Dust and Ash

Fact: eventually, the dominion of mankind will end. All the work we've done to build civilizations; everything we've ever done to build a lasting legacy; all the monuments to our conquering of nature, or gravity, or plain ol' adversity... all of it will fade away. Gone. Turned to dust. Everything that has a beginning has an end; this is the way of nature.

But.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of the Lord endures forever.” (1 Peter 1:23-25a)

It's amazing to think about it, but the Word of God is indeed Eternal. It is without beginning, written by God since before Time began, and breathed into the world of men through the lungs of prophets and sinners. The Word of God, personified by Christ, the Salvation of Man, endures forever. 

Think of the implications of 1 Peter, Chapter 1. God has taken man, finite and small, and lifted him -- lifted us! -- out of our mortal existence, and into His eternal one! 

Those stresses we have day to day? That constant struggle to make something significant of ourselves on this world? Ultimately, it's meaningless. The greatness of nations, the legacy of kings, all of human history is dust and ash when stacked against Eternity with the Creator.

So the question I must ask myself, then, is for what purpose do I strive in my daily life? Am I working for things that are temporary? Or is my focus on the Eternal? Am I building my own glory, which will whither and fall like the flowers of the field; or am I concerning myself with the Glory and Word of the Lord, which endures forever?

Miracles 1: The God of the Mundane (repost)

(Originally posted Nov 12, 2012. My Wednesday night class was discussing miracles, and I remembered this. Part 2 coming Monday.)

Miracles 1: The God of the Mundane

I've noticed something about the miracles of Jesus: no matter the reason for the miracle, no matter how big or how small, Jesus performed it with the same attitude and nonchalance as if He were carrying a box from one room to another. Something was one way; He wanted it to be another way. He made it happen.

He walked on water, as though He were walking down the street. He commanded a storm to be still as if telling His dog to "sit. Stay." He can do that. He created the water, and the storm.

I think we often feel as though a miracle ought to be accompanied by fanfare. As though we have to sing and dance and shout, and announce from on high before God will so much as heal a cataract. Televangelists have an organ playing obnoxiously before dancing down the aisle, raising up a trembling hand, and smacking a troubled audience member while declaring, "Be Healed!"

Jesus spat in some mud, smeared it on some guy's eye and told him to wash his face (John 9:1-7).

Very often, when we look for miracles at the hand of the God of the Universe, we're looking for some big announcement: Hey, look! I'm performing a miracle over here! Thunder! Lightning!

But the Jesus of the Bible just says, "Get up and walk." (Luke 5:22-24)

The truth is, when we look for the mighty miracles, for the trumpets to sound and a voice to come over the wind, we miss the every-day miracles. And when we miss the miraculous in the every day, we also miss the chance to be a part of a miracle ourselves.

Small Stuff

When I was growing up, my Dad always told me he had two rules in life: Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff. This made a lot of sense to me at the time, and I grew up not really ever worrying about anything. If it was something I could do something about, I did it. If not, I braced myself for whatever was about to happen.

Of course, even my Dad would tell you, the carefree life instantly dissolves when you add family into the mix. Particularly when you add children. You worry about what they're going to eat. You worry that they're always going to have a warm place to sleep. That they're getting along well in school. That they'll always be safe.

Worry is easy. But of course, Jesus was never a fan of taking the easy way.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27)

He goes on, with reminders not to worry about what we'll eat, or drink, or wear. But instead, "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (v33)."

In other words: keep your eye on the Big Picture. Worry never made anything better. But Christ did more than simply give us the admonishment not to worry. He gave us a promise, too. That He, God, had it well in hand. As the Psalmist says, "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken (Psalm 55:22)."

We aren't promised an easy life. Indeed, we're promised trouble in this world. But we're also reminded that Christ Himself has overcome this world (John 16:33). 

The point in all of this? Simply this: keep your eyes on Christ. I could go verse after verse after verse, but this is the message. Keep your eyes on Him. Focus on eternal things. The rest is small stuff. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Four Facts About Sin and Temptation

Drug addict. Alcoholic. Gay. Loose. Gossip. Bully. Hypocrite.

All too often, we define others by the sin in their lives. We label and judge on the nature of their fallenness, turning their wounds into their identity. It only makes sense for us to do this, though. After all, on some level, we do it to ourselves, too. We define ourselves on how we are tempted. And so we define others the same way.

But we've forgotten the truth about sin and temptation. There's Good News to be had here, and we needn't collapse under the weight of our own imperfections. And we certainly needn't add the weight of our own judgement onto the burdens of others.

Here are four forgotten facts about sin and temptation, straight out of the Bible.

1. Temptation is not sin.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Here's a truth that shouldn't be controversial: it isn't a sin to be tempted by homosexuality. It isn't a sin to be an alcoholic. Sin is not temptation, and temptation is not sin. Jesus Himself was taken into the desert and tempted. But He did not sin. See the difference?

2. Temptation may never go away
While it's true that God may remove temptation from some people, it's not always the case. I've certainly heard wonderful testimonies from people who stopped drinking as soon as Christ entered their lives. I've heard of God gradually healing people of sexual temptation, of homosexual desires, or of the desire for drugs. Sometimes, He removes these heavier temptations from us. But for every case I've heard where God removes temptation, I've heard countless others where He has not. 

Why? Because in our weakness, we rely on Him, and He is made strong. 

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.(2 Corinthians 12:9)

3. You are not your sin
Your sin doesn't define who you are. 

When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

"Go and sin no more." When Jesus was confronted by the legalists over the woman caught in adultery, His response was to challenge the first person without sin to cast the first stone. No one was able. But it was His words to her that were most telling. She wasn't an adulteress. It wasn't who she was. It was something she did. And she was forgiven, and empowered to leave that sin behind. 

And if you're not defined by sin, your identity certainly isn't tied to your temptation.

4. Sin can be forgiven.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation... (2 Corinthians 5:16-18)

The Point, We Have Missed It

I had an interesting discussion online the other day. I said some things about church doctrine in general, and was asked whether I believed doctrine was important in defining our beliefs. It's a good question, and I certainly think it has its place. But with a few caveats.

Doctrine is constantly changing; God's word doesn't. Doctrine is made by man, who is fickle and double-minded; God is neither.

Doctrine can be a good thing, so long as it compliments God's word rather than contradicts. When the doctrine of man is elevated to the status of Scripture, we have a problem. When a church begins defining sin based on its own set of extrabiblical beliefs, it has lost its way. When it preaches Christ is A way to Salvation instead of THE way, it has lost its way. When it elevates the trappings of religion and religiosity over the "religion God finds pure and undefiled" (James 1:27), it has lost its way.

We miss the point because we let doctrine first define, and then separate.
We split the church over dunking or sprinkling, and we miss the point.
We declare Holy Communion exists only inside the walls of the church, or only when we use bread, or unleavened bread, or holy blessed wafers, or red wine, or grape juice, and we miss the point.
We elevate the rich over the poor, and we miss the point. By a mile.
We pull out the parts of Scripture we don't personally like, and we miss the point.
We declare ourselves outside of Israel's law because of Grace, but saddle the Body with laws we invented, because we missed the point.

Doctrine can indeed be useful in defining what we believe, but that doctrine must be informed first and only by Scripture.  And doctrine must not be used to separate believers. We must instead look past the surface, into the commonality we have in Christ, and find unity.

 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

The Crack In My Songlasses

 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:4-8)

 
I have a confession: I sometimes have a really hard time seeing people the way Jesus sees them.

I'm not talking about the poor here. Or the widows. Or orphans. I'm not talking about people who obviously need to be shown God's love in a practical way. Granted, I could do more on that score, too, but I don't have a difficult time seeing them through Christ's eyes.

But on the other side of the spectrum, you have the haughty. The proud. The rude. You have people who seem to somehow believe they are better or more important than everyone else. You see people who are selfish with their belongings, refusing to help others. You have people who cut in line, cut you off, look down their noses, judge others. The greedy, the arrogant, the self-righteous.

I confess a difficult time seeing Jesus in some people.

But the more I think of it, the more I think it has more to do with me than it does with them. I have never been homeless or orphaned. I have been proud. I have been rude. I have been arrogant and self-righteous. And, sometimes, I still am.

Maybe I have such a hard time seeing Jesus in these people, because I'm too busy seeing myself.

Still Thirsty? (repost)

Since we're at the end of the week, and our Moment of Truth this week has centered on the Samaritan women who met Jesus at the well, I thought it would be appropriate to pull this one back out of the archives. Originally posted Dec. 4, 2012

I am a chronic joiner. If there is a group or a club around some topic or hobby in which I am even remotely interested, I want to be a part of it. Of course I don't have any time at all to be actually active in anything, so often being a nominal member has to be enough. The biggest draw for me is community with other people who like the same stuff I do.

I think this is human nature, to want to connect with other people. We are relational people, and to our very souls, we hunger for interaction, for a relationship.

I have lately come to realize, however, that I don't need to be a part of everything. I love being with other people, or connecting in some way, but the truth is, I no longer need that human approval or validation that I once did. I've come to realize in fact that my need to constantly join, to be a part of everything, was the spiritual equivalent of emotional eating: there is a hole we can't understand. We know something is missing, but we don't know what. So we fill that void with... something. For some it's other people. For some it's food or drink. Anything, so long as it helps, even temporarily, to fill that hole in our lives.

Jesus recognized this Spiritual gap in a woman near a well in Samaria (John 4:1-26).

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Jesus wanted for this woman to recognize the depth of her Spiritual thirst.  When He told her about her five husbands, he wasn't saying it just to prove He was a prophet. He already had her attention and curiosity. Instead He was telling her: just as your body thirsts, your soul thirsts also, for a relationship, a communion, with One who will satisfy. 

The truth is, I no longer need to be a joiner, because I already belong. I belong to the family of God, a brotherhood of saints. I no longer require the water of being validated by others, because I have been quenched by the Christ, the Living Water. In Him, my cup is full: my Spirit overflows with His love.

Like the woman at the well, I have gone looking for a way to quench my thirst for another day, and have found a way to quench it for Eternity.

I-dol worship

 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:3-6)

We hear a lot about modern idolatry. Possibly not enough, actually. But when we hear about it, we always hear about cars or jobs or other material things. Things, in short, that we put above God. Things we worship through our time and attention and even financial sacrifices. But, just as with the graven images God spoke of on the top of the mountain, the real object of idol worship is ourselves. 

With the ancient idols, it was a question of "what can this little god do for me?" Israel created a golden calf to worship because they wanted a god. It wasn't about God, or even the calf. It was about them. 

And still today, idolatry is really about ourselves. And it takes many, insidious forms. I was once mailed a paper prayer rug. Put my name on it, I was told, and pass it around, and I would be blessed. Take a trip through Social Media and count the number of posts promising the blessings of God by simply passing them on to your friends. 

This is not God. This is idolatry. It is idolatry because we are placing our own needs at the forefront of our worship. It is idolatry because in seeking tips and tricks to discover God's "blessings" we cease to worship God and begin to view Him as a cosmic genie. 

God doesn't exist to make you happy. And how blessed we are that He doesn't! Man is a fickle creature, happy with one thing one day, and dissatisfied the next. But the God we worship -- the Almighty, the Magnificent, the All-knowing, all Powerful -- the Creator and Shaper of the Universe wants instead to love you. He wants not to give us what we think we want, but what He knows we need: a restored relationship with Him, and an inheritance, not of temporary treasures that moths and rust destroy, but of an Eternity by His side.

A New, Unopened Box Of God (repost)

(originally posted Oct 18, 2012)

Remember miracles? Remember when the people of God saw visions and dreamed dreams, and the Spirit of God moved in the Church, filling and causing some to speak in tongues, and some to interpret, and some to prophesy, and some to heal, and some to discern good spirits from evil?

Remember that?

Whatever happened to that,  anyway?

Does all that seem a little far-fetched? A little science-fictiony or scary? A little bit kooky, perhaps?

Why is that? Paul talked about exactly these things to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 12), didn't he? Are things so different now that God has ceased to move in these ways in our Church, and in His people? Surely, some Christians -- even pastors -- will say, even if He really DID cause miracles to happen (which, depending on your church, may now be seen to have a perfectly natural, logical, and un-supernatural explanation), He no longer moves that way now.

Now the Holy Spirit moves us to... what? Tentatively raise our hands in church? Clap shyly and without rhythm -- but only if everyone else is clapping, too? Pray for one another by nodding along when the pastor says their names, and then grudgingly put our check in the offering plate?

I miss miracles. I miss the Supernatural power of God. But I begin to wonder: did God pull His Power away from us, or did we merely stop asking for it?

Road Weary (repost)

Originally posted 9.20.12

The one constant in my married life has been travel. With families at least six hundred miles apart, visiting always meant travel. Whether we lived in Michigan and had to drive to New York, or whether it was the other way around, and now that we live in Wisconsin, the word "vacation" is pretty much synonymous with "Road Trip." And, though they are never short trips -- in general it would be 10 to 12 hours in the car, depending on how tired we were, how often the kids had to use the restroom, how many cups of coffee we needed -- we almost always drive straight through, with no overnight stops.

Needless to say, by the time we get to our destination, there is nothing more wonderful than the welcoming arms of my parents or in-laws and the words, "the bed is made. We'll watch the kids."

We grow weary in our travels on this Earth, too. Bone tired. Exhausted to our very souls. But how wonderful to know that, even as we travel straight through and full out, we can keep our eyes ahead and know that, at the end of the road are the welcoming arms of The Father, and a nice, clean room.

As Jesus said to His disciples,

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14: 1-4)

Even now, Jesus is putting out the good linen and setting a glorious table, preparing to welcome us home. 

Blindness

I remember waking out of a nightmare once. It was dark. My head was covered. I could see nothing. Turning my head in a panic I looked for something -- anything -- on which I could lay my eyes and prove to myself I hadn't gone blind. The panic was brief, lasting only seconds as I came out of my sleep-induced stupor. But it was one of the most frightening experiences I can remember.

The fact is, I'm scared to death of going blind.

The reasons for this are legion, but among the greatest is simply this: I just don't have the faith to walk without sight. I don't like to be led. I don't like to not know where I'm going. Even fog is sometimes enough to give me serious pause. I can drive in almost any condition with confidence and competence. But you take away my ability to see more than a few feet ahead, and I slow to a near-crawl, taking each several yards as a significant triumph over the weather-produced blindness. Take away my sight entirely, and I may well become something like a hermit. I can perhaps count on both hands the people I trust enough to lead me in the event I'm unable to see where I'm going.

Yet, for all the nervousness I have about physical blindness, how much more important is the ability to see clearly in Spiritual matters? As important as we believe our temporary, physical bodies are, how much more our eternal souls?

When it comes to the Mystery of God, I admit I can see only a few feet in front of me at a time. I was once entirely blind, but praise God, He has opened my eyes. Even so, my vision is imperfect. Even so, I need the wisdom of those walking before me to counsel me on the turns and ruts in the path ahead. But, it is important to know where these leaders are leading. It's important to understand whether they are leading in a Godly direction.

In Galatians, we read of a group of believers under the thrall of a blind leader. He doesn't know where he is going, yet he is leading others.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! (Galatians 1:6-9)

Yet, Scripture tells us to test the words of preachers and prophets against the Word of God and the guidance of the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22). 

So thank God for Godly pastors and ministers. Thank God for those who have been given the terrifying and all-important task of leading the rest of us through the fog and darkness of this world. Thank God, and pray for them, that they continue to be led by Him, so they can lead us in His steps.