between the Law and the Revelation of Jesus.
The Law had become focused on outward expressions, and the Lord is far
more concerned about our inner expressions.
Going back to Jesus’ foundational “sermon on the Mount” (Matt
5-6), He was taking the external perspective and calling them to internalize
and embrace these ideas in their hearts.
God is far more concerned with our hearts than He is with our
works. This is the perspective Jesus is
presenting. His is a constant call to
embrace relationship and heart connection with the Father, and Himself. He wants our hearts, and that is always His
first concern.
Jesus came that the people might be set free from the judgment
of external works and released into true Life with and in the Father! It is so easy for us to forget this and
embrace the certain things we are told will make us more favored in God’s
eyes. There are all sorts of lists and
guides, rules and life-styles that purport to make us more holy, more blessed
by God, but these are so often void of the actual relationship God so desires. I can follow a list and never give my heart
away, for the list can be accomplished with external observances. I can appear externally to be pious and pure,
yet be wholly different internally.
So my thought this morning is I probably need to be careful
what I ask Jesus about, because He will likely answer me with something I wasn’t
wanting to hear! J He does love me and desires me to be free and
in relationship with Him! Sometimes I
forget who I am and who He is and get caught up in my own little vain imaginations,
and lose complete focus. He gently calls
me back, calls me back into His loving embrace where I recognize that He is
mostly concerned with my heart. He loves
me and will always love me and my actions can’t make Him Love me any more or
less!
Monday, July 9, 2018
Help In Times Of Dryness
This morning I am reflecting on David's Psalm 63. He wrote it while in the desert, and it seems very appropriate today. Here are the verses I am meditating upon - Psalm 63:1-8 NIV:
[1] "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
[2] I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
[3] Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
[4] I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
[5] I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
[6] On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
[7] Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
[8] I cling to you; your right hand upholds me."
In the natural realm here in KC, we haven't had any rain for a long time. When I look at the trees, the grass, anything that needs water, they are all drooping. I find myself longing for rain for the sake of the ground around me, for the farmers who depend on their crops, etc. I can't imagine life in a desert where there is hardly ever any rain.
David is using a similar experience to shape his language of longing for the Lord, and that too I can relate to in my daily life. Personally, it seems like I have been waiting on the Lord to move for a good year and a half in the area of my job. While there have been occasional breaks, and signs of hope, the gradual direction has been a downward trend, and I was telling someone recently that I felt like Elijah sitting by the stream and I was watching it dry up (see 1 Kings 17).
Some days feel exactly like David in the first verse. However, I have been choosing to focus less on my dryness and more on God's goodness. I have been reminding myself of the truth, of all that I have seen the Lord do in my past, and holding onto to those, clinging to the Lord! The truth is HE is good! He has a good plan for me! He is my provider! My identity isn't in my job, it is found in Him! He loves me! He isn't punishing me! He isn't surprised by this situation, and knows how it will be resolved! He is teaching me more about His faithfulness. He is actively arranging everything even though I can't see it. He will not forsake me! I am greatly blessed! I am in His favor!
In the same way as I can water my garden and flowers, and even my yard in the natural, I can provide water to my soul by remembering the good things the Lord has done, even while I am waiting for Him to move! I can praise God for His answer before I see it! I can remind myself of His faithfulness in the past and His never changing character! I can remember all the good, all the blessings, all the sweet times of intimacy and water my own soul, and establish hope as my foundation of understanding. I may not see my future clearly, but I know God and can trust in Him.
Looking back at David's song to the Lord, he was in a desert, but was looking forward into his future and seeing how God was going to bless him. He knew God, knew His promises were good, knew he could put his trust in God, and cling to Him. That is what I am choosing to do today! I will praise Him i the midst of my uncertainty knowing that God is fully in control, and has a great plan of blessing and abundance!
Amen! I will praise You Lord!
[1] "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
[2] I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
[3] Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
[4] I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
[5] I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
[6] On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
[7] Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
[8] I cling to you; your right hand upholds me."
In the natural realm here in KC, we haven't had any rain for a long time. When I look at the trees, the grass, anything that needs water, they are all drooping. I find myself longing for rain for the sake of the ground around me, for the farmers who depend on their crops, etc. I can't imagine life in a desert where there is hardly ever any rain.
David is using a similar experience to shape his language of longing for the Lord, and that too I can relate to in my daily life. Personally, it seems like I have been waiting on the Lord to move for a good year and a half in the area of my job. While there have been occasional breaks, and signs of hope, the gradual direction has been a downward trend, and I was telling someone recently that I felt like Elijah sitting by the stream and I was watching it dry up (see 1 Kings 17).
Some days feel exactly like David in the first verse. However, I have been choosing to focus less on my dryness and more on God's goodness. I have been reminding myself of the truth, of all that I have seen the Lord do in my past, and holding onto to those, clinging to the Lord! The truth is HE is good! He has a good plan for me! He is my provider! My identity isn't in my job, it is found in Him! He loves me! He isn't punishing me! He isn't surprised by this situation, and knows how it will be resolved! He is teaching me more about His faithfulness. He is actively arranging everything even though I can't see it. He will not forsake me! I am greatly blessed! I am in His favor!
In the same way as I can water my garden and flowers, and even my yard in the natural, I can provide water to my soul by remembering the good things the Lord has done, even while I am waiting for Him to move! I can praise God for His answer before I see it! I can remind myself of His faithfulness in the past and His never changing character! I can remember all the good, all the blessings, all the sweet times of intimacy and water my own soul, and establish hope as my foundation of understanding. I may not see my future clearly, but I know God and can trust in Him.
Looking back at David's song to the Lord, he was in a desert, but was looking forward into his future and seeing how God was going to bless him. He knew God, knew His promises were good, knew he could put his trust in God, and cling to Him. That is what I am choosing to do today! I will praise Him i the midst of my uncertainty knowing that God is fully in control, and has a great plan of blessing and abundance!
Amen! I will praise You Lord!
Saturday, June 30, 2018
A Better Hope, A Better Covenant!
This morning I felt like I should read from Hebrews, Chapter Seven, and was reading through that chapter and verse 19 caught my attention. I have included a few other verses for context - Hebrews 7:18-19, 22, 24-25 NIV:
[18] "The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless [19] (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God."
[22] "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant."
[24]..." but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. [25] Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
In this chapter the author of the letter is getting into some deep and complicated theological arguments that were specific to Jesus becoming the High Priest, and it is necessary for the Jewish citizen to understand how the old covenant was replaced by the New Covenant, and how Jesus met the requirements of the old, and how the old covenant was itself a type and shadow of the future. This is critical stuff for them, us who were not raised within that system, less so, but still important to understand.
Personally I am far less worried about what was set aside, instead choosing to focus on the new that was established by Jesus. The author calls the New Covenant a better covenant, and that is good enough for me! :-)
The key components I draw from these verses are as follows:
1) The New Covenant offers a better hope.
2) The New Covenant is provided that we might draw near to God.
3) Jesus is the guarantor of the New Covenant, having laid down His life as His oath.
4) Jesus is able to completely save those that come to Him in faith.
5) Jesus is our eternal intercessor!
Without getting into the deep connections these statements have to the Old Covenant, I can still enjoy and relish these simple truths. Our greatest hope is in the New Covenant established by Jesus, through the shedding of His own blood. We enter into the covenant with God, through faith in Jesus, there is no other way! God sent Jesus to earth not to judge people but to save them, (John 3:16-17) and welcome them into relationship with Himself (John 14:23)!
Jesus is the guarantor, the one who put down the guarantee for this Covenant, the contract. When my daughter bought her first car, I co-signed, and was effectively guaranteeing I would make payments (lay down the money) should she fail to do so. In the New Covenant, Jesus laid down His life, His body and His blood to guarantee this contract, this New Covenant. He took our place, took our punishment, took upon Himself ALL our sin, and paid for it all with His blood! Because of this He is able to save completely those who come to Him through faith. As He said, "It is Finished!" (John 19:30), and in addition to everything else those three words meant, it also meant to New Covenant had been signed and sealed!
Now Jesus lives in Glory (Eph 1:19-21), seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33), with all authority and power (Matt 28:18) , and in that place He always lives and intercedes for us! That is an amazing picture, and an even more amazing reality. The Greek word here translated intercede is the word Entugchano and it is defined as follows:
1) to light upon a person or a thing, fall in with, hit upon, a person or a thing
2) to go to or meet a person, esp. for the purpose of conversation, consultation, or supplication
3) to pray, entreat
4) make intercession for any one
I am always amazed when the word is translated one of the lesser (in order listed) definitions. If I think Jesus is just sitting in Heaven asking the Father to love me, forgive me and help me (my idea of intercession), I miss the fact that this also means that Jesus will come to me for the purpose of conversation, consultation, and direction. Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit make their home in me (John 14:23, John 14:16-17)! They come to me and help me! That is much better, in my opinion, then prayers from afar! It is Their desire to be with me! That is just crazy amazing!
Lord, thank You for Your love, for Your sacrifice, for Your guarantee of the New Covenant, and for Your Entugchano! That is a better hope, and a better covenant!
Amen!
[18] "The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless [19] (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God."
[22] "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant."
[24]..." but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. [25] Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."
In this chapter the author of the letter is getting into some deep and complicated theological arguments that were specific to Jesus becoming the High Priest, and it is necessary for the Jewish citizen to understand how the old covenant was replaced by the New Covenant, and how Jesus met the requirements of the old, and how the old covenant was itself a type and shadow of the future. This is critical stuff for them, us who were not raised within that system, less so, but still important to understand.
Personally I am far less worried about what was set aside, instead choosing to focus on the new that was established by Jesus. The author calls the New Covenant a better covenant, and that is good enough for me! :-)
The key components I draw from these verses are as follows:
1) The New Covenant offers a better hope.
2) The New Covenant is provided that we might draw near to God.
3) Jesus is the guarantor of the New Covenant, having laid down His life as His oath.
4) Jesus is able to completely save those that come to Him in faith.
5) Jesus is our eternal intercessor!
Without getting into the deep connections these statements have to the Old Covenant, I can still enjoy and relish these simple truths. Our greatest hope is in the New Covenant established by Jesus, through the shedding of His own blood. We enter into the covenant with God, through faith in Jesus, there is no other way! God sent Jesus to earth not to judge people but to save them, (John 3:16-17) and welcome them into relationship with Himself (John 14:23)!
Jesus is the guarantor, the one who put down the guarantee for this Covenant, the contract. When my daughter bought her first car, I co-signed, and was effectively guaranteeing I would make payments (lay down the money) should she fail to do so. In the New Covenant, Jesus laid down His life, His body and His blood to guarantee this contract, this New Covenant. He took our place, took our punishment, took upon Himself ALL our sin, and paid for it all with His blood! Because of this He is able to save completely those who come to Him through faith. As He said, "It is Finished!" (John 19:30), and in addition to everything else those three words meant, it also meant to New Covenant had been signed and sealed!
Now Jesus lives in Glory (Eph 1:19-21), seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33), with all authority and power (Matt 28:18) , and in that place He always lives and intercedes for us! That is an amazing picture, and an even more amazing reality. The Greek word here translated intercede is the word Entugchano and it is defined as follows:
1) to light upon a person or a thing, fall in with, hit upon, a person or a thing
2) to go to or meet a person, esp. for the purpose of conversation, consultation, or supplication
3) to pray, entreat
4) make intercession for any one
I am always amazed when the word is translated one of the lesser (in order listed) definitions. If I think Jesus is just sitting in Heaven asking the Father to love me, forgive me and help me (my idea of intercession), I miss the fact that this also means that Jesus will come to me for the purpose of conversation, consultation, and direction. Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit make their home in me (John 14:23, John 14:16-17)! They come to me and help me! That is much better, in my opinion, then prayers from afar! It is Their desire to be with me! That is just crazy amazing!
Lord, thank You for Your love, for Your sacrifice, for Your guarantee of the New Covenant, and for Your Entugchano! That is a better hope, and a better covenant!
Amen!
Thursday, June 28, 2018
When We Miss What The Lord Says...
I was just reading my Bible, going back to Jesus giving us His new command, and saw something that is worth mentioning again. These verses take place at the Last supper and are recorded by John. These immediately follow Judas leaving to go and betray Jesus, which set into motion the events that would lead to Jesus' death. Here are the verses - John 13:31-37 NIV:
[31] "When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. [32] If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
[33] “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come."
[34] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
[36] Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
[37] Peter asked, “Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
This is a great study in being distracted by something and totally missing the more important statement immediately following whatever caused the distraction. Here we have Jesus really getting down to the final serious impartation and explanations to the Apostles, for He knew His time was short. As soon as Judas leaves, He shifts gears, knowing that the events are now in motion that will lead to His death, and starts down that path in verses 31-33.
He starts by saying the Father is going to be glorified, and will glorify Him (Jesus) at once! The last time the Father was Glorified was at the raising of Lazarus from the dead, so the Apostles should have recognized that something huge was about to happen and been listening intently!
Jesus then says He is only going to be with them a little longer - alluding to His death (verse 33) - and He tells them that they can't follow Him down that path. We know from other scriptural references that the Apostles just didn't understand any time that Jesus spoke about his impending death, no matter how clear he was, and this is no different. Apparently this statement so confused them, especially Peter, that He just stopped listening and focused on what Jesus said about going somewhere they couldn't follow. We know this by Peter's response in verse 36.
What Peter apparently missed was verses 34 & 35, where Jesus gives them His new Commandment! Wow talk about missing the forest for the tree in front of you, Peter apparently locked in on Jesus' previous statement, and was still thinking about that, and probably just heard "blah, blah, blah, love, blah, blah".
Here is a NEW Commandment being given, spoken to life by Jesus at the command of the Father, and Peter was wondering where Jesus was going! This is like the issuing of the Ten Commandments - yet greater, for this is the new Commandment of the New Covenant, which Jesus had just established (see Luke 22:20). This new Covenant was instituted by the breaking of the bread and drinking the cup, before Judas left. John doesn't add that dialogue here, my guess is because by the time John wrote His Gospel the New Covenant was widely understood. So Peter, even though he was in the same room with Jesus, and even though He physically heard the words spoken about the New Commandment, apparently just totally missed them (at least that is the way I read these verses)!
This gives me great hope for my own distractedness, in listening to the Lord! It doesn't excuse my distractedness or my inability to understand the situation, but it gives me hope that Jesus has seen this before, and was patient with Peter, and still called Peter forward into his purpose and true calling. Sometimes I read things that are very familiar in scriptures, but the words just go in one ear and out the other. Sometimes I will go back to something the Lord said years ago, and all of a sudden I get what He was really saying! I am so encouraged that Jesus continues to be patient with me, in spite of my ability to get distracted over just about anything!
Sometimes I think the Lord must be slapping His forehead and rolling his eyes constantly over our inability to listen and hear, and actually understand what He is saying. At the very least his probably shaking his head in disbelief that we can be so slow to hear and understand. We are an easily distracted people, and these days with all the demands for our time and focus, our ever present phones and social media apps, or constant barrage of news and opinion, it is super easy to lose our way, to lose our train of thought and to miss what Jesus is wanting to say!
I'm so glad Jesus then goes on to talk about the role of the Holy Spirit as the one who will help us remember all things, and He was probably looking at Peter when He said it! :-) John 14:25-27 NIV: “All this I have spoken while still with you. [26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
Lord, thank You for Your patience and love! Thank You for Your understanding of our limited human attention, and our inability to grasp Your perfect word! Thank You for loving us and for reminding us of everything You said! Help me to pay better attention to Your word in my life, that I might hear what You are saying the first time, especially those things that are significant! Finally help me be patient with my brothers and sisters in the same way You are patient with them and me!
Amen!!
[31] "When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. [32] If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
[33] “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come."
[34] “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
[36] Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
[37] Peter asked, “Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
This is a great study in being distracted by something and totally missing the more important statement immediately following whatever caused the distraction. Here we have Jesus really getting down to the final serious impartation and explanations to the Apostles, for He knew His time was short. As soon as Judas leaves, He shifts gears, knowing that the events are now in motion that will lead to His death, and starts down that path in verses 31-33.
He starts by saying the Father is going to be glorified, and will glorify Him (Jesus) at once! The last time the Father was Glorified was at the raising of Lazarus from the dead, so the Apostles should have recognized that something huge was about to happen and been listening intently!
Jesus then says He is only going to be with them a little longer - alluding to His death (verse 33) - and He tells them that they can't follow Him down that path. We know from other scriptural references that the Apostles just didn't understand any time that Jesus spoke about his impending death, no matter how clear he was, and this is no different. Apparently this statement so confused them, especially Peter, that He just stopped listening and focused on what Jesus said about going somewhere they couldn't follow. We know this by Peter's response in verse 36.
What Peter apparently missed was verses 34 & 35, where Jesus gives them His new Commandment! Wow talk about missing the forest for the tree in front of you, Peter apparently locked in on Jesus' previous statement, and was still thinking about that, and probably just heard "blah, blah, blah, love, blah, blah".
Here is a NEW Commandment being given, spoken to life by Jesus at the command of the Father, and Peter was wondering where Jesus was going! This is like the issuing of the Ten Commandments - yet greater, for this is the new Commandment of the New Covenant, which Jesus had just established (see Luke 22:20). This new Covenant was instituted by the breaking of the bread and drinking the cup, before Judas left. John doesn't add that dialogue here, my guess is because by the time John wrote His Gospel the New Covenant was widely understood. So Peter, even though he was in the same room with Jesus, and even though He physically heard the words spoken about the New Commandment, apparently just totally missed them (at least that is the way I read these verses)!
This gives me great hope for my own distractedness, in listening to the Lord! It doesn't excuse my distractedness or my inability to understand the situation, but it gives me hope that Jesus has seen this before, and was patient with Peter, and still called Peter forward into his purpose and true calling. Sometimes I read things that are very familiar in scriptures, but the words just go in one ear and out the other. Sometimes I will go back to something the Lord said years ago, and all of a sudden I get what He was really saying! I am so encouraged that Jesus continues to be patient with me, in spite of my ability to get distracted over just about anything!
Sometimes I think the Lord must be slapping His forehead and rolling his eyes constantly over our inability to listen and hear, and actually understand what He is saying. At the very least his probably shaking his head in disbelief that we can be so slow to hear and understand. We are an easily distracted people, and these days with all the demands for our time and focus, our ever present phones and social media apps, or constant barrage of news and opinion, it is super easy to lose our way, to lose our train of thought and to miss what Jesus is wanting to say!
I'm so glad Jesus then goes on to talk about the role of the Holy Spirit as the one who will help us remember all things, and He was probably looking at Peter when He said it! :-) John 14:25-27 NIV: “All this I have spoken while still with you. [26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
Lord, thank You for Your patience and love! Thank You for Your understanding of our limited human attention, and our inability to grasp Your perfect word! Thank You for loving us and for reminding us of everything You said! Help me to pay better attention to Your word in my life, that I might hear what You are saying the first time, especially those things that are significant! Finally help me be patient with my brothers and sisters in the same way You are patient with them and me!
Amen!!
Monday, June 25, 2018
Pruning Vines and Increased Fruitfulness
This morning as I sat down to pray I was reminded of my last couple of reflections, which had to do with gardening, and planting. As I was thinking back over that I was reminded of Jesus' famous discourse on being the vine found in John 15. I thought I would spend some time meditating on His words, and doing some research into the cleaning of vines. First, here are the verses - John 15:1-8 NIV:
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
The foundation of understanding these verses is that we must remain connected relationally to Jesus, for He is the source of our life! He goes deeper than just basic relationship, speaking of us being in Him, and He in us, and this is part of the spiritual mystery! According to Jesus, the fact is that God is inside of us! He comes and lives with us and in us, following our salvation. At the same time we are now hidden in Christ, which Paul expounds upon in several of his letters. This relationship is deeper and more profound than the relationship of husband and wife, but for us that is a good place to start in understanding. It is in this deep relational context that we must understand Jesus' words about vines and bearing fruit.
Back to the verses, Jesus says He is the vine, and the Father is the gardener. The Father cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, and prunes the ones that do, so that they will be even more fruitful. This is such an accurate description of what gardeners, or vine dressers do to care for vines. I spent some time reading up on pruning grape vines and I think it is very helpful to understand.
First, pruning only takes place in the winter, after a season of fruitfulness, once the leaves have fallen and the gardener can easily see the vine. The gardener cuts back the majority of the vine each year, during the dry and cold season. Boy, that sure seems similar to my life. I can think of multiple times where it seemed like I was in a season of bearing good fruit, and that was followed by a season of quiet, and relative dryness. It is during those times that I can see clearly how much I have grown and in what areas. It is also then that I often have the opportunity for repentance and trimming back, based on the Lord's guidance and direction. It is important to note that pruning back means God has bigger plans for us to bear more fruit. It does not mean He is punishing us, or displeased with us!
Here is some description of the purpose of pruning - The Secret to Pruning Grapes from https://modernfarmer.com/2016/02/pruning-grapevines/
"Here’s the secret: grapevines produce fruit on one-year old wood. What the heck does that mean? When a bud sprouts in spring and grows into a new shoot within the larger grape plant, the shoot turns from green to brown by the end of the growing season, at which point it is considered one-year old wood. The following spring some of the buds on one-year-old wood will grow flowers (which develop into fruit), while the buds on older wood produce only leaves or shoots.
The primary goal of pruning is to maximize the amount of one-year old wood on each grapevine without encouraging the plant to produce so many grape clusters that it lacks the energy and nutrients to fully ripen them. Left to its own devices, a grapevine grows to a dense mass of mostly older wood with relatively little “fruiting wood” each year. The dense growth leads to poor air circulation, which encourages fungal diseases. Expect to remove 70 to 90 percent of the previous year’s growth each winter.
The second purpose for pruning grapes is to encourage the vines to grow a structure that is conducive to harvesting and which conforms to the shape of the trellis the vine is growing on. Aim to create an orderly system of evenly spaced vines that resembles the branches of a tree."
That is such an interesting perspective, and put into a spiritual and natural context for growth, it should help us! I was thinking earlier about how Jesus had so many followers but by the time of "upper-room" there were only 120 gathered there. I would say that is a very good example of how the Father pruned Jesus' vine to make it ready for a season of immense fruitfulness. I was wondering if churches might want to pay a bit more attention to these verses as they press for constant numerical growth. It isn't how big we get, but how much fruit we bear that appears to be the focus here.
Secondly, this perspective is very helpful in looking back on one's life. The cutting back is always for fruitfulness in the next season, and the Lord wants to maximise out fruitfulness. He doesn't want us to grow huge in our areas of coverage, but lacking any real fruit. He wants "one-year old wood" and that means we need to have grown through a season without much fruit, get pruned and then in the next season we will be able to produce abundant fruit. I am so often all focused on trying to bear fruit immediately, not realizing that maybe my sole responsibility for this season is to grow, and that fruitfulness will follow in the next season of grace. Wow, that is very helpful on one hand, and on the other hand it is messing with my thinking about God's call to bear fruit immediately. We must realize that God is our gardener and He totally has a long-term view of our lives and purposes. He doesn't have a 1 year plan, He has a plan for eternity, and thus He is far more patient than we are!
Third, Jesus speaks about the fact that His disciples are clean because of the word He has spoken to them. If you want to do a deep study, look up the "Clean Vine Programs" that are being developed specifically to maximise the productiveness of vines and quality of the fruit, and much of the focus is the recognition of diseases and other blights (fungus) that can affect vines. In the same way the Lord, cleans us, cleans up our thinking, adjusts our world-view, and purifies our lives so that we can bear good fruit. He knows the difference between good branches, and those that don't bear fruit, those that are diseased, or have fungus or have ceased bearing fruit. Those in the latter categories are removed from the vine. In the natural, these are burned so as to kill of the fungus or pests and remove the threat from the good vines. In my life, the Lord is constantly helping me to see areas where my thinking is not inline with His word, with His heart and desires, and giving me opportunity to repent and change, and I believe this is His cleaning. Again, this is not punishment, but instead to help me bear more good fruit!
Finally the word both cleans and nourishes us (see verses 3 & 7 above). Jesus says His word must remain in us, just as we must remain in Him. I guess You could almost call His Word the genetic code for the fruit we produce. We must produce fruit that is in line with His Word, and to do that we must remain connected to Him and constantly reflecting on His Word. A lapse in either area can cause us to become aberrant, and even heretical in our thinking.
So today, I am encouraged to remain in Jesus, and to make sure I am allowing His word to get into me and remain in me. I am encouraged to look at my life with an understanding of growing seasons, pruning and how the Lord works in my life to maximize my fruitfulness. I am grateful for such clear imagery and Jesus' desire to allow us to bear abundant fruit! I am also encouraged by God's patience and long-term vision concerning my life! Thank You Lord, help me remain in You!
Amen!
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
The foundation of understanding these verses is that we must remain connected relationally to Jesus, for He is the source of our life! He goes deeper than just basic relationship, speaking of us being in Him, and He in us, and this is part of the spiritual mystery! According to Jesus, the fact is that God is inside of us! He comes and lives with us and in us, following our salvation. At the same time we are now hidden in Christ, which Paul expounds upon in several of his letters. This relationship is deeper and more profound than the relationship of husband and wife, but for us that is a good place to start in understanding. It is in this deep relational context that we must understand Jesus' words about vines and bearing fruit.
Back to the verses, Jesus says He is the vine, and the Father is the gardener. The Father cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, and prunes the ones that do, so that they will be even more fruitful. This is such an accurate description of what gardeners, or vine dressers do to care for vines. I spent some time reading up on pruning grape vines and I think it is very helpful to understand.
First, pruning only takes place in the winter, after a season of fruitfulness, once the leaves have fallen and the gardener can easily see the vine. The gardener cuts back the majority of the vine each year, during the dry and cold season. Boy, that sure seems similar to my life. I can think of multiple times where it seemed like I was in a season of bearing good fruit, and that was followed by a season of quiet, and relative dryness. It is during those times that I can see clearly how much I have grown and in what areas. It is also then that I often have the opportunity for repentance and trimming back, based on the Lord's guidance and direction. It is important to note that pruning back means God has bigger plans for us to bear more fruit. It does not mean He is punishing us, or displeased with us!
Here is some description of the purpose of pruning - The Secret to Pruning Grapes from https://modernfarmer.com/2016/02/pruning-grapevines/
"Here’s the secret: grapevines produce fruit on one-year old wood. What the heck does that mean? When a bud sprouts in spring and grows into a new shoot within the larger grape plant, the shoot turns from green to brown by the end of the growing season, at which point it is considered one-year old wood. The following spring some of the buds on one-year-old wood will grow flowers (which develop into fruit), while the buds on older wood produce only leaves or shoots.
The primary goal of pruning is to maximize the amount of one-year old wood on each grapevine without encouraging the plant to produce so many grape clusters that it lacks the energy and nutrients to fully ripen them. Left to its own devices, a grapevine grows to a dense mass of mostly older wood with relatively little “fruiting wood” each year. The dense growth leads to poor air circulation, which encourages fungal diseases. Expect to remove 70 to 90 percent of the previous year’s growth each winter.
The second purpose for pruning grapes is to encourage the vines to grow a structure that is conducive to harvesting and which conforms to the shape of the trellis the vine is growing on. Aim to create an orderly system of evenly spaced vines that resembles the branches of a tree."
That is such an interesting perspective, and put into a spiritual and natural context for growth, it should help us! I was thinking earlier about how Jesus had so many followers but by the time of "upper-room" there were only 120 gathered there. I would say that is a very good example of how the Father pruned Jesus' vine to make it ready for a season of immense fruitfulness. I was wondering if churches might want to pay a bit more attention to these verses as they press for constant numerical growth. It isn't how big we get, but how much fruit we bear that appears to be the focus here.
Secondly, this perspective is very helpful in looking back on one's life. The cutting back is always for fruitfulness in the next season, and the Lord wants to maximise out fruitfulness. He doesn't want us to grow huge in our areas of coverage, but lacking any real fruit. He wants "one-year old wood" and that means we need to have grown through a season without much fruit, get pruned and then in the next season we will be able to produce abundant fruit. I am so often all focused on trying to bear fruit immediately, not realizing that maybe my sole responsibility for this season is to grow, and that fruitfulness will follow in the next season of grace. Wow, that is very helpful on one hand, and on the other hand it is messing with my thinking about God's call to bear fruit immediately. We must realize that God is our gardener and He totally has a long-term view of our lives and purposes. He doesn't have a 1 year plan, He has a plan for eternity, and thus He is far more patient than we are!
Third, Jesus speaks about the fact that His disciples are clean because of the word He has spoken to them. If you want to do a deep study, look up the "Clean Vine Programs" that are being developed specifically to maximise the productiveness of vines and quality of the fruit, and much of the focus is the recognition of diseases and other blights (fungus) that can affect vines. In the same way the Lord, cleans us, cleans up our thinking, adjusts our world-view, and purifies our lives so that we can bear good fruit. He knows the difference between good branches, and those that don't bear fruit, those that are diseased, or have fungus or have ceased bearing fruit. Those in the latter categories are removed from the vine. In the natural, these are burned so as to kill of the fungus or pests and remove the threat from the good vines. In my life, the Lord is constantly helping me to see areas where my thinking is not inline with His word, with His heart and desires, and giving me opportunity to repent and change, and I believe this is His cleaning. Again, this is not punishment, but instead to help me bear more good fruit!
Finally the word both cleans and nourishes us (see verses 3 & 7 above). Jesus says His word must remain in us, just as we must remain in Him. I guess You could almost call His Word the genetic code for the fruit we produce. We must produce fruit that is in line with His Word, and to do that we must remain connected to Him and constantly reflecting on His Word. A lapse in either area can cause us to become aberrant, and even heretical in our thinking.
So today, I am encouraged to remain in Jesus, and to make sure I am allowing His word to get into me and remain in me. I am encouraged to look at my life with an understanding of growing seasons, pruning and how the Lord works in my life to maximize my fruitfulness. I am grateful for such clear imagery and Jesus' desire to allow us to bear abundant fruit! I am also encouraged by God's patience and long-term vision concerning my life! Thank You Lord, help me remain in You!
Amen!
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sowing Goodness
Yesterday I was reflecting on bearing fruit and today it seems I will be reflecting on planting seeds, or sowing. Here are a few verses from Paul's letter to the Galatians 6:7-10 NIV:
[7] "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. [8] Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. [9] Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. [10] Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
There are several themes one could expand upon in these verses, but the one that jumped out right away was "doing good". Paul starts the section speaking about reaping and sowing (planting and harvesting) and concludes with "doing good", which is the sowing according to verse nine. What a simple and helpful attitude to have in our life, to make it our goal to "sow doing good"! In other words to do good is planting seeds!
Just to be clear, the word translated "good" here is a rich word with quite a few possible meanings. The Greek word is Kalos and it is defined as follows:
1) beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable
a) beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent
b) good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends
1. genuine, approved
2. precious
3. joined to names of men designated by their office, competent, able, such as one ought to be
4. praiseworthy, noble
c) beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy
1. morally good, noble
d) honourable, conferring honour
e) affecting the mind agreeably, comforting and confirming
The Greek word translated doing is Poieo and it is defined as to make, or produce.
Thus, we could conclude "doing good" means to make beautiful, excellent, precious and useful things with your time; to be about creating and producing things that worthy of praise, good to use, helpful to our minds, comforting, and encouraging! We want to sow a positive increase into the world around us! We want our lives to have a positive impact! We want to make things of beauty, encourage others in their beauty, honor others and be honorable ourselves.
I tend to be task oriented and this is pretty easy to define in my mind. I want to be able to look back at my day and see that in some way I have made a positive impact through my actions and words. I want to be lifting people up, encouraging others, speaking words of life, being kind, compassionate and loving.
Going back to the first verse quoted above, Paul says that a man reaps what he sows, and this is true in the spiritual as well as natural realms. If we sow goodness, we will reap goodness. If we sow to please the Holy Spirit, we will reap Eternal Life!
I was brought back to my reflection from yesterday, thinking about the different types of fruitfulness, different types of plants, vegetables, fruits and even trees that I was considering. In the last verse quoted above, Paul encourages us to not grow weary in doing good! I can see why he added that encouragement, because sowing seeds does not produce instant results. This summer, we planted some grass seeds and watered that area religiously for a couple of weeks before we saw any tiny grass shoots. It is the same way with pretty much any seeds, they take time to germinate, and grow. I think that is one reason we like to plant seedlings, or already started plants, as we don't want to sit and wait for the seeds to sprout. So as we look back at the different types of seed sown, some will take much longer to produce fruit, but all are worthy of being planted.
In the same way, when we are sowing goodness, we may not see any immediate fruit, and quite often no discernable response. We must not be deterred in continuing to sow good! We must not keep score, or start to sow judgement, after sowing goodness for a while and seeing no results. We must have faith that this is truth! That what we sow, we will reap!
I was just thinking about the story of Johnny Appleseed, and the positive impact his life would have produced. He saw almost none of the impact, for apple trees take several years to grow to the point of bearing fruit! However, he knew that if he planted apple seeds, ultimately apple trees would grow and produce apples. He had faith in the natural process. Paul is encouraging us to have the same faith in the spiritual reality. Sow goodness, don't wait for fruitfulness to be evident but continue on sowing goodness daily!
What a beautiful encouragement, "as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers!" Let us sow and sow and sow and sow! Let us not worry about seeing fruit, but rather trust in the truth of sowing and reaping. Apparently this doing good is sowing to please the Holy Spirit, and ultimately leads to Eternal Life. That is enough of a harvest for me!
Amen!
[7] "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. [8] Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. [9] Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. [10] Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
There are several themes one could expand upon in these verses, but the one that jumped out right away was "doing good". Paul starts the section speaking about reaping and sowing (planting and harvesting) and concludes with "doing good", which is the sowing according to verse nine. What a simple and helpful attitude to have in our life, to make it our goal to "sow doing good"! In other words to do good is planting seeds!
Just to be clear, the word translated "good" here is a rich word with quite a few possible meanings. The Greek word is Kalos and it is defined as follows:
1) beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable
a) beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent
b) good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends
1. genuine, approved
2. precious
3. joined to names of men designated by their office, competent, able, such as one ought to be
4. praiseworthy, noble
c) beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy
1. morally good, noble
d) honourable, conferring honour
e) affecting the mind agreeably, comforting and confirming
The Greek word translated doing is Poieo and it is defined as to make, or produce.
Thus, we could conclude "doing good" means to make beautiful, excellent, precious and useful things with your time; to be about creating and producing things that worthy of praise, good to use, helpful to our minds, comforting, and encouraging! We want to sow a positive increase into the world around us! We want our lives to have a positive impact! We want to make things of beauty, encourage others in their beauty, honor others and be honorable ourselves.
I tend to be task oriented and this is pretty easy to define in my mind. I want to be able to look back at my day and see that in some way I have made a positive impact through my actions and words. I want to be lifting people up, encouraging others, speaking words of life, being kind, compassionate and loving.
Going back to the first verse quoted above, Paul says that a man reaps what he sows, and this is true in the spiritual as well as natural realms. If we sow goodness, we will reap goodness. If we sow to please the Holy Spirit, we will reap Eternal Life!
I was brought back to my reflection from yesterday, thinking about the different types of fruitfulness, different types of plants, vegetables, fruits and even trees that I was considering. In the last verse quoted above, Paul encourages us to not grow weary in doing good! I can see why he added that encouragement, because sowing seeds does not produce instant results. This summer, we planted some grass seeds and watered that area religiously for a couple of weeks before we saw any tiny grass shoots. It is the same way with pretty much any seeds, they take time to germinate, and grow. I think that is one reason we like to plant seedlings, or already started plants, as we don't want to sit and wait for the seeds to sprout. So as we look back at the different types of seed sown, some will take much longer to produce fruit, but all are worthy of being planted.
In the same way, when we are sowing goodness, we may not see any immediate fruit, and quite often no discernable response. We must not be deterred in continuing to sow good! We must not keep score, or start to sow judgement, after sowing goodness for a while and seeing no results. We must have faith that this is truth! That what we sow, we will reap!
I was just thinking about the story of Johnny Appleseed, and the positive impact his life would have produced. He saw almost none of the impact, for apple trees take several years to grow to the point of bearing fruit! However, he knew that if he planted apple seeds, ultimately apple trees would grow and produce apples. He had faith in the natural process. Paul is encouraging us to have the same faith in the spiritual reality. Sow goodness, don't wait for fruitfulness to be evident but continue on sowing goodness daily!
What a beautiful encouragement, "as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers!" Let us sow and sow and sow and sow! Let us not worry about seeing fruit, but rather trust in the truth of sowing and reaping. Apparently this doing good is sowing to please the Holy Spirit, and ultimately leads to Eternal Life. That is enough of a harvest for me!
Amen!
Saturday, June 23, 2018
On Bearing Fruit in Our Lives
I was just slumbering here while in my quiet time and I felt like the Lord was giving me some insight into fruitfulness. There are different types of fruitfulness, if we think about plants and trees. There are those plants that produce beauty (Flowers and such), there are those plants the produce food such as vegetable gardens (carrots, lettuce, onions, tomatoes), bushes that produce fruit (strawberry, rasberries and other berry plants); there are those that produce grain (wheat,corn, barley), and there are trees that produce nuts (Almond, walnut, pecan) and fruit (Apples, peaches, oranges, etc.). Some produce fruitfulness quickly, some produce it during a particular growing season and must be replanted, and some produce fruit year after year. Each has purpose and value to us, and we want to understand that is true in the Lord's plan as well. He gave us the fruits of the fields, vines and garden to feed us, and as such there is God inspired value and purpose.
In the same way, in each of our lives, we are called to produce fruit, to be fruitful. He calls us and invites us to bear spiritual fruit. He calls and invites us to bear fruit physically (Children) and relationally through encouragement and ministry to friends and family. Here are just some of the verses on bearing fruit found in the new Testament - John 15:4-5,8,16-17 NIV:
[4] "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. [5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
[8] "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
[16] "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit---fruit that will last---and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. [17] This is my command: Love each other."
What I saw in my mind in particular was the seasons of growing it takes for a nut tree to produce abundant fruit. I was just doing some research on nut trees and they can take anywhere from 4-12 years before producing yield, and obviously the older and larger they grow the more abundant is their yield. Compare this to the seasonal fruit bearing grains and vegetables, and even some fruits like melons, and it seems like a very long time. They require space to grown and plenty of care and pruning in the early years to be abundant. The point is that we need to learn to be patient with these trees, knowing that the harvest is coming in time, and if cared for correctly can produce abundance for years and years.
Bringing this back to our own spiritual journey, it is my belief that we are called to be fruitful, and we might be fruitful in several ways - think of farm with some acreage dedicated to a vegetable garden, some to grain, some to pasture, and some to orchards. We can be fruitful in many ways personally, and the Lord is the one who guides us and helps us to know how and when to produce fruit. We want to be focused on the short-term during the right seasons, and not expect fruit and nut trees to bear fruit immediately. I love that the Lord is multi-faceted in His approach to our lives, and that He is patient as well! We want to learn to water what we need to water, feed what we need to feed, and be focused on the things the Lord is telling us to focus upon.
Another bit regarding the area of fruitfulness. This theme got me thinking and researching the value of different types of crops, of different ways of selling crops and produce, and it was very interesting. Some of the most valuable crops and produce are the ones that are rare. Sometimes it is how it is prepared for sale! A bag of onions is valued at X, but the same bag of onions, sliced, dried and smoked is valued at 10x. Sometimes it is the rare or out of natural growing season that brings value, as in Strawberries in January. In the natural we are blessed to have access to worldwide markets and as such, we can get strawberries in January, but they are much more expensive (valuable).
Putting this in spiritual context, sometimes we think we don't fit in, or are unique in our gifts or perspectives, and as such don't fit in. However, God has a specific plan and purpose, and as such that unique gifting or talent has significant value to Him. Also bearing good fruit out of particular season is also valuable. We might seem out of synch with everyone around us, but that might be exactly God's provision for someone who needs "strawberries in January". Sometimes we find that our lives are being cut apart, dried and even smoked a bit due to the closeness to the fire - and maybe that makes us more valuable to those around us! We are all of infinite value to the Lord, and such situations don't increase our value to Him, but they certainly do increase our value to others.
Given our druthers, I think most of us want to produce abundant harvests, great amounts of fruit, and while we sometimes think grand schemes and big platforms, it is amazing that our very back yards can become places of abundance. Did you know that during World War 2, that 45% of all the vegetables grown in the US were grown in "Victory" gardens which people planted in their own back yards? Are we so focused on the big that we forget about the little patches of fertile ground we already have responsibility over, or input into? This reminds me of the verse concerning faithfulness in small matters - Matthew 25:21 NIV: “His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
He is growing us up and maturing us to produce fruit daily, weekly, monthly and annually, and sometimes we can get so caught up in the grand and glorious hopes and dreams that we forget about the daily fruit we can produce through kindness, gentleness, love and affection. Let us not forget the opportunities we have to bear fruit in our daily lives, in our work, in our family, in our interactions with those around us, our neighbors and friends!
Amen!
In the same way, in each of our lives, we are called to produce fruit, to be fruitful. He calls us and invites us to bear spiritual fruit. He calls and invites us to bear fruit physically (Children) and relationally through encouragement and ministry to friends and family. Here are just some of the verses on bearing fruit found in the new Testament - John 15:4-5,8,16-17 NIV:
[4] "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. [5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
[8] "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
[16] "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit---fruit that will last---and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. [17] This is my command: Love each other."
What I saw in my mind in particular was the seasons of growing it takes for a nut tree to produce abundant fruit. I was just doing some research on nut trees and they can take anywhere from 4-12 years before producing yield, and obviously the older and larger they grow the more abundant is their yield. Compare this to the seasonal fruit bearing grains and vegetables, and even some fruits like melons, and it seems like a very long time. They require space to grown and plenty of care and pruning in the early years to be abundant. The point is that we need to learn to be patient with these trees, knowing that the harvest is coming in time, and if cared for correctly can produce abundance for years and years.
Bringing this back to our own spiritual journey, it is my belief that we are called to be fruitful, and we might be fruitful in several ways - think of farm with some acreage dedicated to a vegetable garden, some to grain, some to pasture, and some to orchards. We can be fruitful in many ways personally, and the Lord is the one who guides us and helps us to know how and when to produce fruit. We want to be focused on the short-term during the right seasons, and not expect fruit and nut trees to bear fruit immediately. I love that the Lord is multi-faceted in His approach to our lives, and that He is patient as well! We want to learn to water what we need to water, feed what we need to feed, and be focused on the things the Lord is telling us to focus upon.
Another bit regarding the area of fruitfulness. This theme got me thinking and researching the value of different types of crops, of different ways of selling crops and produce, and it was very interesting. Some of the most valuable crops and produce are the ones that are rare. Sometimes it is how it is prepared for sale! A bag of onions is valued at X, but the same bag of onions, sliced, dried and smoked is valued at 10x. Sometimes it is the rare or out of natural growing season that brings value, as in Strawberries in January. In the natural we are blessed to have access to worldwide markets and as such, we can get strawberries in January, but they are much more expensive (valuable).
Putting this in spiritual context, sometimes we think we don't fit in, or are unique in our gifts or perspectives, and as such don't fit in. However, God has a specific plan and purpose, and as such that unique gifting or talent has significant value to Him. Also bearing good fruit out of particular season is also valuable. We might seem out of synch with everyone around us, but that might be exactly God's provision for someone who needs "strawberries in January". Sometimes we find that our lives are being cut apart, dried and even smoked a bit due to the closeness to the fire - and maybe that makes us more valuable to those around us! We are all of infinite value to the Lord, and such situations don't increase our value to Him, but they certainly do increase our value to others.
Given our druthers, I think most of us want to produce abundant harvests, great amounts of fruit, and while we sometimes think grand schemes and big platforms, it is amazing that our very back yards can become places of abundance. Did you know that during World War 2, that 45% of all the vegetables grown in the US were grown in "Victory" gardens which people planted in their own back yards? Are we so focused on the big that we forget about the little patches of fertile ground we already have responsibility over, or input into? This reminds me of the verse concerning faithfulness in small matters - Matthew 25:21 NIV: “His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
He is growing us up and maturing us to produce fruit daily, weekly, monthly and annually, and sometimes we can get so caught up in the grand and glorious hopes and dreams that we forget about the daily fruit we can produce through kindness, gentleness, love and affection. Let us not forget the opportunities we have to bear fruit in our daily lives, in our work, in our family, in our interactions with those around us, our neighbors and friends!
Amen!
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Faith, Forgiveness and Mulberry Trees
The last two mornings I have been reflecting on some interesting and potentially confusing verses from Luke. These verses are often quoted separately, as if they don't relate thematically, and that is often how I read them. However, as I sat and reflected on them yesterday, I started to see something new (to me). Here are the verses - Luke 17:3-10 NIV:
[3] "So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. [4] Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them.”
[5] The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
[6] He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
[7] “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? [8] Won't he rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? [9] Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? [10] So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' ”
Often these verses are quoted or discussed separately, but at least in my reading today, I am looking at them all together, as they are grouped together. I am not a student of Greek, so I can't tell if they are just a bunch of stories, or lines from Jesus that Luke put together, or if they are the flow of one continuous thought and conversation of Jesus, as it appears in the text.
If they are one flow of thought, then the theme of all of these verses is set by verses 3 and 4 and the topic is faith as it relates to forgiveness. The apostles realize they need more faith to forgive their brothers and sisters as often as Jesus describes (7 times). Jesus responds that even little faith can cause a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea - but He is speaking about faith for forgiveness.
If my conjecture is correct, then Jesus continues on speaking about servants out working in the field, doing the work assigned to them. He describes this as something that is expected of us, something that is part of our duty. He is saying in this example that forgiveness isn't something we should receive special recognition for, but that it is part of our work, part of our assignment, if you will.
So pulling this all together. Think of the field as your life. Think of the work in that field, pulling out things that shouldn't be growing, weeding, protecting the crop and ground for maximum fruitfulness in your life. Think of sin against you (verse 3) as seed of things that shouldn't be growing in your life. Think of the Mulberry tree as an offense (sin) against you that puts down roots and grows fast like a weed, but instead of impacting only a small area, it can grow quickly from bush into a tree and shade off a whole section of the field. Normal weeds can be pulled out by hand, a mulberry tree, if allowed to grow for even a little while, becomes an enormous task to clear, compared to weeds.
As a real life example, my daughter just had to do this very thing, cut down a mulberry tree. She had no idea it had started out as a fast growing bush on the fence-line of the house she is living in. To her eyes it was a tree and it was causing her neighbor's garden to be too shaded and her crops were failing. She had to cut down the tree and it was no small chore., especially on a hot summer day.
As an alternative, speaking of the analogy of the mulberry tree, Jesus says with just a little faith we can cause this fast growing tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea. It appears to me that He is talking about deep rooted offense in our lives that need to be cleared out, and with faith it is possible.
The issue for many of us, is that we think the clearing of mulberry trees (deep offenses) is either something we don't want to do, holding onto it like it has value to us, or too much work!! An important question to us is why do we hold onto grudges and offenses?? I think that we think there is value in revenge or vengeance, or hatred and feel some sort of self-satisfaction in remembering all the things people have done to us. Could it be that these grudges and offenses are actually choking out our ability to bear good fruit?? I think that light of the fruitfulness God desires in our lives, the mulberry (deep rooted offense) is worthless and even harmful. Holding onto it, is like holding onto a worthless collection of old dirty newspapers, and allowing the collection to take over your whole house and garage. Spiritually speaking, we should have cleared that mulberry tree (offense) out of our field (life) as soon as we noticed it growing, when it was not even a sapling.
The good news is that faith allows us to remove this thing from our lives, with relative ease, casting it into the sea (an allusion to casting it out of our life and out of our remembrance), like the Lord does with our sins. Faith is required because it is from the Lord that we come to understand forgiveness, and understand how He will take care of us. We don't need to carry around these offenses so that we can enact revenge or vengeance ! We don't need to be burdened with these things, but can rather release them to the Lord, who forgives us, and asks us to forgive others as well. I am reminded of two sets of verses first where Jesus calls us to forgive those that have sinned against us, and second where He tells us to release our burdens to Him. Here are the verses
The first set of verses is from when Jesus teaches us to pray - Luke 11:2-4 NIV:
[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. ' ”
And the second set of verses is a familiar set of verses from Matthew 11:28-30 NIV:
[28] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Going back to the original reflection verses this morning, forgiveness is apparently a normal part of our Christian walk, and something we need to be about every day. We must learn to forgive others, and doing so quickly keeps the offenses from growing large in our life. Forgiving quickly reduces our burdens, ad allows us to take on Jesus' yoke.
Forgiveness, ultimately is about relationship care and restoration, and relationships are the foundation of the Kingdom! We are called to love God (relationship) and love one another (relationship). Jesus points us to the verses above to help us understand the need for forgiveness and the regularity of that need. This isn't a once a year, clean your field (life) type invitation, but rather a daily part of our normal life. We are sons and daughters of the Father and forgiveness is one of the ways we reflect or represent Him to our world, and to each other.
Ultimately our forgiveness is for our own health and benefit. The Lord forgives all our sins, and all the sins of those that have sinned against us. Our forgiveness isn't required or necessary for the other person's salvation, and interestingly that is what the Greek word which was translated unworthy (verse 10 above, as in unworthy servants) means. The Greek dictionary I use gives this definition of achreios, as a negative of chre (which means necessary), or in other words not necessary. Our forgiveness isn't necessary for the other persons forgiveness, but it is important, even critical for our own fruitfulness and freedom!
Wow, that is a whole bunch more than I expected when I first sat down to reflect on these verses!
So today, I am encouraged to look at my life and see if there are any areas of unforgiveness or deep rooted offense. I am encouraged to put my faith in Jesus, to trust His words, to trust His love, to speak forgiveness to any and all. My desire is to have a fruitful life, and I realize that this work of forgiveness allows me to walk unburdened and free, attaining the maximum fruitfulness as the Son's light shines on me!
Amen Lord, increase my faith!
[3] "So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. [4] Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them.”
[5] The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
[6] He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
[7] “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? [8] Won't he rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? [9] Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? [10] So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' ”
Often these verses are quoted or discussed separately, but at least in my reading today, I am looking at them all together, as they are grouped together. I am not a student of Greek, so I can't tell if they are just a bunch of stories, or lines from Jesus that Luke put together, or if they are the flow of one continuous thought and conversation of Jesus, as it appears in the text.
If they are one flow of thought, then the theme of all of these verses is set by verses 3 and 4 and the topic is faith as it relates to forgiveness. The apostles realize they need more faith to forgive their brothers and sisters as often as Jesus describes (7 times). Jesus responds that even little faith can cause a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea - but He is speaking about faith for forgiveness.
If my conjecture is correct, then Jesus continues on speaking about servants out working in the field, doing the work assigned to them. He describes this as something that is expected of us, something that is part of our duty. He is saying in this example that forgiveness isn't something we should receive special recognition for, but that it is part of our work, part of our assignment, if you will.
So pulling this all together. Think of the field as your life. Think of the work in that field, pulling out things that shouldn't be growing, weeding, protecting the crop and ground for maximum fruitfulness in your life. Think of sin against you (verse 3) as seed of things that shouldn't be growing in your life. Think of the Mulberry tree as an offense (sin) against you that puts down roots and grows fast like a weed, but instead of impacting only a small area, it can grow quickly from bush into a tree and shade off a whole section of the field. Normal weeds can be pulled out by hand, a mulberry tree, if allowed to grow for even a little while, becomes an enormous task to clear, compared to weeds.
As a real life example, my daughter just had to do this very thing, cut down a mulberry tree. She had no idea it had started out as a fast growing bush on the fence-line of the house she is living in. To her eyes it was a tree and it was causing her neighbor's garden to be too shaded and her crops were failing. She had to cut down the tree and it was no small chore., especially on a hot summer day.
As an alternative, speaking of the analogy of the mulberry tree, Jesus says with just a little faith we can cause this fast growing tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea. It appears to me that He is talking about deep rooted offense in our lives that need to be cleared out, and with faith it is possible.
The issue for many of us, is that we think the clearing of mulberry trees (deep offenses) is either something we don't want to do, holding onto it like it has value to us, or too much work!! An important question to us is why do we hold onto grudges and offenses?? I think that we think there is value in revenge or vengeance, or hatred and feel some sort of self-satisfaction in remembering all the things people have done to us. Could it be that these grudges and offenses are actually choking out our ability to bear good fruit?? I think that light of the fruitfulness God desires in our lives, the mulberry (deep rooted offense) is worthless and even harmful. Holding onto it, is like holding onto a worthless collection of old dirty newspapers, and allowing the collection to take over your whole house and garage. Spiritually speaking, we should have cleared that mulberry tree (offense) out of our field (life) as soon as we noticed it growing, when it was not even a sapling.
The good news is that faith allows us to remove this thing from our lives, with relative ease, casting it into the sea (an allusion to casting it out of our life and out of our remembrance), like the Lord does with our sins. Faith is required because it is from the Lord that we come to understand forgiveness, and understand how He will take care of us. We don't need to carry around these offenses so that we can enact revenge or vengeance ! We don't need to be burdened with these things, but can rather release them to the Lord, who forgives us, and asks us to forgive others as well. I am reminded of two sets of verses first where Jesus calls us to forgive those that have sinned against us, and second where He tells us to release our burdens to Him. Here are the verses
The first set of verses is from when Jesus teaches us to pray - Luke 11:2-4 NIV:
[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. ' ”
And the second set of verses is a familiar set of verses from Matthew 11:28-30 NIV:
[28] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Going back to the original reflection verses this morning, forgiveness is apparently a normal part of our Christian walk, and something we need to be about every day. We must learn to forgive others, and doing so quickly keeps the offenses from growing large in our life. Forgiving quickly reduces our burdens, ad allows us to take on Jesus' yoke.
Forgiveness, ultimately is about relationship care and restoration, and relationships are the foundation of the Kingdom! We are called to love God (relationship) and love one another (relationship). Jesus points us to the verses above to help us understand the need for forgiveness and the regularity of that need. This isn't a once a year, clean your field (life) type invitation, but rather a daily part of our normal life. We are sons and daughters of the Father and forgiveness is one of the ways we reflect or represent Him to our world, and to each other.
Ultimately our forgiveness is for our own health and benefit. The Lord forgives all our sins, and all the sins of those that have sinned against us. Our forgiveness isn't required or necessary for the other person's salvation, and interestingly that is what the Greek word which was translated unworthy (verse 10 above, as in unworthy servants) means. The Greek dictionary I use gives this definition of achreios, as a negative of chre (which means necessary), or in other words not necessary. Our forgiveness isn't necessary for the other persons forgiveness, but it is important, even critical for our own fruitfulness and freedom!
Wow, that is a whole bunch more than I expected when I first sat down to reflect on these verses!
So today, I am encouraged to look at my life and see if there are any areas of unforgiveness or deep rooted offense. I am encouraged to put my faith in Jesus, to trust His words, to trust His love, to speak forgiveness to any and all. My desire is to have a fruitful life, and I realize that this work of forgiveness allows me to walk unburdened and free, attaining the maximum fruitfulness as the Son's light shines on me!
Amen Lord, increase my faith!
Friday, June 15, 2018
Following the String
This morning I am reflecting on some verses from Paul's letter to the Church in Philippi. Sometimes I feel a bit like a child following string that is tied to different little treasures around the house, and as I follow this string, I uncover little treasures of truth. I say this because I was just reading back through my last few reflections, each from different books and verses, but each related to the other. I love how the Lord in His gentle direction leads me along, helping me to discover new insight and understanding, each building on the last or related to the last. I am so encouraged by His leading, knowing that He is taking a personal interest in my growth and maturation.
Here are the verses from the end of chapter 3 and beginning of chapter 4 - Philippians 3:12-16,20-21 & 4:1 (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."
[15] "All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. [16] Only let us live up to what we have already attained."
[20] "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians [4:1] "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!"
I wanted to include the verse from the fourth chapter for that was actually his concluding thought from all he discussed in chapter three. It is at that point the work my way backwards through his thoughts, starting with his exhortation to "stand firm in the Lord". This is an exhortation to stand solidly in our relationship with Christ Jesus. Quite simply, He is our goal, He is our finish-line, everything we pursue is found in Him. Our identity is found in Him (Rom 8:28-30). Our Relationship with the Father is through Him (Matt 11:27). Our understanding of our purpose and calling is found in Him (Eph 1:11). Our power and life is found in Him (John 4:13-14). Our eternal life is in Him (John 17:3). We are new creations in Him (2 Cor 5:17)!
Our citizenship, our nature, our calling, our final destiny is heaven, and yet we get to experience this heavenly life, here on earth (Matt 6:9-10), prior to our death and joining Him in eternity. We have more to experience, more to birth through prayer, and obedience, and that is what we are encouraged by Paul to press forward into, in Christ Jesus. We have a life of fullness planned by the Lord, and we don't want to think that now that we have received salvation that we can just coast into heaven! Jesus called us to pray heaven down to earth (verses from Matthew listed earlier), and to demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of God here (Matt 10:7-8).
We are all maturing, all in process of being transformed internally and ultimately externally so that we might be like Christ Jesus! Our internal transformation is alluded to in Paul's brief mention of repentance in verse 15 above. The heart of God for us is transformation into the likeness of Jesus, and to do that we must be convinced of our need to think differently, and then act differently. Paul calls this maturation and I think he is completely correct (who am I to comment on Paul's correctness?). I was just thinking how much I look like my earthly father, and how that became more and more apparent as I grew and matured. As I age I become more and more like him in looks, and hopefully in heart, for he was a great man! In this same way, as I grow and mature in relationship with Christ Jesus I hope to look more and more like Him in heart and actions!
So, like Paul, I am encouraged to press on, to press forward, not thinking I have attained everything the Lord set out for me, but recognizing that I have a life of fruitfulness ahead of me! I want to see everything completed, and I can't get there if I am constantly looking backwards, and thinking about the things I have seen or accomplished. Back to the idea of following the string that I started with this morning. It is nice to look at the treasure one receives, to enjoy the treasure, to put the treasure in one's pocket, but there is always more string and more treasures to uncover. I want to follow the Lord pursuing Him to the day I see Him face to face. I want to press forward to win the prize, and that is Christ Jesus.
Amen!
Here are the verses from the end of chapter 3 and beginning of chapter 4 - Philippians 3:12-16,20-21 & 4:1 (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."
[15] "All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. [16] Only let us live up to what we have already attained."
[20] "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians [4:1] "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!"
I wanted to include the verse from the fourth chapter for that was actually his concluding thought from all he discussed in chapter three. It is at that point the work my way backwards through his thoughts, starting with his exhortation to "stand firm in the Lord". This is an exhortation to stand solidly in our relationship with Christ Jesus. Quite simply, He is our goal, He is our finish-line, everything we pursue is found in Him. Our identity is found in Him (Rom 8:28-30). Our Relationship with the Father is through Him (Matt 11:27). Our understanding of our purpose and calling is found in Him (Eph 1:11). Our power and life is found in Him (John 4:13-14). Our eternal life is in Him (John 17:3). We are new creations in Him (2 Cor 5:17)!
Our citizenship, our nature, our calling, our final destiny is heaven, and yet we get to experience this heavenly life, here on earth (Matt 6:9-10), prior to our death and joining Him in eternity. We have more to experience, more to birth through prayer, and obedience, and that is what we are encouraged by Paul to press forward into, in Christ Jesus. We have a life of fullness planned by the Lord, and we don't want to think that now that we have received salvation that we can just coast into heaven! Jesus called us to pray heaven down to earth (verses from Matthew listed earlier), and to demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of God here (Matt 10:7-8).
We are all maturing, all in process of being transformed internally and ultimately externally so that we might be like Christ Jesus! Our internal transformation is alluded to in Paul's brief mention of repentance in verse 15 above. The heart of God for us is transformation into the likeness of Jesus, and to do that we must be convinced of our need to think differently, and then act differently. Paul calls this maturation and I think he is completely correct (who am I to comment on Paul's correctness?). I was just thinking how much I look like my earthly father, and how that became more and more apparent as I grew and matured. As I age I become more and more like him in looks, and hopefully in heart, for he was a great man! In this same way, as I grow and mature in relationship with Christ Jesus I hope to look more and more like Him in heart and actions!
So, like Paul, I am encouraged to press on, to press forward, not thinking I have attained everything the Lord set out for me, but recognizing that I have a life of fruitfulness ahead of me! I want to see everything completed, and I can't get there if I am constantly looking backwards, and thinking about the things I have seen or accomplished. Back to the idea of following the string that I started with this morning. It is nice to look at the treasure one receives, to enjoy the treasure, to put the treasure in one's pocket, but there is always more string and more treasures to uncover. I want to follow the Lord pursuing Him to the day I see Him face to face. I want to press forward to win the prize, and that is Christ Jesus.
Amen!
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