I am formally objecting to any phrasing involving the devil and The Foothold. You've likely heard it before in some incarnation of this: Don't let the devil get a foothold. I'm going to talk about it as The Foothold, because that's how I've thought of it. It's the Real Big Thing the devil uses to get into your business and mess you up. It's not simply a foothold, it's The Foothold.
Here's my problem with The Foothold. When we phrase a warning to someone about The Foothold, the implication is usually that your sin will let the devil in and he'll mess you up from there. I interpreted this as the sin being the thing that would get you messed up. That somehow the devil would take that weak point, that sin, and prod you along into bigger, deeper, uglier holes of sin. I now know that this is a lie. Or at least it is quite wrong.
The Foothold is not the sin; The Foothold is the shame. The Lord makes this much clear about salvation: sin is no longer an issue. The scripture tells us that Jesus died for all of our sins. Though we were as scarlet, we are now white as snow. Sin is no longer an issue because we are forgiven for all sin always. The blood of Jesus takes care of that. Does that mean we should sin? No, and Paul points this out eloquently, so go read his letters. I want to talk about shame, because that is where the devil gets a grip and messes us up. The enemy comes to accuse us, to shame us, to lie about who we are. He tells us that the sin we do is who we are. "You're not white as snow, look at that scarlet shirt you keep putting on." And this is a convincing argument, except for this nugget of truth: it's a lie. The enemy is a liar and nothing else, and what the Word says is that we are white as snow always and forever. So the shame is from the enemy, not from God, and the enemy is good at shame, and it's how he gets The Foothold.
If you remember nothing about guilt (which I'm using as a synonym for shame), remember this: guilt accomplishes nothing. Guilt is our way of feeling like we can earn the salvation we know is free. It makes our Flesh feel good to earn our salvation; that is what the Flesh wants. It's ironic that our urge as fallen people is to reject the free Gift of Grace and grab hold of the expensive Baggage of Guilt, but we do that a lot. It's our urge. But here's some good news before you try to grab another handful of new guilt: we who are saved are new creatures, white as snow, whether we realize it or not. But oh, whoa, and oh again, it is so much better if you realize it and embrace it and walk in it. There is no freedom in shame, and guilt will not lead you to freedom, but there is all the freedom you could ever want in Grace.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
And This is Eternal Life
This is something I wrote over a year ago and came across in my files. I'm going to post it here before rereading and editing, which may not be required anyway.
And This is Eternal Life...
If you are like me and grew up in a Christian home, you have probably spent some time thinking about Eternal Life. I learned early in my Christian life that, after I died, I would spend eternity in Heaven. Now, eternity was a difficult concept and still is. I would think about eternity, and what it would be like to never grow old and never have an ending to anything – the day, a project, a school year, life – and the conclusion I reached was that I didn’t like the sound of that. Nevermind that I would be in the presence of God forever, I didn’t really know what that meant for me, I just knew I wasn’t crazy about trading my earthly reality with its endings and beginnings for a heavenly reality without them.
The truth about Eternal Life wasn’t shared with me and I didn’t go looking for it, but it’s a funny thing about the Bible: no matter how often you read it, and no matter how familiar you are with it, there is always a surprise. The surprise for me was to learn that Jesus defined Eternal Life and that it didn’t look like what I thought it would look like. He says:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” – John 17:3 (ESV)
I almost slapped my hand against my head when I read and understood that for the first time. I didn’t know that the Bible gave definitions; I was looking for the difficult answer revealed through a lifetime of reading and meditation. But Jesus said plainly to his Disciples that this is what you’re after: knowing God and His son Jesus.
Not only is this eternal life, this is Life Itself. In Revelation John gives us a picture of what is happening in the Throne Room of God. Here is a description from Revelation 4:6:
“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”
These four creatures are “full of eyes all around.” They see everything and they don’t miss anything and they sit in the presence of God. They have full knowledge of God and that is why they never cease to praise Him and declare His holiness. Because they have full knowledge of Him there is nothing else they can do but praise Him and declare His holiness.
In the heavenlies there is fullness of knowledge of God. That is what we will experience in Heaven in the presence of the Lord: full knowledge. When Jesus says to us what Eternal Life is he says it is this: Knowing God. We see that the Eternal Life we’re promised is in Heaven and it is full knowledge of God. But we see that Eternal Life is not just in Heaven; Eternal life is knowing God, and that means that Eternal Life can be happening right now. And it also means that the whole purpose of Life Itself is to get to know God.
What a revelation! When I got a hold of this – as I continue to get a hold of this – so many aspects of my understanding of the Christian life are challenged. The purpose of the Christian life is not to struggle until we die and get to Heaven and then know God. The purpose of the Christian life is not to elevate religion. The purpose of the Christian life is not to perfect my physical activity, to rid myself of sin. The purpose of the Christian life is to know God.
So now I come to the problem of prayer. Prayer is a conundrum and a difficulty for me because there is so much unanswered about it. Why pray? In James 5:16 the Word says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (ESV). Okay, so there’s an answer to why we pray, because prayer is powerful. But if prayer is powerful, and if, as Jesus said, we will receive if we ask, why do we not always receive? Why are our friends and family not healed when we pray? Why doesn’t the rain come? Why don’t prayer chains work? Why do we not always receive what we ask for?
There is an answer in the way that Jesus teaches us to pray, but it is not the answer it seems to be. Jesus says in Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV):
“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”
I thought that the answer to why we pray was in this verse because, after all, Jesus is teaching us how to pray here. He says that we should pray for the will of God to be done on earth because it isn’t done. If it was done automatically on earth, why would Jesus teach us to pray for it to be done? And so in reading this I had my answer: God’s will can be done on earth if we pray for it. Jesus says so right here.
The Lord revealed deeper truth, however, and so the answer is not what I felt certain it was. I thought the answer was that Jesus taught us to pray for God's will to be done since it's not automatically done. However, I think that what Jesus was saying was (also) that the way we should pray is in accordance with God's will, in agreement with it. And you can't pray or live or do anything in agreement with God's will if you don't know Him. And that's why I think prayer is first and foremost about knowing Him. I also realized that for us prayer is on our terms, and that's why we have so many hang ups and that’s why we can’t figure it out. That's why we feel like prayer in numbers should be more effective, or that earnest prayers should be more effective, and that's why we feel like prayer is about receiving what we ask for, because it's on our terms. Much like praise and our hang ups and insecurities there, we're on our terms. And the truth is that both praise and prayer are on God's terms. They're both about Him.
If prayer is about knowing God, first and foremost, then prayer is communication, conversation. Jesus tells us, before he shows us how to pray, not to be like the hypocrites who “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners…but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Matt. 6:5-5 ESV). And he says, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matt. 6:7 ESV). Prayer is communication, and God, like us, doesn’t do well with bad communication. Who likes it when someone is a show-off in conversation, or talks hollowly with “empty phrases”? Prayer is a church word and it’s our way of saying talk. Jesus is teaching us how to talk to God. Do it like this, he says, and you’ll be doing it well, you’ll really be talking and learning something.
But the fact that prayer is about communing with God and knowing Him doesn’t change the fact that He instructs us to ask for things. In fact, the Greek word for prayer used in James 5:16 means “a seeking, asking, entreating, entreaty to God”. Jesus did tell us to ask for things and he tells us that the Father gives and gives well. “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:9-11 ESV). He gives to those who ask! But what if I ask my Father for cake? Would I complain if instead he gave me bread? Or if I received nothing? Perhaps it’s bread that I should have prayed for in the first place, but how could I know if I didn’t know my Father, know what he has and wants to give?
I heard someone once say that they have heard there are two wills of God: the will of God that is absolute and doesn’t require our cooperation, and the will of God he shares with us in its emergence. And I asked the question, “Well how do we know which is which?” Immediately I had the answer from the Lord: Get to know me and you will know my will. Then you will know how to pray.
And This is Eternal Life...
If you are like me and grew up in a Christian home, you have probably spent some time thinking about Eternal Life. I learned early in my Christian life that, after I died, I would spend eternity in Heaven. Now, eternity was a difficult concept and still is. I would think about eternity, and what it would be like to never grow old and never have an ending to anything – the day, a project, a school year, life – and the conclusion I reached was that I didn’t like the sound of that. Nevermind that I would be in the presence of God forever, I didn’t really know what that meant for me, I just knew I wasn’t crazy about trading my earthly reality with its endings and beginnings for a heavenly reality without them.
The truth about Eternal Life wasn’t shared with me and I didn’t go looking for it, but it’s a funny thing about the Bible: no matter how often you read it, and no matter how familiar you are with it, there is always a surprise. The surprise for me was to learn that Jesus defined Eternal Life and that it didn’t look like what I thought it would look like. He says:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” – John 17:3 (ESV)
I almost slapped my hand against my head when I read and understood that for the first time. I didn’t know that the Bible gave definitions; I was looking for the difficult answer revealed through a lifetime of reading and meditation. But Jesus said plainly to his Disciples that this is what you’re after: knowing God and His son Jesus.
Not only is this eternal life, this is Life Itself. In Revelation John gives us a picture of what is happening in the Throne Room of God. Here is a description from Revelation 4:6:
“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”
These four creatures are “full of eyes all around.” They see everything and they don’t miss anything and they sit in the presence of God. They have full knowledge of God and that is why they never cease to praise Him and declare His holiness. Because they have full knowledge of Him there is nothing else they can do but praise Him and declare His holiness.
In the heavenlies there is fullness of knowledge of God. That is what we will experience in Heaven in the presence of the Lord: full knowledge. When Jesus says to us what Eternal Life is he says it is this: Knowing God. We see that the Eternal Life we’re promised is in Heaven and it is full knowledge of God. But we see that Eternal Life is not just in Heaven; Eternal life is knowing God, and that means that Eternal Life can be happening right now. And it also means that the whole purpose of Life Itself is to get to know God.
What a revelation! When I got a hold of this – as I continue to get a hold of this – so many aspects of my understanding of the Christian life are challenged. The purpose of the Christian life is not to struggle until we die and get to Heaven and then know God. The purpose of the Christian life is not to elevate religion. The purpose of the Christian life is not to perfect my physical activity, to rid myself of sin. The purpose of the Christian life is to know God.
So now I come to the problem of prayer. Prayer is a conundrum and a difficulty for me because there is so much unanswered about it. Why pray? In James 5:16 the Word says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (ESV). Okay, so there’s an answer to why we pray, because prayer is powerful. But if prayer is powerful, and if, as Jesus said, we will receive if we ask, why do we not always receive? Why are our friends and family not healed when we pray? Why doesn’t the rain come? Why don’t prayer chains work? Why do we not always receive what we ask for?
There is an answer in the way that Jesus teaches us to pray, but it is not the answer it seems to be. Jesus says in Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV):
“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”
I thought that the answer to why we pray was in this verse because, after all, Jesus is teaching us how to pray here. He says that we should pray for the will of God to be done on earth because it isn’t done. If it was done automatically on earth, why would Jesus teach us to pray for it to be done? And so in reading this I had my answer: God’s will can be done on earth if we pray for it. Jesus says so right here.
The Lord revealed deeper truth, however, and so the answer is not what I felt certain it was. I thought the answer was that Jesus taught us to pray for God's will to be done since it's not automatically done. However, I think that what Jesus was saying was (also) that the way we should pray is in accordance with God's will, in agreement with it. And you can't pray or live or do anything in agreement with God's will if you don't know Him. And that's why I think prayer is first and foremost about knowing Him. I also realized that for us prayer is on our terms, and that's why we have so many hang ups and that’s why we can’t figure it out. That's why we feel like prayer in numbers should be more effective, or that earnest prayers should be more effective, and that's why we feel like prayer is about receiving what we ask for, because it's on our terms. Much like praise and our hang ups and insecurities there, we're on our terms. And the truth is that both praise and prayer are on God's terms. They're both about Him.
If prayer is about knowing God, first and foremost, then prayer is communication, conversation. Jesus tells us, before he shows us how to pray, not to be like the hypocrites who “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners…but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Matt. 6:5-5 ESV). And he says, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matt. 6:7 ESV). Prayer is communication, and God, like us, doesn’t do well with bad communication. Who likes it when someone is a show-off in conversation, or talks hollowly with “empty phrases”? Prayer is a church word and it’s our way of saying talk. Jesus is teaching us how to talk to God. Do it like this, he says, and you’ll be doing it well, you’ll really be talking and learning something.
But the fact that prayer is about communing with God and knowing Him doesn’t change the fact that He instructs us to ask for things. In fact, the Greek word for prayer used in James 5:16 means “a seeking, asking, entreating, entreaty to God”. Jesus did tell us to ask for things and he tells us that the Father gives and gives well. “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:9-11 ESV). He gives to those who ask! But what if I ask my Father for cake? Would I complain if instead he gave me bread? Or if I received nothing? Perhaps it’s bread that I should have prayed for in the first place, but how could I know if I didn’t know my Father, know what he has and wants to give?
I heard someone once say that they have heard there are two wills of God: the will of God that is absolute and doesn’t require our cooperation, and the will of God he shares with us in its emergence. And I asked the question, “Well how do we know which is which?” Immediately I had the answer from the Lord: Get to know me and you will know my will. Then you will know how to pray.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Thirst and the River
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1 (ESV)
Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." The blessing for those who go after the heart of God is that they will find the heart of God. The good news is that the Lord is available, and if we go after Him we'll find him and be satisfied.
The scripture repeatedly uses the images of hunger and thirst. In Psalm 42, the singer says, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." In John 6:35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." And in John 4 he said this to the woman at the well: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Thirst seems to come up more than hunger, probably because we can survive longer without food than we can without water. As kids we learn that three things are required for survival: food, water, and shelter. God of course provides all three. Shelter will have to wait for another post another day. Food is essential and often tied in the scripture to water, as in the beatitude above. But I want to talk about water, about thirst, and about the River.
If you have ever been so thirsty that you could think of nothing else but the sensation of thirst, you can appreciate the notion of panting for water. When you are parched, when the sun is high and hot, the air sapped of moisture, your skin taut and with salty sweat, and all you can think of is the sweet taste of water on your tongue...when you are here in this thirst, water is everything. So it also is with our spirits. That's what the scripture says, what the Psalmist sings: just as the body pants for flowing, sweet, cold, pure and satisfying water, so I long for you Lord. Thirst is a deep natural urge, a mechanism to keep the body alive by driving it to find water. Thirst is a deep spiritual need, a mechanism to satisfy an urge of the spirit that was planted in us before birth, back-way-back when the Lord made man to commune with Him for eternity. Living in the heart of God is a satisfaction to our spirits that nothing else provides; it is the culmination of our existence as sons and daughters of God.
In the beginning, before sin, Man walked with God completely. Man inhabited the heart of God and so was completely satisfied. But since the Fall, we are thirsty for Him. Our separation from Him has parched our spirits, and so we keep looking for water. There are many rivers from which to drink; I've dipped my hands in a lot of them and come away with cotton mouth for my efforts. But there is only one river that runs with living water. "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."'" (John 7:37-8, ESV). If anyone thirsts, come to the Lamb of God and drink. And not only will you be satisfied, but in turn you will have living waters running from your own heart. Your heart will be deep like the heart of God, and like God said of David, you will be a man or woman after God's own heart.
It strikes me that Jesus cried this out. There he was in the temple, and the scripture says he cried this out. "IF ANYONE THIRSTS, LET HIM COME AND DRINK!" I wonder if that's what it was like, if Jesus was yelling at the crowd. Maybe he cried it out because it had welled up in him, because the Spirit was so strong and his compassion so deep that he could barely contain it. Here was this man who most of the crowd was still unsure of claiming that he would fulfill scripture and satisfy their thirst. Some must have thought him a lunatic. Others no doubt smacked their lips and thought suddenly of the sweet satisfaction of a deep, cool draught. Living water indeed.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." The blessing for those who go after the heart of God is that they will find the heart of God. The good news is that the Lord is available, and if we go after Him we'll find him and be satisfied.
The scripture repeatedly uses the images of hunger and thirst. In Psalm 42, the singer says, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." In John 6:35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." And in John 4 he said this to the woman at the well: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Thirst seems to come up more than hunger, probably because we can survive longer without food than we can without water. As kids we learn that three things are required for survival: food, water, and shelter. God of course provides all three. Shelter will have to wait for another post another day. Food is essential and often tied in the scripture to water, as in the beatitude above. But I want to talk about water, about thirst, and about the River.
If you have ever been so thirsty that you could think of nothing else but the sensation of thirst, you can appreciate the notion of panting for water. When you are parched, when the sun is high and hot, the air sapped of moisture, your skin taut and with salty sweat, and all you can think of is the sweet taste of water on your tongue...when you are here in this thirst, water is everything. So it also is with our spirits. That's what the scripture says, what the Psalmist sings: just as the body pants for flowing, sweet, cold, pure and satisfying water, so I long for you Lord. Thirst is a deep natural urge, a mechanism to keep the body alive by driving it to find water. Thirst is a deep spiritual need, a mechanism to satisfy an urge of the spirit that was planted in us before birth, back-way-back when the Lord made man to commune with Him for eternity. Living in the heart of God is a satisfaction to our spirits that nothing else provides; it is the culmination of our existence as sons and daughters of God.
In the beginning, before sin, Man walked with God completely. Man inhabited the heart of God and so was completely satisfied. But since the Fall, we are thirsty for Him. Our separation from Him has parched our spirits, and so we keep looking for water. There are many rivers from which to drink; I've dipped my hands in a lot of them and come away with cotton mouth for my efforts. But there is only one river that runs with living water. "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."'" (John 7:37-8, ESV). If anyone thirsts, come to the Lamb of God and drink. And not only will you be satisfied, but in turn you will have living waters running from your own heart. Your heart will be deep like the heart of God, and like God said of David, you will be a man or woman after God's own heart.
It strikes me that Jesus cried this out. There he was in the temple, and the scripture says he cried this out. "IF ANYONE THIRSTS, LET HIM COME AND DRINK!" I wonder if that's what it was like, if Jesus was yelling at the crowd. Maybe he cried it out because it had welled up in him, because the Spirit was so strong and his compassion so deep that he could barely contain it. Here was this man who most of the crowd was still unsure of claiming that he would fulfill scripture and satisfy their thirst. Some must have thought him a lunatic. Others no doubt smacked their lips and thought suddenly of the sweet satisfaction of a deep, cool draught. Living water indeed.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Beyond Belief
Salvation is as easy as believing and proclaiming. John 3:16, perhaps the most widely known and oft repeated description of what is required for salvation, says, "whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Mark 16:16 says it similarly: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Also Romans 10:9: "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." In fact there are many verses in the New Testament about believing and receiving salvation. That's what it takes: belief. In order to be saved, in order to avoid condemnation, we have to believe in Jesus and his sacrifice.
Here's something interesting about belief: even the demons believe. Check out what James says:
"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder!" (James 2:19, ESV)
I was surprised to learn, as I did a few years ago, that so much of the Christian life exists beyond salvation. Last night the Lord told me this: I am beyond belief. The deepest place is in my heart, and the way to get there is to hunger and thirst. He is beyond belief, which I thought was a funny turn of phrase, because He truly is beyond belief, in both ways that phrase can imply.
Four years ago I fell for Him. I guess that a hunger and a thirst for Him had been building in me, but I couldn't have identified it as that. When He did show up and meet me and I let myself be broken, it changed my life. That's right, changed my life, which had already been made new. While I was saved by grace through faith at a young age - I think 5 years-old maybe - I moved beyond belief in 2008 at the age of 28. I moved into His heart and everything is different.
In Matthew Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." Indeed, this is what I think God was telling me last night. He said the way into His heart is to hunger and thirst. And here is the satisfaction: Him. You see, God is righteous; He is the only righteous one, and so to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to hunger and thirst for His very heart. That's why Jesus said we are blessed if we do hunger and thirst, because we will get the very thing we were created for, and that is the heart of God. His companionship, His love, His covering and friendship and grace overwhelming. These are the things we get in His heart.
God's power is beyond belief, and the place where He wants to take us is beyond just salvation. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12) Jesus in this chapter talks about how the Father is greater than him, and I wonder if what he meant in verse 12 is that the "greater works" we will do will be done after we get into the Father's heart. He seems to say, Believe in me and you can do what I do; get into the Father's heart, which is where I'm going, and you'll do even greater things. I think that there is truth in this, because Jesus didn't want us to stop at salvation, he wanted us to do greater works. He wanted and wants us to go beyond belief.
Here's something interesting about belief: even the demons believe. Check out what James says:
"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe, and shudder!" (James 2:19, ESV)
I was surprised to learn, as I did a few years ago, that so much of the Christian life exists beyond salvation. Last night the Lord told me this: I am beyond belief. The deepest place is in my heart, and the way to get there is to hunger and thirst. He is beyond belief, which I thought was a funny turn of phrase, because He truly is beyond belief, in both ways that phrase can imply.
Four years ago I fell for Him. I guess that a hunger and a thirst for Him had been building in me, but I couldn't have identified it as that. When He did show up and meet me and I let myself be broken, it changed my life. That's right, changed my life, which had already been made new. While I was saved by grace through faith at a young age - I think 5 years-old maybe - I moved beyond belief in 2008 at the age of 28. I moved into His heart and everything is different.
In Matthew Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." Indeed, this is what I think God was telling me last night. He said the way into His heart is to hunger and thirst. And here is the satisfaction: Him. You see, God is righteous; He is the only righteous one, and so to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to hunger and thirst for His very heart. That's why Jesus said we are blessed if we do hunger and thirst, because we will get the very thing we were created for, and that is the heart of God. His companionship, His love, His covering and friendship and grace overwhelming. These are the things we get in His heart.
God's power is beyond belief, and the place where He wants to take us is beyond just salvation. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12) Jesus in this chapter talks about how the Father is greater than him, and I wonder if what he meant in verse 12 is that the "greater works" we will do will be done after we get into the Father's heart. He seems to say, Believe in me and you can do what I do; get into the Father's heart, which is where I'm going, and you'll do even greater things. I think that there is truth in this, because Jesus didn't want us to stop at salvation, he wanted us to do greater works. He wanted and wants us to go beyond belief.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The Awkward Moment
We need to awkward moment before the Lord begins to move. I don't know why, but this much is true in my experience. I think it might be because we work so hard to avoid the awkward moment. The awkward moment represents a breakdown of our control and composure; and there is no better time or more likely instance for the Lord to show up than when we have lost our control and composure.
Holy order is not like the order of the flesh. When we work to impose order in our flesh, we create a kind of chaos in the spiritual reality. Spiritual order doesn't look like fleshly order. Our order is about control: schedules, plans, scripts. But spriitual order is about God and what He is doing. What He wants to do. He does not speak by our script because He has His own script. Sometimes He's speaking over there and we're not listening because we didn't know He could use those words, we thought He only used these words. We thought we had figured out just what words He uses. He who has ears let him hear!
Let the awkward moment come and have the courage to press through it. When we stop talking the Lord speaks up, or so it seems to me. Or maybe we just start listening a little more intently. It's hard to hear with your own voice in your ears.
Where two or more are joined together in His name, He is there. That's all it takes: two folks. Here's the kicker: gathered together in His name.
Holy order is not like the order of the flesh. When we work to impose order in our flesh, we create a kind of chaos in the spiritual reality. Spiritual order doesn't look like fleshly order. Our order is about control: schedules, plans, scripts. But spriitual order is about God and what He is doing. What He wants to do. He does not speak by our script because He has His own script. Sometimes He's speaking over there and we're not listening because we didn't know He could use those words, we thought He only used these words. We thought we had figured out just what words He uses. He who has ears let him hear!
Let the awkward moment come and have the courage to press through it. When we stop talking the Lord speaks up, or so it seems to me. Or maybe we just start listening a little more intently. It's hard to hear with your own voice in your ears.
Where two or more are joined together in His name, He is there. That's all it takes: two folks. Here's the kicker: gathered together in His name.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
How Natural is Praise
Pslams 8:2 reads:
"Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger." (NKJV)
"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise [or strength] because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." (NIV)
While I prefer the New King James Version translation, I include the New International Version translation for clarity regarding what the Lord has helped me understand about this verse. I prefer the first translation because it makes this distinction: nursing infants. That adjective is important to me because it prompted me to consider how natural nursing is to an infant. To a human baby, nothing is more instinctive, inate, and natural than nursing. I have seen each of my four children borne into this world, and watched in ecstatic fascination as, minutes after leaving their mother, they wriggle and search for the nipple, as though this is the very thing they were born for. Two of my children were born at home, and to watch a mother birth a child, turn over and cradle it and begin to feed it is to witness human instinct in its purest form.
I include the second translation because of the use of the word praise. While the NIV footnotes strength as an appropriate translation of the Hebrew word "oz," the word praise feels more powerful - an especially ironic observation considering "oz" means "might, strength." It is appropriate, though, to equate praise with strength, because it is in our praise of Him that we find power. It is when we humble ourselves and turn to the Lord and realize that He is worthy and that He is worth our praise, that He in turn lifts us up and makes us into something. For us, our might is bound to our praise; when we have little praise for the Father, we have little strength.
And so if the Lord has ordained praise in the mouths of nursing infants, It must mean that praise is as natural an act as nursing: something so inborn it is one of our earliest and most primal actions.
"Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger." (NKJV)
"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise [or strength] because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." (NIV)
While I prefer the New King James Version translation, I include the New International Version translation for clarity regarding what the Lord has helped me understand about this verse. I prefer the first translation because it makes this distinction: nursing infants. That adjective is important to me because it prompted me to consider how natural nursing is to an infant. To a human baby, nothing is more instinctive, inate, and natural than nursing. I have seen each of my four children borne into this world, and watched in ecstatic fascination as, minutes after leaving their mother, they wriggle and search for the nipple, as though this is the very thing they were born for. Two of my children were born at home, and to watch a mother birth a child, turn over and cradle it and begin to feed it is to witness human instinct in its purest form.
I include the second translation because of the use of the word praise. While the NIV footnotes strength as an appropriate translation of the Hebrew word "oz," the word praise feels more powerful - an especially ironic observation considering "oz" means "might, strength." It is appropriate, though, to equate praise with strength, because it is in our praise of Him that we find power. It is when we humble ourselves and turn to the Lord and realize that He is worthy and that He is worth our praise, that He in turn lifts us up and makes us into something. For us, our might is bound to our praise; when we have little praise for the Father, we have little strength.
And so if the Lord has ordained praise in the mouths of nursing infants, It must mean that praise is as natural an act as nursing: something so inborn it is one of our earliest and most primal actions.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Breaking Bread
A friend recently lost her father, and my wife asked me what we could do for them. She felt an urge to express our love for our friend and her family. I didn't think deeply about it, nor did I arrive at an idea, until I had baked two large loaves of sourdough bread. One was a round loaf baked in a cast iron saucepan: tall and superbly round, with a puffy top like a muffin. We gave them this loaf, and it felt right to give it. It seems like bread is good for healing.
This sentiment has cemented and deepened while I've thought about bread, this symbol of sustenance. Bread is so primary in our human experience. We measure economic prosperity by its price, and in economic crisis the availability and affordability of bread is as important as any other indicator. In times of war or hardship, when there is no other food available, there is often at least bread. Bread and water: this is for us elemental, essential; this phrase, 'bread and water,' sums up the very idea of survival, of sustenance. Bread is distinctly symbolic and powerful archetypal, and as this symbol and archetype is has accompanied man throughout history. Empires rise and fall on the availability of grain, one of bread's three essential ingredients. The others: water and yeast. Water is even more essential than bread. We are ourselves 80% water, and the world is 3/4 covered in it. When Jesus was pierced, the water flowed. And he promised us living waters would flow in us.
As I've thought about bread, I've though specifically of Jesus breaking bread with his twelve disciples, saying This is my body which is broken for you. He tells us to break the bread together and remember his body breaking, the sacrifice of his life for everyone. His message is startlingly beautiful, confounding, and revolutionary, because it is the symbol of his revolutionary love, his earth-shattering act of sacrifice.
We can't of course ignore the wine in this image of the passover feast. Jesus says it is his blood, shed for us. And so I see in my mind a still-life image of the bread and wine. The loaf is rustic, round, evidently toothsome and hearty - and distinctly leavened, even though at Passover it shouldn't be. The wine is purple-black in a large stemware glass. Since the wine is his blood, it is everything. It's the blood of Jesus that cleanses, that somehow washes us white as snow. It's the blood that makes us new. And yet there is still the body, the reservoir of that life-giving blood, the body that was broken. The bread. It's the bread that I keep coming back to.
Jesus says, When you pray, don't pray like the religious folks who want to impress you with their pompous words, but pray like this: Our Father in Heaven, holy is your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth just like it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Give us this day our daily bread. I can hear this prayer in my head like a rushed murmur, spoken each time I've spoken it as an incantation, akin in rhythm in speed to the Pledge of Allegiance. The words are skated over in my haste, and I don't know what they mean. My rhythm is off, probably quite distinct from the rhythm of speech Jesus employed when he first recited that prayer. So I wonder, what does this mean, Give us this day our daily bread? Does it mean this day is our daily bread? Or am I asking for bread for this day, asking for sustenance, both physical and spiritual?
I'm asking for all of it; I want it all, all of His sustenance, all of His grace and love, peace and joy, all of His Spirit, all of His abundance. I want His bread, His daily bread. I need it, as much as I need water and breath and as much as I need the blood of Jesus. And His bread is healing, just as I suspected it might be. Now that lofty loaf of bread sitting on my counter is something more than it was.
This sentiment has cemented and deepened while I've thought about bread, this symbol of sustenance. Bread is so primary in our human experience. We measure economic prosperity by its price, and in economic crisis the availability and affordability of bread is as important as any other indicator. In times of war or hardship, when there is no other food available, there is often at least bread. Bread and water: this is for us elemental, essential; this phrase, 'bread and water,' sums up the very idea of survival, of sustenance. Bread is distinctly symbolic and powerful archetypal, and as this symbol and archetype is has accompanied man throughout history. Empires rise and fall on the availability of grain, one of bread's three essential ingredients. The others: water and yeast. Water is even more essential than bread. We are ourselves 80% water, and the world is 3/4 covered in it. When Jesus was pierced, the water flowed. And he promised us living waters would flow in us.
As I've thought about bread, I've though specifically of Jesus breaking bread with his twelve disciples, saying This is my body which is broken for you. He tells us to break the bread together and remember his body breaking, the sacrifice of his life for everyone. His message is startlingly beautiful, confounding, and revolutionary, because it is the symbol of his revolutionary love, his earth-shattering act of sacrifice.
We can't of course ignore the wine in this image of the passover feast. Jesus says it is his blood, shed for us. And so I see in my mind a still-life image of the bread and wine. The loaf is rustic, round, evidently toothsome and hearty - and distinctly leavened, even though at Passover it shouldn't be. The wine is purple-black in a large stemware glass. Since the wine is his blood, it is everything. It's the blood of Jesus that cleanses, that somehow washes us white as snow. It's the blood that makes us new. And yet there is still the body, the reservoir of that life-giving blood, the body that was broken. The bread. It's the bread that I keep coming back to.
Jesus says, When you pray, don't pray like the religious folks who want to impress you with their pompous words, but pray like this: Our Father in Heaven, holy is your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth just like it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Give us this day our daily bread. I can hear this prayer in my head like a rushed murmur, spoken each time I've spoken it as an incantation, akin in rhythm in speed to the Pledge of Allegiance. The words are skated over in my haste, and I don't know what they mean. My rhythm is off, probably quite distinct from the rhythm of speech Jesus employed when he first recited that prayer. So I wonder, what does this mean, Give us this day our daily bread? Does it mean this day is our daily bread? Or am I asking for bread for this day, asking for sustenance, both physical and spiritual?
I'm asking for all of it; I want it all, all of His sustenance, all of His grace and love, peace and joy, all of His Spirit, all of His abundance. I want His bread, His daily bread. I need it, as much as I need water and breath and as much as I need the blood of Jesus. And His bread is healing, just as I suspected it might be. Now that lofty loaf of bread sitting on my counter is something more than it was.
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