Which is Easier

07.31.12

John 2.19-21 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. NASB

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry He was in Capernaum and some people brought a paralytic to Him. Jesus looked at the man and said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now when the Pharisees and teachers of the Law heard this they immediately jumped to a conclusion: “This fellow blasphemes!” They went there in their minds because Jesus did (or said) something that only God could do. And if Jesus did that, then in their thinking He was trying to take the place of God – and that is something they would not accept – to them, nobody but God, is God.

So Jesus responds, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9.4b-6 NASB) Which is easier, to heal a paralytic or to forgive sins?

Jesus’ authority was always called into question because in their minds the Jews could not accept the fact that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Which is easier: to claim to be God’s child or claim to be Abraham’s child? Which is easier, to put God safely on an unapproachable pedestal, or to walk according to God’s Law?

The Jews of that day did to God what we in our day do: we put God in such a place that He is unapproachable. And I think most people like Him in that distant place because they don’t want to deal with a God who will forgive their sins…they’d rather live in them then have to do with Someone who has the power to heal them.

Jesus pointed at Himself and said, “Destroy this Temple and in three day I will raise it again!” All they could see was Herod’s temple that took forty-six years to build. They couldn’t make the distinction in what Jesus was saying. But the question that is pressing is this: which is easier, to destroy Herod’s temple and rebuild it in three days, or to rise from the dead? To the Jews both were equally impossible – at least for them to accomplish. And all they saw Jesus as was one of them.

It’s slightly different today: we don’t want to see God as God, but as a man – like us. God is easier to accept if He is a fickle, frail, and faulty creature like ourselves. Jesus is a whole lot easier to accept when He’s potryed up on a crucifix where He’s nailed to the cross and we’re safe from His power. (I don’t need no Jesus messin’ with my stuff!) He can’t do too much hanging on that cross.

We want to be able to turn to the Man Upstairs when our times get tough, but we don’t want anything to do with a Man who came back from the dead all on His own. We don’t want anything to do with a Man who forgives our sins and then asks us to repent from them – for good. No, God is much more acceptable to us humans when He is made in our image: then we can mold Him into any shape we want for any situation we’re in. Which is easier: to run our own lives or to allow God to do it? The truth is, I need Jesus messin with my stuff because I have screwed it up beyond all recognition and I need Someone to put it all back together…

Questions

07.29.12

Is. 57.11 11 “Of whom were you worried and fearful when you lied, and did not remember Me nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time so you do not fear Me?” NASB

On what I imagine was a sparkling afternoon one day, God asked a question: Where are you? (Genesis 3.9) It was the question of a parent asking about His children; the man and the woman in Genesis 3 had hid themselves; they had missed an appointment: no phone call, no note, no e-mail; no text. God’s question was not the first question in the Bible but it is an important question and one He’s been asking mankind ever since.

In Isaiah 57, God asked another question “Of whom were you worried and fearful when you lied, and did not remember Me nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time so you do not fear Me?” This is the question of Husband wondering about His wife.

The questions of God are difficult because when He asks them He already knows the answer. He asks the questions because He wants His people to know the answer. In Isaiah the question is one among many in Isaiah’s writings but it is pointed: Of whom were you worried and fearful when you lied…? What happens when one spouse lies to the other? Trouble. What happens to a relationship where lies are introduced? Trouble. What happens when God’s people forget Him? Trouble.

The relationship between God and men is a troubled relationship and where God shows Himself to be almost what we would call pathetic in His pursuit of these creatures who continually lie to Him, cheat Him, and steal from Him. We would ask: Why don’t You just wipe them out and start over again!? Look at how they treat You! And yet, we’re them; we’re the liars, the cheaters, and the thieves.

The questions stop me and make me think about God’s love for us in that He doesn’t wipe us all out and start again. God knows that love wins. He’s based all of creation on that plan: love wins. I’m glad love wins because as a fallen creature without God’s love, I lose. And I need God’s questions. I know they’re addressed to others but through the testimony and the tenor of Scripture they ask me the same thing: “Of whom were you worried and fearful when you lied, and did not remember Me nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time so you do not fear Me?”

God’s questions remind me of His often silent but very real presence. And His very real presence is very holy, spotless, and pure. And whether or not I remember how present He is, I am accountable to His love and the effort to which He’s gone, to woo me. I must accept the raging passion of His love if I call Him my God. I must realize the terrifying jealousy He has for me when I wander off into adultery – whatever kind that is. (No, I have not cheated on my wife ever; but I may have on God a time or two.)

God’s questions grab me and call me back into reality: Paul, do you really realize how much I love you? Of whom are you so worried and fearful about when you lie to yourself, and don’t remember Me or give Me a thought? His questions are worth reading and answering. He knows, but do I?

A Longing to be Filled

07.28.12

Isaiah 55.1 1“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

What would it be like to go shopping today and spend no money but get whatever you wanted? At first, it seems like I would fill shopping carts with all kinds of stuff, but at the end of the free spree what would I have gained? Carts full of stuff. And?

This verse spoke to me today of wanting something so desperately but having no means with which to obtain it. This verse speaks to me of needing something so badly but having no way in the world of getting it. I think of people starving for food who will do whatever they can to get as much as they can when food is set before them – their animal instincts take over and they cannot get enough. They’ve been without for so long that they can’t seem to make their minds accept that the abundance before them will last. And on earth, nothing lasts that long.

I believe every person on this earth is born with a longing to be filled – not so much just with food, although that is probably one of the first and strongest longings. But a baby also longs for mommy and for her touch. He longs to hear her voice and feel her warmth and presence. I believe, the soul of every person has those kinds of longings for the divine – an itch that cannot be scratched, a thirst that cannot be quenched, a pang that just will not go away no matter how much food is consumed.

However long inside a person these longings last, they are eventually covered up with the non-nutritive demands of vice, selfishness, greed, and the basest of desires known to man in order to satisfy, at any cost, the longings, which have now become naggings, within them. Like giving sugar to the starving it satisfies momentarily but soon gives way to a more fierce hunger.

God knows the depth of our longings – He put them there. He put within us a desire to be better (knowing that our desires, in this life, are only shadowy representations of the real thing: the longing for Him.) The natural man has no way, in himself, to fulfill his longings for the divine – he only knows there is a hole within himself that he cannot fill no matter how much he pours into it. It is to these that God offers: “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” His response to me and you and everyone else is: Come to Me and I will abundantly and everlastingly satisfy whatever it is that you think you need.

The longings within us are reminders of the presence of God around us – to some the longings have become a god and so to that god they bow. To others, the ears of their hearts catch a sound unlike any sound of earth: the sound of salvation, the sound of redemption, the sound of satisfaction. It is the sound of, Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. To the hungry, the thirsty, the anguished, the anxious, the fretful, the worried, the sad, the sick, the poor, the destitute, the forgotten, the lonely, the sad, the lost, the perishing… there is no sweeter sound than the invitation to have one’s longings met – at last! That is God’s Gift to us in Christ.

Graying Years

07.26.12

Isaiah 46.4 4 Even to your old age I will be the same,

And even to your graying years I will bear you!

I have done it, and I will carry you;

And I will bear you and I will deliver you. NASB

Maybe it’s because I have another birthday coming; maybe it’s because every time I turn around we feel the need to threaten Social Security recipients with the loss of their benefits in order to raise the national debt ceiling. I dunno, it sure seems like there is a part of me that wants to worry about the future – how will I live? How will I survive? Will I rot away in some institution? Will I have to eat cat food in order to live?

From cradle to grave there is the issue of survival and what do we do about food, clothing, and shelter in our older age? I must remember and read verses like this from time to time to remind myself that it was neither me who brought me here in the first place, nor is it me who will get me home: that’s God’s job. And if I think old age is a problem for me, now today in this country and with the resources I presently have, then I cannot imagine what goes on in third world countries or what took place in ancient days.

Man ages – there isn’t a one of us, even Dick Clark, who misses out on the fun of aging. I used to think age was so far away and eventually it would come upon me. Not anymore. Age has done, done its deal and it is here with me for good. Or maybe I should say forever. Aging is the reality of all mankind – man ages.

The question many face today is this: how will I get by in my older years and who will take care of me. Many are the sad-faced widows and widowers whose spouse has already departed. Many are the elderly who are infirm and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work. Many are the older who are lonely, bored, or otherwise un-occupied and left to themselves because it seems society doesn’t need (or want) them anymore. Many are the adult children who are fit to be tied over the decline of their parents, or parent. Society has always seemed to understand that at some point one loses usefulness and is left to fend for himself.

And then many are those who are retired with pensions hoping and planning for a comfortable age when time will be their’s, and their troubles will be few, who have seen those pensions take wings and fly away right before their very eyes; the stock market crashed or the company disappeared. Many are those who get caught up in saving for tomorrow only to find tomorrow never came and all of their yesterday’s tell them they’ve lived all of their lives missing today.

What I needed to hear today in the narrative of my mind was this: Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you. I am not in charge of the aging process but I am in charge of who I trust and I trust in One who says He will bear me through my golden years…

Aging can either be a burden or a joy – it’s all in how I approach it. The servant of God – even to his dying breathe – can trust God to carry him through to the end despite what society around us thinks is important or demands is our due.

A Healthy Bad Taste

07.25.12

1 Peter 4.1-2 1Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2  so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. NASB

Peter is calling our attention to the fact that Jesus Christ suffered because of His righteousness; men could not stand His lifestyle, or His words. His lifestyle was simply this: to live for God in all things. His words were: There is a God and you are not Him. Because there is a God and you are not Him, you need to know Him, love Him, and worship Him. Whoever does this is going to suffer. Why? Because mankind doesn’t like God.

To Jesus, there was no other way to live. Jesus understood what true relationship to God was and He was going to live only in that relationship – fully knowing it would cost Him His life in doing so. He put up with suffering not as a burden but as the air He breathed and the food He ate in order to have relationship with the Father.

Suffering is the natural outcome of faith. Faith in God in this world is the catalyst for suffering. And, I don’t mean suffering like sickness, disability, or poor health – everybody has some measure of those from time to time. No, suffering is suffering at the hands of men: slander, ridicule, hatred, animosity, persecution; these are the things that keep many from committing to God. And the reason there is suffering is that men retaliate against those who will not do as they do.

Living with suffering is like breathing under water – to us that is impossible, but to the citizens of Heaven it is like becoming a fish out of water – and surviving. The culture of Heaven is abominable to men, but It is every day to the children of God. It is the reason the Church exists.

Suffering on earth puts a healthy bad taste in the saint’s mouth; we won’t cling to or prefer what tastes bad. Suffering is the separator of love for heaven and love for the world. Suffering is marvelous and merciful in that it keeps us from missing the right path to all that Heaven is and all who populate its borders.

Suffering reminds us of all that is wrong with the system of the world and the language that is spoken here: lies. And suffering for Christ removes the dross from our lives that we may be pure for God. It is no wonder Peter said, he who suffers in the flesh has ceased from sin. Suffering helps us to focus on other things besides selfish and worldly pleasures. Suffering helps us to see what is truly important and worth fighting for.

And suffering builds our faith and purifies our vision of God. Jesus trusted the Father and His plan; no less is required of God’s children. Today we are to embrace suffering not in a warped and twisted manner like those who love pain, but in the way that those will do what it takes to receive the promise they’ve been given. As we live as a Resistance Force on earth, we will be slandered, ridiculed, hated – it’s all part and parcel of who we are, and what we stand for. But it builds into us such a life that if we’ll really believe it, then one day we’ll really receive it. It is worth waiting for. It’s worth suffering for…

Continual Connection

07.24.12

Isaiah 42.4 4 “He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.” NASB

It occurred to me this morning that Jesus never got depressed. He was concerned for people, He fought against injustice (notably the injustice of the Pharisees and Sadducees – He pretty much left the Romans alone.) But Jesus never had a down day. He may have become physically weary but He was in such continual connection with the Father that He never focused on anything but the Father’s will for others. Such is connection with God.

I think we think that God wants to take from us and that is because we foolishly think we own things: time, money, resources, relationships. We don’t own anything. All that we have and do – and are – are God’s. The only thing we “have” is response and how we respond to God’s invitation to participate in His ministry to this world. What we have is our attitude towards God and what He’s accomplishing in the world around us.

Jesus didn’t save every person He came into contact with – that wasn’t His mission. His mission was to do whatever the Father told Him to do. And that He did faithfully. Jesus served His Father intentionally, purposely, and strategically. Jesus served His Father publicly and privately. And despite the treatment He received from men, He never got frustrated, or tired, or bored, or depressed about the mission. Even in the midst of the arrest, trial, flogging, crucifixion, and death, Jesus never wavered in His focus upon God.

My problem is my immature approach to my faith. I think as I have been taught: my faith is all about me. How foolish! I was not saved to focus on me but to do as the Lord Jesus did: stay in continual communication and connection with the Father. To the one who continually seeks the Father comes power, purpose, and peace. The power to act. The purpose to motivate. And the peace to know that all is well because God is in control and never misses a beat… nor makes a mistake… or sends me on a wild-goose chase.

How foolish I am to think or even entertain the thought that my life in Christ is up to me. What an indicator of whose power I am walking in when I get discouraged or mentally depleted because things aren’t going as I planned! Can you imagine what was going through the Savior’s mind as He went to the cross? He wasn’t feeling sorry for Himself! He wasn’t feeling all was lost. He was triumphant! He was jubilant! And no one saw it but God. Jesus was doing what God told Him to do.

And we’re to do the same. What would Jesus do? He’d obey. He’d never break continual connection with the Father and do just exactly as the Father led Him to do. I am no different except that I have failed miserably in the continual connection part. I have failed by getting angry and depressed and mad that people won’t do what I want them to do. I have failed in that I have lived much of my Christian life thinking and acting as if it was all up to me to make this thing work. Again, how foolish.

Today’s plan: stay connected. As I work my job, look for God in it and stay connected. Seek the Lord and work at thinking about Him. And then see what happens. And when depression, or poor-pitiful-me starts to creep in, know it’s at those precise moments I’ve let my life wander off to other things and have lost connection with what is really important.

He’d do That

07.23.12

1 Peter 2.21 21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, NASB

One of the more important things for me in life is to know what to do. I seem to be weird that way. I want to know what is right, what is important, and what I am to do to make life meaningful and rewarding. My problem is often there are so dang many trees that I miss the forest that contains them. I think the Lord sighs and smiles and says something like: hang in there son, I’m working on you.

Peter said we were called to this purpose. Of all the purposes in the world to be called to this is it. It isn’t rocket science. It isn’t brain surgery. It’s following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and living life accordingly. Jesus left us an example of utter devotion and dependency upon God and we’re to follow in His footsteps. What would Jesus do? He’d submit to God in every way, every day – nothing more, nothing less. Peter went on to say that Jesus kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges (or weighs out) all things righteously. With Jesus there was no fear of circumstances – only a continual trust in God.

Can we do that? Can we walk out the circumstances of our lives with such confidence that we ignore the waves of fear and anxiety that pound in upon us? Can we trust God in the swirling winds of the worst? Can we keep hold of our faith when the foundations are being fractured by doubt and worry? What would Jesus do? That. He’d do that.

And Peter said that is our purpose for living and our purpose in life. If I want to know what to do, it’s trust God no matter. If I want to know the details and I don’t get any – it’s trust God anyway. If I don’t know what to do, it’s trust God because He does and He’ll get me to where He needs me to be.

Purpose reminds us of what is important and that what we’re doing, or involved in, is pleasing to God. Purpose is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. And when we get up we’re to follow the example of Christ Who unswervingly followed the leading of God.

This may be an odd way to finish what I’m saying but here goes:

Jesus followed the will and leading of God but He didn’t leave a pile of dead bodies in His wake. Does that make sense to you? Jesus didn’t follow God’s will at the expense of other’s lives. He only followed God at the expense of His own life. And because He gave His life to serve God and die on the cross, we can give our lives to carrying our cross and doing what the Father calls us to do: follow in the footsteps and example of Jesus. If we want a formula for successful living, that is it.

It’s up to us today to live with on purpose with purpose: following Jesus every step of the way.