Define Truth

08.16.13

John 18.38 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (ESV)

Well, what is it!? Truth, to many, is just a state of flux – a fluidity of thought or perception that keeps on changing and changing like the surface of the water on a rushing stream. There’s the stream; there’s the water; there’s the surface, but the surface keeps on changing in variations on a theme, but never the same way twice. Truth to them is fluid.

How would/do you define truth? What is it to you? If your version of truth isn’t founded upon the standard common to man, then your truth remains like most everyone else’s: fluid.

Truth however, is static, never changing. Truth is the stream that never runs dry. Truth is a constant thought or perception based upon a single standard and despite the changes in circumstances and time – and perception – truth remains. It our time and space, gravity is truth, there is no changing it and it is founded in the specifics of physics – the revelations and knowledge of things in our physical state in this universe. What goes up must come down.

So when Pilate (I’m thinking sarcastically, cynically) asks Jesus, “What is truth?” he was asking with a resigned heart, a heart that could not comprehend what truth really was to him. To him there was no truth. To many the thought of truth is simply this: there is no truth; there’s no way out, and things are always going to come to some miserable end… (unless, of course, I win the lottery).

Preceding Pilate’s sarcastic rebuke was Jesus’ statement: “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” In other words, truth is only found in God. And Jesus told a hard-hearted man that very thing and the hard-hearted man retorted: What the (bleep) is truth!?

Pilate knew Jesus was in deep weeds with the priests and Pharisees but he didn’t recognize his own peril and cynically denied the truth: there is a God and I don’t know Him. Some don’t know to know – all they know is what they’ve been told and they have no means of measuring the validity of the information they’ve come into contact with. That was Pilate – all he knew was what he’d been told and Jesus rebuffed it: “Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”

Either you’re of the truth or you’re not, and the only way to be of the truth is to respond to the encounters with God. That happens through our interactions with nature. That happens with our interaction with the Bible; and that happens with our interaction with God. And God is interacting with us all the time.

Truth is only from God and it could be called a divine perspective that is only given to those who listen to God in the general ways of nature, or the specific ways of the Bible, or bumping into the Holy Spirit – note: when you bump into Him you usually know it…

Father, thank You for the truth that You are God and we are not. Help me to hear the truth, to live the truth, and to share the truth with those I encounter every day. Starting today. Amen.

A Prayer for the Ages

08.15.13

John 17.21-21 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (ESV)

Life is hard: there are bills to pay, kids to raise, jobs to keep, food to be sought, water to be drank, sickness to be healed, schedules to be kept – and on and on and on it goes. Life is hardness punctuated with seasons, days, and moments of joy and glorious light. Then the joy fades and the light dims and the routines carry on – one footstep after another.

But here’s the deal: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” A prayer for the ages. A prayer of hope and change (sorry there’s only One Source for that, and it isn’t American politics); a prayer that doesn’t in any way ever fall of deaf ears or show up on the desk of an incompetent bureaucrat.

Life is hard but it isn’t without meaning if one knows Who prayed the prayer and why the prayer was prayed.

The point of all life is this: “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The point of all life is the union and communion of mankind and God. There is no other point to life, and there is no greater calling for men, and there is no other prayer. Jesus prayed it all when He asked God, “…that they may all be one…” one in spirit, one in mind, one in purpose throughout all the earth. And, “…that they may be in Us…” in the Father, in the Son, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

I know I don’t know what all of that means but I do know this: I want it. I don’t want the leftovers of mankind and its value systems because when it is all over that’s all there is. But with God, there is infinitely more of everything good forever. I want that. I hope in that. And it changes me. And nothing and no one else can deliver except the One who prayed: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The point of life is spelled out in the prayer for all the ages: that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You: that they also may be in Us…so that… So that God’s perfect plan and design will be fulfilled, and His eternal purposes will endure forever and ever. Yeah, I want that.

Father, You are the End of all things for all things find their meaning and purpose in You. Find in me a willing heart to partner in Your eternal doings so that the world may believe (willingly or otherwise) that Jesus Christ was/is Your Gift to us to show us and give us the perfection we so desperately desire… Amen.

I Like You

08.14.13

Jeremiah 16.13 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ (ESV)

One of my favorite Bible words is grace. Grace simply means: unmerited favor. The implication of that is there is nothing I can do to earn grace; it is simply (and wonderfully and majestically) the free gift of God: He likes us!

Over the years I’ve heard people try to redefine grace. How silly! You can’t redefine unmerited favor. You might not use the word favor, but you can’t redefine it – it is what it is. Now, I know, anyone can do anything they want to do: they can call up, down; the can call wrong, right. They can make evil good and good evil. But that is deceptive and destructive. Somewhere, somehow, there has to be a standard by which all things are measured and God says that is His Word. Like it or not, it’s true.

Over the years I’ve also seen the abuse of grace, reducing it to the level of a hall-pass to allow us to live any way we want without worrying about the consequences of our actions. Wrong. That is a misuse and abuse of grace: God’s favor.

What makes me laugh is when people say things like: he fell from grace. Or they say grace over their meal. Or they call some religious mucky-muck, “Your Grace”. How stupid. But what makes me tremble a bit is when I read words like this: ‘Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

No grace. It wasn’t a matter of falling from grace; it was grace removed – or: “I don’t like you anymore!” Wow. Those are terrifying words to hear from the Lord of Grace and Goodness and mercy and kindness, and, and, and… There is no fall; but there is removal.

I don’t know how this fits into New Testament theology. I don’t know how to square this with what I’ve been taught about God’s love and mercy. But I do know this: if one (me or you or someone else) persists in peeing on God’s leg and telling Him it’s rain, he’s only tragically fooling himself. I believe there is supposed to be a holy (and Holy Spirit empowered) response to the words from God: I like you.

God has chosen to show this pathetic little man His favor. I didn’t earn it; I don’t deserve it: He just gives it. And because He does, I need to respect it. And Him. But it is more than respect it’s love: He loves me despite how dramatically I deserve His judgment and if He can set aside all the things I’ve done and do, then it is worth my time investing in a relationship with Someone who could remove grace at any time but chooses not to so that I may succeed in the life He’s given me – a life beyond my highest imaginations of goodness, peace, and purpose.

Father, with You it isn’t tentative – it’s fixed: Your grace is Your gift and I’m not to dwell on whether or not I deserve it, I’m just to live gratefully in it, and faithfully tell others about it. May I do just that… amen.

Figuring Out Jesus

08.12.13

John 14.8-11 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. (ESV)

According to John 1, Philip was one of the first disciples called. Philip had been with Jesus from the beginning and Philip was the one who called Nathanael; Philip was a believer. But Philip had belief issues – he’d tried since the beginning of his calling to figure it all out – that’s what we do: we bump into Jesus, take Him at His word, become part of His company of believers and then spend most of our Christianity trying to figure it all out rather than faithing it all out.

Jesus’ question to Philip was probably a follow-up to many like-questions Philip had had in his walk with Jesus: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? (Are you still trying to figure it all out?”). How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?’ (“Don’t you, Philip?”) I notice Jesus never once said to any of them who were trying so hard to figure Him out: What’s wrong with you!?

So what is wrong with us? Why is it we struggle so hard to let go and let Jesus? Why is that even a well-worn, lame cliché? Because, methinketh, we concentrate so hard on how Jesus is going to pull off some wonder-work and cannot, or will not, accept Him for Who He really is: in the Father and the Father in Him. Jesus is, was, and always will be: God.

Today, I have a good old case of the Monday Blahs. I played hard all weekend (playing meaning doing stuff other than work) and today I am just blah. But I have to rattle my cage a bit when I see how much time I spend trying to figure Jesus out rather than spending time honoring Him, praising Him, and emulating Him. (Emulating Jesus is a big, big deal…). I have to stop and consider how, like Philip, foolish I am in trying to analyze Jesus and just walk in a manner of complete confidence and trust, doing what He did and living like He lived: completely sold-out to the Father in Him, because He was in the Father.

Following Christ means living like Christ: in the Father because the Father is in me – if ever there was a cure for the Monday Blahs, it’s that: God in me and me in God. I’ll have to take a few deep breaths and get my act together, but the truth is, today I am in God and God is in me. There is no greater calling on a person than that, and there is no greater waste of time than trying so hard to figure it all out…

Lord God, bring on the day: here we go!

Pathetically Human

08.11.13

John 12.37-38 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. (ESV)

And here at this point of John’s narrative Peter remarks: “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Bold question Pete. Bold statement as well.

In Jeremiah 7 are these words: "For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’" (Vv. 22,23)

As I thought about Peter’s statement and Jeremiah’s, I thought: Peter, Jesus doesn’t need you to lay down your life for Him, what He desires is that you (and everyone else) obey His voice. What Peter failed to see (and I think we do the same) is that only God can do and we can only obey. And that is where the rub comes in humanity’s relationship with God: we want to do for God and we ask Him to obey us.

Why do I need a God anyway? Why can’t I just live life all by myself and do what I think I ought?

What a huge question. What a huge misunderstanding of who I am (and Who He is) when I even ask such a question. I was created by God for God. God made me all on His own and all He ever asks is that I obey Him. I didn’t ask to be created, He did that all on His own. Why did He create me? Only He knows the answer, but all indicators point to the fact that He simply wanted to. Not capriciousness. Not purposeless. But intentionally.

And so when Peter proclaims what he’s going to do or not do for God, he just looks stupid; he just looks religious; he just looks so pathetically human… just like the rest of us who ask big questions and make bold statements to God of what we’re going to do or not do for Him. God never asks us to do for Him anything other than obey.

Jesus replies to Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.” In other words: Peter you will fail in all you do in life for Me if you don’t obey Me. Will you lay down your life for Me? Yes, Peter, you’ll try but you will fail miserably because you think you have something to offer. You don’t. And all I ask of you is that you obey Me.

God equips me to do His will in obedience, and He never asks me to do anything I’m not capable of – all I need do is obey. Where I get into trouble is when I try to take charge and make God do all the obeying. Me and my fellow men have been trying to do that since the beginning of our relationship with Him.

Father, today, may I simply, joyfully, and truly obey. Amen

Ancient Seventy

08.10.13

Jeremiah 6.16 16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. (ESV)

Yesterday was my birthday – F.Y.I.: I turned 58. Forty years ago I thought 58 was a long, long way off. Yesterday it showed up right on schedule. Time flies when you’re having fun…

So, today we (my bride and I) began getting some stuff ready for a garage sale which we intend to hold in our yard (not our garage) next Saturday. The older I get the more amazed I am at the stuff we’ve been lugging about for all these years; stuff that reminds us of the old days, and stuff that should’ve been dealt with in the old days – I think we call it ‘crap’.

70, is now twelve years off and it’s a heckuva lot closer than it was twelve years ago. Twelve years ago I might’ve even toyed with a thought of (perhaps) immortality. (Just kidding – but I sure wasn’t thinking about 70!) And now birthday 58 has come and gone and 70 is eleven years and three-hundred-sixty-four days away.

The word, Seventy, has an ancient ring to it. Just saying it makes me feel older. But ironically, the seventy year-olds I hang around don’t seem all that old to me. But seventy is a time of wisdom and reflection on life lived and experiences gained. (Not every seventy-year old is that wise or experienced, but they’ve all seen many days and they are who they are as a result.) Some of the brightest people I know are seventy…just sayin’.

In Jeremiah 6, God calls His people to seek the ancient paths; the paths that are proven true and the paths that we give them rest. The problem was they had sought new days and new ways that had led them to the brink of overthrow by foreign powers and impending disaster. It was a call of mercy to get them to quit being stupid about the future and invest in what had already been established and what would lead them safely through the storm that was coming.

So… birthdays and garage sales. Birthdays come and birthdays go, it’s what we do with them that shows what we know. Garage sales are a reminder – at this age (58) of what is really important and what isn’t. Garage sales are a way to say good-bye to 58 and a view toward 70…and a real reminder to invest in what is important as the end becomes brighter and brighter like the sun coming up on a new day.

And more than anything, those ancient paths are the only promise of future peace and rest for my soul. Seventy isn’t so bad and doesn’t sound so bad if God is my God and His established ways for me are in fact, my ways. It’s worth thinking about as one begins to think more and more about finishing well…

When Pigs Fly

08.09.13

John 11.14-15 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (ESV)

John 11 is one of my favorite chapters in Scripture. It’s not the top ten, but it’s in the top. Jesus received word that His good friend, Lazarus (lah-zaw-roos) had died. And He decided He was going to go and do something about it. When pigs fly. Who raises someone from the dead? Who decides to do something about someone who has died? When pigs fly.

Jesus’ men, His personal band of disciples, objected because He’d just left Jerusalem where He was about to be stoned, and now, He was heading back into the fray – or at least in the vicinity. Jesus’ men were astounded first, because He was heading back and second because He was going to do something about Lazarus’ death? Who does that!? When pigs fly.

You could say this about Jesus: He invoked, evoked, and provoked. Jesus is an all-around Savior. He invoked praise. He evoked wonder. And He provoked His enemies. I think He did the latter just to make sure they really hated Him. He wanted them to be sure they really knew they really hated Him. It’s all there in John 11.

The world cannot handle a Savior; they’re too busy saving themselves. A Savior? When pigs fly! And the world really doesn’t want a meddling Savior: let the dead be dead… who wants to wake them anyway?

The reaction to Lazarus’ resurrection was anywhere from invoke, to evoke, to provoke. Who makes a dead man come back to life!? When pigs fly!!! But He did, and he did – Lazarus, dead as a doornail, came right out of that tomb to the stunned amazement and wonder of the crowd and the disciples. So they can fly??

The account of Jesus and Lazarus is an odd story, not in the compassionate sense, nor in the awesome sense, but in the belief sense – people just couldn’t believe that it really happened or that Lazarus was really all that dead or that it wasn’t some hokum that Jesus had come up with… the prevailing judgment was: yeah, right, when pigs fly!

Well, you know what? Pigs don’t fly. Never have, never will. But God raises the dead. Some are going to be raised to glory and some are going to be raised to face the music for, well, yeah, right; when pigs fly! Unbelief is as odd as a flying pig.

I wasn’t there; I didn’t see it happen. BTW, I’ve never seen anyone come back to life from the dead. I do know a lady whose husband died and she and her family left his body in the bed upstairs and prayed for three days asking God to bring him back, to resurrect him. Didn’t happen, but I think God smiled on a family who believed it could and acted like it would.

I want my faith to include the truth about pigs and the power of God to raise the dead. By the way, that family will all one day see their risen father and husband. Pigs don’t fly but God raises the dead. Lord, whether it was a one-time thing or not, I believe…pigs don’t fly, but death is no match for You…