Plants In Need Of Watering

When you want a flower to grow, it turns out, simply planting the seed isn't enough. Sure, it has to be done.

It helps if you plant it in good soil -- even more if that soil is stocked with nutrients and growth formulas and other new sciency things designed to help flowers grow. But unless you water the thing, all you have is a fairly expensive pot of dirt.

And it's not just a one-time thing, either. Turns out, the darn things need to be watered all the time. Even once they've started to grow, they still require water for survival. Fail to water, and your lovely flower wilts. Continue to forget, and it dies.

It's true for plants, for pets, and even for people. We need water -- a consistent supply of it! -- in order to survive.

As water is for our physical beings, prayer and learning are for our spiritual -- our real -- selves. It's telling, I think, that Jesus didn't tell us, before being taken back to the Father's side, to make converts, but to make disciples. It's one thing to plant a seed, but we must also encourage our fellow believer to grow stronger and become more like Christ. This is a process, and one that won't end until we end our lives here and come into our inheritance at His side.

Paul tells the church, in Hebrews 2:12-14,

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

His encouragement here is to edify one another, and to keep one another on the right path. We do this through constant prayer. We do this by constantly seeking to know more about God and His will.  This is why Christ called believers to make disciples. It's one thing to plant the seed; but once somebody comes to the faith, it is up to us to help cultivate it.

This is one of the reasons the church is so important. The church is a good soil in which this seed of faith can find what it needs for growth. But, more importantly, the fellow believers help sustain the life of this new faith by a constant stream of encouragement, prayer, and teaching.

Peacemaking is Hard. And Strange.

Drama, drama, drama.

Have you ever noticed how much we humans crave conflict? While conflict on the world stage creates fear, conflict closer to home -- say, on the internet, in our homes, and in our churches -- draws a crowd of onlookers. Some people create it on purpose. Some people will talk publicly about how much they "hate all the drama," but will then be the first to create it in some way, starting a fight over some insignificant thing, or publicly airing dirty laundry. And as human beings, we love it. Love. It. Why do you think daytime talk shows are so popular?

Maybe that's why Jesus called His people to aim for the opposite. "Blessed are the peacemakers," He declared in Matthew 5:9, "for they shall be called the children of God."

Make no mistake: the Beatitudes -- perhaps the most famous part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount -- are a direct call from God to be other than what our humanity wants us to do naturally. They are counter-intuitive to our sinful natures. And that's exactly what Jesus wanted. It's not natural to consider yourself blessed in your want or mourning. It's not natural to embrace meekness, in this hard world, as a strength that will inherit the Earth. And it's not natural, when our humanity craves conflict -- yet fears confrontation -- to become a peacemaker.

Because peacemaking isn't about avoiding conflict. It's not a passive thing to be a peacemaker. No, peacemaking is, in fact, all about confronting the agents of conflict, in seeing them as people loved by Christ, and in guiding them to understanding and (true) tolerance. Now, as an aside, I'm not talking about tolerance the way generally expressed by the World: what do they know, anyway? I'm talking about the ability to love in spite of differences, to find common ground to rise above conflict. Not to embrace sin, but to love anyway.

Peacemaking isn't easy, but we don't do it alone. Philippians 4:13 reminds us, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

It is in Christ we can find the will -- where it doesn't exist in ourselves -- to shake off our human love of conflict, and our human desire for complacency, and become a force for peace in a constantly darkening world. 

Seeking and Finding

Today is Scavenger Hunt Day.

I love scavenger hunts. One of the things my wife has recently started doing is putting together lists of things for our kids to find. We then will go on walks around town, and down to the park, as they look for things to check off their lists. They have a great time, and it's a fun way to spend time with them.

Of course, the trick, when it comes to doing a good scavenger hunt, is in making a list of things they have to actually search for. It can't just fall in their laps: they have to want to find it.

It's the same way when it comes to finding God. He puts the clues out there. He outright tells you who He is. He speaks into your spirit with a still, small voice. But you have to want to find Him. Proverbs 8:17 says, "I love those who love me and those who seek me find me."

In Jeremiah 29:12-13, God promises, "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

And Jesus invites us, in Matthew 7:7 to, "ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

God wants a relationship with us -- but more than that, he wants us to want a relationship with Him.  So He puts Himself out there... all you have to do is look. 

Turtles, Timidity, and Timothy

It must be nice to be a turtle. Take your time getting where you need to go -- and then not even have to worry about getting back home before dark, because you brought it with you! Not to mention the relative safety! Trouble comes, and you just pop back under your shell.

If I'm being totally honest, there are days I really envy that in a turtle. Days when I want nothing more than to hide in my shell, and shut the world out until it leaves me alone. Because, let's face it, it's a cruel old world. It's not the easiest place to remain innocent and keep your eyes on Christ. It's not always easy to be bold
about your faith in a world that mocks the very idea of God and derides conviction as something medieval.

Some times, I wonder why Faith doesn't come with a shell to carry around with us, for when the enemy's arrows come raining down.

Timothy, a young leader of the early church, must surely have felt the same way -- and then some! Maybe that's why Paul, in his second letter to his young protege, made sure, right away, to encourage him.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. (2 Timothy 1:5-8)

Yeah, says Paul, Christians have it tough. (And let's face it, Timothy's church, and churches around the world today, have it a LOT tougher than you and I!) But Christ gave us not only a mission to reach others, but a command to love them. And not only a command, but the strength and courage, in His Spirit, to fulfill it. 

So no, we don't have a shell. We have something much better: the Power of the Living God.

With the Timbrel and Harp

Psalm 149

¹ Praise the Lord.^[a]

Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.

² Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
    let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
³ Let them praise his name with dancing
    and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
⁴ For the Lord takes delight in his people;
    he crowns the humble with victory.
⁵ Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor
    and sing for joy on their beds.

⁶ May the praise of God be in their mouths
    and a double-edged sword in their hands,
⁷ to inflict vengeance on the nations
    and punishment on the peoples,
⁸ to bind their kings with fetters,
    their nobles with shackles of iron,
⁹ to carry out the sentence written against them—
    this is the glory of all his faithful people.

Praise the Lord.

Diversity and (TRUE!) Unity: Lessons from Babel

Diversity sure is misunderstood! In some corners, it's almost a dirty word, while in others, it is venerated as a
holiness above all others. Cultural diversity is a wonderful thing. Our world is made richer because of the various cultures represented throughout. When it comes to celebrating cultural diversity, we most often have a view to a kind of unity among all people. By saying we're celebrating our differences (for that's what diversity is), we're really seeking a kind of common ground.

And that's noble.

But I can't help but think, as good a goal as unity is, it would be good to consider why there's all this diversity in the first place. If a structure collapses, it just makes good sense to investigate why it did so before building it again. In the same way, it seems to me that, if our goal is unity, we ought to look first at the reasons behind our separation.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9)

So, God Himself scattered humanity -- and the reason is really pretty simple. He did it as a way to keep man reliant on Him. Man was originally created to be in relationship with God; but man's ambition was to elevate himself to God's level. We know from the New Testament that God does indeed desire unity among His children -- but that Unity must be founded on a relationship to God. 

Put another way, the unity Man wants is a false unity, because it fails to recognize who we actually are to each other. We believe we ought to be united because we are of the same species. We want to believe that we can become one Human Family, without God, by virtue of nature and good intentions. But without recognizing who -- and whose -- we really are, that unity is a fiction. 

It is only through our relationship with Christ -- and our recognition that we are, all of us, children of God -- that we can gain the true Unity He has in store. That of a single, loving, family, gathered under the roof of our Heavenly Father.

Does Jesus Hate Rich People?

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:21-24)

Jesus seems awfully tough on rich people here, doesn't he? What's he saying here? Does wealth really keep us separated from God? It certainly can; this isn't even the first time Jesus spoke on this problem. In Matthew 6, He tells us to store up our treasures in Heaven -- that is, to put our effort into the things of God, rather than of this world. Because, He says in verse 24, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So, what's Jesus' problem with money? After all, Job is an example of great faith, even now -- and he was filthy rich! Actually, Job illustrates the issue nicely. See, it's not that Jesus has a problem with money. It's that we do.  

Job is what you call an exception that proves the rule. His trust was in God -- so much so, that even when his great wealth was stripped from him, he still cried out and put his faith in his Creator. 

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21)

 
For Job, his wealth was a gift from God, and therefore belonged to God. 

What Jesus was pointing out was that so many who were -- and are -- wealthy, can't seem to put their trust and faith in Him. Jesus told the rich young man in Matthew 19 that, if he sold all he had and gave it to the poor, he would have treasure in Heaven -- that is, everlasting treasure. But the young man couldn't believe. His faith was in his worldly possessions. More to the point, he believed in the security he got from his wealth, and when asked point blank, couldn't transfer that security and faith to the God he claimed to serve. 

Today, that's not a problem for only the rich. How many of us put our faith and our trust in a job; in our ability to make money? How many would willingly sell everything we have, give it to the poor, and put our faith wholly and completely in God? It's easy to say we would -- or even that we are. But think carefully: if the rubber hit the road, and you heard Jesus' voice telling you to give up everything and trust completely in him, could you do it?

Fortunately, we -- and even that rich young man -- needn't rely on the limits of our own very human faith. 

When Jesus made his point about the wealthy, and a camel fitting through the eye of a needle, His disciples were incredulous. If not the rich, then who could be saved? And were the rich without hope?

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

A desperate man once told Jesus, "I do believe. Help my unbelief." 

Our own beliefs may seem small and unworthy. But through Christ, even the wealthy may find faith enough to trust Him.