Boiled Down Religion

12.15.11

James 1.27 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. NIV

So, if the entire law hangs on these two things: loving God and loving people, then all of religion hinges on compassion and purity. Simple. James is telling us that if our religion – our relationship with God – is devoid of compassion and purity then it’s probably not true religion. What do you do with orphans and widows anyway?

Orphans are someone else’s problem: caring for someone else’s kids is hard work; and someone has to work in order to make ends meet; and last time we looked caring for orphans is time-consuming and expensive. And widows, all they want to do is talk and talk and talk. How, Lord! How do we make this work? Widows are time-consuming and expensive!

It takes time and effort and God knows the bills have to be paid. But God also notices who does His work and who keeps track of what He deems as important stuff in life. Compassion and sacrifice have to be part of who we are.

As does purity. James boiled true religion down very simply: compassion and purity (not being polluted by the world and its ways). Worldliness boils down to this: godlessness. The world rejects God and His rule. The world lives according to survival of the fittest. The world embraces wealth, power, and self-gratification. We’re to keep ourselves from being polluted by all these things.

Compassion and purity. Compassion is hard because it demands our time and resources. Purity is often easy to mask because few know what we really do. And good old practical James makes it simple: take care of widows and orphans and be pure.

Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not from Thy presence; take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. May the thoughts of my mind and the work of my hands be simply those of purity and compassion. I want to live in and embrace true religion that is pleasing and acceptable, pure and faultless, to You. Amen.

The Hunger in Your Heart

12.11.11

Philemon 15, 16 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. NIV

Okay, you’re a slave named Onesimus (Aw – knee – see – moose) and one day you’ve had enough and you go to the spring to get the water and just like a river that don’t know where its flowing, you take a wrong turn and you just keep goin’. Ev’ry body got a hungry heart.* Onesimus flees his master.

And so after being on your own for some time learning how to live by stealing chickens and figuring out which berries are good for you and which ones aren’t, you meet this guy named Paul. The hunger in your heart that made you flee is for the first time in your life being sated by something called truth. And you believe what Paul is saying because he’s saying your story and right before your very eyes, your life changes.

And now, after some time, one day you confess to Paul that you are an escaped slave and you’re owned by a guy named, Philemon. Paul’s expression breaks into a broad grin as he starts to put the pieces together and a plan is hatched because of the truth and based on the truth: you have to go back to Philemon and own up.

The irony of this story makes me laugh: of all the people for Onesimus to get tangled up with in his escape, it’s Paul the Apostle. God knew just what Onesimus needed…and He knew what Philemon needed as well. Perhaps there would be some healing. Perhaps there would be a new freedom along with the freedom in Christ. We can only speculate of the outcome but the irony is astounding.

Sometimes, it seems the more we run, the more we run into God. Sometimes we have to run a long, long way and when we get there the Only One to meet us is God. Sometimes we get there and there ain’t nobody and we look back and there is God. When we are His, He may let us run but He won’t let us hide: He is always there. Onesimus’ story makes me laugh because of the omniscient love of God; He knows who are His and where they are all the time.

The other thing is to stay put. Fleeing from God may be a natural reaction, but the supernatural reaction is to stay put… even when things are getting desperate. We can live by the natural and when we do we’ll always settle for less; sometimes tragically so; but when we live by the supernatural then God’s provision for us often becomes ironic beyond words, and our love for Him grows in ways it otherwise could never …

Everybody has a hungry heart and the one who trusts in Jesus will find it fed in just the way it takes to make the heart bloom into a precious jewel in the crown of God.

* Hungry Heart  Bruce Springsteen, October 1980, © Columbia Records

Four Truths

12.10.11

2 Timothy 1.11-13 11 Here is a trustworthy saying:

   If we died with him, we will also live with him;

12 if we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we disown him, he will also disown us;

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. NIV

It is thought that this is an ancient chorus that believers in the first century sang when they were together. It states four simple, yet profound truths:

First, if we died with Him (maybe referencing those in Christ who had already passed) we will also live with Him. There is a hope and a future for those in Christ: they will live with Him. Life in Christ is everlasting, never-ending, and eternal.

Second, if we endure, we will also reign with Him. The Christian life is not about this life but is preparation for the next life where those who hang in there with Jesus will be given immense responsibility to serve the King as rulers of His Kingdom.

Third, if we disown Him, He will also disown us. Who we really are will be proved by our affection for Him. If we choose others or other things above Him, He will choose others and other things above us.

And fourth, if we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot disown Himself. One thing God cannot do is disown Himself. Oh! God can do anything! No, He can’t. He cannot un-become Himself. God is immutable (unchanging) and will always and irrevocably be Himself; He cannot be otherwise.

There are many who think God can do anything. He can’t – He cannot sin. He cannot be bribed. He cannot be mocked. He cannot do anything ungodly. Can He make a rock so big He cannot pick it up? No, He can’t. Material things are the least of God’s concerns. His faithfulness to Himself is immovable and unshakable. And it is vastly important that we remember what God can and cannot do for then we have the true understanding of Who He is and where we stand with Him.

When we are faithless – in those moments of doubt and fear – He is faithful. That’s important to know and embrace for if we lose it for some reason, it’s great for our rebound to know He’s never lost it…nor will He ever lose it – He is God. When our world implodes it’s important to know that God’s never does. It’s important to know and important for our faith.

It’s ironic to me that Paul made all of these statements from prison where he was awaiting execution for his faith. If anyone had reason for doubt, it was Paul. But as he said these things to his young protégé, Paul was building on his own faith and teaching Timothy to do the same. Believer, here are four truths you must never forget – embrace them and live your life in Christ in their light, no matter what you are going through…

Give

12.09.11

1 Timothy 5.14 14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. NIV

There is nothing better in this world than to have something of value and worth to focus on. Now in saying that, I don’t want to imply that just any old thing is worthy just because it is our focus. But in the passage in 1 Timothy 5, Paul was trying to help Timothy to help younger women who for some reason had become widows and had perhaps lost their momentum in life. A ship adrift on the open sea is at the mercy of the sea and all that’s a part of it. For Paul to counsel younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their homes shows me that Paul understood the necessity of focus in the lives of people. Some direction is better than no direction at all.

The three things the younger (remarried) widow was to focus on were: her husband, her children, and her household. If that don’t keep ya occupied, I don’t know what else will.

First, a husband can be a handful at times. He is a separate person with desires and dreams of his own. Typically he works outside the home and is exposed to all sorts of people and situations while he is away from home. And then when he comes home he brings a lot of the baggage home with him that he’s picked up during the work day.

Second, children can also be a load with their sibling rivalries and just the fact that children as well have their own perspective and need to be taught how to interact with their world and all that they face – a learning and maturing thing.

And third, then throw on the task of managing a household – watching where the money is spent, preparing meals, taking care of the home routine – those in themselves can be very daunting and time-consuming.

But the biggest thing is that a believing wife-mother-manager must also keep her spiritual focus as well; she can ill-afford to lose sight of what’s really important while she’s busy spinning the plates of all that she has to handle in her everyday occupation. It’s no wonder Paul called the younger widow to keep the important things first and to try to maintain balance in all she did.

As I read this the word that popped into my mind was: Give. If the danger of idleness was a problem for younger widows (Cf. 1Timothy 5.11-13) then the solution was to give herself away in the proper focus: marriage, children, and home.

But isn’t it important for all of us to give ourselves away in some way in our everyday lives? The principal applies to all of us in one way or another. Jesus said, It’s more blessed to give than to receive. And all of us (at least those of us in God’s care) have something worthwhile to contribute into the lives of other people. The focus has to remain God and then the action is to give Him away through our interactions with others: in relationships, in the occupation, and in the home.

The Goal

12.08.11

1 Timothy 1.5 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. NIV

Paul wanted Timothy to command them not to get caught up in false doctrine, myths and endless genealogies. Such things, he said, were distractions that led to speculations, arguments and the like. They aren’t profitable for the church. Isn’t it amazing how much stuff we get caught up in? All of my life someone has preached, what they believe as, the truth of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. It’s not true but they’ve preached it as true. I know people in the church who believe such nonsense.

And why wonder about our ancestors anyway – they were sinners just like us; they were people just like us. What really mattered about their lives was how they related to God. They might’ve been colorful characters, they might’ve had wonderful talents but the only thing that really matters is what they thought about God and what they did with their thoughts.

Let’s look at Christmas shall we… what is your opinion of Christmas? Many people see nothing wrong with Christmas. Others see Christmas as the perpetuation of pagan fluff. The question for me is what is the fallout of such perspectives? Christmas is Christmas and to deal with the cultural fallout of where it belongs in the modern church is a discussion that needs to be approached carefully. Otherwise it becomes a distraction and whether the discussion is about the merits or detriments of Christmas, new moons, the Fourth of July or anything like that we have to be careful that we don’t lose sight of our own relationship with the Father…because:

Because, Paul went on to say that the goal of the command he gave to Timothy (and to us) is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. And why would it be anything less – like making an issue about the merits of Christmas or Easter or Halloween or whatever else it is that had invaded our culture. The issue is love and how we relate to one another in the presence of God.

I need to really think about what hills I want to die on when it comes to some of the thornier issues of what to do and what to avoid. I listened to a radio program the other day that railed against the exclusion of Christmas decorations on public property by municipal officials. The arguments went back and forth but the bottom line to me is this: what do you want to be forced to do? Name it. What do you want forced onto your life? Now, what do you want to force onto others? Name it. What do you want others to do that may be against their will? And lastly, is God too small to deal with us over issue of the merits of what we call holidays and their origins? Or does God run off with His “ball” and not let anyone play anymore because He can’t control them or convince them of what He does or doesn’t want?

The goal of the command is this: love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. I can tell you what I think you should or shouldn’t do: it’s up to you to listen (or not). I can try to persuade you but in the end, it must be your decision to accept or reject my suggestions and I can’t control that. I think we need to make up our minds of what is really important to us in our relationship with the Lord and with others who call Him Father…