A Perfect Work

7/17/2016

James 1.4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – St. James

Perseverance – that blessed ability to keep on keeping on. Perseverance – the effort that makes one say: a year from now I’ll be glad I started today. Perseverance – the attitude that helps me keep what is really important, in focus. Perseverance – the investment that pays a yield of maturity and completion.

A friend of mine came into my office one day and wrote W.A.S.W.G.W.D. on my whiteboard. Of course I asked, Okay, I’ll bite. He replied: Wait and see what God will do. That, friends, is perseverance. It’s the mindset that no matter what happens, God is up to something, and what He does will be nothing short of mind-blowing. That is the God we serve.

The majority mentality seems to be, God is short on effort and production. Statements like, I prayed and nothing happened, seem to be the norm. But God is no genie – He doesn’t act like we want Him to because He doesn’t grant us our three wishes and then let us be. We like to think He is a genie, but that is just unbelief in who He really is, and what He really does for those He loves.

For just a moment, stop and think about what you’re facing. No, really, stop, quit reading, and think about what you’re facing. Got it? Okay. Now imagine there is no God involved. Imagine you’ve got to face, whatever it is, all on your own. Now return to reality and remember God is on your side and He is with you in whatever it is – or rather, you are with Him in whatever it is…

James said trials and tests cause us to do one of two things: either we stick it out with God – or we go it alone. W.A.S.W.G.W.D. The choice is ours to keep on keeping on, or to the heavy-lifting ourselves. Perseverance builds trust and keeps us positively focused on our relationship with God, not necessarily what He will do, or not do, on our behalf. God is no genie.

For just another moment, stop and think of where you’d like your relationship to go with God. Do you want it to be deeper and more intimate; or do you think God is better when He’s kept at a safe distance? God is infinite; never-ending. We are finite but we’ve been invited to enjoy Him in eternity. Words fail at how big, or lasting, eternity really is. Putting descriptors of time and space on eternity do it a disservice. Eternity is where God is and where He desires us to be, with Him, as well.

Eternity, is outside the realm of whatever it is we’re facing. And in eternity, none of what we’re facing today will matter. Only this will be important: we somehow let our issues push us into deeper relationship with God. We matured. We stuck it out – and we won the prize: God Himself.

Father, may I sing Your praises like a little song-bird today.  May I praise You for what I am facing, and that You are right there with me. May I praise You for what You’re doing to build perseverance into me; for that is my only hope: that You and I stick it out, together, forever. Thank You. Bless You. Lead me in the way Eternal. Amen.

That City

7/16/2016

Hebrews 13:14 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

In verse 5 of Hebrews 13, the writer said: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…”; then he went on to say the above. Our hearts long for peace. Our lives long for security. And God has promised those things but they are not for now in this world; at least not in the measure that God promises them in the future.

It is good to be content, but it is also helpful to have a longing. Looking for that city that is to come is a healthy longing; a healthy yearning. Contentment helps us live productively now, and fruitful longing helps us to keep keeping on. Hope is a wonderful thing.

I’ve told my wife that I want to go out to the ocean. I want to experience its magnitude, power, and presence. But I know that is only a brief experience and the ocean, in all its power and majesty, is not the answer to my longing for peace and security, and the absence of all that is wrong. My peace and security are found in Him – the one who promises a city where He is, and all wrong is gone. I want to go the ocean, but only for the purpose of thanking Him for making it, and letting me experience it. My longing though, is still for that city to come.

And so my days are filled with the things I do, my work, my passions, and my pleasures. But those things are not where I’m headed – I’m on my way to a city where He is. I’m on my way to His presence forever.

Isaiah the prophet wrote: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace    those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. (Isaiah 26.1-30) those verses describe those who long for that City to come.

Much is wrong in our world – just ask those in Nice, France – they’ll tell you. But all is not lost, and God promises a place to come where our longing to love and be loved will be fulfilled forever. We must, despite all that is wrong in our world, keep our focus and gaze toward that promised city for which we long where all our cares will be answered, and no more will there be wrong.

In the meantime, we live here in a broken and crumbling world of perceived power and struggle, but our gaze, our longing, is for that place where brokenness will be no more. I have to leave all the answers to God because He knows what is going on and only He knows how to deal with us, within it. He promises us a city. He’ll fulfill our longings there.

Father, the seeds of longing are scattered in this day and age when so much seems to be wrong. You are in control of all and You have promised me a place of peace and security forever. That is what I long for and that is why I look to You, and for You, in the midst of my days. I’m looking for that City where You are. Take me there – Amen.

The Different

7/15/2016

Hebrews 12.14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

In my understanding of the word holy, I’ve come to learn it means: other or different. The life with Christ should be different than the life apart from Him. We might read the verse this way: Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be different; without difference no one will see the Lord. What is it that makes a little Christ different?

Difference begins with how we see the world around us, and, how we view God. If God is our God that automatically makes us different. But there is more to the story. Difference is how we live with a right view of God. God makes a difference in how we see, how we talk, and how we live. He makes a difference in how we think. The Christian is not like the garden-variety human: he is different.

The different see others differently as well. They are not a threat, they are on a journey. They have something to add, but they haven’t made their destination yet. Others, to the different, are assets, not liabilities because they are made in the image of God. God has planted eternity in their hearts too. (Ecc.3.11) And though the sins of others are often grievous, they are sought with a different heart with a hope that they can, with God, somehow make a difference in this world.

I think we Christians labor too much over words like holy. I think we paint our words up in mysterious tones and cause people to think they know what it means, but they aren’t really sure. It’s called Christianese – a language spoken only in the Church that confuses and confounds the others who don’t speak it. And often, the ones who do speak it, (almost superstitiously) speak with words and phrases that are pressed into meanings that are vague and hard to understand. Like answering questions no one is asking.

It really boils down to this: who is your god? If God is your God, then you’re on the right track because He is the only God who has gone out of His way to draw you into relationship with Him. But a relationship with God is different. He speaks, we listen, and then we go and do as instructed. Simple. A different relationship is one of trust and obedience to the extreme because the different understands, will have it no other way.

Holiness is difference. Holiness is other. Holiness is recognizable because it is so noticeably different than religion or other human effort, because holiness is counter to all the world has to offer. Difference is ridiculed by the world as naïve and childish, but to the different, they’d have it no other way.

Father, because You are my Father, You make me different. But Lord, I don’t just want to be different, I want to be different and make a difference in the sphere in which I live. May I be radically different in my approach to You that I may make a radical difference in all I do and say, for Your sake, Amen.

The Different

7/15/2016

Hebrews 12.14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

In my understanding of the word holy, I’ve come to learn it means: other or different. The life with Christ should be different than the life apart from Him. We might read the verse this way: Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be different; without difference no one will see the Lord. What is it that makes a little Christ different?

Difference begins with how we see the world around us, and, how we view God. If God is our God that automatically makes us different. But there is more to the story. Difference is how we live with a right view of God. God makes a difference in how we see, how we talk, and how we live. He makes a difference in how we think. The Christian is not like the garden-variety human: he is different.

The different see others differently as well. They are not a threat, they are on a journey. They have something to add, but they haven’t made their destination yet. Others, to the different, are assets, not liabilities because they are made in the image of God. God has planted eternity in their hearts too. (Ecc.3.11) And though the sins of others are often grievous, they are sought with a different heart with a hope that they can, with God, somehow make a difference in this world.

I think we Christians labor too much over words like holy. I think we paint our words up in mysterious tones and cause people to think they know what it means, but they aren’t really sure. It’s called Christianese – a language spoken only in the Church that confuses and confounds the others who don’t speak it. And often the ones who do speak it, (almost superstitiously) speak with the words and phrases they use that are pressed into meanings that are vague and hard to understand. Like answering questions no one is asking.

It really boils down to this: who is your god? If God is your God, then you’re on the right track because He is the only God who has gone out of His way to draw you into relationship with Him. But a relationship with God is different. He speaks, we listen, and then we go and do as instructed. Simple. A different relationship is one of trust and obedience to the extreme because the different understands, will have it no other way.

Holiness is difference. Holiness is other. Holiness is recognizable because it is so noticeably different than religion or other human effort, because holiness is counter to all the world has to offer. Difference is ridiculed by the world as naïve and childish, but to the different, they’d have it no other way.

Father, because You are my Father, You make me different. But Lord, I don’t just want to be different, I want to be different and make a difference in the sphere in which I live. May I be radically different in my approach to You that I may make a radical difference in all I do and say, for Your sake, Amen.

Our Belief

7/12/2016

Hebrews 9.27-28 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

It is said, if a person is born once, he will die once; but if a person is born twice, he will live twice. Jesus was born twice: once in life, and then again in eternity. Jesus is the Only One who was born again from the dead, that is the magnitude of His sacrifice for us. In our society today, fewer and fewer people believe that.

We are all destined to die once. The life we are given has an expiration date on it. But whether or not we live again depends on whether or not we accept Christ’s sacrifice for us. We are destined to die once; our old bodies are going to wear out and pass away. But the spiritual part of us will live forever. Don’t know how, just know that it does.

In Ecclesiastes 3.11, Solomon wrote: [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. We are destined to be eternal, but only those who accept God’s way will be granted eternal life; those who don’t will have eternal death. No threat, no warning; just reality.

The gift of God to the one who believes is, Himself. In Him we live and move and have our being – for now. The gift of physical life now, prepares us for the gift of eternal life then; but only to the ones who believe it will be. Belief in what God has done is crucial. It is courageous. It is commanded.

It is not our belief that makes what God has done a reality, but it is our belief that gains us access into that reality. The Book is the Book, and the reality, the reality; but we must believe despite what all the world says against it.

So, Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. That’s a big statement. And only believers get it. When Jesus comes again, He is coming for the faithful who believe.

Friends, I believe. I believe, not for you, but for me. I pray for you, but I believe for me. I ask God to open your eyes, but I believe that what Jesus did, He did for me… and will do for you. Yes, I am going to die and face judgment. But I stand on the eternal sacrifice of Christ to defend me against the judgment of sin and death. Jesus was sacrificed once to open the way for His return with salvation for all who trust in Him. What’s done is done. Do we believe?

Father in Heaven, I do believe. I don’t carry malice or vengeful hatred for those who don’t; but I do believe. I await the Return that will bring salvation for those who are waiting for Him. Father, I believe. May I live that message, and share it with others. May they hear and believe for the Gospel is Your power to everyone who believes, and all lives matter to You. Amen.

The Friend-Principle

7/10/2016

John 15:13– 15“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” — St. John

Context is everything when it comes to reading and applying the Bible. Always, we need to keep in mind who is speaking, and to whom. We also need to know what is being said; and we need to allow the Spirit of God to apply to us what is needed for our enlightenment and enrichment: our teaching, rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness. (Cf. 2 Timothy 3)

So, in John 15 Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He tells them the above; He calls them His friends. Now then, because He calls then friends, does He call me friend? It’s worth asking. Jesus did have a unique and one of a kind relationship with these men, but does that relationship wash over onto me? Does Jesus call me friend?

Jesus said to them, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus had conversations with those men which are not recorded in Scripture. So, in His revelations of what He learned from the Father, do we have enough of those revelations in Scripture to know what our part is in the process these two-thousand years later?

And when Jesus called them friends, He said He did so because friends are an elevated relationship; one of knowing the Master’s business. Do I know the Master’s business? Am I a friend? I think what He said initially gives me the answer: You are My friend(s) if you do what I command. Is that for them or me?

Context is everything, but implication helps. Jesus may have been telling His men who they were, but He was also telling us today (two-thousand years later) the same thing: the friend-principle is this: You are My friends if you do what I command. If I want to be Jesus’ friend, I do what He commands, explicitly, or implicitly through the teachings of the Bible.

Friendship with God is not rocket-science – it is simply loving God by His Holy Spirit, and loving people the same way. No degrees in theology necessary. No titles, or positions needed. Just love God and love others. Jesus commands are simply this: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. Wanna be a Jesus friend? Do that. Wanna know the Master’s business? Love Him, and love others.

Everything Jesus learned from the Father and revealed to them is the same message revealed to us today: love God and love others. If my focus is loving God and putting the needs of others above my own, then what can go wrong? If I see God as my Friend and me as His; and then I make a point of being a friend to everybody else, how can I go wrong? That’s what friends are for.

Father, Your business is simple and Your way is simpler yet: love You above all else, and love people more than self. Simple. Straightforward. Salvation. Amen.

The Jesus Picture

7/8/2016

Hebrews 5. 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

I have a hard time picturing Jesus offering up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears. The word fervent strikes an odd conjure in me. I am more comfortable with Jesus meek and mild. Predictable. Safe. Tame. I have a tough time with Jesus fervent and wild. It’s because my Jesus picture is incomplete and I see Him how I want to see Him. (Maybe I'm afraid God wants me to act that way...)

The writer of the book of Hebrews must have had some good intel on Jesus. He must have had some accounts of the Lord that would curl my hair. His descriptor here in this short chapter is intense. I admit, a lot of days, my relationship with God lacks intensity. I’m thinking about making some changes.

There is a lady in my church that gets called on every once in a while to pray (during our times of corporate prayer) and when she does, her voice goes into fervent, and her eyes go into tears. I don’t think it’s just whipping oneself into a frenzy, I think it’s a condition of the heart. I think given the cultural and political landscape we find ourselves it is no time for anything less than fervent cries and tears.

Jesus was not immune to the culture and politics of His day. I think He was angry at the abuse and oppression by His own leaders against their people at the expense of the occupying Romans. I think Jesus was saddened and angered at the people’s lack of trust in God, and their own lack of fervent cries and tears except when someone was brutally cut down short in life and no one seemed to care.

Today, we have leaders who seem to be immune to the rules the rest of us have to live by. If we’re not careful we’ll usher in cataclysmic results: if so and so can do that, so can I! That won’t work, but surely some will try to exploit it. And today we seem to be in a racial frenzy, like we’re the evilest, oppressive people in the world. Skin color has become a weapon, not for change, but for division. Who is assaulting Heaven with loud cries and tears over that?

Jesus, a single simple man, came into His situation and cried out to God over it. There may be loud cries and tears out there somewhere, but it’s pretty quiet here in my little berg… The difference, to me, seems to be what Jesus did because of His reverent submission to His Father. God calls you and me to pray. I’m lacking, how about you?

Reverent submission is a part of the Jesus picture I do get. Jesus honored God by including Him in the conversation. Today, while it’s called today, needs to be for me, a day of reverent submission. I may not use loud cries and tears in my soundproof office (it used to be where counseling took place) but then again, I might. I’m challenged today, to up the volume, and increase the fervor. Reverently. Submissively. Is there anything too difficult for God?

Father, thank You for answering my prayer yesterday and I cry out to You again today. My prayer is, move me to move. If Jesus did, then it’s good enough for me too! Amen