Nevertheless

09.27.12

Luke 10.20 20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” NASB

In my Bible, the pericope reads, “The Happy Results”. Jesus had sent out seventy that He had appointed to minister in Israel and they came back rejoicing because of their labors. Lord, they exclaimed, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name. And Jesus replies, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

There was a point to all they were doing, that is true, but the bigger point was this: You belong to God.

In our day there is much to distract us from what is really important. We worry (like Martha in this same chapter of Luke) about many things. Nevertheless, there is only one thing that is to be the focus of our life: God. We worry about elections, economies, ecology, Europe, and things like that. And why not, those things are important. But those things are not the most important and in reality, they aren’t important at all because all of those things are destined to perish.

Martha was hung up on the mundane, the seventy were hung up on the miraculous, Jesus said if you’re gonna give anything your time and attention, give it to the marvelous truth that your name (not your neighbor’s, not Mary’s, not your mother’s – no yours) is written down in heaven as a welcome citizen of that eternal community! That’s worth getting hung up on!

A name that is recorded in heaven is a name that is renowned by belief. Not exploits, not daring-do, but simply because that name stands for the allegiance of the one to whom it belongs to the King of Heaven in Whom all things belong. Demons are overrated. Yes, they know a trick or two in their culture, but they are nothing – NOTHING – compared to the King Eternal. If you are scared of God, your fear is nothing compared to theirs – they are absolutely terrified of Him!

Jesus told the seventy, Look boys, as much fun as you are having, don’t lose sight of this one thing: your name is known by God and is known in all of heaven for what you believe in Whom you believe.

And that’s really it, isn’t it? What you believe about Whom you believe. And if we believe, our names are written down in a book or on a page or somewhere in heaven so that when we show up at the party, we are welcomed in forever. It isn’t about demons or supposed sloth: it truly is about the King of Glory; and our names are known by Him. If we’re ever going to be known by Anyone, it’s worth being known by Him. Nevertheless be overjoyed that your names are know by Him!

A Hope Like That

09.19.12

1 John 3.3 3 Everyone who has at heart a hope like that keeps himself pure, for he knows how pure Christ is. JBP

The key to purity: a hope like that. The key to a godly and fulfilling life: a hope like that. The key to surviving the impact of what is coming upon our world: a hope like that. Well how is that? John said: “Oh, dear children of mine (forgive the affection of an old man!), have you realised it? Here and now we are God’s children. We don’t know what we shall become in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect his likeness, for we should see him as he really is!”  That’s the hope: that’s a hope like that.

A hope less than that, is an insufficient hope. Hope is reality, not wishful thinking. Hope is fixed on what is really going to happen in reality (pardon the redundance). That kind of hope is sufficient to carry us through whatever comes our way due to the scheming of evil men and their jockeying for position. That kind of hope motivates us and guides us to live differently: it centers our life on a godly and Christ-like purity.

Purity is something this world doesn’t understand. We want pure food, pure drugs, pure water, and yet we settle for impurity through immorality (of all kinds), infidelity; the rejection of goodness, the ridicule of virginity, and the list goes on and on. Wash your hands after you use the restroom. Wash your hands if you have a cold – or better yet, stay home until you’re no longer contagious. But who cares if you sully your soul with the immoral acceptabilities of modern society: abortion, adultery, apathy?

It is easy to become impure in many ways in our day because there are few boundaries that mean anything anymore. Impure thoughts. Impure words. Impure motives. The information age: so much info; so little truth. Hopelessness. (Not the hopelessness of despair, just the hopelessness of a care-free life: I don’t give a crap!) A lack of compassion and common decency. The valuelessness of life. And all of this because we are (generally) clueless as to the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. Without a hope like that, impurity floods in like a pandemic.

Look at the utter mess our world is in and it’s getting worse every day – and not just because the media outlets tell us so. It is! How are we going to survive and what are we going to survive into if it isn’t for a hope like that? (See above).

So John tells us (and JB Phillips translates) Everyone who has at heart a hope like that keeps himself pure, for he knows how pure Christ is. Do I believe that? Do You? Do I know how pure Christ is and how important that is to my soul and my future? Do You? John says the key to purity is to know, and keep at heart, a hope like that.

I got hung up on the phrase: a hope like that. I got hung up on it because it jarred me into thinking: Do I really know? And if I do, what is that doing to my belief, my character, and my conduct? I think it worth thinking about. I think remembering what my hope is ought to unlock some of the things that hold me back and cause me to be such a retard at times; such a relational leper at times; such a weak and pathetic whiner at times. You and I were called to live on a much higher plane than that – His hope – a hope like that – ought to lead me there…

Remembering to Remember

09.18.12

Phillips translation somewhere between 1 John 2.26 and 28: Yes, now, little children remember to live continually in him. JBP

What is memory? When I first came to the Lord (in seriousness) I learned and memorized sixty verses of Scripture. I am attempting to learn Spanish (or at least the Mexican version) and am finding I need to memorize much of it because it is so foreign. I remember my past and some of the experiences I’ve had. Many are dulled because there are so many. But the biggest memory of today is simply what John wrote to the believers back then: Yes, now, little children remember to live continually in him.

Someone quoted John Wooden on Facebook the other day: Make everyday a masterpiece! Great quote – I just forget that that’s what he said. In the everyday-ness of every day I forget what I am supposed to be doing every day. (Sigh) So much stuff, so little memory.

God gave our first human parents one initial command: Don’t eat from that tree! They forgot. They couldn’t remember. God said, in the day you eat of it you will die. They forgot. They ate. They died. And man has been forgetting ever since. So God gave their children ten more commandments. Those children forgot them as well. The God said, I will live in them – I will make their hearts my home. God living in them! Right in their hearts!! They forgot. We forget. How stinkin’ much closer could He get!? We forget.

So then God says, I will discipline My children – I will work in them to improve their memory. And so we go thru all sorts of trials and testing to improve our memory: to remember to make every day a masterpiece; to remember to live continually in Him. To remember that beauty and ugliness are two sides of the same coin, and we need wisdom to remember that. And God said, I will give them My Spirit so they will know. And we can’t seem to make the connection in the short distance between the organ above and the one below. We can’t remember. I sure can’t!

Today is another test day of trying to remember what I supposed to remember – that I’m to live continually in Him. I’m to live as if I am in His physical presence. I’m to live looking for Him in all that I do today. I’m to live and guard my eyes and my thoughts, and the words that I say. I’m to remember to live continually (as I greet customers, help solve plumbing issues, mix paint, find various sizes of nuts and bolts and other assorted hardware) as if Jesus is standing right by my side. I’m to remember to remember.

Tonight will be the exam of the day: the examen. I’m to remember that too. I’m to remember to quiet my head and heart tonight and go over today with my Father and God. I’m to remember to quickly confess and quietly seek that power and presence to get up and do it all again tomorrow (if I get one) so that I can remember to remember to live continually in Him.

Every day we have is a gift from Him. Every day is a gift back to Him. Every day is an opportunity to remember why I have days in the first place and what I’m to do with them. May today be a day of remembrance – in Him.

The Stranger in Heaven

09.17.12

(Somewhere in 1 John 1 between vvs 5-10) If we refuse to admit that we are sinners, then we live in a world of illusion and truth becomes a stranger to us. JBP

It is fully believable that people can become strangers to us. People in our own families can become strange, because we just don’t know them. We know of them and get the occasional greetings of birthday wishes or “Happy Holidays”, but we don’t know them, because time and distance have removed them to what might be a remote relationship and they just live their lives and we just live ours.

I used to think relatives were a treat we got to enjoy every time my family moved across country; we’d stop in at the cousin’s and hang out for a few days with them and see how they lived, and eat a lot of food and ice cream, and sleep in strange beds, and watch the our parents laugh about the past. But over time they became strangers to me because I never saw them and their lives changed from those days of yore.

Sometimes the stranger at home is our child: he goes his way, we go ours and our paths rarely cross unless there is food or money involved. Sometimes the stranger is our spouse – someone we pledge our love and devotion to on a fine early summer afternoon (or whenever) and then we proceed to live separate lives with separate interests and separate friends. And sometimes the Stranger lives in Heaven. We know about Him and even call Him ours, but we don’t walk with Him or try to learn what pleases Him or what He might expect from us. We live in a world of illusion and He becomes a stranger to us.

John wrote that we have to come to terms with who we are in order to come to terms with Who God is. John knew who God was and what He was up to. John spent time with God the Son, and lived with Him for three and a half years. The when Jesus went home to Heaven, He sent the Spirit who came to dwell in John’s heart forever. And the more John came to terms with who he was the more he knew God as He is.

And part of coming to terms with who I am is admitting who I am: a sinner. Now here’s the tricky part: just because I admit I am a sinner doesn’t mean God isn’t working in my life – no, it means I know that in my present condition I need God desperately to help me work through who I am, what I’ve done, and where I’m going. God looks at me as His son. God knows my faults, fractures, failures, and frailty, but He accepts me as I am because I accept Him for Who He is. I just need to know what my capacity is so that I remember how much I need God.

To deny my capacity for sin is to disrupt my relationship with God. But to accept who I am frees me to accept Who He is, and we walk together in that truth. Otherwise, truth becomes a stranger to me. And God becomes a stranger to me. Denying who I am is tantamount to calling God a liar and that is unbelief at its zenith. But walking in the light of that truth (that I am a sinner) as He is in the light of that truth (that He is God and I need Him) makes for true fellowship together with Him and truth becomes my dearest friend, and God becomes my very heart.

What the World Needs Now

09.16.12

1 John 5.2 2 If we love and obey God, we know that we will love his children. CEV

Jesus said this: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13.34-35 NIV) This is a signature verse in the life of a believer. This is a seminal characteristic of the believer: love for other believers. (Yes, it is the right word – you’ll just have to look it up!)

Jesus told His disiples, “Look guys, if you’re ever gonna get it, this is it: love each other. The world understands hate. The world understands tolerance. The world understands retribution – it doesn’t understand love.” The signal characteristic of Christianity is love for one another. Love is seeking the other’s highest good. There are shades of love in the world but those shades only come from God. If there is true love in the world it is only because God placed it there in the first place. God is love: God seeks our highest good and our Highest Good is Him!

And so Jesus said to His guys: A new command I give you: Love one another. And John says, if we love and obey God, we know that we will (naturally) love all the rest of His children. If we conduct ourselves under the prime motivation of always seeking another’s highest good, then we will succeed in walking and acting as Christ did for us and to us.

Jackie DeShannon sang, What the World Needs Now* (is love, sweet love). Unfortuantely, she sang of eros, romantic love; and she sang of phileo, brotherly love. We can all understand eros and phileo; what we can’t understand is loving someone without a shred of expectation of some kind of payback. We can’t understand the power of something that continually puts another’s good above our own.

Part of the issue in Christianity is pride and wanting to be right. That’s partially why there are denominations. Part of the issue in Christianity is semantics – the way we use words or phrases to underscore our beliefs and tenets. Part of the issue in Christianity is style and delivery – we do “it” differently or more frequently than others do. Jesus doesn’t seem to give a rip about style, semantics, or who’s right or whose party is the best – all He cares about is love: putting the needs or the highest good of others above our own: A new command I give you: love one another. And John says if we love God (by obeying His commands) then we’ll naturally love other believers.

And proof of my love is obedience to God’s command to love, and directing my love toward other Christians, and those around me. Love isn’t making excuses; love isn’t enabling – love is giving myself to my family (believers) so that together we can all prove to the world that love (proving the presence of invisible God) exists when the world emphatically states it doesn’t. What the world needs now…

*released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label

Naked Man

9.13.2012

1 John 2.28 28 Children, stay one in your hearts with Christ. Then when he returns, we will have confidence and won’t have to hide in shame. CEV

In Genesis 3 are these words: The Lord called out to the man and asked, “Where are you?” The man answered, “I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!” “How did you know you were naked?” God asked. (Genesis 3.9-11a CEV)

Man fell (sinned) in the Garden (see Genesis 3). Up until that moment he knew nothing but unbroken fellowship with God. But when he sinned all of a sudden something became dreadfully wrong and his nakedness (Genesis 2.25) which was normal and natural became an embarrassment to him. The man up to that moment knew nothing of nakedness.

Nakedness is interesting in that we come into, and depart from, this world naked. We’re born bare (see Job 1.21). From the womb we are naked only to be quickly swaddled and clothed by our mom so that we stay (so we assume) covered and warm. In my experience with my own kids when they were very young, they didn’t fear nakedness until they became a little older and more self-conscious.

Nakedness is a part of intimacy. When the Bible says that the man and the woman were naked and they were not ashamed (Genesis 2.25) they had nothing to hide from each other and nothing to prove; it is no different today between a man and a woman who have promised themselves to each other in marriage. They don’t cower or power in their nakedness.

With God though, we so often do what our first parents did in Genesis 2: we run from Him and try to hide in all kinds of ways and cover ourselves with all kinds of coverings to keep from being found out for who we really are: sinners ashamed. Our sin takes away our confidence, our security, and prevents us from being (in our souls) safe and warm and comfortable with Him. The married couple is comfortable in their nakedness; the sinner is uncomfortable because he doesn’t want to be found out.

So John said, “Children, stay one in your hearts with Christ. Then when he returns, we will have confidence and won’t have to hide in shame.” When we stay connected with Jesus the lying stops, the running and hiding stops; and the covering-up of ourselves with pride and self-righteousness stops. We become as our first parents completely open and honest before God. We are clothed with His righteousness and therefore unashamed of Whose we are. Sin isn’t to be my covering – only Jesus is; and when I stay close with Him I am covered in all He has and is for me and shame has no part in the game (so to speak…) naked in Christ!