"... Come!..."
Here is the second time these fishermen were panicked in the midst of a stormy sea. The first time Jesus was there with them, asleep in the stern. Things got so bad they woke him up and accused him of not caring if they drowned (yet he was with them all along).
At first, Jesus is nowhere to be seen. But then, after hours of struggle, he finally appears in the nighttime of their fear. The rescue comes this time - not from within - but from without. At first, the deliverance was unrecognizable because it came in a new way, a different way, a way that actually bred more fear - and required more faith - in their troubled hearts.
Jesus likes to mix it up.
It is I. These words of the Word, speaking into the heart of the boat, assuring the fishermen they had not been abandoned, must have been so relieving! It is I.
Then Peter - either in his fervency to escape the sinking vessel or his impulsiveness to be be with the One he so dearly loved (perhaps an undefinable combination of both?) - beckons to come out "with You" into the frothing tempests. Sometimes God calls us deeper into the storm that we might meet him there; yet, I suppose, all storms are tolerable when we see Jesus in the midst of them.
Come! Peter bails out and makes a bee-line for the Lord, standing like a ghost in the wind and waves. The closer he gets to the miracle, the more he begins to rationalize the logistics of that same miracle. His mind "wavers" (literal Greek meaning) in the waves and he cries to be saved. Jesus lifts him from the depths and - I believe - speaks encouragingly to him, there on the sea.
You were awesome! You were doing do well. Dude, you were walking on the water! Why did you loose faith? And, lovingly taking him under his arm, walked Peter back - back through the doubting tempests of that same storm - where both stepped into the water-filled hull of the boat. Only then did the wind cease.
God is always testing, always stretching, always seeking to bring our faith into new realms where we are forced to cry out to him, the Author and Finisher of our in Faith. He knows that it is impossible to please God without faith and trains us accordingly. There is something in the cry that both breeds humility and dependancy - two things that Jesus is compelled to respond to.
Miracles are merely stepping stones to the One who waits in the midst of the storm.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Matthew Study 13:55
".... is this not the carpenter's son?..."
The Life of Faith is greatly hindered when reason is demanded of it.
By its very nature, Faith is believing. It is an ascent fueled by Grace into a realm wherein Kingdom Activities are then - and only then - understood and experienced. Life in that realm is proportionally diffused with the infusion of too much human reasoning. It's not unlike a painter who waters down his paint and finds the new hue to be a only a faint resemblance to its original luster.
And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Seeking to become masters of the mystery limits the activities of the Master of the Mystery. Remember - the faith of a child?
Here we have Jesus teaching in their own synagogue. As with all his teaching, Kingdom Authority rushed forth in hues of wisdom, miracles, and parables. Yet the exuberance of Divine Revelation was dammed by a demeanor of skepticism. This time the push-back wasn't coming from theological bigwigs. It was coming from the people who raised him. Who is this really? How did he learn all that? Isn't this Mary's son - he played with our children!
And, just like that, their unbelief blinded them to the Hue of Heaven in their midst.
Lord, raise my heart above my unbelief and into the realm of belief, that I would see your words and hear your words in the synagogue of my heart. Amen.
The Life of Faith is greatly hindered when reason is demanded of it.
By its very nature, Faith is believing. It is an ascent fueled by Grace into a realm wherein Kingdom Activities are then - and only then - understood and experienced. Life in that realm is proportionally diffused with the infusion of too much human reasoning. It's not unlike a painter who waters down his paint and finds the new hue to be a only a faint resemblance to its original luster.
And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Seeking to become masters of the mystery limits the activities of the Master of the Mystery. Remember - the faith of a child?
Here we have Jesus teaching in their own synagogue. As with all his teaching, Kingdom Authority rushed forth in hues of wisdom, miracles, and parables. Yet the exuberance of Divine Revelation was dammed by a demeanor of skepticism. This time the push-back wasn't coming from theological bigwigs. It was coming from the people who raised him. Who is this really? How did he learn all that? Isn't this Mary's son - he played with our children!
And, just like that, their unbelief blinded them to the Hue of Heaven in their midst.
Lord, raise my heart above my unbelief and into the realm of belief, that I would see your words and hear your words in the synagogue of my heart. Amen.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Matthew Study 13:52
"... every scribe instructed concerning the Kingdom... is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and things old..."
The absolute key to flowing in the grace of the Holy Spirit is being prophetic and incarnational in the situation at hand. When a Saint has learned that, the world will begin to notice God.
Some Saints live so much in the moment they have unintentionally discarded their Sacred History. (But God was in the moment back then and just as significant then as he is today!) Others hold on to the spiritual mountain-tops of their past with such fervency that they are blinded to the wondrous revelation of the Present Day.
But Jesus likens us - my dear Scribes of the Kingdom - to a chef who runs her fingers across the spice rack, seeking the perfect ingredient for the meal at hand. Each event demands a fresh, Living Encounter. A wise person will remember, will choose appropriately, the perfect treasure for the occasion at hand, whether it be something from thirty years ago or something she is being led to do for the first time.
How do you choose? You may say, "I have so many treasures to bring out - all of which seem good for this occasion!" The Holy Spirit is the Highlighter and reveals the exact need for any given situation. He will bring to your mind a certain memory, or not.
I can easily come up with many ways to address a situation. But that would be "me." That's not where we want to be.
As God calls us into situations which demand our response or action we need to remember how Jesus did it. He could have chose many ways to speak, many methods of healing the sick, but his priority to do "only what he saw the Father doing" was his Life's Mission. When he encountered a situation which demanded his input he had a built-in default mode. He asked God what to do.
"What are you doing here, Father? Should I heal this person like the last person - or is there something else you're doing, something else which would speak a keen awareness of your Love into this person?"
The next time you walk into a situation and are fairly certain you have acquired the expertise to deal with it in a timely and expedient manner take a step back and consider: how can the Spirit use your Sacred Experience in this particular situation? What would be the best way - your Way - to dialogue with this?
You may have your ideas. But he always has his!
The absolute key to flowing in the grace of the Holy Spirit is being prophetic and incarnational in the situation at hand. When a Saint has learned that, the world will begin to notice God.
Some Saints live so much in the moment they have unintentionally discarded their Sacred History. (But God was in the moment back then and just as significant then as he is today!) Others hold on to the spiritual mountain-tops of their past with such fervency that they are blinded to the wondrous revelation of the Present Day.
But Jesus likens us - my dear Scribes of the Kingdom - to a chef who runs her fingers across the spice rack, seeking the perfect ingredient for the meal at hand. Each event demands a fresh, Living Encounter. A wise person will remember, will choose appropriately, the perfect treasure for the occasion at hand, whether it be something from thirty years ago or something she is being led to do for the first time.
How do you choose? You may say, "I have so many treasures to bring out - all of which seem good for this occasion!" The Holy Spirit is the Highlighter and reveals the exact need for any given situation. He will bring to your mind a certain memory, or not.
I can easily come up with many ways to address a situation. But that would be "me." That's not where we want to be.
As God calls us into situations which demand our response or action we need to remember how Jesus did it. He could have chose many ways to speak, many methods of healing the sick, but his priority to do "only what he saw the Father doing" was his Life's Mission. When he encountered a situation which demanded his input he had a built-in default mode. He asked God what to do.
"What are you doing here, Father? Should I heal this person like the last person - or is there something else you're doing, something else which would speak a keen awareness of your Love into this person?"
The next time you walk into a situation and are fairly certain you have acquired the expertise to deal with it in a timely and expedient manner take a step back and consider: how can the Spirit use your Sacred Experience in this particular situation? What would be the best way - your Way - to dialogue with this?
You may have your ideas. But he always has his!
Matthew Study 12:49
"... let both grow together until the harvest..."
'Worry not too deeply about the tares of regret, remorse, and addiction which seem eternally embedded within the soil of your heart. For, once you begin tearing apart the tares, the precious stalks of Sacred History also lie in peril. Entrust your field to the Lord of the Harvest and let both grow together as he sanctifies you to himself."
We are a curious mix of humanity and Divinity. We are filled with New Wine and co-heir with Christ. Yet, we are human. (Redeemed Humanity is, after all, still humanity!) Our minds are very capable of condemning us of events of our past. If we are not careful, these "tares" can become the object of preoccupation of our life. When that happens we become self-condemning and, if not monitored, filled with faithlessness and sorrow.
Sirach writes, "Love your soul, and comfort your heart, and put sorrow far away from you; for sorrow has destroyed many, and there is no profit in it." No wonder the psalmist writes, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains..."
I have found it helpful to agree with the facts which my mind is accusing me of, and even to agree with the facts that the devil throws in my face. I say, "Yes, you are right. That part of me is true, or was true. How wondrous a salvation in Jesus Christ, where all is forgiven as I offer these things to the Lover of my Sou!"
There comes a time in ones life where, after honest inventory, it's evident that our Fields contain good and evil. It is within this realization - this admission of truth - when a certain demeanor arises: Grace-filled Understanding. It is in that instant, when we become free from the torment of our tares. True confession brings true freedom, even if we don't particularly like (or even want to admit) the depths of the roots.
This confession, of course, needs to be acknowledged before the back drop of Continued Sanctification - God's lovingly persistent mission to break up our fallow ground. All self-revelation needs to be fingered with the his hands of hope and of healing - and of the assurance that, as we agree with God as to the issues of our hearts, his Living Water is poured out and showers the fields in our heart. The field, after all is much greater than the tares. There is wheat there, too - wheat fit for the Harvest.
When we acknowledge both tares and wheat coexisting in the field of our hearts we become qualifiers for God's realized forgiveness and healing. We also see things in perspective. Jesus is Lord of the Harvest, he knows how the Garden grows, he is aware of the tares, he cares more-so for the wheat, he allows both to grow together for our own good, he isn't too distracted by their evil (in actuality, he has plucked their roots at the Dogwood Tree and rendered them powerless), and, at the end of the Day, they have no eternal merit.
In other words, he doesn't give them much power. Neither should we.
Let both reside. Live in the tension, knowing that on that Great and GLorious Day, all will be separated.
'Worry not too deeply about the tares of regret, remorse, and addiction which seem eternally embedded within the soil of your heart. For, once you begin tearing apart the tares, the precious stalks of Sacred History also lie in peril. Entrust your field to the Lord of the Harvest and let both grow together as he sanctifies you to himself."
We are a curious mix of humanity and Divinity. We are filled with New Wine and co-heir with Christ. Yet, we are human. (Redeemed Humanity is, after all, still humanity!) Our minds are very capable of condemning us of events of our past. If we are not careful, these "tares" can become the object of preoccupation of our life. When that happens we become self-condemning and, if not monitored, filled with faithlessness and sorrow.
Sirach writes, "Love your soul, and comfort your heart, and put sorrow far away from you; for sorrow has destroyed many, and there is no profit in it." No wonder the psalmist writes, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains..."
I have found it helpful to agree with the facts which my mind is accusing me of, and even to agree with the facts that the devil throws in my face. I say, "Yes, you are right. That part of me is true, or was true. How wondrous a salvation in Jesus Christ, where all is forgiven as I offer these things to the Lover of my Sou!"
There comes a time in ones life where, after honest inventory, it's evident that our Fields contain good and evil. It is within this realization - this admission of truth - when a certain demeanor arises: Grace-filled Understanding. It is in that instant, when we become free from the torment of our tares. True confession brings true freedom, even if we don't particularly like (or even want to admit) the depths of the roots.
This confession, of course, needs to be acknowledged before the back drop of Continued Sanctification - God's lovingly persistent mission to break up our fallow ground. All self-revelation needs to be fingered with the his hands of hope and of healing - and of the assurance that, as we agree with God as to the issues of our hearts, his Living Water is poured out and showers the fields in our heart. The field, after all is much greater than the tares. There is wheat there, too - wheat fit for the Harvest.
When we acknowledge both tares and wheat coexisting in the field of our hearts we become qualifiers for God's realized forgiveness and healing. We also see things in perspective. Jesus is Lord of the Harvest, he knows how the Garden grows, he is aware of the tares, he cares more-so for the wheat, he allows both to grow together for our own good, he isn't too distracted by their evil (in actuality, he has plucked their roots at the Dogwood Tree and rendered them powerless), and, at the end of the Day, they have no eternal merit.
In other words, he doesn't give them much power. Neither should we.
Let both reside. Live in the tension, knowing that on that Great and GLorious Day, all will be separated.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Matthew Study 12:32
"... but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him..."
When a person becomes a Temple of the God's Breath he is forever that Temple. And, one day, the Temples will unite and he shall forever be with the Lord. Our words testify as to the Hope that reside within us.
When a person remains veiled to the Persistent Presence of God, and seeks not to embrace the Embracer in Christ Jesus, he will not have access to the Greater Life in God when he dies. And his words will echo that sense of eschatological hopelessness. It will be evident in everything he does.
The "veiling of the Persistent Presence" or, as the Church Fathers describe it, "the closing of ones eyes", isn't a one shot deal. For we all close our eyes to the Lord many times a day, do we not? It is more a prophetic disposition of any given Eternity, heaven or hell. What Jesus is highlighting here is the division between sheep and goats, the righteous and unrighteous - those who know the Lord and those who do not.
A person who knows the Lord has entered into that relationship as a result of the Spirit's Call and Revelation. Having entered into that sacred relationship he or she has become free of the sin of blasphemy of the Spirit (or one wouldn't be dancing in the Courts of the King in the first place!).
When you entered the Outer Courts, you left that sin behind.
Conversely, a person who seeks to enter Glory outside the Grace given at the Cross has denied the Work of the Spirit and, therefore, cannot be forgiven - for that person has not given into the revelatory work of the Spirit in his heart; that work being the gifting of Grace and Forgiveness in Jesus. So, in the negative sense of the word, he has blasphemed the Spirit. That's why people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. They exist outside the forgiveness of Christ which is revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Many sincere Followers pick apart their every thought and word, fearing they have committed the unforgivable sin. But the fact they are believers automatically disqualifies them from blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They shouldn't even entertain the idea. They should, however, seek to work out their salvation in fear and trembling, knowing that the Lord Almighty is a Power to be reckoned with. If the fear of having committed the unforgivable sin acts as a motivator for ones personal purity, so be it. But let not the believer be accused (from within or without) of having committed this sin.
Believers can't do that.
When a person becomes a Temple of the God's Breath he is forever that Temple. And, one day, the Temples will unite and he shall forever be with the Lord. Our words testify as to the Hope that reside within us.
When a person remains veiled to the Persistent Presence of God, and seeks not to embrace the Embracer in Christ Jesus, he will not have access to the Greater Life in God when he dies. And his words will echo that sense of eschatological hopelessness. It will be evident in everything he does.
The "veiling of the Persistent Presence" or, as the Church Fathers describe it, "the closing of ones eyes", isn't a one shot deal. For we all close our eyes to the Lord many times a day, do we not? It is more a prophetic disposition of any given Eternity, heaven or hell. What Jesus is highlighting here is the division between sheep and goats, the righteous and unrighteous - those who know the Lord and those who do not.
A person who knows the Lord has entered into that relationship as a result of the Spirit's Call and Revelation. Having entered into that sacred relationship he or she has become free of the sin of blasphemy of the Spirit (or one wouldn't be dancing in the Courts of the King in the first place!).
When you entered the Outer Courts, you left that sin behind.
Conversely, a person who seeks to enter Glory outside the Grace given at the Cross has denied the Work of the Spirit and, therefore, cannot be forgiven - for that person has not given into the revelatory work of the Spirit in his heart; that work being the gifting of Grace and Forgiveness in Jesus. So, in the negative sense of the word, he has blasphemed the Spirit. That's why people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. They exist outside the forgiveness of Christ which is revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Many sincere Followers pick apart their every thought and word, fearing they have committed the unforgivable sin. But the fact they are believers automatically disqualifies them from blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They shouldn't even entertain the idea. They should, however, seek to work out their salvation in fear and trembling, knowing that the Lord Almighty is a Power to be reckoned with. If the fear of having committed the unforgivable sin acts as a motivator for ones personal purity, so be it. But let not the believer be accused (from within or without) of having committed this sin.
Believers can't do that.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Matthew Study 12:12
"... is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?..."
Jesus' priorities were such that his response to human need far outweighed the consequences of broken religious protocol.
It's not that Jesus was all about breaking the traditions. He, after all, was the fulfillment of those same traditions. He was all about the business of breathing Life into those traditions - about the business of rejuvenating empty works with the Living Word.
Here we see him in a synagogue where there is a man in sore need of healing. At once his heart is stirred to heal the man - to do something to relieve the suffering he sees around him, especially in this crippled lamb. At the same time he is acutely aware that the theological praxis - the religious protocol - speaks against such an act of compassion. The good in his heart is face to face with the hard consequences of that same goodness. He has a choice to make. What is more important here? The substance or the framework? The Law or the Lover? The Sabbath or the Lord over the Sabbath?
Stretch out your hand. It was an intentional no-brainer for Jesus. Ever since the Holy Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, he had been Graced with the Call and Responsibility to proclaim the Kingdom of God in thought, word, and deed. At times it was easy. Everyone loved him. Other times - like here - he had to choose - to be intentional - to live into that which he had been called, knowing the what would happen as a result of acting out in Holy Testimony.
Of course, the man was completely restored - God is seen! Of course, the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might destroy him. Jesus knew that would happen. Yet he considered the religious repercussion of the event secondary to the restoration of a Soul.
Most of the time, we who drink New Wine, find ourselves well within with the norms of accepted Christian culture. Tradition is a needful container for the Wine - a safety net - else it would become unbalanced. But, lest we forget, he is not a tame God. The Wind blows where it will. My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. There will be times in our life when - in the Spirit of Christ - we will find ourselves in a similar position: a position which challenges us to flow in the Spirit of the New Wine, in spite of what "the right thing to do" is.
Jesus had his choice, too. And he took it.
And, when he humbly rose into the Call for which he was ordained, it not only testified to the Greater Love of the Father but, in so doing, it healed - completely restored - a precious Human Image which, as a result of his display of compassion, he eventually died for.
Jesus' priorities were such that his response to human need far outweighed the consequences of broken religious protocol.
It's not that Jesus was all about breaking the traditions. He, after all, was the fulfillment of those same traditions. He was all about the business of breathing Life into those traditions - about the business of rejuvenating empty works with the Living Word.
Here we see him in a synagogue where there is a man in sore need of healing. At once his heart is stirred to heal the man - to do something to relieve the suffering he sees around him, especially in this crippled lamb. At the same time he is acutely aware that the theological praxis - the religious protocol - speaks against such an act of compassion. The good in his heart is face to face with the hard consequences of that same goodness. He has a choice to make. What is more important here? The substance or the framework? The Law or the Lover? The Sabbath or the Lord over the Sabbath?
Stretch out your hand. It was an intentional no-brainer for Jesus. Ever since the Holy Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, he had been Graced with the Call and Responsibility to proclaim the Kingdom of God in thought, word, and deed. At times it was easy. Everyone loved him. Other times - like here - he had to choose - to be intentional - to live into that which he had been called, knowing the what would happen as a result of acting out in Holy Testimony.
Of course, the man was completely restored - God is seen! Of course, the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might destroy him. Jesus knew that would happen. Yet he considered the religious repercussion of the event secondary to the restoration of a Soul.
Most of the time, we who drink New Wine, find ourselves well within with the norms of accepted Christian culture. Tradition is a needful container for the Wine - a safety net - else it would become unbalanced. But, lest we forget, he is not a tame God. The Wind blows where it will. My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. There will be times in our life when - in the Spirit of Christ - we will find ourselves in a similar position: a position which challenges us to flow in the Spirit of the New Wine, in spite of what "the right thing to do" is.
Jesus had his choice, too. And he took it.
And, when he humbly rose into the Call for which he was ordained, it not only testified to the Greater Love of the Father but, in so doing, it healed - completely restored - a precious Human Image which, as a result of his display of compassion, he eventually died for.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Matthew Study 11:25
"... you've hidden these things from the wise and revealed them unto babes..."
In a sense, one is more apt to experience God's Grace when one is less apt to excel in one's own self-righteous worldview.
When a person approaches Grace with a predetermined bias - a "prove it" mentality, or a disposition of spiritual elite-ness - Grace gracefully slips away and waits patiently in the shadows for that person to come around. Many seek to make sense of - to discover God -through Bible reading, hymns, prayer, liturgy, etc. - in a Pharisaical spirit, seeking what these things can do for them, rather than leveling themselves under the Author's Authority.
Do we live the Life with the intent of proving our own interior logic - making sure that each piece of the theological puzzle is present, accounted for, and confirmed, making certain that everything is Kosher? Or do we come to Christ like a child, completely accepting of the fact that this thing is so much bigger than can be imagined, self-resigned to God's most mysterious ways?
Jesus is saying that the pseudo-righteousness of the Pharisees has, in itself, distanced them from the very thing they long to live for. The flute playing isn't danceable - it's too loud! And the mourning seems superficial - they're getting paid to do this! And everyone knows John ate bugs - probably demon possessed. And Jesus? All he does is hang out with sinners and drink all night! Nobody does nothing right anymore. In the Name of God, somebody bring order back to this thing... But a child doesn't have these thoughts. A child sees, a child trusts, a child believes for the sake of Belief.
Jesus isn't asking us to forsake adulthood. He's warning us of the trap of presuming ourselves to be too grown up.
Come to me. Humility is a wonderful thing. In humility the Kingdom is seen and experienced. Humility enables us to recognize the the Father, extending his desire to co-yoke himself to us. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come to me.
If I am to be co-yoked with Christ, certain headstrong principles need to be forsaken (killed?) in order for me to shoulder up to the Beast, steer my head through the hole, and become sacrificially fastened to its sturdy frame. In short, we need the same humbled acceptance which fastened Jesus to the Cross to fasten us to a similar Wood.
The Pharisees missed it. Their theological astuteness got in the way of what Jesus really was asking for: a simple, child-like faith. Trust and faith, by nature, transcend the temptation to pick "it" a part, judging whether a matter is heanvenbound or hell-bound at the first red flag it sees. This "wise and prudent" disposition has it's place to be sure (especially in an age where orthodoxy is challenged) but, if not rooted in a deeper experience of a sincere babe-like faith, it will drain us of all we have.
Thank you, Father... that you have revealed these things unto babes...
In a sense, one is more apt to experience God's Grace when one is less apt to excel in one's own self-righteous worldview.
When a person approaches Grace with a predetermined bias - a "prove it" mentality, or a disposition of spiritual elite-ness - Grace gracefully slips away and waits patiently in the shadows for that person to come around. Many seek to make sense of - to discover God -through Bible reading, hymns, prayer, liturgy, etc. - in a Pharisaical spirit, seeking what these things can do for them, rather than leveling themselves under the Author's Authority.
Do we live the Life with the intent of proving our own interior logic - making sure that each piece of the theological puzzle is present, accounted for, and confirmed, making certain that everything is Kosher? Or do we come to Christ like a child, completely accepting of the fact that this thing is so much bigger than can be imagined, self-resigned to God's most mysterious ways?
Jesus is saying that the pseudo-righteousness of the Pharisees has, in itself, distanced them from the very thing they long to live for. The flute playing isn't danceable - it's too loud! And the mourning seems superficial - they're getting paid to do this! And everyone knows John ate bugs - probably demon possessed. And Jesus? All he does is hang out with sinners and drink all night! Nobody does nothing right anymore. In the Name of God, somebody bring order back to this thing... But a child doesn't have these thoughts. A child sees, a child trusts, a child believes for the sake of Belief.
Jesus isn't asking us to forsake adulthood. He's warning us of the trap of presuming ourselves to be too grown up.
Come to me. Humility is a wonderful thing. In humility the Kingdom is seen and experienced. Humility enables us to recognize the the Father, extending his desire to co-yoke himself to us. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come to me.
If I am to be co-yoked with Christ, certain headstrong principles need to be forsaken (killed?) in order for me to shoulder up to the Beast, steer my head through the hole, and become sacrificially fastened to its sturdy frame. In short, we need the same humbled acceptance which fastened Jesus to the Cross to fasten us to a similar Wood.
The Pharisees missed it. Their theological astuteness got in the way of what Jesus really was asking for: a simple, child-like faith. Trust and faith, by nature, transcend the temptation to pick "it" a part, judging whether a matter is heanvenbound or hell-bound at the first red flag it sees. This "wise and prudent" disposition has it's place to be sure (especially in an age where orthodoxy is challenged) but, if not rooted in a deeper experience of a sincere babe-like faith, it will drain us of all we have.
Thank you, Father... that you have revealed these things unto babes...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Matthew Study 11:1
"... are you the coming one, or do we look for another?..."
John is a Shepherd of integrity. He knows the value of a person's heart, and the timidness of the lambs who have forsaken everything and followed him in all religious sincerity. They are tender, they are lost without a leader. And, now, their leader is in prison.
Things haven't gone as planned. And he needs to redirect his disciples to another Faithful Shepherd.
So he sends word to Jesus and asks, "Are you the One?"
Are you the one who I can send my sheep to? Are you faithful? WIll my sheep be cared for, fed and nurtured, under your Rod and Staff? I love my sheep. And I'm just not going to hand them over to anybody.
Jesus' reply? I am faithful. I will love your lambs - more than you can know. I will teach them how to heal the sick, how to preach to the poor and raise the dead. At night, I will love on them. I'll share with them the hidden mysteries of parables, and we will do a lot of laughing together. You can trust me with them, Jesus says. I will be their Friend.
And from John's imprisonment, after he is convinced that Jesus can be trusted to bring his lambs into Pasture, he relinquishes his life's work into the all sufficient Life of Christ.
John is a Shepherd of integrity. He knows the value of a person's heart, and the timidness of the lambs who have forsaken everything and followed him in all religious sincerity. They are tender, they are lost without a leader. And, now, their leader is in prison.
Things haven't gone as planned. And he needs to redirect his disciples to another Faithful Shepherd.
So he sends word to Jesus and asks, "Are you the One?"
Are you the one who I can send my sheep to? Are you faithful? WIll my sheep be cared for, fed and nurtured, under your Rod and Staff? I love my sheep. And I'm just not going to hand them over to anybody.
Jesus' reply? I am faithful. I will love your lambs - more than you can know. I will teach them how to heal the sick, how to preach to the poor and raise the dead. At night, I will love on them. I'll share with them the hidden mysteries of parables, and we will do a lot of laughing together. You can trust me with them, Jesus says. I will be their Friend.
And from John's imprisonment, after he is convinced that Jesus can be trusted to bring his lambs into Pasture, he relinquishes his life's work into the all sufficient Life of Christ.
Matthew Study 10:1
"... and when he had called his twelve..."
A person can be a Christian for a very long time until, one day, she is called into Discipleship.
In our pilgrimage to Heaven we experience many Conversions, Sacramental Gracing at varying times in our life. Truly the most important one, of course, is our initial Conversion to Jesus Christ, when we are able to trust his Lordship and experience is Saving Grace and Forgiveness of Sin. This happens when, by his wooing, we make the choice to follow him from our old lives and into his New Life. Therefore, if any person be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold! All things have been made new. Welcome to the Outer Courts!
Yet there are numerous "min-Conversions" along the Way as well. Following the initial Conversion of New Life the single most important "mini-Conversion" is the Conversion to Discipleship. This is a biggie. It's a radical Call that completely strips the Christian of any other priority, save that of the Agenda of God.
Some never get there - it's that big. They simply plod along in their ho-hum spirituality, believing this is the Abundant Life Jesus talked about.
Others travel along with Jesus for - in this case - 10 Chapters (perhaps seasons?) until the issues in their hearts have melted and the Master sees them fit to be called into Discipleship. And as they respond, they are immediately endowed with the same Kingdom Wherewithal as Christ himself - power over unclean spirits, sickness and all kinds of disease. Now THAT is the Abundant Life! It's what you've dreamed of. It is the releasing of the Dream for which you were initially created.
The rub is, of course, is with regard to that which is - by virtue of the Higher Call to Discipleship - left behind. With each Conversion, a little more self is circumcised, and left behind. People tend to believe they can bring the old into the New; that they can moon-walk their way into the more luminous rooms of the Tent of Meeting.
But it doesn't work that way.
The way we go about transference can be difficult or easy, depending entirely on where our heads are at. We can obsess on the potential loss of the Call that we become self-crippling and go nowhere - or, in a decisive moment of Grace-filled choice - swing around to fully face the New Horizon, with no anchors of regret. The choice is ours.
It is then when God will completely reward us, then when his Kingdom Power will finally take root in our hearts and behavior. Fear of man disappears, worry about what to say is alleviated by the spontaneous utterance of the Spirit through us, and the beams of Heaven dance across our brow for all to see. This is the Life worth leaving everything for.
Welcome to Chapter 10.
A person can be a Christian for a very long time until, one day, she is called into Discipleship.
In our pilgrimage to Heaven we experience many Conversions, Sacramental Gracing at varying times in our life. Truly the most important one, of course, is our initial Conversion to Jesus Christ, when we are able to trust his Lordship and experience is Saving Grace and Forgiveness of Sin. This happens when, by his wooing, we make the choice to follow him from our old lives and into his New Life. Therefore, if any person be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold! All things have been made new. Welcome to the Outer Courts!
Yet there are numerous "min-Conversions" along the Way as well. Following the initial Conversion of New Life the single most important "mini-Conversion" is the Conversion to Discipleship. This is a biggie. It's a radical Call that completely strips the Christian of any other priority, save that of the Agenda of God.
Some never get there - it's that big. They simply plod along in their ho-hum spirituality, believing this is the Abundant Life Jesus talked about.
Others travel along with Jesus for - in this case - 10 Chapters (perhaps seasons?) until the issues in their hearts have melted and the Master sees them fit to be called into Discipleship. And as they respond, they are immediately endowed with the same Kingdom Wherewithal as Christ himself - power over unclean spirits, sickness and all kinds of disease. Now THAT is the Abundant Life! It's what you've dreamed of. It is the releasing of the Dream for which you were initially created.
The rub is, of course, is with regard to that which is - by virtue of the Higher Call to Discipleship - left behind. With each Conversion, a little more self is circumcised, and left behind. People tend to believe they can bring the old into the New; that they can moon-walk their way into the more luminous rooms of the Tent of Meeting.
But it doesn't work that way.
The way we go about transference can be difficult or easy, depending entirely on where our heads are at. We can obsess on the potential loss of the Call that we become self-crippling and go nowhere - or, in a decisive moment of Grace-filled choice - swing around to fully face the New Horizon, with no anchors of regret. The choice is ours.
It is then when God will completely reward us, then when his Kingdom Power will finally take root in our hearts and behavior. Fear of man disappears, worry about what to say is alleviated by the spontaneous utterance of the Spirit through us, and the beams of Heaven dance across our brow for all to see. This is the Life worth leaving everything for.
Welcome to Chapter 10.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Matthew Study 9:35
"... Jesus went all about the cities and villages, teaching... preaching... and healing..."
New Wine must be taught, it must be proclaimed, and it must be experienced. To the man on the street It is a beverage so foreign (yet, if it be known, something he has longed for his whole life) that it must be explained, shared, and given opportunity to drink. The sharing of the Word - in its experiential entirety - is the sickle of God's Harvest.
Jesus never turned away anyone needing healing, regardless of the severity of sickness. People with fevers, people with demons, people paralyzed, people who were dead - the manner of illness mattered not to him. He knew the All Sufficiency of his Father would provide their healing through him. He didn't snicker at the child's "boo-boo," nor did he shy away from a dead girl. Every ill-found situation provided an opportunity for God's Image to be poured onto his Image.
This teaches us two things: It doesn't matter how big or small our need is, Jesus can be trusted with it.
Secondly, (for those of us in the business of teaching, preaching, and healing) it reminds us we need not be intimidated by the size of the prayer request - howbeit be a "boo-boo" or a terminal cancer - for we are not the One who heals. Jesus is still healing every sickness and every disease among the people; through us, disregarding our shortcomings. He seeks our availability. After that, it's all up to him.
Some of us are fearful to come out of the closet and share with others the experience of the Holy Spirit. Yet, when we allow Jesus to flow from us into Creation, Creation will recognize "It" as something they've always longed to hear. (It will be the matching of Image to Image; the marriage of his Image in them with the Image of him, through you.) And that River flowing through you will clarify the Witness to them, it will make deep and profound sense to them. As we faithfully step into his Witness the sharing, explaining, and - perhaps most importantly (and most neglected) - healing of Christ Jesus.... they will love it!
Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send our laborers into his harvest.
New Wine must be taught, it must be proclaimed, and it must be experienced. To the man on the street It is a beverage so foreign (yet, if it be known, something he has longed for his whole life) that it must be explained, shared, and given opportunity to drink. The sharing of the Word - in its experiential entirety - is the sickle of God's Harvest.
Jesus never turned away anyone needing healing, regardless of the severity of sickness. People with fevers, people with demons, people paralyzed, people who were dead - the manner of illness mattered not to him. He knew the All Sufficiency of his Father would provide their healing through him. He didn't snicker at the child's "boo-boo," nor did he shy away from a dead girl. Every ill-found situation provided an opportunity for God's Image to be poured onto his Image.
This teaches us two things: It doesn't matter how big or small our need is, Jesus can be trusted with it.
Secondly, (for those of us in the business of teaching, preaching, and healing) it reminds us we need not be intimidated by the size of the prayer request - howbeit be a "boo-boo" or a terminal cancer - for we are not the One who heals. Jesus is still healing every sickness and every disease among the people; through us, disregarding our shortcomings. He seeks our availability. After that, it's all up to him.
Some of us are fearful to come out of the closet and share with others the experience of the Holy Spirit. Yet, when we allow Jesus to flow from us into Creation, Creation will recognize "It" as something they've always longed to hear. (It will be the matching of Image to Image; the marriage of his Image in them with the Image of him, through you.) And that River flowing through you will clarify the Witness to them, it will make deep and profound sense to them. As we faithfully step into his Witness the sharing, explaining, and - perhaps most importantly (and most neglected) - healing of Christ Jesus.... they will love it!
Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send our laborers into his harvest.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Matthew Study 9:29
"... according to your faith let it be done to you..."
The fuel of our prayers is Faith. Faith is the capacity to believe, the capacity to act on that belief. It doesn't have to be an intense emotion. Many times it can simply be a choice - a choice to rise and come to him solely based on our our need or, in this case, our blindness. Sometimes exercising faith is as simple of doing the right thing.
Jesus' heart swells with love when seeing us coming to him in faith. While he regards the particulars of our intercession, he is blessed more-so with the fact that we chosen to come to him, period. This doesn't discount our need, nor its answer. (He is Lord over all our particulars and can answer them with a Word.) But, to him, our particulars run secondary to the fellowship/relationship that his gained as a result of brining our particulars to the Throne of Grace. To put it another way, to him our prayers are in the bag, a no brainer - they will be answered. Yet the intercessions themselves provide an excuse - a sacred avenue? - wherein Relationship happens.
I suppose, in this sense, it can be said that all situations are gifted for the ultimate purpose of fostering fellowship with the Jesus; the rekindling of Relational Intimacy, regrettably lost in the Garden.
Back to the story: These two blind men followed him, crying, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" They followed him into the house where he asked them, 'Do you believe I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord." Jesus often asks the petitioner a question regarding their faith. Here it is, "Do you believe I am able to do this." Another place he asks, "Do you want to be made whole?" And another, "Do you believe this?"
These questions force the petitioners to come to grasp of their true needs and their sole dependence on the Word so that, when the healing happens, it will run unforgettably deep in the psyche of their sacred history. Jesus isn't about the business of healing others based on the latest fad and impulse for self improvement. For him there needs to be an authentic cry from the heart, a desperate plea that pierces through all the superficiality - not because it's the "right thing to do" but because it's an faithful offering, a holy vulnerability, a sincere presentation of my blindness before the Light of the World.
The fuel of our prayers is Faith. Faith is the capacity to believe, the capacity to act on that belief. It doesn't have to be an intense emotion. Many times it can simply be a choice - a choice to rise and come to him solely based on our our need or, in this case, our blindness. Sometimes exercising faith is as simple of doing the right thing.
Jesus' heart swells with love when seeing us coming to him in faith. While he regards the particulars of our intercession, he is blessed more-so with the fact that we chosen to come to him, period. This doesn't discount our need, nor its answer. (He is Lord over all our particulars and can answer them with a Word.) But, to him, our particulars run secondary to the fellowship/relationship that his gained as a result of brining our particulars to the Throne of Grace. To put it another way, to him our prayers are in the bag, a no brainer - they will be answered. Yet the intercessions themselves provide an excuse - a sacred avenue? - wherein Relationship happens.
I suppose, in this sense, it can be said that all situations are gifted for the ultimate purpose of fostering fellowship with the Jesus; the rekindling of Relational Intimacy, regrettably lost in the Garden.
Back to the story: These two blind men followed him, crying, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" They followed him into the house where he asked them, 'Do you believe I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord." Jesus often asks the petitioner a question regarding their faith. Here it is, "Do you believe I am able to do this." Another place he asks, "Do you want to be made whole?" And another, "Do you believe this?"
These questions force the petitioners to come to grasp of their true needs and their sole dependence on the Word so that, when the healing happens, it will run unforgettably deep in the psyche of their sacred history. Jesus isn't about the business of healing others based on the latest fad and impulse for self improvement. For him there needs to be an authentic cry from the heart, a desperate plea that pierces through all the superficiality - not because it's the "right thing to do" but because it's an faithful offering, a holy vulnerability, a sincere presentation of my blindness before the Light of the World.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Matthew Study 9:17
"... but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.."
The life that Jesus gives is completely different than anything we've ever experienced. It is fresh, unpredictable, joyful, pure, hopeful, and purposeful. The old wine - the Old Covenant - is no longer adequate for salvation. The Righteous Standard demanded of the Law is now completely fulfilled in the One person who came in fulfillment of the Law, Jesus Christ. So, in essence, as we place our faith in Christ, we have fulfilled the Old Testament bases for salvation.
Sometimes it's difficult to take the New WIne in Christ and know exactly what to do with it. Some of us take the Life and seek to infuse it into the old system of "works of righteousness." We say, "I couldn't keep the Law before Christ but now, with the power of the Holy Spirit in me, I can keep the Law." And we fail miserably. Doing this sort of thing is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. In addition it develops a renewed spirituality based on performance (howbeit better performance) of the Law - which is the very thing Grace came to free us from. The Law, is death, says Paul.
Jesus says this New Wine is an altogether completely different animal (though the Law has now become this animal's skeletal structure). It needs a different "cage" to hold it. We are no longer under the "if/then" formulas of yesterday. The Life of the Spirit is living. He has a will, a personality, an agenda of his own. He can't be confined to the old ways. And his people are called to loose themselves from a works-based righteousness and step out into a faith-based righteousness freely given us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace that you have been saved, not of works, so that no man can boast.
This is called living in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, and being in the Spirit - unfurling your sails fully to the mysterious winds of Grace and trusting in his every move, even when others may be operating under the Old Skin. The righteous shall live by faith.
There is risk involved. If I move away from the Law, could I slide into a subjective experience of God that is un-Orthodox. Unlikely. The Law is now written in your heart, and the Spirit has become your life. If you are faithful to following the Peace of Christ ruling in your heart then you will know where God is saying yes, and when God is saying no. Salvation is Grace in Christ. And Christ is the fulfillment of the Law.
"How come your disciples don't fast?" In this passage, Jesus is asked why his disciples weren't fasting, but the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting. Jesus wasn't arguing his disciples were better than John's disciples. He was questioning their entire religious paradigm. He was saying that the New Wine doesn't always coincide with the ways of the past. This is a new life, a new way of being. Be assured, they will fast. But not now. It's not what the Spirit is doing at this time.
The life that Jesus gives is completely different than anything we've ever experienced. It is fresh, unpredictable, joyful, pure, hopeful, and purposeful. The old wine - the Old Covenant - is no longer adequate for salvation. The Righteous Standard demanded of the Law is now completely fulfilled in the One person who came in fulfillment of the Law, Jesus Christ. So, in essence, as we place our faith in Christ, we have fulfilled the Old Testament bases for salvation.
Sometimes it's difficult to take the New WIne in Christ and know exactly what to do with it. Some of us take the Life and seek to infuse it into the old system of "works of righteousness." We say, "I couldn't keep the Law before Christ but now, with the power of the Holy Spirit in me, I can keep the Law." And we fail miserably. Doing this sort of thing is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. In addition it develops a renewed spirituality based on performance (howbeit better performance) of the Law - which is the very thing Grace came to free us from. The Law, is death, says Paul.
Jesus says this New Wine is an altogether completely different animal (though the Law has now become this animal's skeletal structure). It needs a different "cage" to hold it. We are no longer under the "if/then" formulas of yesterday. The Life of the Spirit is living. He has a will, a personality, an agenda of his own. He can't be confined to the old ways. And his people are called to loose themselves from a works-based righteousness and step out into a faith-based righteousness freely given us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace that you have been saved, not of works, so that no man can boast.
This is called living in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, and being in the Spirit - unfurling your sails fully to the mysterious winds of Grace and trusting in his every move, even when others may be operating under the Old Skin. The righteous shall live by faith.
There is risk involved. If I move away from the Law, could I slide into a subjective experience of God that is un-Orthodox. Unlikely. The Law is now written in your heart, and the Spirit has become your life. If you are faithful to following the Peace of Christ ruling in your heart then you will know where God is saying yes, and when God is saying no. Salvation is Grace in Christ. And Christ is the fulfillment of the Law.
"How come your disciples don't fast?" In this passage, Jesus is asked why his disciples weren't fasting, but the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting. Jesus wasn't arguing his disciples were better than John's disciples. He was questioning their entire religious paradigm. He was saying that the New Wine doesn't always coincide with the ways of the past. This is a new life, a new way of being. Be assured, they will fast. But not now. It's not what the Spirit is doing at this time.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Matthew Study 9:10
"... many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with him..."
When we respond to Jesus' "Follow Me" and rise from our tax collector's booth to be forever covered with the dust of our Rabbi it is a two way street. Not only do we experience his eternal companionship, but he experiences - and willingly dines with - all aspects of our house.
Matthew - a scum of the earth tax collector - is called by Jesus to follow him. Jesus knows his occupation and doesn't care. He sees far beyond the social stigma of "tax collector" into the untapped Plan waiting to be birthed in the heart of his Image. The sinful friends in Matthew's living room do little to deter the Call of God in his life.
Matthew rises and, in response to the Call, invites Jesus fully into his home. Sure, it's not the most kosher home - filled with ill-gotten gain and - even worse - his other tax collector friends and sinners. But it's all he has. He has given his life to the Lord and, for better or worse, these things are a part of his life. But, the surprising thing is, Jesus is wants to be a part of Matthew's entire life - sacred and secular - for the sake of his profound love for him. He loves Matthew and that love remains unmoved for him, regardless of the others dining around the table.
Jesus loves us. He loves all of us. And, for the sake of that love, he has willingly resigned himself to all of us (hook, line, and sinker). He chooses to affiliate with the parts of us that, let's just say, have yet to be redeemed; our fellow tax collectors and sinners.
We have a tendency to hide our "friends" from Jesus. Perhaps it's shame that makes us do that. But we need not keep from him things that fall short of his glory. We need not falsify our joy, perform admirably, or live in denial of who we really are. True Life for the disciple happens as we open the doors to our homes and invite Jesus to come to dine with all of who we currently are. He has forever committed himself to us and - good and bad - seeks to dine with with us in our entirety.
Open fully. It is the only way your homes can ever be fully cleansed.
When we respond to Jesus' "Follow Me" and rise from our tax collector's booth to be forever covered with the dust of our Rabbi it is a two way street. Not only do we experience his eternal companionship, but he experiences - and willingly dines with - all aspects of our house.
Matthew - a scum of the earth tax collector - is called by Jesus to follow him. Jesus knows his occupation and doesn't care. He sees far beyond the social stigma of "tax collector" into the untapped Plan waiting to be birthed in the heart of his Image. The sinful friends in Matthew's living room do little to deter the Call of God in his life.
Matthew rises and, in response to the Call, invites Jesus fully into his home. Sure, it's not the most kosher home - filled with ill-gotten gain and - even worse - his other tax collector friends and sinners. But it's all he has. He has given his life to the Lord and, for better or worse, these things are a part of his life. But, the surprising thing is, Jesus is wants to be a part of Matthew's entire life - sacred and secular - for the sake of his profound love for him. He loves Matthew and that love remains unmoved for him, regardless of the others dining around the table.
Jesus loves us. He loves all of us. And, for the sake of that love, he has willingly resigned himself to all of us (hook, line, and sinker). He chooses to affiliate with the parts of us that, let's just say, have yet to be redeemed; our fellow tax collectors and sinners.
We have a tendency to hide our "friends" from Jesus. Perhaps it's shame that makes us do that. But we need not keep from him things that fall short of his glory. We need not falsify our joy, perform admirably, or live in denial of who we really are. True Life for the disciple happens as we open the doors to our homes and invite Jesus to come to dine with all of who we currently are. He has forever committed himself to us and - good and bad - seeks to dine with with us in our entirety.
Open fully. It is the only way your homes can ever be fully cleansed.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Matthew Study 9:7
"... and he arose and departed to his house..."
Following the commands of Jesus may cause us to abandon political correctness and rise into Kingdom Correctness.
This poor paralytic finds himself between a Rock and a hard place. Jesus is forgiving him of his sin and telling him to walk go home in the power of his healing. The religious scribes are scrutinizing the act and accusing Jesus of blaspheming God.
What does the paralyzed do when hearing the words, "Arise, take up your bed and go..."? What will he do? All eyes are on him. Does he succumb to the old wineskin of political correctness, becoming once again paralyzed ecclesiastical protocol? Or, has he become so transformed through his encounter of the Living God that he has become blissfully unaware of what others might think?
When a person chooses to rise into the obedience of the Word they are automatically affiliated with that same Word. This paralytic had a choice. He knew he would either authenticate the teachings of Jesus, or keep them hidden - though no less True - simply by his testimony. When we choose to testify, we both lend credibility to, and associate with, the Master. It's a win-win. He gets the glory, we arise to New Life.
It's a glorious combination, regardless of what others think.
There may be an opportunity for you this day to do just that - to rise in the power of the word, giving testimony to Christ - even if your witness is outside the box. That will the be hour of your decision. Will you succumb to the political routine and, in so doing, deny others from seeing a glance of your Lord? Or will your obedience follow the heels of your experience of the Living God and, tossing your mat aside, "arise and go home?"
Following the commands of Jesus may cause us to abandon political correctness and rise into Kingdom Correctness.
This poor paralytic finds himself between a Rock and a hard place. Jesus is forgiving him of his sin and telling him to walk go home in the power of his healing. The religious scribes are scrutinizing the act and accusing Jesus of blaspheming God.
What does the paralyzed do when hearing the words, "Arise, take up your bed and go..."? What will he do? All eyes are on him. Does he succumb to the old wineskin of political correctness, becoming once again paralyzed ecclesiastical protocol? Or, has he become so transformed through his encounter of the Living God that he has become blissfully unaware of what others might think?
When a person chooses to rise into the obedience of the Word they are automatically affiliated with that same Word. This paralytic had a choice. He knew he would either authenticate the teachings of Jesus, or keep them hidden - though no less True - simply by his testimony. When we choose to testify, we both lend credibility to, and associate with, the Master. It's a win-win. He gets the glory, we arise to New Life.
It's a glorious combination, regardless of what others think.
There may be an opportunity for you this day to do just that - to rise in the power of the word, giving testimony to Christ - even if your witness is outside the box. That will the be hour of your decision. Will you succumb to the political routine and, in so doing, deny others from seeing a glance of your Lord? Or will your obedience follow the heels of your experience of the Living God and, tossing your mat aside, "arise and go home?"
Matthew Study 8:32
..."go... and they went into the heard of swine..."
Our deepest and most troubling torments leave us at a single word, "Go." One Word and the darkness is overcome by the Light. One Word, and the demons flee. "Go!"
The passage is revealing. Two demon-possessed men - terrorizing all who might pass that way and personally possessed by the ruler of this world - wind up, after a single Word, completely set free.
And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.
No mention here as to how these men fell into their condition. It didn't matter to Jesus. He simply carried on with his mission: to set the captives free. Jesus doesn't become distracted with the "how and why's". His loving Goal of Redemption by-passes all that and goes for the root of the ailment. For he knows, when pigs fly, it means his children are restored to True Freedom and the right patterns of living will eventually follow.
The whole city came out to Jesus and, after they had met him, they begged him to leave their region. Some people prefer to live with their oppression. They say, "I know my demons, I like my demons. My demons are all I know and, after all, they're not hurting anybody." (Besides, let it be known, demons like humans. They are safe and make things - to the best of their toxic ability - as comfortable as they can and fool us into believing they really aren't that bad after all.) So, rather than to hear the Word that will rid them of their bondage - "Go!" - they beg him to leave their region.
The demons have fooled them into thinking there is nothing good on the other-side of the tomb.
True Freedom comes as we embrace the Word, as we press into the powerful Word that has the Kingdom Power to set us completely free. "Go!" And we rise - and rise again and again - into the Perfect Freedom in Christ, into the One who set us completely free by the power of his Word.
And that happens when pigs fly!
Our deepest and most troubling torments leave us at a single word, "Go." One Word and the darkness is overcome by the Light. One Word, and the demons flee. "Go!"
The passage is revealing. Two demon-possessed men - terrorizing all who might pass that way and personally possessed by the ruler of this world - wind up, after a single Word, completely set free.
And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.
No mention here as to how these men fell into their condition. It didn't matter to Jesus. He simply carried on with his mission: to set the captives free. Jesus doesn't become distracted with the "how and why's". His loving Goal of Redemption by-passes all that and goes for the root of the ailment. For he knows, when pigs fly, it means his children are restored to True Freedom and the right patterns of living will eventually follow.
The whole city came out to Jesus and, after they had met him, they begged him to leave their region. Some people prefer to live with their oppression. They say, "I know my demons, I like my demons. My demons are all I know and, after all, they're not hurting anybody." (Besides, let it be known, demons like humans. They are safe and make things - to the best of their toxic ability - as comfortable as they can and fool us into believing they really aren't that bad after all.) So, rather than to hear the Word that will rid them of their bondage - "Go!" - they beg him to leave their region.
The demons have fooled them into thinking there is nothing good on the other-side of the tomb.
True Freedom comes as we embrace the Word, as we press into the powerful Word that has the Kingdom Power to set us completely free. "Go!" And we rise - and rise again and again - into the Perfect Freedom in Christ, into the One who set us completely free by the power of his Word.
And that happens when pigs fly!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Matthew Study 8:24
"... suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves..."
What is it in us that keeps us waiting to awake our Jesus until we are desperate;y overwhelmed, nearly drowning amidst the storm-waves washing across our bows and into our sinking hearts?
Our self sufficiency and silly belief that we have control over any given situation has everything to do with that. We say, I've been here before, I can do it again. (True, however, this storm is different from the others, we may concede.) All the same, no need not bother the Master about this.
So the seasoned fishermen ferry on. O sure, they know all the potential risks. But, after all, they've been on this Lake many times.
Yet this tempest arises to such an extent that it's claws reach over the boundaries of their hull and saturates their safe places with the tides of the Shadows of Death. It is only then when their oars of pride drop and they awake the Lord (who has been there all along.... just waiting...) and cry out, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
Finally!
Perhaps he was sleeping with one eye open, wondering how long it would take. Perhaps he was a bit miffed - wondering why they hadn't called on him at the first sign of the oncoming tempest. Who knows? The Creator rises and rebukes both Creation and his Image in Creation. The ocean he calms. Their faith he questions.
"Why are you so fearful?" This isn't a slam against their spiritual integrity, like a, "You should have known better" statement. This is God's care for us. "My dear one, you don't have to live in fear - especially fear like this. You could have called out to me when you first got in trouble and I would have bailed you out right then and there! Why did you wait so long?"
As we continue sailing along with the Lord, let's be quick to remember that he is in the boat -there, amidst the tossing and turning, waiting and anxious to intervene - and will do so at our first cry, even when things aren't quite that bad. As a mother meets the first cry of her newborn, so does he rise to rescue us in the sudden tempests of our course. He has an unquestioning compassion for us, and is waiting patiently at the Heart of his Image in us.
Lord, give us the humility to awake you, even in our most experienced trials, with simple child-like faith. I choose to demonstrate my total dependancy upon you in all things.
What is it in us that keeps us waiting to awake our Jesus until we are desperate;y overwhelmed, nearly drowning amidst the storm-waves washing across our bows and into our sinking hearts?
Our self sufficiency and silly belief that we have control over any given situation has everything to do with that. We say, I've been here before, I can do it again. (True, however, this storm is different from the others, we may concede.) All the same, no need not bother the Master about this.
So the seasoned fishermen ferry on. O sure, they know all the potential risks. But, after all, they've been on this Lake many times.
Yet this tempest arises to such an extent that it's claws reach over the boundaries of their hull and saturates their safe places with the tides of the Shadows of Death. It is only then when their oars of pride drop and they awake the Lord (who has been there all along.... just waiting...) and cry out, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
Finally!
Perhaps he was sleeping with one eye open, wondering how long it would take. Perhaps he was a bit miffed - wondering why they hadn't called on him at the first sign of the oncoming tempest. Who knows? The Creator rises and rebukes both Creation and his Image in Creation. The ocean he calms. Their faith he questions.
"Why are you so fearful?" This isn't a slam against their spiritual integrity, like a, "You should have known better" statement. This is God's care for us. "My dear one, you don't have to live in fear - especially fear like this. You could have called out to me when you first got in trouble and I would have bailed you out right then and there! Why did you wait so long?"
As we continue sailing along with the Lord, let's be quick to remember that he is in the boat -there, amidst the tossing and turning, waiting and anxious to intervene - and will do so at our first cry, even when things aren't quite that bad. As a mother meets the first cry of her newborn, so does he rise to rescue us in the sudden tempests of our course. He has an unquestioning compassion for us, and is waiting patiently at the Heart of his Image in us.
Lord, give us the humility to awake you, even in our most experienced trials, with simple child-like faith. I choose to demonstrate my total dependancy upon you in all things.
Matthew Study 8:22
"... follow me..."
Jesus has his mission. He has his priorities. He knows what he needs to do and is about the business of aligning all shadows to meet the wheels of the Certainty of the Second Coming.
Recently I was on a plane and watched its shadow drawing closer and closer, scrambling over the trees, until both it and the plane touched wheels on the runway beneath me. That is the Certainty of God's consummation. It is an Ageless Pace which has been racing towards us for two thousand years and, by default, a pace wherein our Lord moved - and still moves today.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Some come to Christ as a Scribe, wanting to follow him for the sake of his or her own learning. It is a noble thing - to sit in the classroom of the Rabbi. But Christ is moving, he has no classroom. He can't promise the scribe anywhere to lay his head. The demands of Christ's own obedience found in Jesus cancels the idilic dreams of the young Scribe. Jesus cannot promise him a rose garden, only the thorny certainty of a Dogwood tree.
Others approach Christ as one of his own - as a disciple. We essentially tell our Lord we will be forever his - after all, we are his disciples - we have given our entire life for the Life. "So extend some grace here, Lord. Let me first go and bury my father." And - once again - the intensity of God's call of radical obedience in Jesus cancels our most noble desires. Jesus may have well said to this disciple, "This is about Me, and my radical obedience to the Father. It is about his life, and your death. You've gotten it all backwards."
The invitation to "follow me" sets a standard like none other. It is a call to clip the ties of family, friends, and personal dreams and be bound to a Cross for, none other than, Christ's sake - for his family, for his friends, and for his Personal Dream. And we, like Jesus, enter into that Following with absolutely no assurance of what life will look like on the other side of that Cross, only the assurance that there is life on the other side of that Cross - and, along with it, his promise to walk us through it to the resurrected life.
Jesus has his mission. He has his priorities. He knows what he needs to do and is about the business of aligning all shadows to meet the wheels of the Certainty of the Second Coming.
Recently I was on a plane and watched its shadow drawing closer and closer, scrambling over the trees, until both it and the plane touched wheels on the runway beneath me. That is the Certainty of God's consummation. It is an Ageless Pace which has been racing towards us for two thousand years and, by default, a pace wherein our Lord moved - and still moves today.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Some come to Christ as a Scribe, wanting to follow him for the sake of his or her own learning. It is a noble thing - to sit in the classroom of the Rabbi. But Christ is moving, he has no classroom. He can't promise the scribe anywhere to lay his head. The demands of Christ's own obedience found in Jesus cancels the idilic dreams of the young Scribe. Jesus cannot promise him a rose garden, only the thorny certainty of a Dogwood tree.
Others approach Christ as one of his own - as a disciple. We essentially tell our Lord we will be forever his - after all, we are his disciples - we have given our entire life for the Life. "So extend some grace here, Lord. Let me first go and bury my father." And - once again - the intensity of God's call of radical obedience in Jesus cancels our most noble desires. Jesus may have well said to this disciple, "This is about Me, and my radical obedience to the Father. It is about his life, and your death. You've gotten it all backwards."
The invitation to "follow me" sets a standard like none other. It is a call to clip the ties of family, friends, and personal dreams and be bound to a Cross for, none other than, Christ's sake - for his family, for his friends, and for his Personal Dream. And we, like Jesus, enter into that Following with absolutely no assurance of what life will look like on the other side of that Cross, only the assurance that there is life on the other side of that Cross - and, along with it, his promise to walk us through it to the resurrected life.
Matthew Study 8:15
"... so he touched her hand... the fever left her... and she arose and served..."
God's healing touch in our life is proclaimed through the witness of that same healing touch.
The attributes of the kingdom - salvation, healing, abundant life, and eternal security - are given that we would serve others. Plain and simple. Love one another as I have loved you. If a person receives a charism from Jesus and does nothing with it, it is good for nothing - of no more use than a person who fills a gas tank and then parks the car in a junk yard.
One may question the authenticity of the experience if one can't see the results of it.
God touches us - affiliates with our sin - and completely switches out, heart for Heart - our infirmity for his Eternity. Our fevers leave us. They have no power over us on us when defeated by the power of his Omnipotent Invasion. They are mystically magnetized into the crossbeams of Calvary and we become infused, filled, and empowered with an eschatological foretaste of heaven - where there is no longer any sickness, pain, or sorrow.
How does one respond to such a spiritual transference - darkness for Light, death for Life, clay for Gold, humanity for Deity? Is is through worship, through the offering of works from a grateful heart. This is not a personal, me and Jesus - me in the seat and thee on the Throne - kind of worship (though there is a place for that). The worship expressed by Peter's mother-in-law was tangible. It was seen and experienced. She served.
And the residue of her healing gave testimony to Christ through her service to others.
God's healing touch in our life is proclaimed through the witness of that same healing touch.
The attributes of the kingdom - salvation, healing, abundant life, and eternal security - are given that we would serve others. Plain and simple. Love one another as I have loved you. If a person receives a charism from Jesus and does nothing with it, it is good for nothing - of no more use than a person who fills a gas tank and then parks the car in a junk yard.
One may question the authenticity of the experience if one can't see the results of it.
God touches us - affiliates with our sin - and completely switches out, heart for Heart - our infirmity for his Eternity. Our fevers leave us. They have no power over us on us when defeated by the power of his Omnipotent Invasion. They are mystically magnetized into the crossbeams of Calvary and we become infused, filled, and empowered with an eschatological foretaste of heaven - where there is no longer any sickness, pain, or sorrow.
How does one respond to such a spiritual transference - darkness for Light, death for Life, clay for Gold, humanity for Deity? Is is through worship, through the offering of works from a grateful heart. This is not a personal, me and Jesus - me in the seat and thee on the Throne - kind of worship (though there is a place for that). The worship expressed by Peter's mother-in-law was tangible. It was seen and experienced. She served.
And the residue of her healing gave testimony to Christ through her service to others.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Matthew Devotion 8:5
"... a Centurion came to him, pleading with him..."
This story is sandwiched between two stories revealing Jesus as the healer and lover of all who are unclean.
In the passage above the leper was cleansed. In the passage to follow, the demonized would be set free. Jesus is no respecter of persons, status, gender, or deception. He may actually find himself more at home with the disenfranchised. As one Church Father has said, "the Love of Chris transcends all boundaries."
The encounter between the gentile centurion and the Jewish Rabbi is striking - not so much because the centurion's faith was cause for the healing of his "paralyzed" and "dreadfully tormented" servant - but for the intercessory heart of compassion he had for his servant. Jesus recognized this, for he had a heart of compassion, too, and would one day be an Eternal Intercessor his servants, too.
So the centurion leaves his formal duties as captain over 100 troops and pleads for the healing of this lone, crippled servant. Knowing the servant is too ill to plead on his own he rises to the occasion, leaves his home, finds Jesus, and pleads for simple nod. That's all it took. From that instant, his heart is renewed - joy is restored - and his faithful servant is healed.
Perhaps you, Friend, are a centurion, interceding - taking action - on behalf of one(s) who cannot move. They may not know of your activities but they will surely feel the results. You who are strong, rise up and plead for those who are weak.
Conversely, you who are paralyzed, dreadfully tormented; pray that your God will raise up a centurion, someone who will will take the reigns and plead your plight on your behalf, before the Father. Sometimes that can be our only prayer. "God, raise a centurion on my behalf!"
Even so, we know, he will - and he has - the Son of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ!
This story is sandwiched between two stories revealing Jesus as the healer and lover of all who are unclean.
In the passage above the leper was cleansed. In the passage to follow, the demonized would be set free. Jesus is no respecter of persons, status, gender, or deception. He may actually find himself more at home with the disenfranchised. As one Church Father has said, "the Love of Chris transcends all boundaries."
The encounter between the gentile centurion and the Jewish Rabbi is striking - not so much because the centurion's faith was cause for the healing of his "paralyzed" and "dreadfully tormented" servant - but for the intercessory heart of compassion he had for his servant. Jesus recognized this, for he had a heart of compassion, too, and would one day be an Eternal Intercessor his servants, too.
So the centurion leaves his formal duties as captain over 100 troops and pleads for the healing of this lone, crippled servant. Knowing the servant is too ill to plead on his own he rises to the occasion, leaves his home, finds Jesus, and pleads for simple nod. That's all it took. From that instant, his heart is renewed - joy is restored - and his faithful servant is healed.
Perhaps you, Friend, are a centurion, interceding - taking action - on behalf of one(s) who cannot move. They may not know of your activities but they will surely feel the results. You who are strong, rise up and plead for those who are weak.
Conversely, you who are paralyzed, dreadfully tormented; pray that your God will raise up a centurion, someone who will will take the reigns and plead your plight on your behalf, before the Father. Sometimes that can be our only prayer. "God, raise a centurion on my behalf!"
Even so, we know, he will - and he has - the Son of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Matthew Study 8:2
"... and behold, a leper came and worshiped him..."
To receive worship from this leper - indeed, to reach out and touch the leper - was an intentional act of a compassionate God willing to fully associate with his fallen Creation.
Praise God for the leper - the outcast of culture - who had it in him enough to know that, even in his wretchedness, he could bow before the One who had created him in his own image. Society had it's label: unclean and cursed. God had his label, too: beloved, welcomed, and blessed. How this leper knew he could come before Messiah Christ in his horrid state, no one knows. But it all came together as he fell down before him and worshiped him.
As we worship God we soon realize his absolute power to heal everything. Even our leprous nature becomes in before the Healer becomes insignificant, for the greater radiance of loosing all in the worship of Christ.
And, in that place of Divine Communion, Jesus knows. He sees. He asks. For he longs to hear our "if you are willing you can make me clean!" "I AM willing," he replies and, reaching his hand from above, he so identifies himself with our angst that be becomes one with our leprous nature. In the unconditional exchange he chooses to become our leprosy so we can be made whole and testify to his Name.
Many of us say, "I will worship God after I am properly cleansed." Or, "One day, when all is well, I will return to the Father and say 'such and such' a thing. Perhaps I'll be good enough then." Yet, in Christ, we have the Prodigal's Privilege to rise from the pig fields and come boldly to the Throne of Grace - even in our most horrid and stinky state. And, when his father saw him, he ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him!
Father, give us the humility and desperation of this leper, that you would touch us and make us whole as we wholly worship you. For you are Holy.
To receive worship from this leper - indeed, to reach out and touch the leper - was an intentional act of a compassionate God willing to fully associate with his fallen Creation.
Praise God for the leper - the outcast of culture - who had it in him enough to know that, even in his wretchedness, he could bow before the One who had created him in his own image. Society had it's label: unclean and cursed. God had his label, too: beloved, welcomed, and blessed. How this leper knew he could come before Messiah Christ in his horrid state, no one knows. But it all came together as he fell down before him and worshiped him.
As we worship God we soon realize his absolute power to heal everything. Even our leprous nature becomes in before the Healer becomes insignificant, for the greater radiance of loosing all in the worship of Christ.
And, in that place of Divine Communion, Jesus knows. He sees. He asks. For he longs to hear our "if you are willing you can make me clean!" "I AM willing," he replies and, reaching his hand from above, he so identifies himself with our angst that be becomes one with our leprous nature. In the unconditional exchange he chooses to become our leprosy so we can be made whole and testify to his Name.
Many of us say, "I will worship God after I am properly cleansed." Or, "One day, when all is well, I will return to the Father and say 'such and such' a thing. Perhaps I'll be good enough then." Yet, in Christ, we have the Prodigal's Privilege to rise from the pig fields and come boldly to the Throne of Grace - even in our most horrid and stinky state. And, when his father saw him, he ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him!
Father, give us the humility and desperation of this leper, that you would touch us and make us whole as we wholly worship you. For you are Holy.
Matthew Study 7:1
"... judge not, that you be not judged..."
It's funny how it works. But the very thing we most judge, we become.
We need to be careful in this. Obsession with the sin will bring us into the participation of that same sin, howbeit be an obsession of avoidance with the sin, or fascination with the sin. Where our heart is, there our treasure will be also.
So we need to honestly ask ourself: Who do I judge? The idolator? The thieve? The murderer? The adulterer? And when that is determined, move slowly away from that judgment, lest we incur the same judgment from our Heavenly Father towards that same sin.
Judgement on sin is solely reserved for God alone - and that, for good reason.
Jesus tells us not to judge others because he knows that, when we become the thing judged, we will invoke the Judgement of the Father for the same sin. So, in essence, our freeing of judgement towards others frees God's judgement from us. Or, to say it another way, God judges us, more/less, in the way we judge others.
Forgiveness works the same way. Scripture says, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." You see, my dear one, we become the thing we withhold, and we loose in ourselves that which we loose in others. Thus - while it sounds heretical - there is a sense wherein God's work in Creation is either stifled or nurtured by the free-will choices of that same Creation.
As Living Temples filled with the Essence of Heaven, we carry tremendous Authority. We have the power to loose and to bind, to heal, and to forgive. Let's use our authority wisely. Let us bless everybody we meet the Grace and Mercy of the One who has graced us with his unconditional mercy.
It's funny how it works. But the very thing we most judge, we become.
We need to be careful in this. Obsession with the sin will bring us into the participation of that same sin, howbeit be an obsession of avoidance with the sin, or fascination with the sin. Where our heart is, there our treasure will be also.
So we need to honestly ask ourself: Who do I judge? The idolator? The thieve? The murderer? The adulterer? And when that is determined, move slowly away from that judgment, lest we incur the same judgment from our Heavenly Father towards that same sin.
Judgement on sin is solely reserved for God alone - and that, for good reason.
Jesus tells us not to judge others because he knows that, when we become the thing judged, we will invoke the Judgement of the Father for the same sin. So, in essence, our freeing of judgement towards others frees God's judgement from us. Or, to say it another way, God judges us, more/less, in the way we judge others.
Forgiveness works the same way. Scripture says, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." You see, my dear one, we become the thing we withhold, and we loose in ourselves that which we loose in others. Thus - while it sounds heretical - there is a sense wherein God's work in Creation is either stifled or nurtured by the free-will choices of that same Creation.
As Living Temples filled with the Essence of Heaven, we carry tremendous Authority. We have the power to loose and to bind, to heal, and to forgive. Let's use our authority wisely. Let us bless everybody we meet the Grace and Mercy of the One who has graced us with his unconditional mercy.
Matthew Study 6:14
"... if you do not forgive... neither will your Father forgive you..."
An old man eased down the rickety stairs to the floor of his stone basement. Above him were numerous mobiles, each perfectly balanced and hanging delicately from the ceiling with thin silver cords. Once arriving at the workbench he opened the wooden cabinet and, running boney fingers across the gamete of color-filled bottles, found the perfect one for this particular occasion.
"Ah, here you are..." He carefully removed the bottle from the cabinet, made his way to the center of the room where an ancient stone Well stood and tipped the bottle upside-down, emptying its contents into the Well, where it poured into the blackness of its depths forever.
After a moment of satisfaction he returned the bottle to its shelf and began searching for the next next ingredient. "Aha - here you are!" He excitedly took the new bottle in his fingers and made his way over it over to a Well in the middle of the room. Yet, as he tipped this new bottle over the Well, nothing poured out. "That's odd." He tipped it again, even tapped it on its side a few times. Still nothing. Why couldn't it be poured out? Upon deeper observation he saw the precious liquid had become clogged by an old cork, stuck there in the bottleneck.
When the old man saw this his attitude of excitement and joy at once changed to frustration, anger, and righteous rage. He raised his voice at the bottle and shouted at it, his voice echoing through the house.
"I asked you to clean yourselves out but apparently you've chosen to ignore me!"
He tightened his grip and threw the bottle across the room where it smashed to smithereens across the cold, stone floor of the candle-lit workroom. The room exploded with the sound of splattering glass and the delicate mobiles, each hanging with a thin silver cord, radically skewed and tipped out of balance.
As the liquid absorbed through the cracks of the stone floor the old man returned to the cabinet, looking for another bottle that would carry out his Plan.
Forgiveness is everything in the Kingdom of God. Without vessels of forgiveness, God's hands are tied. Some would say God cannot forgive through us until he can forgive to us. Only when we release our bitterness - the bottle cloggers, if you will - is when we can both receive and pour out, his Grace.
Forgive, my brother, forgive your brother from your heart. Only then will the plans of the Well-Maker be poured through your Well, and then out to this broken world.
An old man eased down the rickety stairs to the floor of his stone basement. Above him were numerous mobiles, each perfectly balanced and hanging delicately from the ceiling with thin silver cords. Once arriving at the workbench he opened the wooden cabinet and, running boney fingers across the gamete of color-filled bottles, found the perfect one for this particular occasion.
"Ah, here you are..." He carefully removed the bottle from the cabinet, made his way to the center of the room where an ancient stone Well stood and tipped the bottle upside-down, emptying its contents into the Well, where it poured into the blackness of its depths forever.
After a moment of satisfaction he returned the bottle to its shelf and began searching for the next next ingredient. "Aha - here you are!" He excitedly took the new bottle in his fingers and made his way over it over to a Well in the middle of the room. Yet, as he tipped this new bottle over the Well, nothing poured out. "That's odd." He tipped it again, even tapped it on its side a few times. Still nothing. Why couldn't it be poured out? Upon deeper observation he saw the precious liquid had become clogged by an old cork, stuck there in the bottleneck.
When the old man saw this his attitude of excitement and joy at once changed to frustration, anger, and righteous rage. He raised his voice at the bottle and shouted at it, his voice echoing through the house.
"I asked you to clean yourselves out but apparently you've chosen to ignore me!"
He tightened his grip and threw the bottle across the room where it smashed to smithereens across the cold, stone floor of the candle-lit workroom. The room exploded with the sound of splattering glass and the delicate mobiles, each hanging with a thin silver cord, radically skewed and tipped out of balance.
As the liquid absorbed through the cracks of the stone floor the old man returned to the cabinet, looking for another bottle that would carry out his Plan.
Forgiveness is everything in the Kingdom of God. Without vessels of forgiveness, God's hands are tied. Some would say God cannot forgive through us until he can forgive to us. Only when we release our bitterness - the bottle cloggers, if you will - is when we can both receive and pour out, his Grace.
Forgive, my brother, forgive your brother from your heart. Only then will the plans of the Well-Maker be poured through your Well, and then out to this broken world.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Matthew Study 6:17
"... when you fast..."
Fasting is the intentional forsaking of fleshly passion - food, sleep, attitudes, and behavior - given as an offering, and laid out upon the altar of our hearts.
As with all Biblical disciplines, it is temporal - with the caveat that the whole of of the Christian Pilgrimage is to be considered "fasting" on some level. (For, there are elements of our world and culture from which we must continually fast, for the sake being in the Kingdom of God.)
When a person fasts his or her spirit, body, mind and soul all become victim to the discipline of the fast. As the Son can do nothing without direct interaction with the Father through the Holy Spirit, so our discipline of fasting affects our entire Being. Far more, this intentional "circumcision of the flesh" provides a spiritual clarity that could not be revealed otherwise.
Normal Christian life can be compared to a light bulb - bright, filling the room with a soft gentle, soothing glow. When a person fasts, the fuzzy non-desrcript outlines take focus and provide sharp distinctions in the shadows of turning, providing fast-bearer with laser-keen revelation, which seems to grease the Will of the Father. Hindered prayers become unhindered. Spiritual confusion is turned to clarity. And vocational lukewarmness becomes revitalized with the empowered Vision of the Call.
... when you fast.
Fasting is the intentional forsaking of fleshly passion - food, sleep, attitudes, and behavior - given as an offering, and laid out upon the altar of our hearts.
As with all Biblical disciplines, it is temporal - with the caveat that the whole of of the Christian Pilgrimage is to be considered "fasting" on some level. (For, there are elements of our world and culture from which we must continually fast, for the sake being in the Kingdom of God.)
When a person fasts his or her spirit, body, mind and soul all become victim to the discipline of the fast. As the Son can do nothing without direct interaction with the Father through the Holy Spirit, so our discipline of fasting affects our entire Being. Far more, this intentional "circumcision of the flesh" provides a spiritual clarity that could not be revealed otherwise.
Normal Christian life can be compared to a light bulb - bright, filling the room with a soft gentle, soothing glow. When a person fasts, the fuzzy non-desrcript outlines take focus and provide sharp distinctions in the shadows of turning, providing fast-bearer with laser-keen revelation, which seems to grease the Will of the Father. Hindered prayers become unhindered. Spiritual confusion is turned to clarity. And vocational lukewarmness becomes revitalized with the empowered Vision of the Call.
... when you fast.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Matthew Study 6:6
"... and when you have shut the door..."
Your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most intimate relationship you have.
Through the course of your relationship with him you will get to know him in revelatory ways that others do not, indeed cannot, know. And you will be able to entrust to him the secrets of your soul - the things you dream of, the things that pain you - freely, without any fear.
This relationship is so special - so much "one of a kind" that, in a sense, it needs to kept secret. He sees when you give, pray, or establish devotions in secret and rewards you openly. He sees everything, loves everything, and - believe it or not - he is in love with you. He really likes you!
This kind of love needs to be guarded, hidden, so very cherished that nothing can distract you from the sacredness of your union with him. During your times of prayer, meditation, revelation, and reflection everything needs to be intentionally "shut out" for the sake of who you are together. It's a Consecrated Courtship, where there is no place for phone calls, impulsive behavior, or even the needless repetition of devotional activity. He knows all that, and will take care of it all in due time. For now, in this instant, he simply longs to be with you, with no outside distraction.
Shutting the door doesn't deny, or callously write off, the problems of the world around you. It is what you must do to wholeheartedly continue your sacred relationship with Jesus. It is an intentional act of love which, in essence, says that nothing in the world is as important as the One with whom you are with.
Your relationship with Jesus Christ is the most intimate relationship you have.
Through the course of your relationship with him you will get to know him in revelatory ways that others do not, indeed cannot, know. And you will be able to entrust to him the secrets of your soul - the things you dream of, the things that pain you - freely, without any fear.
This relationship is so special - so much "one of a kind" that, in a sense, it needs to kept secret. He sees when you give, pray, or establish devotions in secret and rewards you openly. He sees everything, loves everything, and - believe it or not - he is in love with you. He really likes you!
This kind of love needs to be guarded, hidden, so very cherished that nothing can distract you from the sacredness of your union with him. During your times of prayer, meditation, revelation, and reflection everything needs to be intentionally "shut out" for the sake of who you are together. It's a Consecrated Courtship, where there is no place for phone calls, impulsive behavior, or even the needless repetition of devotional activity. He knows all that, and will take care of it all in due time. For now, in this instant, he simply longs to be with you, with no outside distraction.
Shutting the door doesn't deny, or callously write off, the problems of the world around you. It is what you must do to wholeheartedly continue your sacred relationship with Jesus. It is an intentional act of love which, in essence, says that nothing in the world is as important as the One with whom you are with.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Matthew Study 5:21
"... You have heard it said..."
The Grace found in Jesus in no way alleviates the Judgement from the Father. It only redirects it.
The OT Law was clear about it's conditions to meet the righteousness of God. We better not commit adultery, bear false witness, worship other Gods, forsake the Sabbath, and so on down the line. Violation of these God-graven commandments induce the consuming judgement of a Holy God against a Rebellious Tribe.
The NT Law of Love doesn't get us off the hook, either. Jesus kicks it up a notch, reveals the rebellion of our hearts, and says in essence, "No way can you make God happy with you. You just don't have it in you. "Whoever looks at a woman to lust..." Whoever considers telling a lie..." "Whoever wonders if the worship of another God is valid..." "Whoever secretly longs to work on the Sabbath." And so on down the line.
And yet, as we embrace him as Savior - turning all we are and entering into the Stream of Forgiveness - he does a curious thing: He clothes us with a Cloak of Perfection, thus causing us to at least appear sinless before the Throne of Judgement. Thus, as the old song reminds us, "When he looks at me, he sees not what I used to be, but he sees Jesus."
Does his undeserving Grace change, or lesson, the demands of holiness from the Holy One? Does is ease his anger towards the rebellion of Created Order? Not in the least. (Nor does it give us the freedom to sin all the more so that Grace may abound.) God's wrath is not dismissed. It is only redirected, redirected onto Jesus.
That's how much he loves you.
Followers of Jesus, embrace his Grace and spend the rest of forever thanking him for his indescribable Gift. He became you, that you may freely live in him. He was tempted, yet did not sin, so that his Grace would stealth the very issues of your heart.
So walk in fear, walk in thanksgiving; expressing that same Unmerited Favor others, as a loving act of worship for his Grace he has bestowed on you.
The Grace found in Jesus in no way alleviates the Judgement from the Father. It only redirects it.
The OT Law was clear about it's conditions to meet the righteousness of God. We better not commit adultery, bear false witness, worship other Gods, forsake the Sabbath, and so on down the line. Violation of these God-graven commandments induce the consuming judgement of a Holy God against a Rebellious Tribe.
The NT Law of Love doesn't get us off the hook, either. Jesus kicks it up a notch, reveals the rebellion of our hearts, and says in essence, "No way can you make God happy with you. You just don't have it in you. "Whoever looks at a woman to lust..." Whoever considers telling a lie..." "Whoever wonders if the worship of another God is valid..." "Whoever secretly longs to work on the Sabbath." And so on down the line.
And yet, as we embrace him as Savior - turning all we are and entering into the Stream of Forgiveness - he does a curious thing: He clothes us with a Cloak of Perfection, thus causing us to at least appear sinless before the Throne of Judgement. Thus, as the old song reminds us, "When he looks at me, he sees not what I used to be, but he sees Jesus."
Does his undeserving Grace change, or lesson, the demands of holiness from the Holy One? Does is ease his anger towards the rebellion of Created Order? Not in the least. (Nor does it give us the freedom to sin all the more so that Grace may abound.) God's wrath is not dismissed. It is only redirected, redirected onto Jesus.
That's how much he loves you.
Followers of Jesus, embrace his Grace and spend the rest of forever thanking him for his indescribable Gift. He became you, that you may freely live in him. He was tempted, yet did not sin, so that his Grace would stealth the very issues of your heart.
So walk in fear, walk in thanksgiving; expressing that same Unmerited Favor others, as a loving act of worship for his Grace he has bestowed on you.
Matthew Study 5:11
"... blessed are you when they revile you... for My sake...
One would think that, as followers of the Prince of Peace, we would be perceived as people of peace - that we would be friends over everyone, and have no enemies.
Yet our very essence, that is "Christ in us" by default, includes both peace from within and persecution from without. Though we are in this world, are are no longer of it. We are pilgrims, in a strange land. We are not of this world.
We need to reconcile this truth within ourselves or we will be forever conflicted in our identity as followers of Jesus.
You can try to be like the world but there will always come a time when the difference between you and others will be evident. When that day arises, you will have the grace and compassion to let his love pour through you. They, however, will not have that capacity. In their natural angst, they will persecute you. (And they may not be sure why.)
As you walk in the tension - that of being peacemaker and persecuted - remember you are not alone. You are surrounded by a cloud of past saints (and contemporary pilgrims) who were unmoved in the face of false accusations, rumors, and persecutions. They knew that their persecution acted as a polish, resulting in a glorious sheen on their heavenly trophies.
So they rejoiced.
So cease seeking and trying to make it all work out, presenting a euphoric inclusivity of all the cultures and families of the world, where Universalism can be embraced and all paths equally lead to the Father. That is simply untrue. Jesus Christ is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life in the Father. Affiliation with him changes everything. By our very Deified Nature, as the Body of the Living Christ, friction happens.
Friction happened with the prophets. Friction happened with the apostles, martyrs, saints. Friction even happened with Jesus. Why would anything less happen to us?
Friction is who we are.
One would think that, as followers of the Prince of Peace, we would be perceived as people of peace - that we would be friends over everyone, and have no enemies.
Yet our very essence, that is "Christ in us" by default, includes both peace from within and persecution from without. Though we are in this world, are are no longer of it. We are pilgrims, in a strange land. We are not of this world.
We need to reconcile this truth within ourselves or we will be forever conflicted in our identity as followers of Jesus.
You can try to be like the world but there will always come a time when the difference between you and others will be evident. When that day arises, you will have the grace and compassion to let his love pour through you. They, however, will not have that capacity. In their natural angst, they will persecute you. (And they may not be sure why.)
As you walk in the tension - that of being peacemaker and persecuted - remember you are not alone. You are surrounded by a cloud of past saints (and contemporary pilgrims) who were unmoved in the face of false accusations, rumors, and persecutions. They knew that their persecution acted as a polish, resulting in a glorious sheen on their heavenly trophies.
So they rejoiced.
So cease seeking and trying to make it all work out, presenting a euphoric inclusivity of all the cultures and families of the world, where Universalism can be embraced and all paths equally lead to the Father. That is simply untrue. Jesus Christ is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life in the Father. Affiliation with him changes everything. By our very Deified Nature, as the Body of the Living Christ, friction happens.
Friction happened with the prophets. Friction happened with the apostles, martyrs, saints. Friction even happened with Jesus. Why would anything less happen to us?
Friction is who we are.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Matthew Study 4:23
"... preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and disease..."
Both the words of Jesus and the words of Jesus are necessary to present a holistic witness of the Kingdom of God found in Christ.
It's easy for some to write off the miracles of Christ because they provide no logical closure. They are messy, oftentimes outside the box of our understanding. Conversely, it is easy for some to write off the words of Christ because they provide nothing more than words in a Book.
But God is a Spirit, and he is to be manifested in both spirit and truth.
Word and works always accompanied Christ's teaching on the Kingdom. Sometimes people were led to Christ because of the miracles. Other times, people were lead to the miracles because of the words. Either way, both word and works were united in presenting an authentic witness of God's love to the world.
A friend once said, "Too much word without works? You dry up. Too many works without the Word? You blow up! But both word and works? You grow up."
The ministry of Christ has been given to you. That ministry involves the expansion of the Heaven on earth. Heaven is a place of miracles. By default, our witness to the lost is to be a witness of God's love through his word, and his works.
Both the words of Jesus and the words of Jesus are necessary to present a holistic witness of the Kingdom of God found in Christ.
It's easy for some to write off the miracles of Christ because they provide no logical closure. They are messy, oftentimes outside the box of our understanding. Conversely, it is easy for some to write off the words of Christ because they provide nothing more than words in a Book.
But God is a Spirit, and he is to be manifested in both spirit and truth.
Word and works always accompanied Christ's teaching on the Kingdom. Sometimes people were led to Christ because of the miracles. Other times, people were lead to the miracles because of the words. Either way, both word and works were united in presenting an authentic witness of God's love to the world.
A friend once said, "Too much word without works? You dry up. Too many works without the Word? You blow up! But both word and works? You grow up."
The ministry of Christ has been given to you. That ministry involves the expansion of the Heaven on earth. Heaven is a place of miracles. By default, our witness to the lost is to be a witness of God's love through his word, and his works.
Matthew Study 4:22
"... and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him..."
This didn't happen just like that - the radical response to the Call, that is.
They had heard Christ's message of repentance long before this moment. The Message was spreading everywhere in that region. News about the invading Kingdom was the talk of the town. Locals talked about it in the fields, elders talked about it in their Synagogue (perhaps even preached on it), and fishermen talked about it on the same sea that one of them - after responding to the Call - would leave his boat and friends and, stepping into a deeper Invitation, walk upon its stormy surface. The Word was working in the hearts of these future disciples long before they had the opportunity to respond to it.
Timing is everything.
The initial Invitation to rise and willingly forsake everything for the sake of the Call is, to say the least, challenging. It demands us to think it all through, to carefully consider the Invitation - and it's probable implications - so that, when our time arrives, we can unashamedly rise and leave both boat and father - both material and relational - for the sake of the Gospel.
Others do that, too.
It's easy to be frustrated with the perceived procrastination of our friends and family (with regard to responding to the Gospel). We angst , "When are they going to forsake all to follow Christ?" "It's a simple decision - just say yes!" Yet, to be sure, if you are praying for them, God's is wrestling within. Find rest in knowing that, deeply and daily, your loved ones are internally engaged in a consecrated consideration concerning the sacrificial ending of their life. For them, as it was for you, that's a tough call.
One day, when they see the Rabbi walking their shore with the Invitation of the Bigger Catch, they will do so wholeheartedly, without looking back, forsaking both material and relational for the greater Life of the Call.
This didn't happen just like that - the radical response to the Call, that is.
They had heard Christ's message of repentance long before this moment. The Message was spreading everywhere in that region. News about the invading Kingdom was the talk of the town. Locals talked about it in the fields, elders talked about it in their Synagogue (perhaps even preached on it), and fishermen talked about it on the same sea that one of them - after responding to the Call - would leave his boat and friends and, stepping into a deeper Invitation, walk upon its stormy surface. The Word was working in the hearts of these future disciples long before they had the opportunity to respond to it.
Timing is everything.
The initial Invitation to rise and willingly forsake everything for the sake of the Call is, to say the least, challenging. It demands us to think it all through, to carefully consider the Invitation - and it's probable implications - so that, when our time arrives, we can unashamedly rise and leave both boat and father - both material and relational - for the sake of the Gospel.
Others do that, too.
It's easy to be frustrated with the perceived procrastination of our friends and family (with regard to responding to the Gospel). We angst , "When are they going to forsake all to follow Christ?" "It's a simple decision - just say yes!" Yet, to be sure, if you are praying for them, God's is wrestling within. Find rest in knowing that, deeply and daily, your loved ones are internally engaged in a consecrated consideration concerning the sacrificial ending of their life. For them, as it was for you, that's a tough call.
One day, when they see the Rabbi walking their shore with the Invitation of the Bigger Catch, they will do so wholeheartedly, without looking back, forsaking both material and relational for the greater Life of the Call.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Matthew Study 4:12, 15, 17
"... when he had heard that John had been put into prison... he departed to... Galilee of the Gentiles... and [said], 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand..."
There is something about death that focuses us. Suddenly we are no longer on random paths, competitors and dreamers of our own games and selfish ambitions. Death is everyone's common destiny. It's acute awareness strips us of everything. It has the power to surface what's truly Important and discard spiritual superficiality to its proper place.
Crises works like that too. We may have our Call, buried deeply within the mish-mash of daily "priorities" and activities. But such deep streams burst to the surface through immense personal, or corporate, crises. It doesn't necessarily have to be our crises, our death, or our personal catastrophe that gets the Call going. It can be the affiliation of someone else's crises.
When Jesus heard his cousin, John, had gone to prison for unabashedly living into what he really - deep down inside - believed in, it affected him in a significant way. Real Life kicked in. Excesses fell to Creation and he was clothed with the outranking priorities of the Creator. And where did the priorities of the Father bring him? To the second class, half-breeds - neither Jew nor Gentile, but those in a theological stew of mish-mash - living in Zebulun and Naphtali. The Call lead him to me. It lead him to you.
Living Real Life affects people forever.
And there he preached the same word as John preached - the same message that John had been imprisoned (and eventually would die) for, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You see, my faithful one, when those we love are forced to go to prison, the Lord raises that same Call, that same Spirit, in the hearts of those remaining behind. The Remainders are empowered by the Call lived out in others. As things once valued - things now revealed to be hinderances to the Call (though never thought as such before) - fall to the earth, within us, the greater Priority emerges.
Indeed, it is our responsibility to carry on the Call for the well-being of the Remainders.
There is something about death that focuses us. Suddenly we are no longer on random paths, competitors and dreamers of our own games and selfish ambitions. Death is everyone's common destiny. It's acute awareness strips us of everything. It has the power to surface what's truly Important and discard spiritual superficiality to its proper place.
Crises works like that too. We may have our Call, buried deeply within the mish-mash of daily "priorities" and activities. But such deep streams burst to the surface through immense personal, or corporate, crises. It doesn't necessarily have to be our crises, our death, or our personal catastrophe that gets the Call going. It can be the affiliation of someone else's crises.
When Jesus heard his cousin, John, had gone to prison for unabashedly living into what he really - deep down inside - believed in, it affected him in a significant way. Real Life kicked in. Excesses fell to Creation and he was clothed with the outranking priorities of the Creator. And where did the priorities of the Father bring him? To the second class, half-breeds - neither Jew nor Gentile, but those in a theological stew of mish-mash - living in Zebulun and Naphtali. The Call lead him to me. It lead him to you.
Living Real Life affects people forever.
And there he preached the same word as John preached - the same message that John had been imprisoned (and eventually would die) for, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You see, my faithful one, when those we love are forced to go to prison, the Lord raises that same Call, that same Spirit, in the hearts of those remaining behind. The Remainders are empowered by the Call lived out in others. As things once valued - things now revealed to be hinderances to the Call (though never thought as such before) - fall to the earth, within us, the greater Priority emerges.
Indeed, it is our responsibility to carry on the Call for the well-being of the Remainders.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Matthew Study 4:3
"... If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread..."
Did the devil say, "If - IF you are the Son of God?" But didn't God just say, "This IS my son?" And did the devil say, "Command these stones to become bread?" just after Jesus' 40 day fast, after which he was famished?
Nothing new here. Satan is always trying to undo the thing that God has done. He is also all about providing instant gratification to those in fatigue and dilemmas with "no hope." When we hear thoughts that seek to undo God's full redemption in us, or when a magic answer appears and prematurely plops itself before us in the heat of our greatest perceived need, take caution.
God's ways are peaceful. They are loving. They are timed between between the hands of grace and mercy. His provision is not provisional. His unconditional love is not conditional. God gives with no strings attached, with no hint of ulterior, hidden agenda - nor any trace of coaxing or questioning.
Jesus knew this. When he recognized that same voice of Fallen Creation in his WIlderness he decidedly engaged the battle with a proper exegesis of Holy Scripture. The devil uses Scripture, to be sure. But he twists it to his own agenda, which always includes the accusation of the Saints. But Jesus knew the Word of God. He quoted it, not himself. He knew it was/is a more powerful than any double-edged sword. In the pain, fatigue, hunger and thirst of his Wilderness Experience he knew the Word of God would maintain its spiritual anointing and authority, regardless of his own personal weakness.
And, when the Word was exalted, the devil retreated.
Did the devil say, "If - IF you are the Son of God?" But didn't God just say, "This IS my son?" And did the devil say, "Command these stones to become bread?" just after Jesus' 40 day fast, after which he was famished?
Nothing new here. Satan is always trying to undo the thing that God has done. He is also all about providing instant gratification to those in fatigue and dilemmas with "no hope." When we hear thoughts that seek to undo God's full redemption in us, or when a magic answer appears and prematurely plops itself before us in the heat of our greatest perceived need, take caution.
God's ways are peaceful. They are loving. They are timed between between the hands of grace and mercy. His provision is not provisional. His unconditional love is not conditional. God gives with no strings attached, with no hint of ulterior, hidden agenda - nor any trace of coaxing or questioning.
Jesus knew this. When he recognized that same voice of Fallen Creation in his WIlderness he decidedly engaged the battle with a proper exegesis of Holy Scripture. The devil uses Scripture, to be sure. But he twists it to his own agenda, which always includes the accusation of the Saints. But Jesus knew the Word of God. He quoted it, not himself. He knew it was/is a more powerful than any double-edged sword. In the pain, fatigue, hunger and thirst of his Wilderness Experience he knew the Word of God would maintain its spiritual anointing and authority, regardless of his own personal weakness.
And, when the Word was exalted, the devil retreated.
Matthew Study 4:1
"... Jesus was led up by the Spirit... into the wilderness... to be tempted by the devil..."
It's a curious thing that we rarely question the Spirit's leading when we are in green pastures surrounded by bubbling brooks. Yet, truth be known, the Spirit - being about the ultimate forging of the Father's character in us - leads his sheep equally into times of pasture, and times of wilderness.
As a knife finds it's sharpening potential under the spinning wheel of flint, so do we discover authentic Christlikeness within the flying sparks of the wilderness experience. Nothing comes without a struggle. And nothing fruitful comes without sacrifice and pain.
We often placate ourselves and others by dropping superficial comments such as , "O, I am in a spiritual desert now, praise God." Or, "I am ready for my personal wilderness that I may rise into my ministry." Yet, when one actually enters his or her wilderness, everything is stripped away. Happy bumper-sticker theology finds no place in the pained heart of the wilderness pilgrim.
We are are a strange mix of the divine and human, are we not - see-sawing up and down between the blue skies of "this is my son, in whom I am well pleased" and the hardened ground of "If you are the Son of God...". We are immersed in the God's love one minute and, the very next minute, find ourselves seriously entertaining the cancer of hell's adversary.
"Will I forever be so spiritually schizophrenic? What needs to happen so that my thoughts finally become his thoughts, so that, one day by his Grace, my worldview will become his Kingdomview? How in the world does that happen?"
It happens as we are led by the Spirit into our wilderness experience. It's something that we need not merely tolerate, but embrace as a Gift from God.
If you are in your wilderness experience you must know the following. First, your experience - beginning to end, its timing to its duration - has all been orchestrated by Divine Providence. The Spirit has led you here. So this is a good thing.
Secondly, you will be confronted and assaulted by the devil. He will do everything he can to talk you out of everything that God has brought you into. Don't forget your sacred history. The God who gifted you in the pasture is the God who is walking with you in the wilderness. His Word in you is a mighty weapon against the deceitfulness of your enemy. Remember, you don't have to believe everything you hear.
And, if you sense your grip loosening from the Sword, all is not lost; you will be pruned and circumcised, perhaps, (and it will pain you). But your Lord will never loosen his grip on you. The victory belongs to the Lord. He will fight for you.
After all, after all this, be encouraged in the Lord. He has plans for you. From his perspective this is your boot camp. Besides, even as we speak, his angels are rushing in to balm your wounds, bathe your weary soul, and set you firmly into you into the fulfillment of your Baptism Vows, the Spirit-filled ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a curious thing that we rarely question the Spirit's leading when we are in green pastures surrounded by bubbling brooks. Yet, truth be known, the Spirit - being about the ultimate forging of the Father's character in us - leads his sheep equally into times of pasture, and times of wilderness.
As a knife finds it's sharpening potential under the spinning wheel of flint, so do we discover authentic Christlikeness within the flying sparks of the wilderness experience. Nothing comes without a struggle. And nothing fruitful comes without sacrifice and pain.
We often placate ourselves and others by dropping superficial comments such as , "O, I am in a spiritual desert now, praise God." Or, "I am ready for my personal wilderness that I may rise into my ministry." Yet, when one actually enters his or her wilderness, everything is stripped away. Happy bumper-sticker theology finds no place in the pained heart of the wilderness pilgrim.
We are are a strange mix of the divine and human, are we not - see-sawing up and down between the blue skies of "this is my son, in whom I am well pleased" and the hardened ground of "If you are the Son of God...". We are immersed in the God's love one minute and, the very next minute, find ourselves seriously entertaining the cancer of hell's adversary.
"Will I forever be so spiritually schizophrenic? What needs to happen so that my thoughts finally become his thoughts, so that, one day by his Grace, my worldview will become his Kingdomview? How in the world does that happen?"
It happens as we are led by the Spirit into our wilderness experience. It's something that we need not merely tolerate, but embrace as a Gift from God.
If you are in your wilderness experience you must know the following. First, your experience - beginning to end, its timing to its duration - has all been orchestrated by Divine Providence. The Spirit has led you here. So this is a good thing.
Secondly, you will be confronted and assaulted by the devil. He will do everything he can to talk you out of everything that God has brought you into. Don't forget your sacred history. The God who gifted you in the pasture is the God who is walking with you in the wilderness. His Word in you is a mighty weapon against the deceitfulness of your enemy. Remember, you don't have to believe everything you hear.
And, if you sense your grip loosening from the Sword, all is not lost; you will be pruned and circumcised, perhaps, (and it will pain you). But your Lord will never loosen his grip on you. The victory belongs to the Lord. He will fight for you.
After all, after all this, be encouraged in the Lord. He has plans for you. From his perspective this is your boot camp. Besides, even as we speak, his angels are rushing in to balm your wounds, bathe your weary soul, and set you firmly into you into the fulfillment of your Baptism Vows, the Spirit-filled ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Matthew Study 3:14
"... I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me?..."
It's interesting to note that Jesus not only submitted himself to a human form, but also submitted himself to the language, customs, and [what would, from his perspective would have been] the menial religious activities of Palestine. He celebrated Passover Feasts, Pentecost Feasts, weddings, and funerals - oftentimes humbling himself to the limited liturgies designed to give glory to himself.
Transformation begins as we humble ourselves and immerse ourselves fully into the customs at hand. As Jesus ascended from his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, equipping and encouraging him in the furtherance of his Call. Likewise, as we arise from our immersion we, too, are met by the Spirit landing upon us, too, expressing the good pleasure of the Lord for our willingness to engage and transform the culture wherein he has planted us.
It's interesting to note that Jesus not only submitted himself to a human form, but also submitted himself to the language, customs, and [what would, from his perspective would have been] the menial religious activities of Palestine. He celebrated Passover Feasts, Pentecost Feasts, weddings, and funerals - oftentimes humbling himself to the limited liturgies designed to give glory to himself.
Jesus could never participate in a religious liturgy without completely transforming it into an Icon which would be forever changed to reveal the everlasting Son of God.
His baptism was no different. Though John questioned his intent, the Baptizer self-humbled himself under the hand and protocol of the Baptist. And then, in the participation of the thing, transformation happened. At the Last Supper Jesus embraced the custom of the people, yet transformed it into his own new covenant of Body and Blood. Even in his actions of washing the disciples feet, we hear - echoed from John's "You are coming to me?!" - Peter's cry, "You are going to wash my feet?!"
Jesus invested fully in the religious practices of his day, that he might give clarity to them, transforming them for all to see into Life-giving gatherings. Jesus transformed "church" - not by doing away with it's ancient rites and practices - but by simply showing up.
Transformation begins as we humble ourselves and immerse ourselves fully into the customs at hand. As Jesus ascended from his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, equipping and encouraging him in the furtherance of his Call. Likewise, as we arise from our immersion we, too, are met by the Spirit landing upon us, too, expressing the good pleasure of the Lord for our willingness to engage and transform the culture wherein he has planted us.
Matthew Study 3:3
"... Prepare the way of the Lord; Make his paths straight..."
When I was young we lived on a dirt road. Every Saturday afternoon the road grater would move deliberately up and down the road, flattening out the bumps and valleys, so they were a smooth, solid surface.
Our pathways are random. They rise high with attitudes of pride and arrogance, they sink low in willful sin and emotional distress. There are piles of stones here, and murky mud-puddles of water there. They are overgrown with vines and untrimmed hedges and, in places, have become quite darkened indeed.
"Make his paths straight..."
We may view our task with dismay. "How am I to clear this path?"
While God calls us to "make his paths straight," to lay aside the wicked devices of our hearts - to level mountains of pride or fill our hellish holes through repentence - he also provides the wherewithal to make that happen. God works with us in the straightening of our paths. He wants us to recognize Jesus at the end of the road and gives us the tools needed to bind and to loose, to forgive, to be delivered and healed.
True, we have our work cut out for us. (He may provide the shovel and the materials, but we need to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.) These are hard choices to make. But, as we seek to make his paths straight, pure, and holy, he instantaneously equips us in the doing of the thing.
We may think we can level this mountain on our own. But we can't - or bring this darkness into the light, but we can't. In his mercy, God has set both his unwavering standard of holiness and provided the Holy Spirit as the Chief Engineer in this project.
Call out to him. Share with him your intent to prepare a straight Way in your heart for the coming of your Lord, and he will help you prepare the way for the Lord.
When I was young we lived on a dirt road. Every Saturday afternoon the road grater would move deliberately up and down the road, flattening out the bumps and valleys, so they were a smooth, solid surface.
Our pathways are random. They rise high with attitudes of pride and arrogance, they sink low in willful sin and emotional distress. There are piles of stones here, and murky mud-puddles of water there. They are overgrown with vines and untrimmed hedges and, in places, have become quite darkened indeed.
"Make his paths straight..."
We may view our task with dismay. "How am I to clear this path?"
While God calls us to "make his paths straight," to lay aside the wicked devices of our hearts - to level mountains of pride or fill our hellish holes through repentence - he also provides the wherewithal to make that happen. God works with us in the straightening of our paths. He wants us to recognize Jesus at the end of the road and gives us the tools needed to bind and to loose, to forgive, to be delivered and healed.
True, we have our work cut out for us. (He may provide the shovel and the materials, but we need to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.) These are hard choices to make. But, as we seek to make his paths straight, pure, and holy, he instantaneously equips us in the doing of the thing.
We may think we can level this mountain on our own. But we can't - or bring this darkness into the light, but we can't. In his mercy, God has set both his unwavering standard of holiness and provided the Holy Spirit as the Chief Engineer in this project.
Call out to him. Share with him your intent to prepare a straight Way in your heart for the coming of your Lord, and he will help you prepare the way for the Lord.
Matthew Study 3:1
"... John the Baptist came..."
John had the spirit of Elijah. He was the word before the Word. John's ministry helped prepare others so that, when Jesus showed up, they would recognize him.
People often overlook the obvious. They need help to label things. They need others - like us - to say this is God, this is how he works, this is how he judges, this is your role in the relationship, that sort of thing. Otherwise, when the Messiah knocks, they may not know who is at the door.
Ben Sirach writes (concerning Elijah), "... You will come at the proper time, with rebukes to calm the wrath of God before it breaks forth in fury, to turn the heart of the father to the son." (Wisdom of Sirach 48:10)
Like Elijah, like John, like us...
Our jobs are to inform others that there IS a God, that he still loves them, that he is returning for them, and "these are the things you need to do" to make his path straight. Better they hear it from us before he returns, then to be blind-sighted by his fury when he returns.
John had the spirit of Elijah. He was the word before the Word. John's ministry helped prepare others so that, when Jesus showed up, they would recognize him.
People often overlook the obvious. They need help to label things. They need others - like us - to say this is God, this is how he works, this is how he judges, this is your role in the relationship, that sort of thing. Otherwise, when the Messiah knocks, they may not know who is at the door.
Ben Sirach writes (concerning Elijah), "... You will come at the proper time, with rebukes to calm the wrath of God before it breaks forth in fury, to turn the heart of the father to the son." (Wisdom of Sirach 48:10)
Like Elijah, like John, like us...
Our jobs are to inform others that there IS a God, that he still loves them, that he is returning for them, and "these are the things you need to do" to make his path straight. Better they hear it from us before he returns, then to be blind-sighted by his fury when he returns.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Matthew Study 2:13
"... Arise... flee to Egypt... stay there until I bring you word..."
Angels appear to us in dreams.
They direct us, warn us, fight for us, and open prison doors for us. They are not people who died and went to heaven. Nor are they the persona of good wishes and well intent from grieving individuals.
Angels are created beings - and there are swarms of them - most of them acutely active in the carrying out of God's plans. Sometimes they appear in a physical, human-like form. Other times, like in this case, they share God's Word through the medium of dreams. Either way, their word is as good as Gold.
"Stay there until I bring you word." This wasn't the first time God's people took refuge in Egypt. In the Old Testament, Jacob's family went to into Egypt where God provided for them during a time of drought. Here, as well and there, the pilgrims are guided with a promise. In essence, God tells the Holy Family, "Go into Egypt and wait. Settle in, use the provisions given through the gifts of the Magi. One day I will call you out of Egypt. But, for now, simply wait until I come back for you - and I will come back for you."
We often enjoy the thrill of guidance, yet find ourselves waffling in the wait. Some of us think we've become abandoned. We begin to read all sorts of things into our dilemma. Has he forgotten about me? Doesn't he understand my situation? Have I forever been exiled, never return to my green pastures again? Some of us, in our waiting, are fearful to do new things, to make new friends. We're afraid to get too rooted. After all, we think, we'll be gone fore we know it. Why waste the time?
But time is not wasted while waiting on the Lord. Besides, my dear saint, you may be waiting for a long time. OT Joseph's tribe waited 200 years before Moses brought them out of Egypt. And we have been waiting 2000 years for the glorious Call of the Trumpet.
Waiting is life.
God's timing is unlike anything else. Best to root into community as if he's never going to call us Home, and live as if the Call will come this afternoon. The only thing we, who are waiting on the Lord, really know is, "stay there until I bring you word."
So remember: He was big enough to call you In; he is big enough to call you Out. For now, keep one ear heavenward, with the other earthward, and go about your days with joy. Bloom where you are planted. Witness the Lord wherever you are and enjoy your Gift of Life, for which the Christ Child gave his Gift of Life.
One Day, when you least expect it, you will hear the Word and you will be called - and guided by his holy angels - into your Promised Nazareth.
Angels appear to us in dreams.
They direct us, warn us, fight for us, and open prison doors for us. They are not people who died and went to heaven. Nor are they the persona of good wishes and well intent from grieving individuals.
Angels are created beings - and there are swarms of them - most of them acutely active in the carrying out of God's plans. Sometimes they appear in a physical, human-like form. Other times, like in this case, they share God's Word through the medium of dreams. Either way, their word is as good as Gold.
"Stay there until I bring you word." This wasn't the first time God's people took refuge in Egypt. In the Old Testament, Jacob's family went to into Egypt where God provided for them during a time of drought. Here, as well and there, the pilgrims are guided with a promise. In essence, God tells the Holy Family, "Go into Egypt and wait. Settle in, use the provisions given through the gifts of the Magi. One day I will call you out of Egypt. But, for now, simply wait until I come back for you - and I will come back for you."
We often enjoy the thrill of guidance, yet find ourselves waffling in the wait. Some of us think we've become abandoned. We begin to read all sorts of things into our dilemma. Has he forgotten about me? Doesn't he understand my situation? Have I forever been exiled, never return to my green pastures again? Some of us, in our waiting, are fearful to do new things, to make new friends. We're afraid to get too rooted. After all, we think, we'll be gone fore we know it. Why waste the time?
But time is not wasted while waiting on the Lord. Besides, my dear saint, you may be waiting for a long time. OT Joseph's tribe waited 200 years before Moses brought them out of Egypt. And we have been waiting 2000 years for the glorious Call of the Trumpet.
Waiting is life.
God's timing is unlike anything else. Best to root into community as if he's never going to call us Home, and live as if the Call will come this afternoon. The only thing we, who are waiting on the Lord, really know is, "stay there until I bring you word."
So remember: He was big enough to call you In; he is big enough to call you Out. For now, keep one ear heavenward, with the other earthward, and go about your days with joy. Bloom where you are planted. Witness the Lord wherever you are and enjoy your Gift of Life, for which the Christ Child gave his Gift of Life.
One Day, when you least expect it, you will hear the Word and you will be called - and guided by his holy angels - into your Promised Nazareth.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Matthew Study: 2:11
"... they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him... they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh..."
The only way we can respond to the Gift of God in Jesus Christ is through the giving of gifts - our treasure, our adoration, our lives.
Like fragile clay pots, infused with such water pressure that we literally burst and diffuse the liquid in every conceivable direction, we would be hard-pressed not to return some sort of response, some impulsive reaction; a heartfelt compulsive act which longs to reflect - howbeit so meager - a thankful heart for the glorious Gift of the Christ Child, given us here, in the House of God.
The magi offered the Boy the best they had - indeed, treasures of His own Creation. Jesus came into the world surrounded by expensive gifts of gratitude and left the world, having been anointed with an alabaster jar of ointment. Jesus was enthroned - and continues to be enthroned - between the bookends of worship, sacrifice, and adoration.
And later, when the Holy Family would flee Bethlehem to safeguard the Child's life from Herod, these same gifts would provide as sustenance for their journey and nurture in their continued wanderings in Egypt. Thus, the Giver of gifts returns our gifts of worship, sacrifice, and adoration in order to provide for, and bring forth, the Will of that same Giver.
The only way we can respond to the Gift of God in Jesus Christ is through the giving of gifts - our treasure, our adoration, our lives.
Like fragile clay pots, infused with such water pressure that we literally burst and diffuse the liquid in every conceivable direction, we would be hard-pressed not to return some sort of response, some impulsive reaction; a heartfelt compulsive act which longs to reflect - howbeit so meager - a thankful heart for the glorious Gift of the Christ Child, given us here, in the House of God.
The magi offered the Boy the best they had - indeed, treasures of His own Creation. Jesus came into the world surrounded by expensive gifts of gratitude and left the world, having been anointed with an alabaster jar of ointment. Jesus was enthroned - and continues to be enthroned - between the bookends of worship, sacrifice, and adoration.
And later, when the Holy Family would flee Bethlehem to safeguard the Child's life from Herod, these same gifts would provide as sustenance for their journey and nurture in their continued wanderings in Egypt. Thus, the Giver of gifts returns our gifts of worship, sacrifice, and adoration in order to provide for, and bring forth, the Will of that same Giver.
Matthew Study 2:6
"... but you, O Bethlehem, you are not the least among the rulers of Judah... for out of you shall come a Ruler, a Shepherd for my people..."
How easy it is for us to celebrate encouraging words from the Lord when there is nothing to weep about. How believable it all is - that we are loved, that God has a plan, a purpose, that that causes us to proclaim God will never leave us or forsake us - when all is well with the world.
Later, this same Bethlehem would be ravaged but Herod's rage. His decision to move into the heart of the villages and surrounding towns and murder all children from two years old down would send up lamentations, weeping, and mourning so intensely that all forms of comfort would be outright refused.
"Out of you?" "I am not the least?" "You still have a plan?" "Your Word - still living, still active - in the heart of Ramah?"
Yes, in spite of it all, he still has a plan!
The word spoken over you in the light will carry you in the darkness. When God prophesied over the Bethlehem of your heart, do you think he didn't know the enemy would one day ravage you in its rage? You who house the "Bread of Life" (i.e. Bethlehem = house of bread), what were you thinking? You are hated by Satan. There will be times when your enemy will break into the cupboards of your being and seek to strip you of your most precious and time-honored vows, keepsakes, and treasure.
In the life over every saint there comes a "season" where - in spite of all the good things that have been spoken over you - you will refuse to be comforted. But hold firm to the Promise, my wavering saint. He has not left or forsaken you. He still loves you, he still believes in you. He is neither mocked or forgetful. Who are you to think that you are so important as to shut down God's Word, prophesied over you?
He who began a good work in you will complete it. His words to you were spoken and received in your time of light - not that you would long for the better days, or worse, use them as a standard of holiness from which you have marred. His Words breathes through you - your past, future, and present. They are given so that you would remember them, hold fast to them, and be encouraged in them here, in the weeping of your Ramah.
How easy it is for us to celebrate encouraging words from the Lord when there is nothing to weep about. How believable it all is - that we are loved, that God has a plan, a purpose, that that causes us to proclaim God will never leave us or forsake us - when all is well with the world.
Later, this same Bethlehem would be ravaged but Herod's rage. His decision to move into the heart of the villages and surrounding towns and murder all children from two years old down would send up lamentations, weeping, and mourning so intensely that all forms of comfort would be outright refused.
"Out of you?" "I am not the least?" "You still have a plan?" "Your Word - still living, still active - in the heart of Ramah?"
Yes, in spite of it all, he still has a plan!
The word spoken over you in the light will carry you in the darkness. When God prophesied over the Bethlehem of your heart, do you think he didn't know the enemy would one day ravage you in its rage? You who house the "Bread of Life" (i.e. Bethlehem = house of bread), what were you thinking? You are hated by Satan. There will be times when your enemy will break into the cupboards of your being and seek to strip you of your most precious and time-honored vows, keepsakes, and treasure.
In the life over every saint there comes a "season" where - in spite of all the good things that have been spoken over you - you will refuse to be comforted. But hold firm to the Promise, my wavering saint. He has not left or forsaken you. He still loves you, he still believes in you. He is neither mocked or forgetful. Who are you to think that you are so important as to shut down God's Word, prophesied over you?
He who began a good work in you will complete it. His words to you were spoken and received in your time of light - not that you would long for the better days, or worse, use them as a standard of holiness from which you have marred. His Words breathes through you - your past, future, and present. They are given so that you would remember them, hold fast to them, and be encouraged in them here, in the weeping of your Ramah.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Matthew Study: 2:2
"... For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him..."
Lest we think that the salvation of the planet rests solely on our shoulders, think again. God's love and concerned for those yet to repent is much greater than yours will ever be. He has seen hell, you haven't. He knows fully the costs involved, you do not. They are his sheep, not yours. He has done - and is doing - everything he can do in order to woo, coax, invite, push (?), convince, and encourage all who are outside the manger's Saving Grace into the knowledge of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses everything from secular music to personal situations that demand a rescue. Everything is fair game for the Invitation to be received. He even uses Creation.
For Creation is a most excellent evangelist!
All of creation wreaks with the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ. As Paul's shadow healed the sick, and as Jesus' crucifixion caused the ground to tremble, so does everything - especially created order - bear witness to the all the hallowed Invitation to participate in the emerging Life of God.
These wise men from the east were not jews but gentile pagans steeped in occult-like devotion to the stars and their movements. And even in that state, God's guidance was revealed to them - in their darkness. He spoke to these wise men, in their deception, and led them to Christ through their deception. Through Creation he wooed them to the Manger's Grace - a baby Boy - which was, and still is, the ultimate incarnation of God in Creation.
Why? Because he loved them more and any of could could ever imagine.
This doesn't relieve us of our responsibility to be lights to the world - to pray, to share, to administer justice, and heal the sick - aka "The Great Commission" (for, indeed, we, too, are are part of this creation which wreaks with the Invitation). But it does remind us that we are co-workers with God in the business of witnessing Christ's love to the his world. This is not entirely on our shoulders.
So take heart, you who embrace the responsibility of "saving your family", or your "spouse", or your "wayward daughter". If your heart is grieved for the lost, think of his heart. Can he do no less for those we yearn to see come to Christ?
Lest we think that the salvation of the planet rests solely on our shoulders, think again. God's love and concerned for those yet to repent is much greater than yours will ever be. He has seen hell, you haven't. He knows fully the costs involved, you do not. They are his sheep, not yours. He has done - and is doing - everything he can do in order to woo, coax, invite, push (?), convince, and encourage all who are outside the manger's Saving Grace into the knowledge of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses everything from secular music to personal situations that demand a rescue. Everything is fair game for the Invitation to be received. He even uses Creation.
For Creation is a most excellent evangelist!
All of creation wreaks with the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ. As Paul's shadow healed the sick, and as Jesus' crucifixion caused the ground to tremble, so does everything - especially created order - bear witness to the all the hallowed Invitation to participate in the emerging Life of God.
These wise men from the east were not jews but gentile pagans steeped in occult-like devotion to the stars and their movements. And even in that state, God's guidance was revealed to them - in their darkness. He spoke to these wise men, in their deception, and led them to Christ through their deception. Through Creation he wooed them to the Manger's Grace - a baby Boy - which was, and still is, the ultimate incarnation of God in Creation.
Why? Because he loved them more and any of could could ever imagine.
This doesn't relieve us of our responsibility to be lights to the world - to pray, to share, to administer justice, and heal the sick - aka "The Great Commission" (for, indeed, we, too, are are part of this creation which wreaks with the Invitation). But it does remind us that we are co-workers with God in the business of witnessing Christ's love to the his world. This is not entirely on our shoulders.
So take heart, you who embrace the responsibility of "saving your family", or your "spouse", or your "wayward daughter". If your heart is grieved for the lost, think of his heart. Can he do no less for those we yearn to see come to Christ?
Matthew Study: 1:24
"... then Joseph... did as the angel of the Lord commanded... and did not know her until..."
It's one thing to hear the Lord - especially when angelic voices are treated with suspicion - and quite another thing to move out in the obedience of that Call, regardless of what it looks like publicly.
Joseph did this. He heard the Lord, didn't understand the Lord, but - in complete obedience - decided to move into the Call. Not only that, he honored the Call in Mary. He said, "Honey, something bigger than us is happening here and I am going to respect it, honor it, and fear it. Here, let me nurture what God is doing in your life."
That sort of fear - the awesome ability of giving complete honor to the thing that God is birthing around us - is at the heart of our walk in Christ. When we come to the point of waking up each day in total adoration to the mysterious ways of God around us - and choosing to honor this ways in our life and in the life of those around us - then we have learned the secret of walking in the Spirit and blessing God's Kingdom in our midst.
It's one thing to hear the Lord - especially when angelic voices are treated with suspicion - and quite another thing to move out in the obedience of that Call, regardless of what it looks like publicly.
Joseph did this. He heard the Lord, didn't understand the Lord, but - in complete obedience - decided to move into the Call. Not only that, he honored the Call in Mary. He said, "Honey, something bigger than us is happening here and I am going to respect it, honor it, and fear it. Here, let me nurture what God is doing in your life."
That sort of fear - the awesome ability of giving complete honor to the thing that God is birthing around us - is at the heart of our walk in Christ. When we come to the point of waking up each day in total adoration to the mysterious ways of God around us - and choosing to honor this ways in our life and in the life of those around us - then we have learned the secret of walking in the Spirit and blessing God's Kingdom in our midst.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Matthew Study: 1:19
"...then Joseph... being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly..."
There is a buzz around gossip. It's a drug, gossip. There is so much "uncovering" and "revealing" of others' reputations on tv, radio, in the papers, and across the www that it would cause one to think that, if you are not involved in the latest buzz, then you don't know anything.
Christians are called to a higher standard. Like Joseph, we are called to deal with things in ways that diffuse the spirit of the world with gentleness and grace. We are called to meet uncomfortable situations - situations that would create an endorphin buzz in the community - with care, discretion, dignity, and honor.
Not entirely unlike the way God has dealt with us.
It's a choice, to be like Joseph, that is. His partner was pregnant by another man. He could have shouted it from the mountains. But he simply chose not to.
He didn't know about it then. Given time, he would. Soon after his resolve to honor the his potentially forsaken wife, he would come to learn that his partners womb had become transformed into the very throne of God.
He was protecting far more than he could have ever imagined.
There is a buzz around gossip. It's a drug, gossip. There is so much "uncovering" and "revealing" of others' reputations on tv, radio, in the papers, and across the www that it would cause one to think that, if you are not involved in the latest buzz, then you don't know anything.
Christians are called to a higher standard. Like Joseph, we are called to deal with things in ways that diffuse the spirit of the world with gentleness and grace. We are called to meet uncomfortable situations - situations that would create an endorphin buzz in the community - with care, discretion, dignity, and honor.
Not entirely unlike the way God has dealt with us.
It's a choice, to be like Joseph, that is. His partner was pregnant by another man. He could have shouted it from the mountains. But he simply chose not to.
He didn't know about it then. Given time, he would. Soon after his resolve to honor the his potentially forsaken wife, he would come to learn that his partners womb had become transformed into the very throne of God.
He was protecting far more than he could have ever imagined.
Matthew Study: 1:12
"... and after they were brought into Babylon, Jeconiah begat Shealtiel..."
It's easy to think, when you're not operating on all spiritual cylinders, God's plan simply shuts down. Some fear loosing all things spiritual when they enter into their exile experience. God is gone, they say. How can He carry on through this?
Yet, here in the genealogy of Christ, we see Jesus' family line dating all the way back to the Abraham, boring faithfully from one generation to the next - through judges, priests, and kings - through righteous, wicked, royal, and gentile people - nothing interfered with God's plans to birth forth his purposes in Jesus. He used it all.
Perhaps you yourself have found yourself in a spiritual babylon of sorts, a grayish season of exile where you wonder if he has left and forsaken you. Perhaps fear that your sacred history (or even God's future glory to be revealed) has become wasted, derailed, or permanently side-stepped because of something you did or didn't do?
Don't believe it. God's ancestry ran strong through the captivity in Babylon, and it will remain strong in your exile as well. He is much bigger than your worse sin and sees far further than your grandest dream!
Give him praise for that!
It's easy to think, when you're not operating on all spiritual cylinders, God's plan simply shuts down. Some fear loosing all things spiritual when they enter into their exile experience. God is gone, they say. How can He carry on through this?
Yet, here in the genealogy of Christ, we see Jesus' family line dating all the way back to the Abraham, boring faithfully from one generation to the next - through judges, priests, and kings - through righteous, wicked, royal, and gentile people - nothing interfered with God's plans to birth forth his purposes in Jesus. He used it all.
Perhaps you yourself have found yourself in a spiritual babylon of sorts, a grayish season of exile where you wonder if he has left and forsaken you. Perhaps fear that your sacred history (or even God's future glory to be revealed) has become wasted, derailed, or permanently side-stepped because of something you did or didn't do?
Don't believe it. God's ancestry ran strong through the captivity in Babylon, and it will remain strong in your exile as well. He is much bigger than your worse sin and sees far further than your grandest dream!
Give him praise for that!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Transcendent Body of Christ
Introduction
In this brief article I’d like to make a case that the Body of Christ 2000 years ago is the same Body of Christ today, alive and continuing in the same activities, in the Universal Church.
That sounds pretty good from the onset, as it presents a mystical transcendence from one time to another. Jesus Christ had a body. He was flesh and blood. He did many things in that body. He healed the sick. He discussed apologetics with skeptics. He evangelized the lost, encouraged the downtrodden, and blessed children, orphans, widows, and sinners. For each of these actions he used a different part of his body. He used his hands to heal the sick, his mind to interact with skeptics, his passion to evangelize, works of service to encourage the downtrodden, his feet to go from village after village proclaiming the Good News.
In everything he did he used his Body. That was 2000 years ago. Now he turns to us, followers of the Way, and says, “You are my Body.” Fair enough, that sounds quite wonderful and remarkable. We are the Body of Christ. And our activities prove it. We are each given spiritual gifts that correspond with the continuous action of Jesus through the ages. Some of us are healers. We are his hands. Some of us are debaters of the Truth. We are his mind. Some of us find our place in the street helping prostitutes break free from the yoke of slavery. We are his works of service. And so on down the line.
Through us the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ has continued through the ages. Jesus is still doing the same things as before – still experiencing the same blessing, persecution, and death – and it is still being played out in his Body; with one exception: his Body looks different than it did back then. It’s been diffused through time and geography. He is still doing the work that the Father has told him to do – no more/no less. The difference, however, is that we are the present day body wherein he is doing all these things.
Is Christ still teaching? Yes. And how does he teach? Through his Body. And who is his Body? You and I. Is Christ still restoring? Yes. And how does he restore? Through his Body. And who is his Body. You and I. And so on with every ministry of Christ.
I would dare to suggest that the life of Christ is a continuous stream of activities performed through his Body. Whether those acts are performed in the Body of 2010 or in the Body of 30AD make little difference. The accumulative work of the Father is altogether made complete in both the Christ and the Body of Christ through the ages. All work is Christ’s work. All Christ’s work is connected – from past to present and back to present – indeed, perhaps into the future. It makes little difference if the water of a certain river flows from this tributary or that tributary. For, at the end of the Day, it is seen as One River – many streams united by a common lake far below.
So as we take the first corner of this paper this is what I am proposing: From the time of Jesus, and right up through the ages, God has been dong his work through the Body of Christ. It has been the same work of redemption all along – a continuation of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. This makes us “partakers” in Christ. It is an interesting observation that, as the Body of Jesus is mystically made manifest in the Church today, so is the Church today mystically made manifest in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ 2000 years afore-hand. We are in him and he is in us. We are both a reflection of the life, death and resurrection of Christ and a PARTAKER in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.. He in us and us in him..
Take a bit of time now and let that sink in. Follow the time line backwards and forwards and see little difference (perhaps no difference) between the Body of Christ, working out the Father’s Will, through the ages and the actual Body of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It is one – both forward and backward, united mystically as One in the Holy Spirit.
Biblical Oneness
There is a strong sense of identification with the life of Christ in the life of a disciple. Scripture reminds us that we die in Christ – as Christ died – and have been made alive in Christ – as Christ was resurrection. Paul writes, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:10-11
There is a oneness here. It’s so much more than a pipedream, or a nice thought. No, Paul is saying (and says it elsewhere much more eloquently) that we are dead in Christ and raised to life in Christ. He might as well be saying, “You, being a part of his Body today, were a part of his Body back then. When he healed the sick, you healed the sick. When he taught in the synagogues, you taught in the synagogues. When he blessed children and had compassion on the sinner, you blessed children and had compassion on the sinner. And – let’s kick it up a notch – when he died, you died. When he was raised to life, you, my brothers and sisters, we raised to life.
Hear how the Apostle Peter fleshes it out, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” 1 Peter 4:12-14
And, again, Paul. “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows” 2 Corinthians 1:5. And also, “…but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel…” 2 Timothy 1:8
This is more than just a quaint affiliation with an event that we can look to as a model for our current situation (though, at the least, it is that). It is a pronunciation that this is who we are as the Body of Christ. We die because Christ died; because we hung with Christ, we participated in the sufferings of Christ, on the Cross. And we live because Christ lived. When he walked out of the hallowed tomb that misty morning, we walked out of that hallowed tomb that misty morning. We were as much there, as he was; as he is, here as us. Oh the magnificent mystery of the timeless, transcendent, Body of Christ!
Pastoral Implications
With the above being held true and recognized in the life of the Church, situations warranting pastoral guidance can be prophetically infused and linked with similar situations in the Life of Christ. We will first look at the practical implications and then move into more of the mystical connections.
When listening to a person describe their current life situation a sensitive listener will be scanning what s/he knows of the life of Jesus, looking for where this person’s particular challenge is found in the Gospel Narrative. In the case of a person who is on the edge of death, yet does not want to leave her beloved family behind – but, all the same, knows the flow of her life is speaking contrary to her desire – a link to Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane may best articulate her situation. Christ, too, prayed, “Not my will, but your will oh Father.” He, too, didn’t want to release himself to the Plan. But when he did, he was given grace in the Hanging. That is called a Prophetic Linking; a transcendent communion with the One who is also experiencing the same pain (perhaps at that same transcendent moment?). In this way, the one on the edge of death on her sick bed becomes co-yoked with the One who is also on the edge of death hovering over a rock in the garden and, thus, finds comfort and grace. Only then does the yoke become easy, and the burden light.
I’ve mentioned that the mystical life finds a fluid continuity between the Life of Jesus and the Body of Christ. We are One in the same, he in us and we in him. Thus, in the example above, Jesus – in praying for himself – is praying for the dying woman, since she is a part of his Body. She, too, in her linkage to Jesus becomes a mystical participant in the Garden. His prayers have become her prayers; her prayers have become one and the same with his prayers. Both pray the same prayer and are encouraged by the same.
Whether it can be said that the identification with the two praying people are so intertwined that one could not happen without the other… Well, it is here that we are stepping into the portals of mystery which demand a most humbled sensitivity. For, the above being true – and with the knowledge that the Universal Church is a living transcendent member of Christ’s Body – a glorious integration where all of us are in him healing the sick, cleansing the temple, and rising from the dead; how else could it be but that, in the Garden, we are present with Christ, and perhaps encouraging the Christ through a common strength?
A Similar Pastoral Transcendence
Akin to the alignment of a person's life experience with the Life of Christ is the Spirit's power to overlap one's experience with a text within the Scriptures. This varies from the puristic transendence as the Body of Christ into the Body of the Christ of Palestine - yet it is just as effective as both an incarnational and healing moment.
For example, in the case of a person who comes to you confessing a sin, a spiritually discerning pastor may reflect,"Where in the Scripture is there something similar to this man's situation and how did our Lord respond to it? In the case of a person who has ad an affair and is now confessing the error of his heart and behavior, one is drawn to the text in the Gospel where a half-clothed woman was "caught in the act" and thrown on the ground before the One who knew no sin. In Pastoral Transcendence, the person who now confesses his or her crime has now become that woman - tossed before you (as Christ's Body) onto the dusty lane in Palestine's blazing summer heat. What do you do? The sinned is pleading mercy before the Sinless in you. Well, what did Jesus do? Do that. When you do it becomes a healing, pastoral transcendence - not because you were clever and brought to life a section of Scripture which speaks into the situation at hand, but because, through the transcendent power of the Spirit, this sinner has become the adulterous and the Forgiver in you has sent her away, marveling after having experienced such a severe mercy from the eternal Word of God.
In a similar case, one becomes aware of starving men, woman, and children living on a garbage dump in Juarez, Mexico. As your group studies Scripture the Spirit brings alive the text that says, "When you have a feast, don't invite those who can repay, invite those who cannot." So you mount a team and go to the dump to feed the poor. The miracle of multiplication of ham and tortilla's is a direct link to the multiplication of bread found in the Biblical Text. This event has set you both at a dump in Juarez and on a hillside in Galilee. And, to be sure, Jesus is multiplying; both times, both places - and perhaps in future places as well, though in our human condition, we perceive it not.
Suffering
If we are integrated – prophetically linked – with the Life of Christ; how much more are we in the death of Christ! As he hangs, we hang. Through the power of the Ageless Spirit, we die when he died. We rise in his resurrection.
Some of us carry stigmata – the oftentimes blood-laden wounds of the Christ’s Passion in our own bodies. As he suffered, we are suffering. Some of us are angry – rage-filled and deeply grieved – at the hypocrisy of the Church. As he raged in the Temple, throwing down kiosks and religious profiteers, we also are sickened. Regardless of who we are, each has a place in the Ever-Living Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Portal
And how does one come to transcendence in Life? For a life that is unidentified with the Life of Christ is no life at all. How am I to become spiritually integrated with his Life?
We understand that all life begins at the Cross. The Cross is the Fountain Head. The Cross is where his Blood flows, forgives, and fulfills us. But the Cross is a certain death. It is a place we willingly hang where our agendas, our hopes, our childhood dreams are violently surrendered – no, not strong enough – are violently executed. It is the sacrificial surrender to the Fathers will, for the salvation of the world around us, which comes only from peering into the portal of the empty tomb and letting your pupils dilate in the darkness until your eyes make out the shadowy outline of the Passion.
Many seek to bypass the power of the resurrection to get to the sacrifice. But a faith that lies solely in death will breed death. Others seek the tomb only, saturating themselves in a experiential and oftentimes selfish spirituality. This leads to a cheap grace mentality and produces an anemic faith which understands little of the bleeding heart of the Gospel.
The portal is both Cross and Resurrection. Life begins by embracing the Cross as made accessible by the reality of resurrection of Christ.
Summary
I have suggested that Christ's Body is our body and our Body is his Body - even in the most "out of the box" extremes. As we are adopted into the Body as sons and daughters of God through redemption we then become "family." "Family" is too light a term for what I'm suggesting here. I'm thinking more of an exact Oneness. As Jesus is one with the Father, we are one with Christ - not in a nice neat way, but in a way that is essentially the same being with Christ.
This in no way butts heads up against the exclusivity of Christ and his forever role in the Trinity as the Only Begotten Son of the Father. That is the one part that we can never sync up with. However, we are so included in him, and he in us, that one might argue we are at one with his Person, and not his Being.
I also maintain that the life and work of Jesus Christ is an ongoing activity up through the ages and right into our age. Christ is still healing, still redeeming, still sacrificing, still blessing. And, since we are his Body, and he uses his Body to further the work of the Kingdom, then that is what we are doing as well. Christ in us today; us in Christ yesterday.
When a discerning pastor integrates a crises into the Heart of the Gospel - whether it be in the Life of Christ or a situation of a Christly Encounter, true transcendence occurs wherein past and present prophetically snap into a healing, hoping, and restoring reality. All life can be integrated into the life of Christ because, at any given moment, eternal now-ness forever nurtures the sould of the brokenhearted.
Finally, transcendence rocks back and forth, like a wave in a chamber, through time and space. Through the unifying linking of the Holy Spirit, we are sometimes co-yoked with the Palestinian Christ, as he is sometimes yoked with the local the fellowship of the faithful. One day we will realize that there is no difference between the two extremes. It is all integrated as One event, forever present, in the unfathomable mystery of I AM.
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