"Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling."
"Each one in the calling in which he was called--in this he should remain. Were you called while a slave? Do not let it be a concern to you. But if indeed you are able to become free, rather make use of it. For the one who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed person. Likewise the one who is called while free is s slave of Christ. You were bought at a price; do not becomes slaves of men. Each one in the situation in which he was called, brothers--in this he should remain with God." 1 Cor 7
So we were called to die with Christ, be buried with him and rise again as the Lord's freed persons from sin and as the Lord's slaves in the His new kingdom which He is bringing. Amen!
So how do we do it? We covered so much last night and it was good and i loved Tom's pointed questions: So what does that look like in our day to day? How do we do that? How do we be honest and humble in the places we are? When i think about what all this means, how life changingly important it is that God himself died for me(!) and chose me specifically even before i was born(!!), it is so tempting for me to think that i should therefore also see some sort of equally bloody revolution in my life, some Damascus road moment that knocks me off my ass (it's biblical, look it up), turns me from my intended destinations and sends me careening off into seven year missionary journeys where i learn six new languages and dialects in order to bring the gospel to unreached people groups wearing loincloths in disease ridden jungles, or that i need to sell all i own and go live with the homeless, caring for them and bringing them new cardboard for their concrete jungle sukhots with Bible verses printed on them, or that's it's time to chuck it all, buy a guitar and become a traveling gospel minstrel, oh, and maybe learn to play the guitar. Or we go home depressed because somehow we have this notion that this life with Jesus is supposed to be like all of that and we know ours will never be. Or we take our plans home only to find our lives waiting for us there with all of our very real but very mundane problems ready for us and Tuesday follows Monday and then it's Thursday before we know it and if we think about this at all it's with tinges of despair around the edges. And we want to cry out, "Isn't it supposed to be different? Aren't we supposed to DO something?"
But is that how it's supposed to be? Is that the abundant life Jesus has called us to? Is that freedom we have found in Christ who has done all things for us and done them well? Is that faith in His finished work? Shouldn't that bring peace? Not existential angst? Is that what Paul was saying to the Corinthians? Paul who had the Road to Damascus moment?
Well, let's look at that real quick. What in Paul's life was changed? He was already employed as a form of evangelizing clergy as a Pharisee. Scriptural purity was his job. He was already so zealous for it that he was taking his little heretic-bashing show on the road from town to town. He was already so on fire for YHWH that he was willing to kill for Him. Jesus didn't have to remake Saul as much as we think. He just had to free him and tweak his theology a bit... like a lot.. like, knock him off his high-ass and get him off the throne of his own life so that Jesus could sit down on it. But then Jesus looked around and said, 'yeah, I can work with this.' Paul stayed true to what God had designed him to be: a man on fire for God, only now he actually KNEW him, the true God. He had been a slave to his own self-salvation plan, his rigid, religiosity and narrow view of Scripture and thus his squinty view of an angry God and now Christ freed him from that and thus Paul willingly became Jesus' slave, joyfully became Jesus' servant, zealously took his evangelizing show on the road from town to town to spread the good news that the Scriptures had been fulfilled in Jesus! Was so on fire for Jesus that he was willing to die for Him! Paul stayed in many ways, exactly what he was when he was called, he just did it now for the right King in the right way for the right reasons. Paul's job description never really changed. He was a traveling cleric devoted to Scriptural purity and the right worship of God when Jesus slapped him blind (or revealed his blindness, but that is a post for another day) and he was a a traveling cleric devoted to Scriptural purity and the right worship of God when Jesus opened his eyes. Heck, he even was a tent maker both before and after, only now he had a new crew to make them with and a new purpose in making them! He was on mission--making tents!
So what does it look like to live simply and humbly before our God for our Savior Jesus Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit in this life? What must we do to do the work of God? Well, what were you doing when he called you, minus your sin of course? It's quite possible that an All-Knowing, Pre-destining God was already preparing you before you repented of your former way of life and were baptized into the new life He had been equipping you for since before He laid the foundations of the Earth. He's kind of efficient like that. He could take a steel soup kettle and reshape it into a glass vase to hold flowers if he wanted, He has that kind of power, and i'm not saying He doesn't call some of us to drastically different roads than the one we thought were were on, cuz He's God and He can do what He wants according to His good will. i'm only saying that historically and scripturally, that doesn't seem to be what He does the vast majority of the time. Because He doesn't need to. He's been doing something far more revolutionary: He's been crafting you from the beginning of time and crafting time to the beginning of you so that in the fullness of time you could display Jesus in your setting, in your manner, with your gifts which He gave you, in your work and your words, with the love he has shown you.
What is your calling? It's you, only better! Because now it's more than you, it's Him in you, through you, for His glory which He is inviting you to share with Him forever.
But don't take my word for it, search His! He is waiting there for you,
softly and tenderly, calling....
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Floggin' the resurrected horse.
"And you, although you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all formerly lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind, and we were children of wrath by nature, as also the rest of them were.
But God(!), being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and raised together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them." Eph 2
It may feel like we're beating a dead horse here (see what i did there?) but it's only because we're trying to remind him that he isn't dead anymore. Christ has resurrected him! He is a new horse! You are a new horse! You went looking for water on your own and like that skeleton in the cowboy movies, you found the alkali flats that only look like water.
But God!
God has knitted you together, new flesh to bone, heart of flesh instead of stone, and he has led you to green, fertile pastures (himself) and beside still waters (himself) and he speaks tenderly to you, he leads you now and he will use bit and bridle if he must but he'd rather you knew your owner, your master, your friend, be guided by knee pressure and soft word. That's humility. A horse is not weak. If it was, it wouldn't be useful. It is strong, it is fast, it is an image of power. Humility is not weakness. It's meekness. Power restrained. Power under control. Power for a purpose. It is knowing your place, knowing your relationship to the master, trusting your friend. The horse does not choose the way unless the rider gives him the reins. And when that happens the horse thinks with it's stomach. It goes to water, it goes to grass, it goes to the stable, it goes to comfort. Horses don't choose noble paths, glorious paths for their riders and themselves. The master does that. The knight to battle, the wrangler to cattle, the jockey over the fence, round the steeple and to the finish line, as hard as we can go, hell bent for leather.
Okay, i think i've flogged that metaphor into the dust but you take my meaning. "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." You have been made new, you have been given a new name, a new life, a new purpose and a new Master. Will you obey? Will you submit? Will you carry this King who died for you, will you bear this Master who serves you, will you love this Friend who loves you? Yes, it may go places you don't want to go, it won't always be comfortable, there won't always be a warm stable, or enough fodder or as much water as you would like but you will have what you need, Him, He will be there with you in all of it and He guarantees as surely as He lives and by the same proof, it will be glorious!
But God(!), being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and raised together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them." Eph 2
It may feel like we're beating a dead horse here (see what i did there?) but it's only because we're trying to remind him that he isn't dead anymore. Christ has resurrected him! He is a new horse! You are a new horse! You went looking for water on your own and like that skeleton in the cowboy movies, you found the alkali flats that only look like water.
But God!
God has knitted you together, new flesh to bone, heart of flesh instead of stone, and he has led you to green, fertile pastures (himself) and beside still waters (himself) and he speaks tenderly to you, he leads you now and he will use bit and bridle if he must but he'd rather you knew your owner, your master, your friend, be guided by knee pressure and soft word. That's humility. A horse is not weak. If it was, it wouldn't be useful. It is strong, it is fast, it is an image of power. Humility is not weakness. It's meekness. Power restrained. Power under control. Power for a purpose. It is knowing your place, knowing your relationship to the master, trusting your friend. The horse does not choose the way unless the rider gives him the reins. And when that happens the horse thinks with it's stomach. It goes to water, it goes to grass, it goes to the stable, it goes to comfort. Horses don't choose noble paths, glorious paths for their riders and themselves. The master does that. The knight to battle, the wrangler to cattle, the jockey over the fence, round the steeple and to the finish line, as hard as we can go, hell bent for leather.
Okay, i think i've flogged that metaphor into the dust but you take my meaning. "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." You have been made new, you have been given a new name, a new life, a new purpose and a new Master. Will you obey? Will you submit? Will you carry this King who died for you, will you bear this Master who serves you, will you love this Friend who loves you? Yes, it may go places you don't want to go, it won't always be comfortable, there won't always be a warm stable, or enough fodder or as much water as you would like but you will have what you need, Him, He will be there with you in all of it and He guarantees as surely as He lives and by the same proof, it will be glorious!
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Whose life is it anyway?
"Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may live a new way of life." Romans 6
My life is not my own.
Actually, i died a long time ago. i may have even been still born, i'm not sure, i don't remember life before knowing Jesus, others seem to know the exact date they were born again. The person i would have been, the one made in the image of my father the devil died and Jesus put his own life into my body. My breath was cut off and His, the Holy Spirit himself, came into me. Somehow, Jesus took the satanically corrupted, sin saturated, self worshiping Scruffy Fricken and dragged him up onto his cross with him. There God destroyed him, utterly, wholly, with divine prejudice when he destroyed his own Son. i never even felt a thing but i know it happened because the devil has not stopped trying to take me back. To rework me again into his image, has never ceased to mar and scratch and to claw at the image of my new, my adopted, my true Father God in heaven and yet he has never won, never taken back complete control (though i have sometimes given it to him), never succeeded, never not met fierce resistance. That doesn't come from me; i wouldn't have done that. i totally would have gone along with every fool notion the devil threw up for consideration. i'm dumb like that. But Jesus isn't. Jesus isn't letting him have an inch. No matter what it takes, no matter what he has to do to me to stop him, Jesus has won, is winning and will win. It is finished. i'm a battlefield where the outcome is assured, there's nothing left to do but finish the fighting and mop up the last pockets of resistance. This insurgency may set off a bomb or two, it may melt back into the mountain citadels to pop back up at what it thinks is a more favorable time but General God has already factored all of that into His plan. The enemy will only succeed in bringing about his own demise.
"And as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant." Jeremiah 31
"For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ... Do you not know that you are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3
My life is not my own.
My life is a house and i may have thought i invited Jesus in. Found him outside, thought he needed a place to stay and graciously offered my own couch with promises to build him his own room, a savior-in-law suite, out back somewhere, especially if he could chip in towards it. But he comes in and starts tearing everything down, knocking out bearing walls, exposing termites and cockroaches to the light, tears it down, bulldozes the foundation which crumbles all too easy on its sandy mud and starts laying out plans to build a completely new house, on a new foundation, on the rocky highground i didn't want to have anything to do with. Too hard to get to. Too much work. He's not even building in the same styles and motifs of the neighborhood! This life is going to stick out like a sore thumb! People will talk. The neighbors are going to report me to the association. And when i ask just what the hectare he thinks he's doing, he just shows me the deed. He bought the house. He bought the land. With his own blood. With his own priceless righteousness. Paid a fortune for it too. Much more than it was worth.
"I AM YHWH your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Exodus 20
"Thus says YHWH, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
"Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of YHWH, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and He has chosen you." (Isaiah 49)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6
My life is not my own.
The auctioneer's gavel fell. The money changed hands. A king's ransom was given for me. Yeah, for me! i was standing, naked on the auction block, the dregs of the slave market and a king, THE King bought me as a bride for his Son. i am a gift. i am being scrubbed sore. My wounds are being dressed. My malodorous pungency, acquired from years on the streets, in the pigpens, in the robber's dens, in the prison cells, years of neglect, poor hygiene, self-loathing are being washed away and replaced with the finest beauty treatments from the most exotic places i've only dreamed of, perfumes, ointments, oils, soaps. Robes and garments of spun gold and crimson silk and purple yarns and linen as white as snow that has yet to gently touch the earth (Did you know the process that forms snow actually purifies the water perfectly?) are being prepared for my wedding along with gemstones forged in the heat and pressure of the sufferings and troubles of my life to be used in the crowns, rings, necklaces being custom crafted to fit only me. i am being trained, how to walk, how to talk, how to carry myself in the presence of my King, my Husband, my Master.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world preserves it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I AM, there my servant will be also." John 12
My life is not my own. i was king of my own life and then i died. The king is dead, long live the King of Kings!
My life is not my own.
Actually, i died a long time ago. i may have even been still born, i'm not sure, i don't remember life before knowing Jesus, others seem to know the exact date they were born again. The person i would have been, the one made in the image of my father the devil died and Jesus put his own life into my body. My breath was cut off and His, the Holy Spirit himself, came into me. Somehow, Jesus took the satanically corrupted, sin saturated, self worshiping Scruffy Fricken and dragged him up onto his cross with him. There God destroyed him, utterly, wholly, with divine prejudice when he destroyed his own Son. i never even felt a thing but i know it happened because the devil has not stopped trying to take me back. To rework me again into his image, has never ceased to mar and scratch and to claw at the image of my new, my adopted, my true Father God in heaven and yet he has never won, never taken back complete control (though i have sometimes given it to him), never succeeded, never not met fierce resistance. That doesn't come from me; i wouldn't have done that. i totally would have gone along with every fool notion the devil threw up for consideration. i'm dumb like that. But Jesus isn't. Jesus isn't letting him have an inch. No matter what it takes, no matter what he has to do to me to stop him, Jesus has won, is winning and will win. It is finished. i'm a battlefield where the outcome is assured, there's nothing left to do but finish the fighting and mop up the last pockets of resistance. This insurgency may set off a bomb or two, it may melt back into the mountain citadels to pop back up at what it thinks is a more favorable time but General God has already factored all of that into His plan. The enemy will only succeed in bringing about his own demise.
"And as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant." Jeremiah 31
"For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ... Do you not know that you are God's temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3
My life is not my own.
My life is a house and i may have thought i invited Jesus in. Found him outside, thought he needed a place to stay and graciously offered my own couch with promises to build him his own room, a savior-in-law suite, out back somewhere, especially if he could chip in towards it. But he comes in and starts tearing everything down, knocking out bearing walls, exposing termites and cockroaches to the light, tears it down, bulldozes the foundation which crumbles all too easy on its sandy mud and starts laying out plans to build a completely new house, on a new foundation, on the rocky highground i didn't want to have anything to do with. Too hard to get to. Too much work. He's not even building in the same styles and motifs of the neighborhood! This life is going to stick out like a sore thumb! People will talk. The neighbors are going to report me to the association. And when i ask just what the hectare he thinks he's doing, he just shows me the deed. He bought the house. He bought the land. With his own blood. With his own priceless righteousness. Paid a fortune for it too. Much more than it was worth.
"I AM YHWH your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Exodus 20
"Thus says YHWH, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
"Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of YHWH, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and He has chosen you." (Isaiah 49)
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6
My life is not my own.
The auctioneer's gavel fell. The money changed hands. A king's ransom was given for me. Yeah, for me! i was standing, naked on the auction block, the dregs of the slave market and a king, THE King bought me as a bride for his Son. i am a gift. i am being scrubbed sore. My wounds are being dressed. My malodorous pungency, acquired from years on the streets, in the pigpens, in the robber's dens, in the prison cells, years of neglect, poor hygiene, self-loathing are being washed away and replaced with the finest beauty treatments from the most exotic places i've only dreamed of, perfumes, ointments, oils, soaps. Robes and garments of spun gold and crimson silk and purple yarns and linen as white as snow that has yet to gently touch the earth (Did you know the process that forms snow actually purifies the water perfectly?) are being prepared for my wedding along with gemstones forged in the heat and pressure of the sufferings and troubles of my life to be used in the crowns, rings, necklaces being custom crafted to fit only me. i am being trained, how to walk, how to talk, how to carry myself in the presence of my King, my Husband, my Master.
"Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world preserves it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I AM, there my servant will be also." John 12
My life is not my own. i was king of my own life and then i died. The king is dead, long live the King of Kings!
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Love it or leave it?
Disclaimer first: this is not, NOT, NOT a political post. All in? Lovely. Let's proceed.
i met John Ruiz and heard about DTY (Die To Yourself for the uninitiated) on the same day. Which is only notable because DTY did not yet exist. It was an idea bouncing around the fertile mind of John even then. A place where Christ loving guys, church going guys, could get together and be ...guys. But not just guys. REAL men. Men who were, above all else, honest about the messiness of their lives with each other. But not just honest, messy men wallowing in self-pity like some kinda group therapy their wives made them go to, but honest, messy men in search of a real relationship with Christ and therefore--because how could they not--be in real relationship with each other. "Would you go to something like that?" John asked me. Would i? Heck yeah, i would!
And i did. And so did many of you. And it was revolutionary. i don't use that word lightly. i was ready to leave this church. i was disgruntled and disaffected. i didn't know half of you half as well as i would like and liked less than half of you half as well as you deserved. It is easy for church to be about you when you don't love anyone else but yourself. That's not to say that i wouldn't have missed many of you, i had made a few friends but i no longer had a reason to stay.
The church was not my family. It was not a place i belonged. It was just a church. There are many like it. And this one did not feel like mine.
DTY changed all that. From its inception it was more than a Bible Study, more than a fellowship time, more than a prayer meeting, more than a vehicle for social-justice work. It was all of them. As much as it was born from Ruiz' dynamism and fed off his charisma as many movements do, it was obvious God was doing something through him and the other leadership, Josh, Matt, Matt, Martin, Grayter, Dave and the others, through DTY and in us and desired to do something through us: to build a family of brothers.
To build His Church.
Brokeness could meet healing. Isolation could meet brotherhood. The unknown could be known. Needs could be met or if not met, at least prayed over. Sins confessed. All the things i'd read about in the Word, the people of God becoming the hands and feet and mouth and ears of Christ, all the things i'd thought a church was or should be, seemed to be coming to fruition in DTY, in this messy little group of men. Lives being changed. The church being changed. When Christian men lead as Christ has commanded us to, God does some cool stuff!
But time passes. Things change. Ideas become institutions. Movements become monuments. Fires burn out. Church plants become generational churches. Exciting, challenging, groups become clubs. The life cycle goes on, Spring becomes Fall, birth-death-rebirth. God has His plan and it is good and it is best. But we temporal creatures still mourn a loss. We are right to lament. We are right to cry out to YHWH when He strikes the shepherd and the sheep are scattered. We are right to cry out to Him when we feel the gears slipping and grinding to a slower and slower rhythm. We are right to fight against complacency and apathy and isolationism and self-centeredness and selfishness and greed and unforgiveness and busyness and pride and all the enemies of love the devil will throw at God's work, God's church, God's people! And trust me, the devil has come down to make war against the children of the woman, the Bride of Christ is touchable and the serpent hates us. Hates the image we bear so much more clearly when we are obeying Christ and loving as He does and working for his Kingdom. The mere act of standing up makes us better targets. Much easier to hide in a pew, safely separated so one wicked grenade can't take out the whole group.
i don't know if DTY has had its day, completed the mission it was born for and now is making way for something new or if its just going through growing pains or metamorphosis... or if it's dying a premature death. i don't know if God will raise up another charismatic visionary to lead it. i do know that it still has much to offer, no matter what it is and God has, is and will do great things through it. That we are better for it having existed, for the time we've spent in it and being it. That i know many more of you now half as much as i'd like to know you and like more than half of you half as much you deserve because of it. That i thank God for it and for you and that i look forward to seeing you there! Because i love God and so i love his Bride, his Church, DTY, you.
YHWH bless us and keep us.
YHWH smile upon us and be gracious to us.
YHWH turn his whole attention to us and give us peace.
i met John Ruiz and heard about DTY (Die To Yourself for the uninitiated) on the same day. Which is only notable because DTY did not yet exist. It was an idea bouncing around the fertile mind of John even then. A place where Christ loving guys, church going guys, could get together and be ...guys. But not just guys. REAL men. Men who were, above all else, honest about the messiness of their lives with each other. But not just honest, messy men wallowing in self-pity like some kinda group therapy their wives made them go to, but honest, messy men in search of a real relationship with Christ and therefore--because how could they not--be in real relationship with each other. "Would you go to something like that?" John asked me. Would i? Heck yeah, i would!
And i did. And so did many of you. And it was revolutionary. i don't use that word lightly. i was ready to leave this church. i was disgruntled and disaffected. i didn't know half of you half as well as i would like and liked less than half of you half as well as you deserved. It is easy for church to be about you when you don't love anyone else but yourself. That's not to say that i wouldn't have missed many of you, i had made a few friends but i no longer had a reason to stay.
The church was not my family. It was not a place i belonged. It was just a church. There are many like it. And this one did not feel like mine.
DTY changed all that. From its inception it was more than a Bible Study, more than a fellowship time, more than a prayer meeting, more than a vehicle for social-justice work. It was all of them. As much as it was born from Ruiz' dynamism and fed off his charisma as many movements do, it was obvious God was doing something through him and the other leadership, Josh, Matt, Matt, Martin, Grayter, Dave and the others, through DTY and in us and desired to do something through us: to build a family of brothers.
To build His Church.
Brokeness could meet healing. Isolation could meet brotherhood. The unknown could be known. Needs could be met or if not met, at least prayed over. Sins confessed. All the things i'd read about in the Word, the people of God becoming the hands and feet and mouth and ears of Christ, all the things i'd thought a church was or should be, seemed to be coming to fruition in DTY, in this messy little group of men. Lives being changed. The church being changed. When Christian men lead as Christ has commanded us to, God does some cool stuff!
But time passes. Things change. Ideas become institutions. Movements become monuments. Fires burn out. Church plants become generational churches. Exciting, challenging, groups become clubs. The life cycle goes on, Spring becomes Fall, birth-death-rebirth. God has His plan and it is good and it is best. But we temporal creatures still mourn a loss. We are right to lament. We are right to cry out to YHWH when He strikes the shepherd and the sheep are scattered. We are right to cry out to Him when we feel the gears slipping and grinding to a slower and slower rhythm. We are right to fight against complacency and apathy and isolationism and self-centeredness and selfishness and greed and unforgiveness and busyness and pride and all the enemies of love the devil will throw at God's work, God's church, God's people! And trust me, the devil has come down to make war against the children of the woman, the Bride of Christ is touchable and the serpent hates us. Hates the image we bear so much more clearly when we are obeying Christ and loving as He does and working for his Kingdom. The mere act of standing up makes us better targets. Much easier to hide in a pew, safely separated so one wicked grenade can't take out the whole group.
i don't know if DTY has had its day, completed the mission it was born for and now is making way for something new or if its just going through growing pains or metamorphosis... or if it's dying a premature death. i don't know if God will raise up another charismatic visionary to lead it. i do know that it still has much to offer, no matter what it is and God has, is and will do great things through it. That we are better for it having existed, for the time we've spent in it and being it. That i know many more of you now half as much as i'd like to know you and like more than half of you half as much you deserve because of it. That i thank God for it and for you and that i look forward to seeing you there! Because i love God and so i love his Bride, his Church, DTY, you.
YHWH bless us and keep us.
YHWH smile upon us and be gracious to us.
YHWH turn his whole attention to us and give us peace.
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Lamentations
Do you want to drive home the crucifixion? Do you dare to spend a moment on the cross with Jesus? Then read through Lamentations but every line that refers to Israel, Judah or the people of God, change to Jesus.
"[You] sit on the ground,
[Jesus is] silent.
[You] cast dust on [your] head,
[you] have put on sackcloth;
the [beloved Son of Man]
[has] bowed [his] head down to the ground.
My eyes have spent all their tears;
my stomach is in torment,
my heart is poured out on the earth
because of the destruction of the [Son of God],
because [Jesus] faint[s]
in the public squares of a city.
To [his mother he says],
“Where is the bread and wine?”
as [he] faint[s] like the wounded
in the public squares of a city,
as [his] life is being poured out
onto the bosom of [his mother].
What can I say for you? What can I compare to you,
O [Son of the Most High]?
To what can I liken you so that I can comfort you,
O [True Child of Zion]?
For your destruction is as vast as the sea;
who can heal you?"
Monday, August 13, 2018
Thoughts on Psalm 17
Not profound or deep thoughts mind you but just something i had time to scribble out cuz i'm on vacation this week. Hope it blesses.
“Rescue with your sword my life from the wicked,
from men by your hand, O YHWH, from men of this world.
Their share is in this life, and you fill their stomach with your treasure.
They are satisfied with children.
They bequeath their excess to their children.
By contrast, i in righteousness shall see your face.
Upon awakening i will be satisfied seeing your form.”
It’s a question of values. It’s a question of desire. The wicked seek life only here. They seek only what they can see and touch and taste now. They heap up what they can and when it finally occurs to them that they will die anyway, they try to assuage their fear with children. With the idea that whatever they heap up and don’t consume themselves, they will leave to their sons and daughters. They call that a legacy and they are satisfied with it. With the temporary.
The righteous on the other hand cannot be satisfied with such things. They are discontent. They are thankful to have them but they are not satisfied with them. The righteous can only be satisfied with what they were made for. God himself.
Stay discontented my friends.
Stay discontented my friends.
Monday, May 28, 2018
A confessional interlude
i will get back to the Christian Fatalism series (I HAVE TO NOW as you will see if you read this!) But i thought this was worth sharing too and i can see how the two are tied together, woven like cancerous tumors around a spine. This is just raw, unedited journal entry from this morning. Use it if it's helpful, toss it if your sins are different than mine.
2018 05 28,
“But you were not willing to go up, and you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God. And you grumbled in your tents, and you said, “Because of the hatred of Yahweh toward us he has brought us out from the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up?”
“Dorothy Sayers defines “sloth” as “the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for.”
Lazy people do not love life enough to work hard to enjoy more of it, and the don’t love people enough to work hard so they can—as the righteous can— give without sparing.”
…
“When we think of a lazy person, we think of someone who doesn’t start things. But there is also a kind of person who is always making plans and always starting but never finishing any project. They don’t stay at jobs long, and they always blame the job itself rather than their own lack of stick-to-it-iveness. Either they lose interest because of a lack of inner passion for anything or they have failed to count the cost and so find themselves overwhelmed.”
Tim and Kathy Keller
Father, just when i thought i’d hit a foundational sin of mine with the cynicism you go and pull the cover back more and convict me, stab me with sloth. Guilty! i am guilty! What more can i do! How can i now change?? What does repentance look like? Surrounded as i am by a rotting house i never finished, a broken family, sons which do not serve and love you, an ipad full of unfinished drawings, a laptop full of unfinished books, a blog with an unfinished series…! i am my father’s son. i am lazy! i am sloth. Lord have mercy on me a sinner! No wonder i have longed for a cause! No wonder i have longed for a purpose! And yet Lord, i feel like you have stood in my way every time i did feel the fire to move, to act, to become! Was i not ready? Was i not true? Was i just starting or trying to, another project that i would not finish?
What can be done with me now? Is there anything left? The generation which cursed you in the desert and turned its back on you is still alive in me. The generation which refused the good gifts you had for it and made excuses instead is alive and well in me. How many more years must i languish? Is there any Joshua or Caleb in me? Or is there only some Moses, angry at myself, at my sin but sinning on top of it and not treating you as holy and therefore not worthy of your rest?
Am i still avoiding true repentance?
Friday, May 18, 2018
CF4: Calling it out
"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also." John 14
It's time. Time to call out the lies. Time to drag the monsters out from under the bed and into the Light of Truth. We have languished here too long; it has festered; it is time to pull the splinter. Scooby Doo and those meddling kids have yanked the polite, smiling hypocrisy off the Christian Fatalist and uncovered the bitter heart of the cynic pumping vitriol beneath. We have two choices when God calls us out, there is still time, we are still only on the road, only on our way to the Judge, we can agree with our accuser, confession is just that, it is agreeing with what Jesus says about us. Now mind you, it's going to be hard, it's going to hurt, this is heart surgery, not Bactine and a band-aid, but if you're ready to really, truly start changing, start healing, if you really want to know the Father, this is the only Way there is...
"But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked [you] and said, "Get behind me, Satan, because you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of people!" Mark 8
Whoa now! Whoa! Satan? i mean, i got a little anger management problem yeah but Satan? That's hyperbole! That's totally out of line! Me? Satan?
Yeah. Jesus don't play. i told you, this was serious. This is foundational. You can keep confessing your fatalism or your cynicism or your anger if you want, you can keep treating symptoms all your life, your self-medicating, your dissipation, your porn problem, your fantasy life, your drinking, your time wasting, fine. Do it. It certainly won't hurt and you may see some improvement. But if you want to live and not just live but live abundantly, live on purpose, live on mission, have a real, honest-to-God reason for living, you're going to have to take Jesus' hand with a spike hole in it and follow him where you may not want to go. And how are you going to do that if you don't even believe what he says?
"Why do you not understand my way of speaking? Because you are not able to listen to my message. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father! That one was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth, because the truth is not in him. Whenever he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I am telling the truth, you do not believe me." John 8
Cynicism is founded on two very fundamental lies which the cynic has most likely not thought out loud but has said in oh so many ways and built their lives upon:
1. God is not God
2. I am.
Even before we discuss how the cynic expresses them, can you not see how Jesus immediately recognizes his creation, Lucifer, Satan, the Serpent, the fallen angel in them? Obdurate, outrageous pride! How are we like that?
How are we not? When we hoped for what we saw: the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions; what we coveted, what we envied of the world around us and we asked God for it, whatever it was and we could make endless lists, God either steadfastly refused to give it to us or gave it to us for a season and then took it away or worse: gave us suffering we never asked for nor did it come into our minds to. Then we got angry, we got hurt, we got upset and why? Because we. Deserved. Better! That is what our anger says. That is what our self-pity says. "I deserve better than this!" "Why me?" Oh, maybe at first we slapped the Christian platitudes on it, "God has a plan." "God will never give you more than you can handle." "Everything works for good for those who serve him." But after a while... after five years, ten, twenty, do i hear forty?
The platitudes become parry and buckler and rote. The smile a thin rigid mask. The heart a stone. Because if i deserved better, if i'm too good for this then God is either not good, not loving or not able to help. And since God says he is all of those things then God would also have to be a liar. God, therefore, couldn't possibly be the God he says he is. The foundational lie: God is not God. I am. We have said with Sheba ben Bichri, "There is no share for us in David, and there is no inheritance for us in the son of Jesse...!"
Are your fists still clenched? Are your teeth yet grinding? Are your lips still tightly bound over a tongue which coils and rages to whip forth venom and cursing? Do you stare daggers into the back of this Jesus who dares to name you, to judge you(!) as he turns from you toward Jerusalem? Toward the Passover? Toward betrayal? Toward the Creator being tried by the creation? Toward a beating? A scourge? A flail? A cross? If you do, then i have nothing for you but my pity, which i doubt you want.
But if it breaks you, if you're heart can still cry with the Spirit planted within you, "Abba Father! Have mercy on me a sinner!" If you can still cry at all, if you truly, deeply want to change no matter what it costs, then the next time we talk, we will speak of Good News!
It's time. Time to call out the lies. Time to drag the monsters out from under the bed and into the Light of Truth. We have languished here too long; it has festered; it is time to pull the splinter. Scooby Doo and those meddling kids have yanked the polite, smiling hypocrisy off the Christian Fatalist and uncovered the bitter heart of the cynic pumping vitriol beneath. We have two choices when God calls us out, there is still time, we are still only on the road, only on our way to the Judge, we can agree with our accuser, confession is just that, it is agreeing with what Jesus says about us. Now mind you, it's going to be hard, it's going to hurt, this is heart surgery, not Bactine and a band-aid, but if you're ready to really, truly start changing, start healing, if you really want to know the Father, this is the only Way there is...
"But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked [you] and said, "Get behind me, Satan, because you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of people!" Mark 8
Whoa now! Whoa! Satan? i mean, i got a little anger management problem yeah but Satan? That's hyperbole! That's totally out of line! Me? Satan?
Yeah. Jesus don't play. i told you, this was serious. This is foundational. You can keep confessing your fatalism or your cynicism or your anger if you want, you can keep treating symptoms all your life, your self-medicating, your dissipation, your porn problem, your fantasy life, your drinking, your time wasting, fine. Do it. It certainly won't hurt and you may see some improvement. But if you want to live and not just live but live abundantly, live on purpose, live on mission, have a real, honest-to-God reason for living, you're going to have to take Jesus' hand with a spike hole in it and follow him where you may not want to go. And how are you going to do that if you don't even believe what he says?
"Why do you not understand my way of speaking? Because you are not able to listen to my message. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father! That one was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand firm in the truth, because the truth is not in him. Whenever he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I am telling the truth, you do not believe me." John 8
Cynicism is founded on two very fundamental lies which the cynic has most likely not thought out loud but has said in oh so many ways and built their lives upon:
1. God is not God
2. I am.
Even before we discuss how the cynic expresses them, can you not see how Jesus immediately recognizes his creation, Lucifer, Satan, the Serpent, the fallen angel in them? Obdurate, outrageous pride! How are we like that?
How are we not? When we hoped for what we saw: the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions; what we coveted, what we envied of the world around us and we asked God for it, whatever it was and we could make endless lists, God either steadfastly refused to give it to us or gave it to us for a season and then took it away or worse: gave us suffering we never asked for nor did it come into our minds to. Then we got angry, we got hurt, we got upset and why? Because we. Deserved. Better! That is what our anger says. That is what our self-pity says. "I deserve better than this!" "Why me?" Oh, maybe at first we slapped the Christian platitudes on it, "God has a plan." "God will never give you more than you can handle." "Everything works for good for those who serve him." But after a while... after five years, ten, twenty, do i hear forty?
The platitudes become parry and buckler and rote. The smile a thin rigid mask. The heart a stone. Because if i deserved better, if i'm too good for this then God is either not good, not loving or not able to help. And since God says he is all of those things then God would also have to be a liar. God, therefore, couldn't possibly be the God he says he is. The foundational lie: God is not God. I am. We have said with Sheba ben Bichri, "There is no share for us in David, and there is no inheritance for us in the son of Jesse...!"
Are your fists still clenched? Are your teeth yet grinding? Are your lips still tightly bound over a tongue which coils and rages to whip forth venom and cursing? Do you stare daggers into the back of this Jesus who dares to name you, to judge you(!) as he turns from you toward Jerusalem? Toward the Passover? Toward betrayal? Toward the Creator being tried by the creation? Toward a beating? A scourge? A flail? A cross? If you do, then i have nothing for you but my pity, which i doubt you want.
But if it breaks you, if you're heart can still cry with the Spirit planted within you, "Abba Father! Have mercy on me a sinner!" If you can still cry at all, if you truly, deeply want to change no matter what it costs, then the next time we talk, we will speak of Good News!
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
CF3: the Cynic goes there
Fatalism, Pessimism and Cynicism all walk into a bar. They order drinks, sit down at a booth and Fatalism holds his glass up, "What will be, will be!"
Pessimism clinks glasses with him and adds, "Yep, and it will most probably suck!"
Cynicism just takes a sip of his bitter drink and mutters, "You know why that is, don't ya."
"Man, who is born of woman,
Is short lived and full of turmoil.
Like a flower he comes forth and withers.
He also flees like a shadow and does not remain." Job 14
Dreams. Ambition. Desire. Hope. To live is to live FOR something. Whether one desires a quiet life or an epic one, one still has hopes and set requirements for those hopes. A steady job, a loving family and a house in the burbs or a mission field, a backpack and a pocket English-to-Whuddeesay dictionary or a million dollars, a mansion and a yacht or a rented flat in a grimy city and an IBM selectric typewriter or a charming brownstone, an artist girlfriend and a good coffee shop down on the corner; the family farm; the military career; the next promotion; the next raise; the next game; the next diploma; the next kid; the next grandkid; the next acquisition; the next sale; retirement or acclaim; travel or finally settling down; the next thrill; the next church plant; the next rung up whatever ladder you thought your life was about whatever that thing may be, that's what you're living FOR.
But a mountain falls; it crumbles away,
and a rock moves from its place.
Water wears away stones;
its torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of human beings.
You overpower him forever, and he passes away;
you change his countenance, then you send him away.
His children may come to honor, but he does not know it;
or they may become lowly, but he does not realize it.
He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns only for himself." Job 14
Or you're just surviving. The stark contrast between the spark in one man's eyes or a thousand yard stare in another can be whether or not they still believe in their dreams, desires and ambitions. Whether their hopes still seem attainable or something... or someone... has crushed them. They might still have things to live for but those goals have a much different flavor than they once did: the next drink, the next card game, the next fishing trip, the next vacation, the next affair, the next chance alone in a dark room with their computer, the next hit, the next installment of their show, the next offering from Marvel or Marilyn Manson or Tim Keller, time alone in the garage, or in the library, or in the garden, or on the mower...
The Fatalist has given up but he hasn't really thought about why. The Pessimist has a why but he hasn't really thought out the implications of that why. He doesn't allow himself to. The Cynic has. The Cynic is a frustrated idealist. At some point he sentimentally believed in the good, the way things could be, should be and would be if people really, really tried. And if he's a Christian, then he thought he had every right to believe those things really could and would be!
But they did not. They did not come true. People didn't really try. They didn't. They were too busy, too important, too adamant, too weak, too interested in their own plans and dreams, too distracted, too fatalistic, too pessimistic, too cynical. His dreams failed and he did too. Whether he blames himself or not. He has looked behind the frustrated dreams, the crushed hopes and he has seen that man, at his core is selfish and always only thinks of himself. He's heard of Total Depravity and he buys it. There is no one who does good, no not one. All of humankind is a liar!
Man is just not good. Therefore, Life is just not good.
And if he's honest, and if the drink is bitter enough, you might get him to admit what he's truly thinking. What he's afraid to think out loud. What he's even more terrified to commit to writing but is the underlying framework in which he lives, breathes and chooses to be angry, disgruntled and morose.
That maybe God isn't good either.
No, i won't leave it here, this is a terrible place to leave it off for now but sometimes... we have to sit in a terrible place... to be continued.
Pessimism clinks glasses with him and adds, "Yep, and it will most probably suck!"
Cynicism just takes a sip of his bitter drink and mutters, "You know why that is, don't ya."
"Man, who is born of woman,
Is short lived and full of turmoil.
Like a flower he comes forth and withers.
He also flees like a shadow and does not remain." Job 14
Dreams. Ambition. Desire. Hope. To live is to live FOR something. Whether one desires a quiet life or an epic one, one still has hopes and set requirements for those hopes. A steady job, a loving family and a house in the burbs or a mission field, a backpack and a pocket English-to-Whuddeesay dictionary or a million dollars, a mansion and a yacht or a rented flat in a grimy city and an IBM selectric typewriter or a charming brownstone, an artist girlfriend and a good coffee shop down on the corner; the family farm; the military career; the next promotion; the next raise; the next game; the next diploma; the next kid; the next grandkid; the next acquisition; the next sale; retirement or acclaim; travel or finally settling down; the next thrill; the next church plant; the next rung up whatever ladder you thought your life was about whatever that thing may be, that's what you're living FOR.
But a mountain falls; it crumbles away,
and a rock moves from its place.
Water wears away stones;
its torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of human beings.
You overpower him forever, and he passes away;
you change his countenance, then you send him away.
His children may come to honor, but he does not know it;
or they may become lowly, but he does not realize it.
He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns only for himself." Job 14
Or you're just surviving. The stark contrast between the spark in one man's eyes or a thousand yard stare in another can be whether or not they still believe in their dreams, desires and ambitions. Whether their hopes still seem attainable or something... or someone... has crushed them. They might still have things to live for but those goals have a much different flavor than they once did: the next drink, the next card game, the next fishing trip, the next vacation, the next affair, the next chance alone in a dark room with their computer, the next hit, the next installment of their show, the next offering from Marvel or Marilyn Manson or Tim Keller, time alone in the garage, or in the library, or in the garden, or on the mower...
The Fatalist has given up but he hasn't really thought about why. The Pessimist has a why but he hasn't really thought out the implications of that why. He doesn't allow himself to. The Cynic has. The Cynic is a frustrated idealist. At some point he sentimentally believed in the good, the way things could be, should be and would be if people really, really tried. And if he's a Christian, then he thought he had every right to believe those things really could and would be!
But they did not. They did not come true. People didn't really try. They didn't. They were too busy, too important, too adamant, too weak, too interested in their own plans and dreams, too distracted, too fatalistic, too pessimistic, too cynical. His dreams failed and he did too. Whether he blames himself or not. He has looked behind the frustrated dreams, the crushed hopes and he has seen that man, at his core is selfish and always only thinks of himself. He's heard of Total Depravity and he buys it. There is no one who does good, no not one. All of humankind is a liar!
Man is just not good. Therefore, Life is just not good.
And if he's honest, and if the drink is bitter enough, you might get him to admit what he's truly thinking. What he's afraid to think out loud. What he's even more terrified to commit to writing but is the underlying framework in which he lives, breathes and chooses to be angry, disgruntled and morose.
That maybe God isn't good either.
No, i won't leave it here, this is a terrible place to leave it off for now but sometimes... we have to sit in a terrible place... to be continued.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
CF2: We begin to wonder...
"Hope that is deferred makes the heart sick..." Prov 13
"The spirit of a man will endure his sickness,
but as for a broken spirit who can bear it?" Prov 18
Fatalism is giving up, it's a crushed spirit. It's the logical outcome to crushed hopes. It's learned helplessness: an experiment some sadist did with dogs years ago where they electrified the cage, not enough to kill, just enough to hurt, and watched to see what happened. At first the dog tries to fight and flee but eventually it figures out there is nothing it can do, so it just lies down. To my mind a Christian, a Bible believing follower of Christ is actually more susceptible to it, not less than a pagan. Pagans can surely have it, the human heart is a hope factory. We want, we desire but time and resources often mean we have to put off what we want, work for it, wait for it and despite what Disney tells us, dreams don't often come true nor when they do are they all we thought they'd be. But a Christian has promises! A Christian has the Bible and the Bible is chock full of wonderful things we hope for. A Christian has REASONS to hope! Proofs! A God who can do all things! Who has plans for us to prosper us and not harm, to give us a future and a hope! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Let's go win the world for Christ! Go Team!
But time and resources... we live a little, we see disappointments, honeymoons become work-a-day, seasons pass, seasons come and nothing much seems to change under the sun. We learn other verses, we learn that in this life we will have affliction, we learn that those whom God loves, he also chastens, we learn that the Potter has every right to do with the clay what He wants. Despite all our prayers: she leaves; he never comes home; we lose the house; the child dies; the verdict does come back, 'cancer'; that friend rejects Jesus..and us; we hear of wars and rumors of wars and atrocities and sexual bondage; and oh by the way, we never seem to get a handle on that sin either do we and we begin to wonder...
But no, we're too good of Christians to wonder that! We keep getting up and doing our duty. We keep on keeping on. The son becomes a soldier. The soldier becomes a servant. The servant becomes a slave. We go to church. We tithe. We go to Bible study and fellowship and read the word and can even debate it. We pay our taxes. We take care of our families. We endeavor to live quiet lives. We sing the songs...
But why does that one make us cry? Why when our coworker is really, truly suffering apart from Christ do we say, "I wish there was something I could do to help, something I could say."? Why do some verses in the Bible make us angry? Heck, we're angry all the time! Why is that? And we begin to wonder....
But no, there's stuff to do. Work, work, work. Come home tired enough to crash on the couch and lose ourselves in some binge-watching, ballgame, a good book, porn...or run, run, run, this kid has to go there, that kid has to go here, whose kid is that? Crap! We have more kids? Why the heck did we have so many kids? Work called, gotta go, go, go, the guys called, i need some time with them, play some golf, have a beer and b***h about our lives, our wives, our work, and talk about the old days, before, when we were young and life looked big and amazing and we had such...
hope.
(to be continued)
"The spirit of a man will endure his sickness,
but as for a broken spirit who can bear it?" Prov 18
Fatalism is giving up, it's a crushed spirit. It's the logical outcome to crushed hopes. It's learned helplessness: an experiment some sadist did with dogs years ago where they electrified the cage, not enough to kill, just enough to hurt, and watched to see what happened. At first the dog tries to fight and flee but eventually it figures out there is nothing it can do, so it just lies down. To my mind a Christian, a Bible believing follower of Christ is actually more susceptible to it, not less than a pagan. Pagans can surely have it, the human heart is a hope factory. We want, we desire but time and resources often mean we have to put off what we want, work for it, wait for it and despite what Disney tells us, dreams don't often come true nor when they do are they all we thought they'd be. But a Christian has promises! A Christian has the Bible and the Bible is chock full of wonderful things we hope for. A Christian has REASONS to hope! Proofs! A God who can do all things! Who has plans for us to prosper us and not harm, to give us a future and a hope! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Let's go win the world for Christ! Go Team!
But time and resources... we live a little, we see disappointments, honeymoons become work-a-day, seasons pass, seasons come and nothing much seems to change under the sun. We learn other verses, we learn that in this life we will have affliction, we learn that those whom God loves, he also chastens, we learn that the Potter has every right to do with the clay what He wants. Despite all our prayers: she leaves; he never comes home; we lose the house; the child dies; the verdict does come back, 'cancer'; that friend rejects Jesus..and us; we hear of wars and rumors of wars and atrocities and sexual bondage; and oh by the way, we never seem to get a handle on that sin either do we and we begin to wonder...
But no, we're too good of Christians to wonder that! We keep getting up and doing our duty. We keep on keeping on. The son becomes a soldier. The soldier becomes a servant. The servant becomes a slave. We go to church. We tithe. We go to Bible study and fellowship and read the word and can even debate it. We pay our taxes. We take care of our families. We endeavor to live quiet lives. We sing the songs...
But why does that one make us cry? Why when our coworker is really, truly suffering apart from Christ do we say, "I wish there was something I could do to help, something I could say."? Why do some verses in the Bible make us angry? Heck, we're angry all the time! Why is that? And we begin to wonder....
But no, there's stuff to do. Work, work, work. Come home tired enough to crash on the couch and lose ourselves in some binge-watching, ballgame, a good book, porn...or run, run, run, this kid has to go there, that kid has to go here, whose kid is that? Crap! We have more kids? Why the heck did we have so many kids? Work called, gotta go, go, go, the guys called, i need some time with them, play some golf, have a beer and b***h about our lives, our wives, our work, and talk about the old days, before, when we were young and life looked big and amazing and we had such...
hope.
(to be continued)
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Christian Fatalism
"Whatever is--it was already determined,
what will be--it has already been decided.
As for man, he cannot argue
against what is more powerful than him.
Increasing words only multiplies futility,
how does that profit anyone?
For who knows what is good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen in the future under the sun?" (Ecc 6)
Christian fatalism summed up in a few verses. If God is God then nothing we do matters. Predestination means we had no real choice in the matter (thank God!!). God is all knowing, all seeing and all powerful, what does he need us to pray and ask for things? He already knows. He's going to do what he wants anyway, right?
You know, before i go and tell you what i think about this, i'd be curious to hear what y'all think. What's wrong with thinking this way? Are there fallacies we are holding on to? What scriptures refute this way of thinking? What does thinking this way do to our heart? Our faith? Our testimony?
what will be--it has already been decided.
As for man, he cannot argue
against what is more powerful than him.
Increasing words only multiplies futility,
how does that profit anyone?
For who knows what is good for a man in his life during the few days of his fleeting life, which are fleeting as a shadow? For who can tell anyone what will happen in the future under the sun?" (Ecc 6)
Christian fatalism summed up in a few verses. If God is God then nothing we do matters. Predestination means we had no real choice in the matter (thank God!!). God is all knowing, all seeing and all powerful, what does he need us to pray and ask for things? He already knows. He's going to do what he wants anyway, right?
You know, before i go and tell you what i think about this, i'd be curious to hear what y'all think. What's wrong with thinking this way? Are there fallacies we are holding on to? What scriptures refute this way of thinking? What does thinking this way do to our heart? Our faith? Our testimony?
Monday, April 02, 2018
And there'll be no knives there...
i freely admit, i don't exactly know what it means, but it struck me today while reading Leviticus that in all of the ancient worship, whether Tabernacle or Temple, where everything was based on the pattern of worship in heaven itself, where all of the tools and the trappings are mentioned in great detail, where slaughter is the business and sacrifice is the labor...
The knives and saws which MUST be present, are NEVER mentioned. Not once. They are not holy. They are not important. They a vitally necessary but never mentioned. Anywhere. Ever. And then i thought, the images of heaven include a Lamb who was slain and Christ carries his scars on his new body but nowhere is the cross sighted in any revelation of heaven.
God is very concerned with the called which come humbly bringing their sacrifice, their heart, their confession, their salvation; He is very concerned with every image of Jesus: the priest who slaughters, the clothes he wears, the ephod, amulet, shoulder boards of the priest, the animal who is slaughtered, the blood of the covenant, the flesh of the sacrifice, the altar, the forks and shovels of the altar, the curtain, the tent, the temple, the lamp, the oil in the lamp, the table, the bowls, the utensils, the bread, the altar of incense, the incense on the altar, the oil of anointing, the veil, the mercy seat, the ark, the law within, the staff of Aaron which budded, the manna, the gold, the silver, the bronze, the yarn, the linen, the wood...
He just doesn't seem to give a hoot about the implements of slaughter. Any old knife will do. Any old chunk of wood is good. Ain't gonna last long anyway.
"And I did not see a temple in it, for the Lord God All-Powerful is its temple, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon, that they shine on it, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be shut by day (for there will be no night [or knives?] there), and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And every unclean thing and one who practices detestable things and falsehood will never enter into it, except those who are written in the book of life of the Lamb."
Thursday, January 04, 2018
Up jumped the devil.
My readings today were from Genesis 4, Matthew 4, Ezra 4 and Acts 4. Not every day do my readings seem to be so thematically linked as these four chapters do. Each and every one seems hotly focused on one thing: Opposition. It took Moses only three chapters to introduce the antagonist and inciting incident which will be the conflict of the rest of the Bible. And in Chapter 4, Yahweh summarizes that conflict succinctly to Cain,
"...sin is crouching at the door. And its desire is for you,"
Ezra describes the "enemies of Judah and Benjamin" who use all the wiles and tools of the Serpent to confound and frustrate and cow the fledgling nation of Israel, freshly returned from exile and eager to rebuild the Temple. In Acts Peter and John are dragged before the Sanhedrin for teaching and healing a lame man in the name of Jesus. In each of these chapters there is someone who wants to do well and offer right sacrifices; someone who is rebuilding a house for our God as they were ordered to by God and king; someone who is listening to God and not refraining from speaking about what they have seen and heard. And in each of these chapters, there is someone opposed to it and them.
We enlightened and rationalistic Christians can often lose sight of this, i think. We are more likely to look at humanistic reasons for the way the world is. Psychological ones. Historical ones. We can very nearly explain sin itself away by citing the troubled childhood of a sinner and their need for education and medication. The answers are within our grasp because the problem is. We can fix it. If only... Cain was disenfranchised by a flawed religious system which devalued his contribution and a nebulous moral code which had not yet conceived of murder and therefore not banned it either. The other nations and peoples around Israel during the time of Ezra had as much claim and right to the land as the Israelites and had probably even suffered when Judah had previously provoked Babylon into conquering the land. They were unfairly rebuffed when they offered to help with the building plan by the ethno-centric racism of a group of interlopers who would not accept a two-state solution. The Sanhedrin of Pete and Jack's day were the proper authorities both in government and Judaism and acting in the nation's best interests as they saw fit, could only be in place by God's will and deliberately provoked by religious extremists in their own capital and holiest site.
And Satan, well, he's just a metaphorical device to explain the presence of evil and the psycho-emotional construct of an "enemy" in a "war" to help us understand the duality of living, light vs. dark, good vs. evil, republican vs. democrat, Jedi and Sith, balance.
But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches there is a WILL behind the war. There is a malice, an animus, which feels and desires and hates. Why is the world the way it is? Sin. Yes. And sin has a name... and kids. From three chapters into Genesis to his ultimate eternal destruction with three chapters left to go in Revelations 20, there is an enemy who hates God because he wants to BE God. And his offspring will be like him. They cannot kill what they hate, the one who has the audacity to oppose THEIR will, so they oppose His children with all the wiles and tools of their father. If they cannot lie and sow the seeds of doubt about His goodness and love and seduce them away from Him, they will kill them.
And so we see in Matthew 4 the ultimate battle. Jesus is led by the Spirit of His Father into the wilderness where he is tempted for forty days and forty nights by Satan himself. "If you are the Son of God..." doubt. Most telling of all, when Satan offers the kingdoms of the world, it is no empty boast. John quotes Jesus as calling Satan the "ruler of this world". Daniel was told by Gabriel that the "Prince of Persia" fought against Michael and he. The temporal kingdoms of this world are a beast which resemble the dragon himself. Satan was offering to give them back if only Christ would change sides. He doesn't. Satan kills him.
This is no "devil made me do it" defense. Cain is told, "And it's desire is for you, but you must rule over it." And it's not a plea to try and fight the battle as if we were Jesus ourselves. The "word that comes from the mouth of God" upon which we live and rely on IS Jesus himself! The church in Acts 4 prays, "And now Lord, concern yourself with their threats and grant your slaves to speak with your message with all boldness, as you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." We do not test God, we trust Him. We do not worship Satan, no matter what he offers us. Even if it looks good or we think we could do good with it. No, this is me reminding myself that it's not just the way it is. It's not C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. i must not let cynicism become fatalism. We must "be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the full armor of God, so that [we] may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." For though we are and will be opposed whenever and most of all when we try to do good and to obey God, from leading a church or mission to just trying to do the right thing, to writing a devotional to loving our spouse, the nail that sticks up gets pounded down the hardest, though they may hurt us, imprison us, take from us what we cherish, and even kill us, above all remember that though the battle rages on, the war is already won.
"And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
“Now the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives until death.
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives until death.
Because of this, rejoice, you heavens,
and those who live in them!
Woe to the earth and to the sea,
because the devil has come down to you,
having great anger,
because he knows that he has little time!”"
and those who live in them!
Woe to the earth and to the sea,
because the devil has come down to you,
having great anger,
because he knows that he has little time!”"
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Do you hear what i hear?
For this one the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Whenever he sends out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. And they will never follow a stranger, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what it was that he was saying to them. John 10
And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and, indeed, they are a stiff-necked people. Ex 32
But Yahweh has not given to you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, even to this day. Deut 29
And he said, “Go and say to this people,
‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend!
And keep on looking and do not understand!’
Make the heart of this people insensitive,
and make its ears unresponsive,
and shut its eyes
so that it may not look with its eyes
and listen with its ears
and comprehend with its mind
and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
And keep on looking and do not understand!’
Make the heart of this people insensitive,
and make its ears unresponsive,
and shut its eyes
so that it may not look with its eyes
and listen with its ears
and comprehend with its mind
and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
Isa 6
‘Hear this please, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.’
Do you not revere me?” declares Yahweh,
“Do you not tremble before me? Jer 5
And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “Son of man, you are dwelling in the midst of the house of rebellion who has eyes to see and they do not see; they have ears to hear, and they do not hear, for they are a house of rebellion. Ezek 2
But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from listening. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets; Zech 7
And Jesus said,]] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind!” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and said to him, “We are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. John 9
Today, if you hear his voice, give glory and honor and thanks because you do not know what a miracle of grace that alone is!
Sunday, December 10, 2017
On Rocks and Scorpions and Snakes
“What portion is there for us in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.”
Quick, whose quote is that? Who said it? Have you? When you have asked God for a piece of bread and he has given to you a stone? A snake for a fish? When you asked him for an egg, did he give you a scorpion? No? Never happened?
i know people who asked God for a baby and they got a stillborn and miscarriages. There are people who have asked God to save their addicted child and they got an overdose. There are those who ask for reconciliation and renewal and get divorce. There are those who ask for years and years for healing and are told, my grace is sufficient for you. People whose lives seemed fine until they gave it to Christ. Families torn apart. And that’s not to even mention those whose suffering is unto death because we don’t go to those parts of the world. We stay here, where it’s safe. Where it’s normal. Where it’s sane. Where our money and our culture can keep at bay most of the evil and suffering that the rest of the world thinks of as normal. A world of paid sick days and all night groceries and medicines for sniffles and delivery on Sunday by Amazon and on demand television and tinder and alcohol and legalized marijuana and pets we don’t keep to eat and the right to keep and bear arms against anyone who would try and take any of those God-given rights away from us and cry out whenever these things do come to our shores like an unwanted intruder.
The Pope wants to change the words of the Lord’s prayer. He doesn’t like the part where it says, “Lead us not into temptation.” He says a loving father doesn’t do that. He wants it to read, “Do not let us fall into temptation.” i reckon he would cite James 1, “No one who is being tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God is without temptation by evil, and he himself tempts no one.” Sounds pretty straight forward. But then a lot of things do when you cut and paste them out of their context. Context here to mean “the whole Bible.”
From the very beginning, God placed two perfect people in a perfect garden and still he put in the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. He didn’t need to do that. He could have left it out. He knew the Serpent was in the garden. He was not somewhere else when Eve had her conversation with the snake. He wasn’t sleeping. Even the immediate context of the quote in James is, “Blessed is the person who endures TESTING…” Even the next line of the Lord’s prayer is “but deliver us FROM evil.
God does not tempt, no. But He does test. He tests to show you what is in your heart: idols, pride, selfishness, disobedience, even when i want to do good, i do not. He tests to show you what you truly believe about Him. Is He good even in this? Will you accept good from His hand and not evil? When you with Habakkuk ask God how long will we cry for help and you will not listen? How long will we cry out to you, “Violence!” and you will not save? And God answers, You think you know violence? You ain’t seen the half of it! Can you still say, “Not my will but yours be done? Is He still God? Is he allowed to do what He wants? When He wants? How He wants? And when He does, is He still good?
For i would be doing you a great disservice if i left you here. Because God tests to show you what is in your heart AND what is in HIS! And what is in His is His Glory and your good. God is good! God does bless! God does love you! More than life itself! And that is the point! Fat, dumb and happy doesn’t seek God. Doesn’t long for him! Doesn’t ache for him! It gets those two things reversed: we thing God is good when he works for our glory.
Sometimes when you ask for bread, God will give you rocks. But to show you that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!
Sometimes when you ask for a fish, the Father will give you a scorpion. But fear not! For Behold, He has given you the authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing will ever harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are inscribed in heaven!
And there it is? Where is your inheritance? Where is your treasure? If it’s here, you will only see the rocks, the scorpions and the snake. If it’s Jesus, then your treasure is untouchable and unable to be measured! Is He truly worth everything you must endure here? Do you honestly and heart-deep believe that He is leading you to something so much better? Do you really believe that this life is just the set up for Eternity? That every loss and lack and trial and test are only shaping your inheritance, your consolation, your place that Christ is preparing for you even as we speak and making you hate even the garment stained by our sin? The cross you pick up every day is only making you love your Jesus more? Is He Yours? Do you trust him?
On the third day, the son of David answered the Israelites who had asked for a lightening of their burden harshly, “I will make your yoke heavy, and I myself will add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will do so with scorpions.” And the Israelites answered the king saying, “What portion is there for us in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.” And it turned out to be true. They did not endure, they did not trust Yahweh their God. They saw a snake and they ran and trusted in their own strength, their own king. They went their own way and were scattered ultimately by the Assyrians to not be a people any longer.
Jesus is the better Son of David. The Son of Eve who on the third day crushed the head of the serpent. Who has thrown him down and says his time is short. Do you believe him. Will you wait for him to come and lead you where He says He will? A time of testing is coming, not just on you personally but on the church and the whole earth, of that you can be sure, He promised it would but that on the other side, good awaited. Our inheritance awaits. He awaits. But will He find faith when He comes?
(for those who do such things, you could do worse to meditate on Deut 8.)
Saturday, November 04, 2017
Plow some ground
Parallels. Associations. This post will begin where it ends. Asking the question, what is the work involved in seeking Yahweh now? When we read the Bible (we do read the Bible, right?) do we just walk over it, picking what we want out of it when we feel the need or do we put our necks into the traces and pull and dig the plow deeper, break it, sweat over it, grunt and groan with the Master trying to understand it?
i don't know which one i do. Probably depends on the day and my tiredness. But here is a passage i read this morning and the raw excerpt from my journal on it. If it edifies, use it; if not, leave it alone. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along....
"Ephraim was a trained heifer,
that loved to thresh grain,
and I myself spared
the fairness of her neck;
I will make Ephraim break the ground,
Judah will plow,
Jacob must till for himself.
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap loyal love.
Break up for yourself fallow ground;
it is time to seek Yahweh
so he will come and rain
righteousness upon you.
You have plowed wickedness,
you have reaped injustice,
you have eaten the fruit of lies,
because you have trusted in your strength,
in the multitude of your warriors." Hosea 10
Threshing grain for a cow is easy work. You merely walk around on it. And if you’re not muzzled, you can even eat when you want to. Pick from what you are threshing. A joy to work. Easy work. Work, yes, but rewarding and peaceful. Not so plowing. The ground is hard and full of rocks and there is nothing to eat. The yoke is hard upon the neck and your straining which the whip and the goad keep you at, is back breaking and exhausting. You go to the stall spent, sweating and heaving and aching and there is no immediate reward which would matter to an ox.
Adam worked for his meals in the garden. He chose and picked them. But it grew on its own. It was there to be had. The work was pleasant. The reward instant. The joy present. He was cast out and the ground was cursed and no more would it yield for him. No more would he dig with his hand and plant with his foot. No more would the birds leave his scattered seed upon the surface. No more would the weeds keep their place and obey their boundaries. No more would the mist come in the morning faithful and gentle and kind and refresh the land. Now the rains came when they willed and they were hard and the mud was as much impediment as useful. Work is work now. And there is little joy in it.
The passage draws a parallel from working the ground to working the heart. Is it harder to believe now? Is it harder not to sin now? Is it harder to obey? Is it more work to serve Yahweh than it was before?
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Words.
"I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now. But when he—the Spirit of truth—comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you the things to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and will proclaim it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he takes from what is mine and will proclaim it to you." John 16
Context can be everything. If your wife gave you a grocery list of items to get on your way home from work. You would read it only as a list of things to get. A duty. Perhaps even a despised one. Maybe you hate the grocery store. Maybe you're tired and just want to go home. Maybe you don't really like the vegetable-to-red-meat ratio of the list. Maybe you don't mind but even so, it's just a list. You probably crumple it up and throw it away when you're done with it.
But what if she died that day? What if that note became the last thing you ever got from her? Would you fish it out of the trash? Would you pore over it in the days to come just to see her handwriting? Would you savor every loop? The way she misspelled 'brocolli'? Did she put a little heart on it? Write, 'thanks!' at the bottom?
A love letter from your spouse is a precious thing. When you are with your spouse every day you may take it for granted. Put it in a drawer intending to do something with it later. Pin it up in the cubicle where it becomes background to your day in the life but not vital to it. Wallpaper. But to a soldier far from home who hasn't seen their loved ones in months, it is life! It is carried about in the breast pocket. Pulled out at every opportunity. Pored over for every detail, read and re-read. An agonizing reminder of the world where they belong. A reminder of something better somewhere. A reminder that someone loves them. Cares what happens to them. It becomes their reason for living! For surviving. For being something the writer of the love letter can be proud of.
The Bible is a lot of things. Poetry. Story. Wisdom literature. Prophecy. Commandments and guidebook. But in one very real sense, it is a love letter to us. It is God inviting us to know Him. To know what He's done for us. To let him remind us of who we are to Him. How we feel about Him, about ourselves and our situation, colors how we read it. It can be just words on a page... a grocery list.... wallpaper.
Or it can be life.
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