How to Get Empty, or Full

This weekend I preached from Mark 16:1-8, about the empty tomb, and the state of mind of the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, women who were so "shocked ...trembling ...bewildered...frightened" that they couldn't tell anyone, at first, what they had seen.  I compared that to how unstoppable all the disciples of Jesus were, after they had seen the risen Lord and were absolutely sure of his resurrection and filled with the Holy Spirit.  The early church was unstoppable because the people were full of their Savior, and empty of anything else.  Then I challenged everyone to ask God to help them surrender whatever was making them feel empty, or not letting them be emptied of their burdens.  But how do you surrender all that?  Here are a few tools.

1.  Confess it to someone else and ask him or her to pray with you.  James 5:16 tells us "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."  Sin and doubt only have power over you if you keep them secret.  When a loving brother or sister in Christ is praying with you, and encouraging you in times of weakness, the power of the old habit will be broken.  (Simply asking someone to "pray for me" isn't going to get very far, though, because that's still not admitting that you're not perfect, is it?  You'll probably have to get pretty specific.) 

2.  Ask God for clarity on why this doubt, sin, worry, unforgiveness -- or whatever -- has persisted.  (Your prayer partner may be of help here.)  Sometimes we find a false validation of our existence by holding on to anger at someone who has hurt us in the past.  Sometimes we don't want to let go of control because we don't see how much God has provided for us, so we don't trust him to continue to work out the problems in our lives (you know, those problems you can't resolve anyway...).  Clarity helps us let go.   

3.  Forgive other people, and yourself.  Sometimes I "kick myself around the block" because of something I said or did forty years ago -- and God forgave it, in Christ, long ago!  I can't go back and make it right, and I now have a loving relationship with the other person, so what's the point?  And God has forgiven the other person, so as Paul writes, "Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others" (Col. 3:13). Forgiving is a daily, sometimes a moment-by-moment choice, to release the other person to God, who alone can heal and help them; and it frees us to live in God's love. 

4.  Accept God's forgiveness and peace.  This is a form of surrender too.  It includes all the above, plus a deliberate decision to believe that what God has said and done for us is absolutely true, which means all our ideas to the contrary are false.  It can help to keep a list of scriptures that remind you who you truly are in Christ, such as John 1:12, 2 Cor 5:17-19, Eph. 2:10, Eph. 4:24, Col. 1:22, Col. 3:3, 1 Thess. 1:4, 1 Pet. 2:9-10, 1 John 5:18 etc. 

If you're struggling with doubt, fear or any other sin, try using these tools -- with all your might -- for 30 days and see what difference God's power makes.   And let me know how it goes.  I'll be praying for you!

The Whole Story, Briefly

The last several weeks, during the Advent and Christmas seasons, I've tried to show from scripture who God is and how he has chosen to relate to us humans.  To begin 2012, I'm writing the same things in summary, with a few supporting scriptures (you can click on the reference to read the scripture online, or look it up yourself):

1.  It was God's purpose from the first, as part of creation itself, to adopt humanity into a relationship of closeness and love (Eph. 1:3-6).  His plan is to be with us forever in a life of never-ending joy (Rev. 21:1-4).  Why?  Because God is love (1 John 4:8) and so he loves us now (John 17:23) as he has from the first.

2.  God's plan for humanity included, from the beginning, a way to bring us imperfect humans into his embrace. (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 7:14, Isa. 9:6-7, Isa. 11, Isa. 53, etc). The nation of Israel set up a 'vocabulary of salvation' with sacrifices, a priesthood, and so forth, to prepare us for the Messiah.

3.  The eternal Son of God was born into human flesh as Jesus (Matthew 1, Luke 1, Luke 2, John 1:1-18, John 4:21-26, etc).  His purpose was to fulfill the Father's plan, (John 4:31-34, John 5:35-40) and he was successful (John 17:1-8, John 19:30).  He brought everything to God in a relationship of peace (Col. 1:19-20) including you and me!  The work of Jesus Christ, in his life and on the cross and in his resurrection, has already removed all sin.  There is no longer anything standing between you and God! 

4.  The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, has the task of inviting us into the loving embrace of the Father (John 16:8-15) and he continues to draw people to believe (Acts 16:13-15).

So where does that leave you, dear reader?  To believe and accept what is already true about you, according to the word of God, and respond to him in that belief.  Our lives now, yours and mine, are about giving glory to the God who has loved us this much (Eph 2:10) and living a life of love (Eph. 5:2) as our response to him.  And if you haven't yet believed that, isn't the start of a new year a good time to begin?

Understanding God: Pictures from the Old Testament: Joshua

Last time we looked at a little of the life of Moses who led Israel out of Egypt.  Now we move on to Joshua, who was Moses' assistant for so many years.  Joshua's job was to lead the group out of their wanderings in the wilderness for so many years, into the Land of Promise.  He had already seen the land once, as one of the twelve spies (Numbers 13:16) sent to look the place over, and along with Caleb was one of the only ones to have faith that God would help them conquer the land.

Joshua was a man of faith, a strong leader and had a large part in setting up the nation of Israel in their now-historical home.  But in Joshua chapter 1, God felt it necessary to tell him that, just like Moses, God would be with Joshua all his life.  "No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you." (verse 5).  Three times (verses 6, 7 and 9) God says "Be strong and courageous" and finishes with "the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

There are a lot of famous exploits in this book of history, including crossing the Jordan river in its spring floods stage (chapter 3) the fall of Jericho (chapter 6) and the long day (chapter 10).  All that served to help establish Israel in the land, so that many years later, Messiah would be born in the land and complete the true salvation of all people.  Moses led Israel out of Egypt, but Joshua (Yeshua in Hebrew) led them into peace.  The Son of God born as a human, whom we Westerners know as Jesus has the same name in Hebrew; it's just the change to English that makes his name sound different.  Joshua was born in captivity in Egypt, and walked into freedom in the Land of Promise, just as Jesus was born into human flesh and sinful nature, yet without sin, and leads us now into eternal life. 

The historical book of Joshua ends in chapter 24 with the scene where Joshua gathers the Israelite leaders, rehearses their history, and reminds them that they are now in a land of plenty with cities and orchards and vineyards they didn't create themselves (verse 13); a picture of salvation given us as a free gift of God's grace in Jesus Christ.  Then Joshua finishes with these ringing words in verse 15: "Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."

Jesus, of course, is the only one to ever "serve the Lord" perfectly.  And by his perfect life, his death on the cross that was in our place, and his resurrection to eternal life, he has led us into the true "land of promise" with God, forever (see Colossians 1:13-14, Ephesians 1).  Let's live every day in that glorious truth!

Understanding God: Pictures from the Old Testament

We come back today to our intermittent series of people from the Hebrew Scriptures, known to Christians as the Old Testament, whose lives picture our salvation in Christ in some obvious or hidden way.  Sometimes it's a parallel, sometimes a contrast, sometimes both in one.

Today we discuss Moses, who is recognized as having founded the nation of Israel.  Modern Jews trace their heritage from the defining moment of the Exodus, when Moses led Israel out of Egypt, just as Christians trace their beginnings from the incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  What might be revealed in the story of Moses as pictures of Christ?  Here are a few examples:

• Both were born into a life of oppression: Moses into slavery (Ex. 1:8-14, 2:1-10) the Son of God into human flesh (John 1:14, Phil. 2:1-11). 
• Both had to be rescued from a king who murdered children (Ex. 2:1-10, Matthew 2:13-23)
• Moses led his people out of Pharaoh's oppression, (Ex. 12:37-42) Jesus out from under Satan and sin (John 12:30-32)
• At God's direction, Moses helped create a nation as the people of God, united under their 12 tribes and the covenant of law (Ex. 19:1-8, 20:1-20); Jesus created a new people united by grace, not race; not by law but by God's forgiveness (Gal. 2). 

There's a contrast, also, in John 1:17:  "For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ." The phrase "unfailing love and faithfulness," also translated "grace and truth," comes directly out of Ex. 34:6, in which God is describing himself to Moses:  "The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, 'Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.'"  Just as God reveals himself to Moses in these words, Jesus reveals God to us in his entire life: "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."  (John 1:18). 

The whole Old Testament is filled with pictures of the salvation offered to every person on earth through Jesus Christ. Moses is just one more of those.  What else is in Moses' life that is revealed in Christ to be a picture of future grace?  Who else do you see in the Hebrew scriptures as they anticipate the Savior?  Let's find another one for next time.  

Having it All

Our tortoise-shell cat, Susie, has a food problem.  Everything in her life is about food, or so it seems.  She runs into the kitchen every time we get a glass of water, and begs for food.  You can tell she's begging because she's yowling at us and trying to get up on the counter to see if there's something there for her.  The Lovely Joanne says we should send Susie as a contestant on that new food show, "America's Gut Talent". 

Jesus has better ideas for us as his brothers and sisters than to be ruled by our physical desires.  In Matthew 5, he starts to reveal to us the true heart of God. He tells us not just to avoid murder, divorce and adultery, and not to exact revenge -- even if it's legally available to us -- but to think as the Father thinks, sending out love, grace and forgiveness.  Those are not human motivations.  Our natural drive is self-protection, self-determination, and making sure we'll have enough, even if someone else doesn't.  But Jesus continues, in chapter 6, telling us not to pretend to be righteous in front of others as a way of getting ahead (in our giving, verses 1-4, prayer, verses 5-15, and fasting, verses 16-18).  And he wraps up his teaching of all these different ideas in verses 19-34 by reminding us that our true security comes from God:  "Store your treasures in heaven...You cannot serve both God and money...That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear...These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs."  The only way we can 'have it all' is by trusting in that security!

We can't follow that teaching by simply trying to or determining to; it comes from God within us, from Jesus living in us and we in him (John 15:4, 17:21-23) through the Person of the Holy Spirit in us (John 14:16-18).  Our new life in Christ, as we have been renewed by the Holy Spirit, brings us to understand and follow Jesus' mind in us, which is a mind of giving, not of self-protection, anger and revenge (as he taught in Matthew 5 and 6). 

So if we find ourselves filled with selfish motivations, anger at others, and thoughts of getting ahead or getting even, we can be sure we are off-track, not paying attention to the mind of Jesus in us.  When we awake and realize we've been running in that selfish human way again, we have to sacrifice our own self-will and surrender again to the Holy Spirit's work in us, letting the peace of God rule in our thoughts and emotions (Romans 15:13, Phil. 4:6-8).  Susie the Cat doesn't have any hope of changing her ideas -- but we can live new lives, 'having it all' in the security of our place in Christ and the love of the Father through the Spirit. 

Being Still and Reflecting Jesus

Part of chronic work-ism (or in Christian circles, works-ism) is that we believe it's our effort and accomplishments that make us valuable and loved.  We want to make sure it all looks good, and that others will agree with us that this is obviously the way life is supposed to look, and we measure our success and our own actual worth by whether life goes according to our master plan.  But there's always something that doesn't line up with our rules for the world, so there goes the game. I confess that I'm one of those worker bees who tries to make it all come out, ignoring the lessons of the last 50-plus years when hard work didn't make it come out at all.

Once again I am brought up short by scripture, and helped by The Amazing Joanne to see wisdom.  The other evening, she was drawn by the voice of the Holy Spirit to look at the lights reflected across a quiet river.  The still waters made the lights shine almost as well from the water's surface as they did from the air above.  Except where there was a drain of some kind, pouring water into the river and roiling the surface -- in that spot, one could hardly tell there were lights above at all.  The turbulence completely ruined the reflection. "See there," the Lord said to her, "how the peaceful water best reflects the light?  That's how you best reflect me!"

Jesus said we are to be the light of the world in Matthew 5:14-16, but that we should be careful to let our light shine, not to hide it.  Our light as Christ-followers, of course, is from him, not from our own innards.  If our lives are turbulent through striving, impatience or any other form of trying to force the issue, the light we reflect won't be true to the Lord's light in us. 


In James 1:19-21, the apostle says that our strivings, anger, impatience and the sin in our lives don't help the cause of God:  "Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires" is his core thought in verse 20.

Psalm 46 starts off talking about the Lord being our refuge, no matter how troubled life is.  Verse 10 is the climax:  “Be still, and know that I am God!  I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”  The Hebrew translated "be still" is referring to a peace that is beyond silence; it is a surrender to the will of God.  So for us to reflect Jesus' light, like Joanne saw the river water reflect the lights at night, wouldn't it make sense that we too should be 'still' and surrendered?  Then our lives would more truly reflect the light of Christ, "throughout the world."  

Instead of trying harder, how about trying less? 

Truly Human

It's a new year. Some of us have decided to exercise more, be kinder to others, give more, spend less, save more, and in general, be nominated for sainthood and the Nobel Prize.  Today being January 4, most of those resolutions have already been broken, and we're no closer to working ourselves into sainthood than ever! 

Here's a single resolution that could cut through all the other noise and clutter:  surrender to God. 

That's right, drop all the pretense (it doesn't fool anybody), the self-driven effort (it won't get you any higher than your own bootstraps) and the hopeless struggle against your faults.  Neither of us, you nor I, can create a better human than we already are.  Only God can do that, and in Christ, he has already done it.  Jesus was the first real human, living as the kind of human God created us to be in the first place. And if we surrender -- give up and ask Jesus to think and speak and act for us, through us -- we are on the road to being truly human too.

Paul tells us in Colossians 1:27-28 "The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message...We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less."  The essence of maturity, Paul says, is simply to let Christ be Christ, in us.  And in Psalm 46:10 God is telling us, in the context of war and external threats, "Stop [your fighting]—and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth." 

No matter what battle we face, victory is found in surrender -- to God, who is Christ-in-us, the only true human.  Surrendering to him, every day in every way, is the solution to all the resolutions.

Face to Face (part 5)

My friend Jack read one of these posts and said something like "so if you want to see God, why not look in the mirror?"  I thought he was being funny, because he has a wacky sense of humor, and sometimes he thinks he's God, but he was serious.  "Hey, we're supposed to be made in the image of God, so shouldn't you see peace, patience, love and all those things, in the mirror?"  Hmmm... Well, what if he's right?

After all, Genesis 1:26 starts off with  "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."  So how are we made in God's image and likeness?  From all I've studied, it's by being relational persons, and having the ability to make decisions.  (Certainly not from being approximately the same size and shape as God!)  So indeed, Jack could be right -- if we are made in the image of God, then the "peace, patience, love and all those things" that are aspects of God's character should show up in us. 

Except, well, our first parents messed things up. Their minds and lives became filled with anxiety, impatience, hatred and a lot of other negative selfish traits, instead of the good ones.  We've all ended up following them, down through the generations. Except for Jesus.  Paul explains in Romans 5:12 "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned." But Paul continues by explaining God didn't leave us in death, comparing Adam with Jesus in several different ways.  Then in verse 18 he says  "Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone."  Over in 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul continues the thought, saying "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! " 

Paul used that phrase "in Christ" about 90 times in his letters.  I looked it up in the Greek.  It means "in Christ."  Like, inside of, part of, living in.  So the way it's supposed to work is, Christ pours into us his love for us, his love for others, his "peace, patience, love and all those things."  He creates those expressions of his love in us, so we can "bear much fruit" as he said in John 15.  But then there are the days we don't feel like it's working; when nothing turns out right and we respond like a "sore-toothed bear" as my mom used to say.  What's up with that?  We're still "in Christ" -- but those days, we're paying more attention to what's going on outside of us than who we're inside of. 

How do we make it work?  We have to surrender to the mind of Christ in us.  In Philippians 2:5 Paul writes "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had" then goes on to describe Christ's humility and other-centered serving in his human life.  The Son of God gave up everything to come live with us.  We have to give up our self-centered thinking, in order to live in him and let him put his peace in us. 

And that's when the image in the mirror turns out to be God after all!

Keeping it Simple (Part 3)

The Amazing Joanne and I just spent a week camping by a lake at about 8,500 feet elevation (3,000 feet higher than our home).  Pit toilets, a metal picnic table and fire ring, and our camping gear including a small tent and sleeping bags.  That was about it for the week except for coin-operated hot showers in the main building a mile down the road.  We brought our food from home and cooked it over one fire or the other, and ate pretty well for being out in the boonies.

We got to read some books that aren't required for work, went to sleep listening to the loons, woke up hearing geese honk on their way south, talked about stuff we hadn't discussed in awhile, and watched some great sunrises and sunsets.  And fished.  Well, when I say 'fished' I mean we stood by the lake and waved fiberglass sticks at the fish as they swam by.  They didn't wave back.  Or anything else.  So we're having frozen salmon for dinner tonight, to get back at them.

I didn't miss television, amplified music or stock market reports.  A few people tried to call but nobody got through because I had my phone turned off nearly all week.  I continued to be amazed throughout the week at what we could get along without.  We made the deliberate effort to slow down, simplify and get away, and it was very refreshing. 

Finding life too busy?  So do I, fairly often.  Some of my chores are self-appointed, and so I have to decide to un-appoint myself as their custodian.  Other chores have to be done, but sometimes other people can do them better than me. Other chores will wait.  Possessions -- as I mentioned a few weeks ago -- tend to demand attention, but I can get rid of them instead, if I really want to. 

Paul said to Timothy (1 Tim. 6:7-8) that we should be okay having just the basics:  "After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content."  Ah, contentment -- so elusive when you're always after more!  But if our focus is on God and what he wants (Matthew 6:33) then he will guide us into what he wants us occupied with.  We will find that his will is far more satisfying than all the stuff and nonsense this world has to offer. Ready to ask God for clarity on his will?  The result can save your life!

Faith

I've been reading through the book of Hebrews again -- I recommend reading it once a year as a tool for re-focusing our understanding of God.  More on that another time.  But today, since I was reading chapter 11, often called The Faith Chapter, a basic question came up:  Why faith -- that is, faith in God?  Why are we encouraged to have faith, and in this chapter and others we are told the stories of those who had faith?  Here are a few of the reasons faith is so important:

1.  Faith is the basis for a relationship with God. Adam and Eve didn't believe God was giving, and would always give, the best to them, even though God had put them in this beautiful place, given them all they needed, and they still didn't trust him.  Instead, they turned away from God to follow what the serpent said, and suffered as a result.  By contrast, what experience did they have with the serpent, that would tell them he was trustworthy?  ("Would you buy a used car from this snake?")  So, Hebrews 11:6 says "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him."    If you don't believe God, how would you relate to him?
2.  Faith in God tells us that what God has promised will happen, even though we can't measure it with our five senses.  Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."  So we have to trust that God will provide the reward of totally enjoyable life without end, in the presence of our Creator and Father -- a life we won't see or experience until after we pass from this temporary existence.
3.  Faith helps us make the hard choices to do God's will.  Noah 'built an ark'; Abraham 'went without knowing where he was going...was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac'; Moses 'chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin'; and a hundred other stories.  Including mine, and I hope, yours.  Without trusting that God will somehow provide for us, how do we let go of the immediate desire in favor of the eternal joy?  How would we offer our finances to God, rather than holding on to every penny for our own uses?  Without faith, how do we know God will take care of us?
4.  Faith is our link to salvation.  Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us that God saves us by grace through faith, and that salvation is not a reward for our obedience or works.  In fact, verse 9 tells us that the faith itself is a gift of God -- which we must receive obediently, rather than insisting we can work it out ourselves somehow.

Trusting God -- another definition of faith -- is essential for a life spent listening to and responding to God.  The stories in Hebrews 11 and many other places tell us it's possible to have that faith, and encourage us to ask God for a clearer and stronger trust in him.  So if you feel yours is 'running low' or you're not doing too well at trusting him, now might be a good time to read those again and let God refresh your tired heart with his own strength and peace. 

He's Been Here Already

Christians are waiting for the return of Jesus to rule the nations. That's completely legitimate, because He said He was coming back. But "back" means He's already been here once. And both of those points are the message of the traditional four weeks of Advent -- that the Son of God visited us once, and that He's returning. ("Advent" means "arrival," as we see in the name "Seventh-Day Adventists" who emphasize the Second Coming.)

The first week of Advent wraps up the entire year of Christian teaching and celebration, by telling us of that blessed, joyful return of our Savior to the world. Typically, the message of that day in song and sermon and prayer gives us reasons to lift up our eyes in hope of His return, and to be encouraged as we continue to work with Him on the earth now.

But of course, Jesus couldn't return unless He'd been here once already. The next three weeks of Advent teach us some of the many lessons of the first coming. Those include the fact that humanity needed His sacrifice for sin. But Jesus didn't just come here to die -- He, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, perfectly joined God with humanity for the first time. Because He did that, He healed the breach that was opened up in Eden and continued on to that time. All of the angels were waiting for that new beginning, and they celebrated at His birth (Luke 2:8-14) just like they had at the creation (Job 38:7).

Hebrews 9:26-28 gives us both ends of the Advent season when it says this: "But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him."

Do you have goose bumps yet? I do, every time I think about the magnificent, all-inclusive scope of that passage. He's been here once; He dealt decisively with our separation from God; and He's coming back to finalize what He started a long, long time ago. I've got every reason that I can think of to celebrate. How about joining me?

Pray without Ceasing

Some friends of mine say that nobody comes to salvation through Jesus Christ without prayers -- lots and lots of prayers -- being sent up on their behalf. Is that true?

Well, Jesus has already done all the heavy lifting for us. We read in Hebrews 2:9 that "by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone." And in 1 Tim. 2:6, we see that Jesus "gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone." So that part is done. And how do we, and others, come to know this amazing grace? Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of "sin, righteousness and judgment."

So God is perfectly capable of doing his work without our help. But how does he want us to feel and act toward our neighbors who may not know him yet? Do our prayers matter? In what way?

Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 "But I say, love [even] your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" So loving our neighbors means praying for them. Even the guy who plays his music too loudly, or runs over our geraniums with his Jeep. How do we pray -- that they will reform, in order for us to be more comfortable? Rather, that they will come to know the love of God, who through his Son's death and resurrection has already brought them from death to life.

Jesus' command about love gave prayer as the first example of how to love someone. In prayer, we learn to care. When I'm praying for someone else's salvation and peace, for his or her sole benefit, that prayer will change me, helping me to care for that neighbor as God already does. I'll be more likely to respond lovingly -- as God, through Jesus, already has responded -- in any interaction. Earnest, intentional prayer for them to know Christ's love will make me more likely to be the right example and, if it comes up, to give them the right words also. And to be able to thank God, with genuine love for them, when they accept the love he is offering them. Without that prayer, God's work will still be done for them -- but less of it will be done in me.

Jesus told us to pray for our neighbors. Somebody prayed (maybe for years) for you to come to know salvation in Christ. Who are you going to pray for today? This week? This year? Without ceasing? --And how will all that prayer change you?

Investments

One of today's news items is something like "Stock Markets Soar on Recovery Hopes." People invest money in those markets hoping to make more money. Their hopes rise and fall along with the fortunes of the companies or funds they invest in. Some have made good money, while others have lost it all. Some have spent their whole lives trying to make more and more money, to the point of obsession.

The Bible has several messages about money. The first is to invest, first and most intensively, with God; to give to him in response to his generous gifts to you. The second is to treat money as something that is not given to you, but invested with you by God; so that you are the "steward" or the fund manager, and it's your job to use it wisely. The third is to be generous with it; not to hoard it for yourself, but to give to others as you can, and as you find them in need. All of these are based on one other principle: that God loves us and will take care of us, if only we will let him.

Jesus covered several of these principles in "The Sermon on the Mount" as some call his teachings in Matthew 5-7 (and some parallels in Luke). Especially in chapter 6, he brings out generosity (verses 1-4) by teaching that we shouldn't have our gifts limited to what will make us look good; dependence on God (verse 11) by reminding us to ask him for our daily needs; focusing on God, not our own financial security (verses 19-21), which would include giving generous offerings instead of just building up a bank account; and again, dependence on God (verses 24-31) by showing us how much God cares for us and looks after our welfare.

None of those teachings includes our being careless with what God has given us, or goofing off and making others carry us. So we shouldn't mistake his teachings about relying on God in faith with encouraging laziness or slacking.

The whole investment thing is a mystery to me. But I do know a couple of things about money. One is that God has taken care of me, umpteen times, using resources I didn't know existed. The other is that no matter how careful I am to save up money, at the end of my life I won't take any of it with me. I hope that the legacy I leave behind will be one of loving generosity to others, and a wise management of the resources God has given me. And complete reliance on God for all the things I can't control anyway -- because he is the one who does control it.

How about you?

Mortgage Life Insurance

Well, it's the first of the month again, and time to pay the mortgage. The loan is a lot of money -- there's a comma in the middle, and the rest of the numbers are a little frightening sometimes. And it's hanging over my head for the next 30 years! Sometimes people buy 'mortgage life insurance' so that if they die, the loan is paid off and their surviving family have a place to stay without paying for it.

In 30 years, I'll be (well, never mind how old) but I hope I'm still enjoying living here. In 30 years, some of us will finally be grown up, and some of us won't be here any more. But did you know that Jesus promises us a place to live, forever, with no mortgage payment?

In John 14, Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to leave them, but 'prepare a place' for them -- and for us, of course, as the disciples of this day. What kind of place was it he planned to prepare? We don't know exactly, but look at what he says next: 'When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.' Wherever and whatever that is, it sounds like a lot of security to me.

One more thing: there's no mortgage. No monthly payments.

See, Jesus had what we might call, in this context, "mortgage life insurance" with you and me as the beneficiaries. In John 19:30, as he was ready to die on the Cross, he said "It is finished." That was a sound of triumph as well as relief; the job was done. But you may also know that the Greek word translated "it is finished" is 'tetelestai' which also has a technical meaning: it was often written at the bottom of loan documents to show the loan had been paid. Your sins, and every other thing against you and God have been taken care of, completely.

Yup, that's the deal. He paid off the loan with his death. He made sure that we don't have to make even the first payment on the new place. It's all done! He invites us to move, rent-free, now and forever, into his Father's house, where there's lots of room, endless love and more enjoyment than we can imagine.

If you haven't yet decided that this is the life for you, now's the time. (Shoot, when will there be a better time?) All you have to do is stop running away, face God through his Son, and start walking forward again. He'll show you the Way (John 14:6) and help you move, step by step. Ready? On three: One, two, ...

We Are All One (3)

A Man with a Big Nose

We all tend to accept people who look, sound and dress like us more readily than someone who is of a different skin color or uses language differently. We may have learned in school about other cultures, or we may have been taught that it's best to keep an open mind and learn about the other person before making judgments; but typical human behavior is to hold back until we're sure.

Renaissance artists knew this. There are a lot of paintings, sculptures and stained-glass windows of Bible characters, including Jesus, created by artists during that period. They tended to dress the characters in the same kind of attire worn by people of their culture. Now, perhaps they didn't have access to all the archaeological data showing the dress and manner of people of that time; or maybe, as artists, they were exercising their privilege to interpret the subject matter in the way they wanted! Or perhaps they were trying to steer their audiences toward acceptance of their work by making it look more familiar.

Some film-makers in the last century have tried to portray Jesus as understandable, 'like us but more so'. "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977) for instance, has a blue-eyed, British-accented actor in the lead role. Others tried to be more realistic, showing someone as Jesus who looked, maybe, a little Middle Eastern, in a robe we might recognize as looking something like maybe what they wore back then. There have been several movies with a black Jesus too. But they were all good-looking actors, the kind you might invite over for a barbeque this summer.

What did Jesus really look like? We don't know, except that the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 53 "There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him." And in the Gospels, the authorities had to have Judas point out Jesus for his arrest (see for example Matthew 26:47-49). And he was, undeniably, Jewish; so he looked Jewish, including perhaps a larger nose than Caucasians like me. And he dressed like the average Jewish man of his day, with a tunic (like an oversized t-shirt) and probably a robe over that most of the time. And he probably had longer hair than I wear, and it was probably wrapped up in a turban that had the ends of it hanging loose. So he might not make it through airport security today without a pat-down and some extra questions!

Would you invite someone like that to your barbeque? Maybe not. But the Gospel writers and the authors of the rest of the Bible say this is the one who came to die for us; to make us all into one family (Eph. 2) and bring us into God's presence forever, with no separation (Colossians 1). And if he has accepted all of us, with all our differences and all our weaknesses, and made us one, then can we accept one another in the same way?

I praise God that in many ways we have. And I pray that we can grow in it.

We Are All One (1)

Dirt and Humanity

A little boy was learning from his father that God had made the first man, Adam, out of dirt, and that eventually, all humans turn back into dirt when we die. ("For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return", taken from Genesis 3:19) A funny look came over his face, and he blurted out, "Well, I looked under my bed this morning, and it looks like somebody's either coming or going!"

The Hebrew words in that verse in Genesis show a connection between the first man ("Adam") and the dirt ("adamah") that he came from. I think God was trying to remind him, and maybe us, not to get too 'uppity' as my mom used to say. But isn't that what we tend to do, get uppity? It's sure easy for me to start thinking I'm something better than the rest of the people around me.

Am I, really? Are you, really, better than others? Well, according to God, we all came from the same source: him! And he made us all from the same dirt, and since we all came from the same original parents, then it looks like we are the same, in so many ways. Scientists have figured out how to 'read' our DNA strands, and tell us how very closely we are all related genetically. (Even the science of genetics comes from the same Latin root as Genesis, or beginnings.)

When we see others, though, we tend to look at differences: he's taller than me and has bigger muscles. She weighs less than I do, and has better hair. He's got dark skin, I wonder where he's from. She looks Chinese or Korean or something, not from around here. And the envy or the distrust starts to arise, and the next reaction to that is defensiveness and self-protection, shutting others out instead of including them.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God told the Israelites not to mingle with the nations around them -- not because they were inferior peoples, but so Israel wouldn't pick up the false and destructive religions of those people. (See Numbers 33:51-55, Deuteronomy 7:1-8, Deuteronomy 12:29-31, etc.) But the New Covenant is a relationship with God where everybody belongs, no matter where we're from: "Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts...Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." (Ephesians 2, especially verses 11 and 16).

The spiritual reality is greater than the physical reality of our external, visible differences. In Christ, we are one. How does that play out when we like different foods, use different grammar, enjoy different music, and naturally think ours is better? Let's keep considering those ideas in the next few posts.

Peace

After a lot of hubbub and trips back and forth, we’ve got all our furniture and boxes inside our new house, and it’s mostly in the right rooms. We’re starting to feel settled in, and it’s really peaceful here. A lot of people would pay good money to live in this kind of peace, but the question is, would they really appreciate it?

Peace is elusive to people, even individually. Between people, and between groups and nations, peace is almost impossible to achieve. (When’s the last time you saw a news headline claiming ‘Peace Breaks Out’?)

But peace is exactly what God intends for us. Inner peace, peace between us and God, and as a result, peace between people. That’s what he wanted for us in the first place, and it was our own fault that we didn’t accept it. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, had a face-to-face friendship with God, but they decided they would rather make their own choices without his help. They turned away from him, and in trying to make their own decisions, their minds became tormented with the loneliness of their existence without their Creator. Their children and grandchildren invented their own ‘gods’ who only resembled themselves with all their own faults magnified – not their true loving, living Father at all. So their minds continually tried to resolve their self-made conflict, turning it over and over and inventing new, flawed realities to live in. (Romans 3:9-20.)

Sounds nasty? Well, it is. Human life without a loving Creator is no life at all. But God is far too loving to leave us in the lurch. He sent his Son to bridge that gap, and to create peace for us (Eph. 2:11-22).

During Advent, we celebrate the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), the Son of God who was God-With-Us, Immanuel. He came without our asking, rescuing people who didn’t deserve it, and was killed without reason to wipe out the guilt of even those who killed him. He brought peace to our tormented souls by taking all that pain and separation on himself, and created an unbreakable bridge between us and the Father. He gives us the peace of his own mind, the Holy Spirit who lives in us because of our faith in the Son (Romans 5:1, 8:6, 14:17, 15:13, etc). He himself is the Plan of God (2 Tim. 1:9-10).

“Give peace a chance?” Amen, so we should! So if you’re not feeling peaceful, then it’s time to surrender – for the first time ever, or once again – all your conflicts and inner turmoil to the One who has already resolved it for you and is waiting for you to accept it. If you know someone who is full of that turmoil, then maybe you can introduce him or her to that Prince of Peace. It’s the best gift you could give a loved one, now or anytime.