Well, we made it through. This Christmas was the culmination of a year of knitting for me, when all that wasn't household necessity got replaced with constructing socks, baby gear for twin nieces, more socks, hats and mittens and scarves for my children, shawls, and more .....socks. Right up to Christmas Eve afternoon, the last sock was being finished.
I find myself wiped out, with the weight of the family's anticipation and my inadequate mood to match it. What I'm trying to say, without admitting it, is that I've been the grump this time around. When I was growing up, we had Christmas once a year, and it was a whole day of drawing out all the festivity (and respite from farm chores) as long as we could. There was no company, no travelling out, just Mom and Dad and brother and sister, at home with the loot and the special food and piles of Christmas cookies. And that's what I always wanted to replicate for my own family. To have one special, nuclear family day, that doesn't have to get compared to other versions before and after The Day. This is one of the greediest desires of my heart, I suppose. But there it is.
How do I get myself back on the upside....let me count the ways.
Jonathan (3) and Landon (7) helped me to bake some of the cookies. They are all helper, no question about it. At Christmastime I find myself involved in recipes that require chilling, rolling, cutting and then the decorating after baking. Jonathan can handle a cookie cutter with the best of them, dipping it expertly in flour each time. When we were on the sugar cookies, he even tried rolling out some dough, reducing it to a veneer on the kitchen island, so we started over. He and Landon unwrapped all the chocolate kisses to put on top of peanut butter cookies, and then even stayed around to place the kisses on the first two trayfuls. One of the signature cookies I do every year since I discovered the recipe, is candy cane cookies. The dough gets divided and one half tinted pink. After chilling, I portion out teaspoonfuls of each color to be rolled into even little ropes, and twisted together and curved into a candy cane before baking. This is fun but laborious work. Jonathan tried his hand at shaping some, and it was so heartening. His sometimes looked like knobby worms, and we used them anyway, because I felt I'd like to see his stamp on the baking this year.
I think that more than half of the gift giving this year was the children giving things to each other. That amazed and gratified me, I can tell you. Jeffrey sometimes gives the older children who do barn chores, some spending money...and they are pretty careful to hoard most of it for important occasions. It translates into more shopping trips, but there is also a fair amount of hand-crafting still going on, I am happy to say. Hannah knitted cozy cowls that she adorned with fabric yo-yos, for her sisters. Ella made washcloths and scarves, and Emma made a set of pistols and some sort of automatic rifle, all out of cardboard tubes and boxes painted black and detailed with metallic inks, for her brothers. Emma also sewed me a cushion for my rocking chair. Now, I have to tell you about the rocking chair....
I bought that Victorian oak rocker with a beautiful spindled back, for $150 at an antiques shop in Bouckville, NY a year or more before I met my husband. We got married, and I rocked four babies in that chair. It had come with a small crack in the front edge of the seat, but it never seemed to change, and I thought the creaks of the spindles were part of the pleasant package. One day, as I was expecting our fifth child, my husband sat himself down in my rocker, heaved his weight back for a rock, and down he came, with the chair seat split all the way through. After I shrieked, I cried. Then I put the chair away in the attic and wouldn't let anyone touch it, not even to fix it. Other rockers came into use, but that one stayed in the attic walkway as a testament to my suffering, I suppose. So I guess that Emma got tired of climbing over it to get at stored items, and she took it into her lil' red head to fix the chair. Apparently, she glued the chair, and fashioned braces which she then screwed on to the bottom of the seat, straddling the split. And she added the cushion. I have already chased my oldest son out of the rocking chair. By golly, he wasn't going to play Halo sitting in that chair.
I always put the stockings on the plates at the table, so we open them before breakfast. This year, my stocking had presents in it that I didn't put there. This is the first time. Ella put in a ball of one of my favorite cotton yarn colorways; Emma put in some top-notch chocolate I really like and never buy for myself, and I had a new wooden salad serving bowl and a new calendar planner, both items I'd "needed" under the stocking. Beside me, Jonathan had his own stocking, and the first thing he pulled out was the shawl that he had requested to be knitted for his lovey, 'Baby Giraffe.' That little stuffed toy goes everywhere with him and sleeps with him, too. I made the little triangle shawl out of the same colors his hat-mittens-scarf had come from, with fringe around the bottom, and he recognized instantly, "Oh, it's Baby Giwaffe's shaww!" (sic) "Mama, I wuv you fo making it!" And it fits just right.
One of my worst worries had been the matter of a dinner menu. Funding is slim, and we didn't have a special roast in the freezer. But I had saved dressing from Thanksgiving, and some nice dinner rolls, and I was able to put together a favorite recipe of creamed onions, pull out some of our sweet corn ("I'm sooo glad we stayed up until 10:30 freezing this!" said my husband, as he started on it), and there was chicken available, so we did alright. And did I mention, the breakfast scrapple was not made with cornmeal this year, but with buckwheat hot cereal....and it went down just as surely. Thank goodness, that worked: in a panic I was, yesterday morning, as I went to the cupboard for the cornmeal to stir into the boiling broth, and found none. Plan B was the idea, 'well, grits can also be chilled and sliced and fried crisp, and this stuff looks sorta like grits and nobody eats it as hot cereal, anyway.'
We bought Emma a violin for Christmas. Back in May, she took the notion that a violin had her name on it, sent me the link to Amazon.com, and teased and teased until I had to say in no uncertain terms that we just weren't going to have the wherewithal to buy one, and please to forget it. Along about mid-November, things got a little easier, and I started to think about that violin. The offer advertised in the link still in my email proved to be expired, but I found a comparable package, for less, and ordered it. Scarcely a week later, Miss Emma began with her begging and teasing again, and berating me for my heartlessness and cruelty in not listening to her. So I threatened to send the blessed thing back, to shut her up. Next, Amazon emailed me that the order had been cancelled due to out-of-stock status. I could have taken the easy way out, but....not me, you know? I found another dealer on Amazon, got the violin, and when Emma opened it, she just sat with it in her lap and smiled while everyone else tended to the rest of the opening. After chores tonight, she went right up to her room, and started in experimentally scraping away on it....it doesn't sound half bad. She'd better have the gift to match the grit, that's all I have to say about that.
I don't know why, but the children hooked up the old VCR after midday dinner, and of all things, put in a video tape of my old ballet recital from 10th grade, "The Golden Goose." I danced the title role in that one, and I had forgotten so much of it. I sat in my reclaimed rocking chair to watch it with them and listened to my children, who don't know this part of my life at all. "Is that Mama? She's so little!" "I think that's Mama right there....no, it's that one, I can tell by the legs." "You were pretty good, Mama!" "Look at Uncle Paris, he's so cute!"
I think there were half a dozen hugs from Ella scattered through the day, just because. Comments such as "You make the best cookies, Mama" abounded, and Ella helped me start the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that we'll frame for Jonathan's room, once completed. It is an oil painting of the Three Little Pigs, full of color and light. While I sat there for two hours working at puzzling, no Christmas elves went through my kitchen to clean up from dinner, but *sigh* at least I could put in my new CD of Chris Tomlin or the Piano Guys to accompany my own efforts.
Humbug? Not so much....I'll do it all again........next year.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Mix With Faith (topic #13)
A Polite Demand - Beggar or Believer
I John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
It is easy to think that 'asking of God according to God's will' means that we should ask only for certain things - as if God gives us the requests that line up with His approved list. This is certainly a valid understanding: we are to pray for our enemies, lift up each other's burdens, depend on God to supply the day-to-day as well as the crisis needs. But I think praying according to God's will is at least a twofold matter - it requires making godly requests, and being full of faith.
James says in his epistle that "he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-8). Don't think that God is mean or petty, in not rewarding unbelief. That is not consistent with God's character. Rather, God has mercy on whom he will (Exodus 33:19), and certainly He blesses many who do not love Him (Matthew 5:45). God blesses all, because He loves all. But asking any thing of God, is a whole other level of operation, and goes on the principle that one must come to God in belief, in faith, and with confident expectation. (Hebrews 11:6). It is also the will of God then, that we not only believe in Him, but that we believe Him.
The believer is to make his requests with faith - nothing doubting!- and with thanksgiving, in anticipation.
Matthew 6:9-11 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
You see that? When Jesus gave this lesson on how to pray, he wasn't laying out a prayer list so much as He was demonstrating the correct approach to prayer (and, to their credit, that was exactly what the disciples had asked of Jesus). It is a far cry from how the "Lord's Prayer" is used, almost ritualistically, throughout Christendom today.
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven" (begin by acknowledging just who and how high God is) "Hallowed by thy name" (give God His due reverence. It is a precious, gracious gift, to call God, our Father, and we are to climb into His lap with childlike trust.) "Thy kingdom come." (Put God's priority first.) "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (We address the King of heaven from Earth, the temporarily lost domain, knowing that in Christ, God has already gotten the victory and that we will see the end result, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, as it says in Philippians 2:10-11. It is only a matter of time for it to be worked out.) "Give us this day our daily bread." (By now, I am in a right frame of mind to present my request, for I know that God knows that I know...He will move heaven and earth to help this child. I'm not wringing my hands in consternation, but coming boldly before the throne of grace: "God, You are my Father, Creator, and King. All things are in Your hand. You are sovereign. Your word tells me of your love and grace towards me. You know this need that I have, and I know that you work all things together for good towards me because I love you. Thank you that you are meeting this need, and help me to rest in you."
Cautious, Aware & Diligent
Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Psalm 78:40-41 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
In these two scripture readings are both Old and New Testament references to a very tragic story. It is the account of how Israel missed a golden opportunity to enter into God's rest. (I encourage you here to read the record in the book of Numbers, 3:17-14:25.) In brief, as Israel was camping in Paran, God directed Moses to send twelve men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan. Of course, since Jacob and his large family had left Canaan for Egypt, some 400 years ago, their place had been taken by many different nations. Some were cunning, some were "giants" (picture: the Germans next to the Romans); all worshipped idols and conducted various forms of human sacrifice; all dwelt in strong-walled cities. What God wanted the Israeli spies to see, was the bountiful land surrounding those walled cities. He wanted them to see foremost the richness of the soil that would nourish bees and cattle and goats alike...a land flowing with milk and honey to bless God's children. Indeed, the spies brought back samples of the wild fruits they found; the grapes alone were so heavy that two men had to carry them on an improvised staff yoke.
Clearly, to God, the fact that usurpers populated the land, was of no consequence. He meant to drive them out, and it ought to have been clear to the Israelites, who had seen the armed forces of Egypt routed on their behalf, the Red Sea moved out of their way; mysterious sustaining food rained from heaven every morning; the guiding glory of the LORD in their midst, as a pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night. Surely, we like to think, they had seen enough of signs and wonders by now, to know that God would accomplish all He said? But like Jesus said in Luke 7:35, "wisdom is justified of all her children." These Israelites were a faithless lot, "stiff-necked," unwilling to trust God no matter how many miracles He might do. They had not the faith to mix with what they had observed.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two who understood, that God was for them, and that the rich crops were proof. "[We can do this, folks! God wants to bring us in, He is with us - what does it matter how things look?!]" Theirs was the voice of reason, of course, but it went unheeded, and so began the 40 years of wilderness camping, while God waited for the original refugees from the Exodus to die, and a new generation, who knew only trust in Him, to grow up.
The implications for our time are these: a generation steeped in unbelief and distrust and skepticism cannot be saved. For, "without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into this rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
What is the connection running through our need to be cautious, aware, and diligent? - I think it is a thread of wisdom (the capacity to apply and act on what you know), and where that runs into any obstacle, we run on informed faith (the practise of trusting God for what we cannot yet see, because of what we have already seen of Him).
Joshua and Caleb saw the promised land through the eyes of faith, while the other spies did not. This is not a banner moment in history, for the concept of majority rule. Hebrews 4:1 cautions the believer not to fall into distrust of God - the promise has been made, in fact, and God is faithful to perform what He has spoken. The only way we might come short of realizing God's rest, is to allow ourselves to be distracted by that enemy who stalks about seeking to devour us.
Harden Not Your Heart
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
The warning here for us is that it could happen again in the Church as it happened in Israel. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and joins us to Christ's victory. We must be diligent in the study of God's word, to keep our awareness of God's love, grace, and power. Stay tenderhearted to the things of God. The gospel itself is not defective or insufficient; faithful acceptance is what opens our spiritual eyes and ears and enables us to live the gospel and to shine its light in a dark world.
Genesis 15:18-21 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
God is specific as He needs to be in promises and directions. And we of this present day, at least, can read the amassed record in the Bible, to see that God is always as good as his word - always.
So then, if God's word is good, there is really nothing to be added to it but our faith.
Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
This refers again to the Israelites' failure to trust God to take them safely into the Promised Land, and it really highlights the root of all their (or of our) troubles. They refused to believe God not on the lack of miraculous and recent evidence, but because of their own obstinacy. Patience is a virtue; obstinacy is not. In your patience (trust, endurance, faith) possess ye your souls; harden not your hearts. Provoking God - not a good idea. When the Israelites provoked God, they fell short of receiving His promises.
Here is the scripture to which Hebrews 3:15 refers:
Psalm 95:7-11 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
This is a prophetic psalm, identifying many things. The LORD is God, and He is our God. We are the "sheep" under God's care but of course we are not truly sheep, but thinking beings created in God's image. We are designed to become little images of Christ, and the choice we make to listen to God and follow him ("to hear") or to reject him ("to err") has one of two consequences: salvation or damnation.
As a Christian, I face all the time the charge that this choice makes God a mean, capricious Being. Perhaps you have had this come up, too. But this is only a sullen cry of "no fair!" as one realizes that refusing even to make the choice...is still a choice. Anything other than grateful acceptance of God's plan for you, whether it be outright rejection or delay, is the wrong choice, and this has been spelled out again and again through the Bible.
What the skeptic or distrustful soul passes up is so much more than "freedom," or "autonomy"...all the premium spa visits we can dream up do not approach the rest that is available to all who become children of God. The skeptic faces the initial hurdle, then, of equating submission with becoming God's puppet. That of course is not so, and this exegesis is not about the unbeliever. It is about unbelief in the Church.
The Sabbath Rest
Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Believers may enter into God's rest...yes, we now that, ultimately, we are promised eternal rest from care, worry, labor, strife and struggle. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). But what does rest look like now in the ongoing, present confines of time? It should look like it did when God himself introduced the idea of rest: Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
We know from previous topics that God is always on, always at work, and that there is always a list of tasks for our attention, as well. So let's peel away everything from that kernel that relates Hebrews 4:3 to Genesis 2:2, and see what we can press out of it.
'Rest' in the Genesis reference is the Hebrew 'shabath' from which we derive 'sabbath.' It is a primary root meaning, "to repose", " desist from exertion."
In the Hebrews citation 'rest' is the Greek 'katapausis', from 'katapau', meaning, "to settle down" or "to desist." So the author of the Hebrews epistle described God the Creator "reposing down" after finishing the major work and settling it all in motion.
Now, when we enter the kingdom of God through the Door, through belief in Jesus Christ, we are deciding to rest from trying to force our own way through this worldly life. We subscribe to the truth, that God's plan for our lives is to conform us to the image of His Son, and we accept that God is able to accomplish this tranformation, that He knows the best way. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
Hebrews 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Again, this refers to the Genesis account of the creation, and the fact that God didn't leave any of it unfinished, that He is all done creating. God is still at work, to be sure, but the whole tenor of his work has changed. From the eighth day on, God's work has consisted not of creating and establishing, but of protecting, punishing, blessing, cursing, guiding, saving, all that is necessary both to will and do His good pleasure. None of this is anything to exhaust or deplete or tire the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. ---> So the believing, tender heart is content to leave all matters of salvation and justification, both ours and others' in the hand of God. This is the rest that we can enter right now. It is comprised of trust that God's will gets done, and freedom to fulfill the great commission of preaching and teaching the gospel, with joy.
Hebrews 4:6-7 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
So why does the epistle writer use the Hebrew escapees from Egypt to illustrate what is going on in (his) present-day church, and also in ours? I think he is developping a theme, in the first several chapters, about a certain tension in the church, a fervor that smacks of strife and toil based on worry and doubt (not much of rest, present or anticipated, there!). So he reaches back in history to hold up the Israelites: fresh from miracles on all sides, they still could not relax into trusting God wholeheartedly - they did not mix God's promises with faith (belief!) despite all the signs given them. And so they had no rest, for they were ready to quit as every new obstacle came up, refusing to believe and receive great salvation which God invariably delivered, from slavery, from poverty, from pursuing armies, from a barrier sea, from thirst, hunger, the deterioration of clothing and shoes...And the choice was for them, as it is for us, a matter of attitude and the heart.
Type and Shadow
Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Again, "rest" here in verse 8, is from the Greek root, 'katapausis', to settle down or desist. But in verse 9, the "rest" that remains (has not been yet realized) is the Greek 'sabbatismos', a "sabbatism", the figurative repose of Christianity. The word is derived from the 'sabbaton', the Greek name for the Hebrew practice of a "day of weekly repose from secular avocations."
Setting aside as unprofitable all arguments about how to properly observe the Sabbath day, the point of a sabbath rest is that it serves as a reminder, to trust, to regroup our energies and focus that has been scattered by the week. A sabbath period, be it a sundown-to-following-sundown, a 12-hour sabbath, or just a few hours, is a re-enactment of reposing down, of desisting from the toil, and observing that the world still goes around: so, evidently not through our efforts, but thanks to God's.
Just as vital to our spiritual life as the Word of God itself, is mixing what we take in of it with faith. The rest that God holds out to us is a way of living, of 'working out our salvation.' When rest, total confidence in God, becomes our way of living, when we can learn to breathe (both spiritually and physically) in a way that celebrates the steady and sustaining breath of God, then we are successfully mixing God's grace with faith. This is the balance we seek!
I John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
It is easy to think that 'asking of God according to God's will' means that we should ask only for certain things - as if God gives us the requests that line up with His approved list. This is certainly a valid understanding: we are to pray for our enemies, lift up each other's burdens, depend on God to supply the day-to-day as well as the crisis needs. But I think praying according to God's will is at least a twofold matter - it requires making godly requests, and being full of faith.
James says in his epistle that "he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-8). Don't think that God is mean or petty, in not rewarding unbelief. That is not consistent with God's character. Rather, God has mercy on whom he will (Exodus 33:19), and certainly He blesses many who do not love Him (Matthew 5:45). God blesses all, because He loves all. But asking any thing of God, is a whole other level of operation, and goes on the principle that one must come to God in belief, in faith, and with confident expectation. (Hebrews 11:6). It is also the will of God then, that we not only believe in Him, but that we believe Him.
The believer is to make his requests with faith - nothing doubting!- and with thanksgiving, in anticipation.
Matthew 6:9-11 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
You see that? When Jesus gave this lesson on how to pray, he wasn't laying out a prayer list so much as He was demonstrating the correct approach to prayer (and, to their credit, that was exactly what the disciples had asked of Jesus). It is a far cry from how the "Lord's Prayer" is used, almost ritualistically, throughout Christendom today.
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven" (begin by acknowledging just who and how high God is) "Hallowed by thy name" (give God His due reverence. It is a precious, gracious gift, to call God, our Father, and we are to climb into His lap with childlike trust.) "Thy kingdom come." (Put God's priority first.) "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (We address the King of heaven from Earth, the temporarily lost domain, knowing that in Christ, God has already gotten the victory and that we will see the end result, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, as it says in Philippians 2:10-11. It is only a matter of time for it to be worked out.) "Give us this day our daily bread." (By now, I am in a right frame of mind to present my request, for I know that God knows that I know...He will move heaven and earth to help this child. I'm not wringing my hands in consternation, but coming boldly before the throne of grace: "God, You are my Father, Creator, and King. All things are in Your hand. You are sovereign. Your word tells me of your love and grace towards me. You know this need that I have, and I know that you work all things together for good towards me because I love you. Thank you that you are meeting this need, and help me to rest in you."
Cautious, Aware & Diligent
Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Psalm 78:40-41 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
In these two scripture readings are both Old and New Testament references to a very tragic story. It is the account of how Israel missed a golden opportunity to enter into God's rest. (I encourage you here to read the record in the book of Numbers, 3:17-14:25.) In brief, as Israel was camping in Paran, God directed Moses to send twelve men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan. Of course, since Jacob and his large family had left Canaan for Egypt, some 400 years ago, their place had been taken by many different nations. Some were cunning, some were "giants" (picture: the Germans next to the Romans); all worshipped idols and conducted various forms of human sacrifice; all dwelt in strong-walled cities. What God wanted the Israeli spies to see, was the bountiful land surrounding those walled cities. He wanted them to see foremost the richness of the soil that would nourish bees and cattle and goats alike...a land flowing with milk and honey to bless God's children. Indeed, the spies brought back samples of the wild fruits they found; the grapes alone were so heavy that two men had to carry them on an improvised staff yoke.
Clearly, to God, the fact that usurpers populated the land, was of no consequence. He meant to drive them out, and it ought to have been clear to the Israelites, who had seen the armed forces of Egypt routed on their behalf, the Red Sea moved out of their way; mysterious sustaining food rained from heaven every morning; the guiding glory of the LORD in their midst, as a pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night. Surely, we like to think, they had seen enough of signs and wonders by now, to know that God would accomplish all He said? But like Jesus said in Luke 7:35, "wisdom is justified of all her children." These Israelites were a faithless lot, "stiff-necked," unwilling to trust God no matter how many miracles He might do. They had not the faith to mix with what they had observed.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two who understood, that God was for them, and that the rich crops were proof. "[We can do this, folks! God wants to bring us in, He is with us - what does it matter how things look?!]" Theirs was the voice of reason, of course, but it went unheeded, and so began the 40 years of wilderness camping, while God waited for the original refugees from the Exodus to die, and a new generation, who knew only trust in Him, to grow up.
The implications for our time are these: a generation steeped in unbelief and distrust and skepticism cannot be saved. For, "without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into this rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
What is the connection running through our need to be cautious, aware, and diligent? - I think it is a thread of wisdom (the capacity to apply and act on what you know), and where that runs into any obstacle, we run on informed faith (the practise of trusting God for what we cannot yet see, because of what we have already seen of Him).
Joshua and Caleb saw the promised land through the eyes of faith, while the other spies did not. This is not a banner moment in history, for the concept of majority rule. Hebrews 4:1 cautions the believer not to fall into distrust of God - the promise has been made, in fact, and God is faithful to perform what He has spoken. The only way we might come short of realizing God's rest, is to allow ourselves to be distracted by that enemy who stalks about seeking to devour us.
Harden Not Your Heart
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
The warning here for us is that it could happen again in the Church as it happened in Israel. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and joins us to Christ's victory. We must be diligent in the study of God's word, to keep our awareness of God's love, grace, and power. Stay tenderhearted to the things of God. The gospel itself is not defective or insufficient; faithful acceptance is what opens our spiritual eyes and ears and enables us to live the gospel and to shine its light in a dark world.
Genesis 15:18-21 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
God is specific as He needs to be in promises and directions. And we of this present day, at least, can read the amassed record in the Bible, to see that God is always as good as his word - always.
So then, if God's word is good, there is really nothing to be added to it but our faith.
Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
This refers again to the Israelites' failure to trust God to take them safely into the Promised Land, and it really highlights the root of all their (or of our) troubles. They refused to believe God not on the lack of miraculous and recent evidence, but because of their own obstinacy. Patience is a virtue; obstinacy is not. In your patience (trust, endurance, faith) possess ye your souls; harden not your hearts. Provoking God - not a good idea. When the Israelites provoked God, they fell short of receiving His promises.
Here is the scripture to which Hebrews 3:15 refers:
Psalm 95:7-11 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
This is a prophetic psalm, identifying many things. The LORD is God, and He is our God. We are the "sheep" under God's care but of course we are not truly sheep, but thinking beings created in God's image. We are designed to become little images of Christ, and the choice we make to listen to God and follow him ("to hear") or to reject him ("to err") has one of two consequences: salvation or damnation.
As a Christian, I face all the time the charge that this choice makes God a mean, capricious Being. Perhaps you have had this come up, too. But this is only a sullen cry of "no fair!" as one realizes that refusing even to make the choice...is still a choice. Anything other than grateful acceptance of God's plan for you, whether it be outright rejection or delay, is the wrong choice, and this has been spelled out again and again through the Bible.
What the skeptic or distrustful soul passes up is so much more than "freedom," or "autonomy"...all the premium spa visits we can dream up do not approach the rest that is available to all who become children of God. The skeptic faces the initial hurdle, then, of equating submission with becoming God's puppet. That of course is not so, and this exegesis is not about the unbeliever. It is about unbelief in the Church.
The Sabbath Rest
Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Believers may enter into God's rest...yes, we now that, ultimately, we are promised eternal rest from care, worry, labor, strife and struggle. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). But what does rest look like now in the ongoing, present confines of time? It should look like it did when God himself introduced the idea of rest: Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
We know from previous topics that God is always on, always at work, and that there is always a list of tasks for our attention, as well. So let's peel away everything from that kernel that relates Hebrews 4:3 to Genesis 2:2, and see what we can press out of it.
'Rest' in the Genesis reference is the Hebrew 'shabath' from which we derive 'sabbath.' It is a primary root meaning, "to repose", " desist from exertion."
In the Hebrews citation 'rest' is the Greek 'katapausis', from 'katapau', meaning, "to settle down" or "to desist." So the author of the Hebrews epistle described God the Creator "reposing down" after finishing the major work and settling it all in motion.
Now, when we enter the kingdom of God through the Door, through belief in Jesus Christ, we are deciding to rest from trying to force our own way through this worldly life. We subscribe to the truth, that God's plan for our lives is to conform us to the image of His Son, and we accept that God is able to accomplish this tranformation, that He knows the best way. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
Hebrews 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Again, this refers to the Genesis account of the creation, and the fact that God didn't leave any of it unfinished, that He is all done creating. God is still at work, to be sure, but the whole tenor of his work has changed. From the eighth day on, God's work has consisted not of creating and establishing, but of protecting, punishing, blessing, cursing, guiding, saving, all that is necessary both to will and do His good pleasure. None of this is anything to exhaust or deplete or tire the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. ---> So the believing, tender heart is content to leave all matters of salvation and justification, both ours and others' in the hand of God. This is the rest that we can enter right now. It is comprised of trust that God's will gets done, and freedom to fulfill the great commission of preaching and teaching the gospel, with joy.
Hebrews 4:6-7 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
So why does the epistle writer use the Hebrew escapees from Egypt to illustrate what is going on in (his) present-day church, and also in ours? I think he is developping a theme, in the first several chapters, about a certain tension in the church, a fervor that smacks of strife and toil based on worry and doubt (not much of rest, present or anticipated, there!). So he reaches back in history to hold up the Israelites: fresh from miracles on all sides, they still could not relax into trusting God wholeheartedly - they did not mix God's promises with faith (belief!) despite all the signs given them. And so they had no rest, for they were ready to quit as every new obstacle came up, refusing to believe and receive great salvation which God invariably delivered, from slavery, from poverty, from pursuing armies, from a barrier sea, from thirst, hunger, the deterioration of clothing and shoes...And the choice was for them, as it is for us, a matter of attitude and the heart.
Type and Shadow
Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Again, "rest" here in verse 8, is from the Greek root, 'katapausis', to settle down or desist. But in verse 9, the "rest" that remains (has not been yet realized) is the Greek 'sabbatismos', a "sabbatism", the figurative repose of Christianity. The word is derived from the 'sabbaton', the Greek name for the Hebrew practice of a "day of weekly repose from secular avocations."
Setting aside as unprofitable all arguments about how to properly observe the Sabbath day, the point of a sabbath rest is that it serves as a reminder, to trust, to regroup our energies and focus that has been scattered by the week. A sabbath period, be it a sundown-to-following-sundown, a 12-hour sabbath, or just a few hours, is a re-enactment of reposing down, of desisting from the toil, and observing that the world still goes around: so, evidently not through our efforts, but thanks to God's.
Just as vital to our spiritual life as the Word of God itself, is mixing what we take in of it with faith. The rest that God holds out to us is a way of living, of 'working out our salvation.' When rest, total confidence in God, becomes our way of living, when we can learn to breathe (both spiritually and physically) in a way that celebrates the steady and sustaining breath of God, then we are successfully mixing God's grace with faith. This is the balance we seek!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
True North
Thinking back, to an earlier segment of this day....
Things are all abuzz. I'm taking a break -ha! a "break"- to swoop something together for midday dinner while the homeschooling is supposed to keep going on the established tracks all around me.
What's here in the refrigerator...I see maybe a coupla ounces of ground beef, there's a fraction left from that package of sliced ham...is there pasta in this cupboard? Here we go, a weak Bolognese coming up! Now that's settled, I can brown-boil-peel-chop, pretty much on auto pilot. Now I'm back in the game.
Ella Rose is straggling through her geography lesson. According to the compass rose, describe the location of Texas and Florida in the United States. Can you find Texas? "Yes." Can you find Florida? (disgusted moan, then) "Yessss, Mama, they're the same color on the map." So, put your finger in the middle of the country, and tell me where each state is, if your finger were the middle of the compass rose. "Mamaaaaa...why do they call it a compass rose?" Well, honey, because it's a compass, which you understand, it's shaped a bit like a spikey rose, and 'directions-thingummy-bob' is too complicated. *sigh*
Landon is doing his grade 2 writing work half in his chair, half standing over a side table with the book about to slide off of the work surface. If he just sat fully down, at the proper table, it would get done too quickly and comfortably, it seems. Much better, more entertaining, to have to keep erasing the flying p's and the dying g's and write them again. The lowercase e's are looking especially dyspeptic today.
Owen is wrapped in a fleece Spider Man blanket, short sleeved tee insufficient for near-November in our house, but he prefers to go without socks (he owns only 2 drawerfuls) and forget to open the drawer jammed with pullover sweaters and sweatshirts. He also has some geography work at hand, but it's full of reading and comprehension questions, and there's a toddler brother trying to have some sort of ninja sword fight with him. Pencils are rolling and falling and the table is shaking so Ella can't write anyway....
On the whiteboard is the new Latin grammar lesson for forming the 'passive voice in present, imperfect, and future tenses.' This, my two oldest daughters are supposed to copy down, then use the example to put three other familiar verbs into the new forms. Apparently both are using an invisible ink method of scholarship, along with invisible pencils, and scholar-in-absentia. Where the h-e-double-broomsticks have they got to now?! And could one of you please feed this dog!
Navigating a typical day in my family life, that's what this is. This is typically what every midday looks like, and yet, two and a half hours later, one is down for a nap, four are out to the barn for evening chores, and one is engaged in quiet play, the table is cleared, I'm doing corrections with tea, I'll have a litle time to knit before getting around to think about supper preparation. I'll probably fold laundry while that's on, and Jonathan finishes napping in time to have a snack with Landon. By the end of the day, most of the things, sometimes all, in my calendar's plans for the day are checked off. I started Sunday night with a weekly map, by Wednesday felt like the compass was spinning, and suddenly we've fetched up on the bank by Friday evening. Safe.
Really, the taskwork that I worry them over, seems incidental sometimes, and that's because it's all just a jumping-off point. In the middle of the current, sometimes our rafts get all pressed together, like this: Owen is reading about Roman civilization in his geography workbook. Hannah and Emma are taking a dictation composed by me, that follows a segment of the book I've been reading to them on the Dark Ages. We're discussing how the breakdown of physical infrastructure in Europe at the time, factored into the formation of a vaguely feudal system of government, and Owen pipes up about what happened to the roads the Romans built? and so we end up teaching the Dark Ages to him, too. How did children go to school with all the warring between Germanic tribes and the old Roman citizenry? They didn't. In fact, everybody in the commonfolk segment was thoroughly miserable, off and on, having their crops burned, their animals stolen to feed armies, and geography lessons and reading poetry kinda took second place to just managing to raise 12 square feet of wheat for bread. Then we get into world hunger, and suddenly look at the time, I have to get chopping vegetables, or we won't have anything for dinner!
But this is my element, and all of ours, I think. It's the little red schoolhouse effect, and boy, am I glad that I've been at this long enough to finally see it. My oldest child has this year to finish and two more, while my sixth child is just 3 (closer to 4). I don't know sometimes, whether one child or another distracts me on purpose, as we meander through these discussion digressions that are so engrossing, or whether I myself was only waiting for a chance to get them all talking about a matter. I don't mind talking with my children, the way some parents do. I look forward to it, and I want it to be substantive talk, conversation that teaches them about the point in question, about how my mind works on a problem, about what each other's strengths-and-weaknesses in inquiry might be as they mix in a discussion. I press them to back up statements and opinions with something they read that we can take as factual. Have an opinion, I tell them, but be able to tell me WHY you hold it. We build relationship as we talk, because it's usually something real we are talking about. Not just the idea of market economics, but how it worked in this time or that place, how it failed under that regime's policy, and what it meant for the tide of something else. One of the children wants to know how a rat trap works, and out comes a lesson on rats, germs, the Bubonic plague, how the principle of quarantine that finally stemmed the tide of the plague was rediscovered by the Church in the Bible, where the Levitical principles were laid out.
I must get asked about 3 dozen "big" questions a day, not counting 'where is my other boot?' and 'how do you spell ---?' Since I hate to say, "I don't know," we sometimes end up looking for an answer, and I am thrilled to go to the encyclopedia (or send one of the children to) before I let them use the computer with its search engines. We have learned how to mine appendices and glossaries in the back of our books, to this end. The greatest joy of all, to me, is when one child asks, and another exclaims, "Oh, I learned that...." and can supply the answer.
Questions and answers are what life is all about, right? If sorting them out is the quest, a day in the life is the sailing vessel, and all you need for a compass rose...is an inquiring mind that wants to know.
Things are all abuzz. I'm taking a break -ha! a "break"- to swoop something together for midday dinner while the homeschooling is supposed to keep going on the established tracks all around me.
What's here in the refrigerator...I see maybe a coupla ounces of ground beef, there's a fraction left from that package of sliced ham...is there pasta in this cupboard? Here we go, a weak Bolognese coming up! Now that's settled, I can brown-boil-peel-chop, pretty much on auto pilot. Now I'm back in the game.
Ella Rose is straggling through her geography lesson. According to the compass rose, describe the location of Texas and Florida in the United States. Can you find Texas? "Yes." Can you find Florida? (disgusted moan, then) "Yessss, Mama, they're the same color on the map." So, put your finger in the middle of the country, and tell me where each state is, if your finger were the middle of the compass rose. "Mamaaaaa...why do they call it a compass rose?" Well, honey, because it's a compass, which you understand, it's shaped a bit like a spikey rose, and 'directions-thingummy-bob' is too complicated. *sigh*
Landon is doing his grade 2 writing work half in his chair, half standing over a side table with the book about to slide off of the work surface. If he just sat fully down, at the proper table, it would get done too quickly and comfortably, it seems. Much better, more entertaining, to have to keep erasing the flying p's and the dying g's and write them again. The lowercase e's are looking especially dyspeptic today.
Owen is wrapped in a fleece Spider Man blanket, short sleeved tee insufficient for near-November in our house, but he prefers to go without socks (he owns only 2 drawerfuls) and forget to open the drawer jammed with pullover sweaters and sweatshirts. He also has some geography work at hand, but it's full of reading and comprehension questions, and there's a toddler brother trying to have some sort of ninja sword fight with him. Pencils are rolling and falling and the table is shaking so Ella can't write anyway....
On the whiteboard is the new Latin grammar lesson for forming the 'passive voice in present, imperfect, and future tenses.' This, my two oldest daughters are supposed to copy down, then use the example to put three other familiar verbs into the new forms. Apparently both are using an invisible ink method of scholarship, along with invisible pencils, and scholar-in-absentia. Where the h-e-double-broomsticks have they got to now?! And could one of you please feed this dog!
Navigating a typical day in my family life, that's what this is. This is typically what every midday looks like, and yet, two and a half hours later, one is down for a nap, four are out to the barn for evening chores, and one is engaged in quiet play, the table is cleared, I'm doing corrections with tea, I'll have a litle time to knit before getting around to think about supper preparation. I'll probably fold laundry while that's on, and Jonathan finishes napping in time to have a snack with Landon. By the end of the day, most of the things, sometimes all, in my calendar's plans for the day are checked off. I started Sunday night with a weekly map, by Wednesday felt like the compass was spinning, and suddenly we've fetched up on the bank by Friday evening. Safe.
Really, the taskwork that I worry them over, seems incidental sometimes, and that's because it's all just a jumping-off point. In the middle of the current, sometimes our rafts get all pressed together, like this: Owen is reading about Roman civilization in his geography workbook. Hannah and Emma are taking a dictation composed by me, that follows a segment of the book I've been reading to them on the Dark Ages. We're discussing how the breakdown of physical infrastructure in Europe at the time, factored into the formation of a vaguely feudal system of government, and Owen pipes up about what happened to the roads the Romans built? and so we end up teaching the Dark Ages to him, too. How did children go to school with all the warring between Germanic tribes and the old Roman citizenry? They didn't. In fact, everybody in the commonfolk segment was thoroughly miserable, off and on, having their crops burned, their animals stolen to feed armies, and geography lessons and reading poetry kinda took second place to just managing to raise 12 square feet of wheat for bread. Then we get into world hunger, and suddenly look at the time, I have to get chopping vegetables, or we won't have anything for dinner!
But this is my element, and all of ours, I think. It's the little red schoolhouse effect, and boy, am I glad that I've been at this long enough to finally see it. My oldest child has this year to finish and two more, while my sixth child is just 3 (closer to 4). I don't know sometimes, whether one child or another distracts me on purpose, as we meander through these discussion digressions that are so engrossing, or whether I myself was only waiting for a chance to get them all talking about a matter. I don't mind talking with my children, the way some parents do. I look forward to it, and I want it to be substantive talk, conversation that teaches them about the point in question, about how my mind works on a problem, about what each other's strengths-and-weaknesses in inquiry might be as they mix in a discussion. I press them to back up statements and opinions with something they read that we can take as factual. Have an opinion, I tell them, but be able to tell me WHY you hold it. We build relationship as we talk, because it's usually something real we are talking about. Not just the idea of market economics, but how it worked in this time or that place, how it failed under that regime's policy, and what it meant for the tide of something else. One of the children wants to know how a rat trap works, and out comes a lesson on rats, germs, the Bubonic plague, how the principle of quarantine that finally stemmed the tide of the plague was rediscovered by the Church in the Bible, where the Levitical principles were laid out.
I must get asked about 3 dozen "big" questions a day, not counting 'where is my other boot?' and 'how do you spell ---?' Since I hate to say, "I don't know," we sometimes end up looking for an answer, and I am thrilled to go to the encyclopedia (or send one of the children to) before I let them use the computer with its search engines. We have learned how to mine appendices and glossaries in the back of our books, to this end. The greatest joy of all, to me, is when one child asks, and another exclaims, "Oh, I learned that...." and can supply the answer.
Questions and answers are what life is all about, right? If sorting them out is the quest, a day in the life is the sailing vessel, and all you need for a compass rose...is an inquiring mind that wants to know.
Monday, October 29, 2012
The Same Power (topic #12)
(notes prepared for Bible study Oct. 10 and following)
This topic begins with some of the same theme verses as the preceding topic, as it is homing in on the essential point, that the power which enabled the Resurrection, and which heals, restores and equips believers ever since the Church Age began, is...
The Same Power
Ephesians 1:19-21 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
This is part of Paul's prayer for the saints at Ephesus, not that they would receive power, but that they would have fully revealed to them, what God has already installed in the believer, with the entry of the Holy Spirit. It is well worth dwelling on this passage with the last several study topics, and it is especially necessary given the climate in the present-day Church. That is a climate of a) reluctance to ask God for/trust God with big things, and b) a stubborn attitude of neediness. What we need is to get the assurance of the greatness of God's power already available to us (the exceeding greatness of his power [towards us])!
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
"All spiritual blessings" is worth exploring, isn't it? Since it is in Christ that we have received this package, that gives us a good outline. I encourage you to look over the following scriptures for these blessings; this is just a get-you-started list...
1) wisdom:
*I Cor. 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? But we have the mind of Christ.
*Proverbs 8:22 Wisdom endowed with personhood, speaks thusly, the LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
*Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
2) wholeness:
*Colossians 1:20 God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
*Ephesians 2:3-16 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby (in this passage Paul was assuring that the Gentiles were now included in the New Covenant of Christ, as were the descendants of Israel, and God had made peace between himself and all his children).
*Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
3) Liberty in Christ:
*John 8:31-21 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Ye shall know the truth, and the Truth (He is a person!) shall make you free...free from the law of sin and death, free to be conformed to the image of Christ, free to walk with God (Romans 8:1-4).
4)Righteousness:
*II Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
*Romans 10:10 For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
5)Access:
*Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
"Real Dumb" - Flip the Switch (study author Andrew Wommack relates how a man came up for prayer over a long list of health concerns, but then hedged by saying he could deal with the rest if only God would heal the top two or three items. The look on Wommack's face, and the exchange he had with the man about God's limitless power and love, convinced the man who was hurting that it is "pretty dumb" to expect less of God than He is able to do.)
Colossians 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Following that (partial) list of spiritual blessings (benefits!) in Christ, how can we then pull back and hesitate to bring God our whole concern, our every need? To tell God your needs is to admit them to yourself and to agree with God on what he already knows. Now I put the question: where or when in scripture, has God ever cared about something without taking decisive action on it? While God's prescription may differ, even greatly so, from what we ask Him to do in a situation, still--when has God ever failed to right a wrong?
The whole course of this study series has shown that God is the author of good to those who love Him (and even, of mercy towards many who don't); that God is always on; that God has consistent willingness and power to do good. God is not like a neighbor who needs to be badgered to help me in the middle of the night, and He cannot be overwhelmed by my load of cares.
If I believe that, if you believe that, we must step out in faith, doubting nothing and without fear. Having been rooted, like a new greenhouse cutting, in Jesus, and established in the faith of Jesus, we are trees of righteousness. Our "natural" reaction, which ironically takes effort to learn, should be twofold: trust, and thanksgiving.
Many times you cannot convince yourself of God's power towards you, just by telling yourself, "I believe!" If you are short on trust, go back to giving thanks--taking stock of the spiritual and natural blessings in your faith pantry, always reveals a bigger store than you had anticipated. Thank God for what you have, trust Him for what you need, and you will have it, too. Philippians 4:6 says "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." So, ask God for the whole debt crisis resolution; ask Him for help in all your physical distresses, not just the ones you think won't be too much trouble to Him. Is God ever depleted? Is He ever too backlogged? Is God ever tired, or do His batteries need recharging?...Are you out of your mind?! Flip the switch to full "ON" --this is God, the ultimate power source, who lives in and works in and through you, to will and do His good pleasure.
Sister Goiter - Normal
II Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, and not by sight.
Abraham received God's promise of a son, born from his own and his wife's bodies. Moreover, God had promised to bless the whole world through that son. So now, if God demanded that Abraham ("Father of Nations") sacrifice Isaac...Abraham knew enough of God's character and power, to trust that even Isaac's death could not stop God's promise being completed. After all, hadn't Sara's womb been "dead"?
Abraham assured Isaac, "God will provide a lamb"...and thereby set up the perfect test of faith for himself and for Isaac. He could have instructed one of the servants to bring a lamb, to show that he didn't believe God would really let him kill Isaac. But that would have looked like trying to force God. Instead, Abraham went up the mountain with Isaac, coals, and wood, and he promised the servants, "We will come again to you." (Gen. 22:5 KJV) And for his faith, for his wholehearted trust in the Word of the LORD, Abraham received his son back unharmed. It hadn't been Isaac whom God wanted, but Abraham.
Andrew Wommack tells the story of a lady with a hideous goiter, who received prayer for it. She immediately began to thank God for her healing...even though the goiter did not disappear, nor even change. As the lady repeatedly testified to her healing, the people of the congregation kept their focus on the goiter. They believed their eyes, as Peter had believed the waves would drown him...closing their ears to her testimony and their hearts to God's power and faithfulness. Only when the lady prayed to God, "I know you healed this goiter. Please take it away so that these people can be strengthened in their faith," did the goiter disappear overnight.
The story of 'Sister Goiter' throws into stark relief the 'normal' world's contrast with what is 'normal' to expect of God. All things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). Perhaps a "new normal" is in order for the Church. It should be normal for the Christian to see great things from God, in return for our faith, our trust, and our thanks.
"Such as I Have"
Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give.
This verse sets a precedent: Jesus gave the 70 disciples a dispensation of God's power--freely, without reservation, keeping nothing back--he sent them on a mission to undo what had gone wrong.
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
This verse illustrates the new state of things in the Church age: Once Jesus had ascended to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers, His unmitigated power was unleashed. What we have in the wonderful, victorious name of our Risen Lord is more valuable, more powerful than silver and gold. Jesus freely gave us His name, to do his work.
The Difference
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.
This abiding is the difference between a fruitless Christian life and a tree of life that keeps sowing while it grows.
Abiding sounds fairly passive - yet nothing about the Christian life is passive. At the very least, I must check my will continually, to bring it in line with God's. Jesus abode in the Father by doing His explicit will; so we abide in Jesus by doing His will. To discover that, we study scripture, ponder it, and talk to God. We fellowship and study and worship with other Christians, and develop discernment. Abiding is a way of life, not only on a natural level, but also on the supernatural level.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
This seems like an opportune place to quote from one of my all-time favorite songwriter-singers, Rich Mullins: "Everybody I know says they need just 'one thing,'
and what they really mean, is they need just 'one thing more'.
And everybody seems to think they got it coming,
Well, I know I don't deserve it - still, I want to love and serve you
more and more....You're my 'one thing.' "
Hebrews 11 is fondly accounted the "great faith chapter" with its hall of faith roster. It presages this verse from chapter 13 with examples of people who put their belief into action, whose faith empowered, sustained, and rewarded them with a good report.
The God who championed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Elijah and David...champions you. The same power that broke through to save each one out of desperate circumstances, is accessible to you, to renew, to help you overcome adversity, to help you abide. By God's grace your life is hid in Christ, and faith -- his and ours -- is the victory.
This topic begins with some of the same theme verses as the preceding topic, as it is homing in on the essential point, that the power which enabled the Resurrection, and which heals, restores and equips believers ever since the Church Age began, is...
The Same Power
Ephesians 1:19-21 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
This is part of Paul's prayer for the saints at Ephesus, not that they would receive power, but that they would have fully revealed to them, what God has already installed in the believer, with the entry of the Holy Spirit. It is well worth dwelling on this passage with the last several study topics, and it is especially necessary given the climate in the present-day Church. That is a climate of a) reluctance to ask God for/trust God with big things, and b) a stubborn attitude of neediness. What we need is to get the assurance of the greatness of God's power already available to us (the exceeding greatness of his power [towards us])!
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
"All spiritual blessings" is worth exploring, isn't it? Since it is in Christ that we have received this package, that gives us a good outline. I encourage you to look over the following scriptures for these blessings; this is just a get-you-started list...
1) wisdom:
*I Cor. 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? But we have the mind of Christ.
*Proverbs 8:22 Wisdom endowed with personhood, speaks thusly, the LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
*Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
2) wholeness:
*Colossians 1:20 God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
*Ephesians 2:3-16 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby (in this passage Paul was assuring that the Gentiles were now included in the New Covenant of Christ, as were the descendants of Israel, and God had made peace between himself and all his children).
*Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
3) Liberty in Christ:
*John 8:31-21 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Ye shall know the truth, and the Truth (He is a person!) shall make you free...free from the law of sin and death, free to be conformed to the image of Christ, free to walk with God (Romans 8:1-4).
4)Righteousness:
*II Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
*Romans 10:10 For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
5)Access:
*Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
"Real Dumb" - Flip the Switch (study author Andrew Wommack relates how a man came up for prayer over a long list of health concerns, but then hedged by saying he could deal with the rest if only God would heal the top two or three items. The look on Wommack's face, and the exchange he had with the man about God's limitless power and love, convinced the man who was hurting that it is "pretty dumb" to expect less of God than He is able to do.)
Colossians 2:7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Following that (partial) list of spiritual blessings (benefits!) in Christ, how can we then pull back and hesitate to bring God our whole concern, our every need? To tell God your needs is to admit them to yourself and to agree with God on what he already knows. Now I put the question: where or when in scripture, has God ever cared about something without taking decisive action on it? While God's prescription may differ, even greatly so, from what we ask Him to do in a situation, still--when has God ever failed to right a wrong?
The whole course of this study series has shown that God is the author of good to those who love Him (and even, of mercy towards many who don't); that God is always on; that God has consistent willingness and power to do good. God is not like a neighbor who needs to be badgered to help me in the middle of the night, and He cannot be overwhelmed by my load of cares.
If I believe that, if you believe that, we must step out in faith, doubting nothing and without fear. Having been rooted, like a new greenhouse cutting, in Jesus, and established in the faith of Jesus, we are trees of righteousness. Our "natural" reaction, which ironically takes effort to learn, should be twofold: trust, and thanksgiving.
Many times you cannot convince yourself of God's power towards you, just by telling yourself, "I believe!" If you are short on trust, go back to giving thanks--taking stock of the spiritual and natural blessings in your faith pantry, always reveals a bigger store than you had anticipated. Thank God for what you have, trust Him for what you need, and you will have it, too. Philippians 4:6 says "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." So, ask God for the whole debt crisis resolution; ask Him for help in all your physical distresses, not just the ones you think won't be too much trouble to Him. Is God ever depleted? Is He ever too backlogged? Is God ever tired, or do His batteries need recharging?...Are you out of your mind?! Flip the switch to full "ON" --this is God, the ultimate power source, who lives in and works in and through you, to will and do His good pleasure.
Sister Goiter - Normal
II Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, and not by sight.
Abraham received God's promise of a son, born from his own and his wife's bodies. Moreover, God had promised to bless the whole world through that son. So now, if God demanded that Abraham ("Father of Nations") sacrifice Isaac...Abraham knew enough of God's character and power, to trust that even Isaac's death could not stop God's promise being completed. After all, hadn't Sara's womb been "dead"?
Abraham assured Isaac, "God will provide a lamb"...and thereby set up the perfect test of faith for himself and for Isaac. He could have instructed one of the servants to bring a lamb, to show that he didn't believe God would really let him kill Isaac. But that would have looked like trying to force God. Instead, Abraham went up the mountain with Isaac, coals, and wood, and he promised the servants, "We will come again to you." (Gen. 22:5 KJV) And for his faith, for his wholehearted trust in the Word of the LORD, Abraham received his son back unharmed. It hadn't been Isaac whom God wanted, but Abraham.
Andrew Wommack tells the story of a lady with a hideous goiter, who received prayer for it. She immediately began to thank God for her healing...even though the goiter did not disappear, nor even change. As the lady repeatedly testified to her healing, the people of the congregation kept their focus on the goiter. They believed their eyes, as Peter had believed the waves would drown him...closing their ears to her testimony and their hearts to God's power and faithfulness. Only when the lady prayed to God, "I know you healed this goiter. Please take it away so that these people can be strengthened in their faith," did the goiter disappear overnight.
The story of 'Sister Goiter' throws into stark relief the 'normal' world's contrast with what is 'normal' to expect of God. All things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). Perhaps a "new normal" is in order for the Church. It should be normal for the Christian to see great things from God, in return for our faith, our trust, and our thanks.
"Such as I Have"
Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give.
This verse sets a precedent: Jesus gave the 70 disciples a dispensation of God's power--freely, without reservation, keeping nothing back--he sent them on a mission to undo what had gone wrong.
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
This verse illustrates the new state of things in the Church age: Once Jesus had ascended to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers, His unmitigated power was unleashed. What we have in the wonderful, victorious name of our Risen Lord is more valuable, more powerful than silver and gold. Jesus freely gave us His name, to do his work.
The Difference
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.
This abiding is the difference between a fruitless Christian life and a tree of life that keeps sowing while it grows.
Abiding sounds fairly passive - yet nothing about the Christian life is passive. At the very least, I must check my will continually, to bring it in line with God's. Jesus abode in the Father by doing His explicit will; so we abide in Jesus by doing His will. To discover that, we study scripture, ponder it, and talk to God. We fellowship and study and worship with other Christians, and develop discernment. Abiding is a way of life, not only on a natural level, but also on the supernatural level.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
This seems like an opportune place to quote from one of my all-time favorite songwriter-singers, Rich Mullins: "Everybody I know says they need just 'one thing,'
and what they really mean, is they need just 'one thing more'.
And everybody seems to think they got it coming,
Well, I know I don't deserve it - still, I want to love and serve you
more and more....You're my 'one thing.' "
Hebrews 11 is fondly accounted the "great faith chapter" with its hall of faith roster. It presages this verse from chapter 13 with examples of people who put their belief into action, whose faith empowered, sustained, and rewarded them with a good report.
The God who championed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Elijah and David...champions you. The same power that broke through to save each one out of desperate circumstances, is accessible to you, to renew, to help you overcome adversity, to help you abide. By God's grace your life is hid in Christ, and faith -- his and ours -- is the victory.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Open Your Eyes (Topic #11)
(notes prepared for Bible study, August 29, and following)
Thank You, Father
Ephesians 1:15-23 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Now, that's a prayer! Perhaps our prayers could be more effective sometimes, if they came out more as thanking God for what He has done, is doing, and is going to do, that as a list of things we ask Him to do? Reading this selection for the topic, it struck me that my prayers often jump right into the needs that I need God to address. But I said in an earlier piece, as it occurred to me, that faith, after all, "is not working the pump handle until the gush of water comes, but placing the bucket and turning the spigot open." So, I need to retrain my prayer life to be more like Paul's...and that of Jesus.
Paul began his letter to the Christian church at Ephesus with his usual salutation praising God, the founder of their faith, and then he says to them, "I do not stop giving thanks for you," ...and I love this, because it is Paul living out the advice he gives to the Philippians, "in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (4:6).
Just look at what he goes on to ask of God, to do for these Ephesian believers: he wants them to have the spirit of wisdom, and revelation in the knowledge of God (not just that they would know neat stuff about God, but that that knowledge would expand their confidence in God), so that their understanding, their mind's eye, might be 'enlightened'.
I do think it is time to deal with this idea of enlightenment. For starters, I think the Church needs to take it back. The word itself has been corrupted into various new-and-improved applications: in the Age of Enlightenment, the word meant something like, casting off all the folderol of mysticism and looking at the world with cold, hard reason, unaided by faith in the unseen. In the twentieth century as Eastern religions swept over America, enlightenment meant something like, emptying the mind of all reason and laying oneself bare to whatever opportunistic spiritual forces might come in. But neither of these was the original meaning of enlightenment.
What Paul means by enlightenment, is the ability of the mind and heart (the soul!) to 'see' God, to sense how He is moving in one's life. In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul says that "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor 4:6) That shining in the hearts, is the Holy Spirit, to whom we learned in the previous study topic, we need to tune in. In that one sentence, Paul neatly packages the supreme ideals of Jewish, Greek, and Roman thought (light, knowledge, glory - respectively), and all these are attributes of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
And now to the reason for Paul's request on behalf of the saints at Ephesus (and, I believe, what God wants for all of us as believers): it is purely for our encouragement in the faith! We need to know the hope in the calling of living as God's reborn child; we need to understand that we are going to be brought into a staggering weight of glory when we are joined finally with him in eternity; and we need to remember that the same power that God used in raising Christ from the dead, is at our disposal, is being dispensed on our behalf.
Spirit and Life
Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The hope of the Christian is concrete - because it is founded in the resurrection of Jesus, and by extension, in His ability to bring us after Him. Into the bargain, the "earnest of the Holy Spirit" assures us that our hope is secure. So the Spirit of Life infuses our life with hope. We like to say in the natural, that while there is breath, there is life. By the same token, where the Spirit dwells, there is spiritual life, and a source of real hope.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Every human is at least born of the flesh, but the Spirit 'rebirth' comes secondarily, when the individual soul submits to God and asks, "May the redemption provided in Jesus Christ, be for me." (This couching of the Spiritual transformation as a 'rebirth' harks back to the day God breathed life into Adam's nostrils, making him a living soul. Only one man was so alive - since the Fall, all men have come into the world first lacking the spiritual vitality that Adam experienced for a short time.)
And with entrance of the Holy Spirit, "life" is a different thing altogether. Life in the Spirit is real life, inasmuch as it is life that flows from Immanuel's veins.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
In the flesh, a physically healthy man can lose the will to live...and without that will or spirit to live, his body will weaken.
We speak of 'hope' as 'a spark,' when thinking of such instances. And all the records of Jesus' life and direct ministry among men are recorded, as John explained it, in order to encourage belief in Christ as Savior Lord, and offer the hope of life to our spirits.
Words have an amazing power over us, and God's Word in particular, has the power of life in it.
Enlightened
Ephesians 1:7-9 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself...
I reiterate: the word 'enlightenment' has been much abused. From what I think was the most original meaning, "to bring understanding," it has been through a phase of plain intellectual significance (the Age of Enlightenment), and most recently a phase of plain, disembodied spiritualism devoid of intellect (New Age Spiritualism).
Paul himself came first from the perspective of a supremely educated intellect, and latterly that of a spiritual illumination he hadn't known he was missing. So when he speaks of enlightenment, Paul fully knows what it is to experience the fusion of mind and heart, and to be able, at last, to see.
Sixth Sense
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
II Kings 6:15-17 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
We aren't reading about blind physical eyes being repaired, in these verses; we are reading about the sixth sense, the eyes of the heart, being opened. With this wisdom can come sorrow, as in the case of Adam and Eve having their innocence replaced by shame, or great encouragement, as when the servant of Elisha was allowed to see the heavenly host that had been commanded to protect the man of God.
So the point of both selections here, is ...
II Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Adam and Eve had the choice to walk by faith, to take God's word about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Elisha's servant could have taken Elisha's word of assurance that God had provided for their defense. Elisha himself was the one to walk by faith. And in fact, while this is neither here nor there, it is fun to ponder this: did Elisha himself see the heavenly army, or did he just believe that God had his back, and pray out of of concern for his quaking servant?
Our world has conflicting things to say about physical sight. One is, 'Seeing is believing.' The other is, 'I can't believe my eyes.' And to both stances, the Word of God is, "Believe, and you will see."
Supernatural - In the Saints
II Thessalonians 2:14 ...the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is God's purpose in His self-sacrifice, in raising Jesus from the dead -- in sending believers to deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth: it is that you obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus, in being conformed to His image. We were made with God's imprint on us - and the Christian, having accepted the redemption, is equipped to develop Christ's image on his soul. It may be a bit blurry at first, like the old Polaroid snapshots, but it does develop.
Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
No matter what, the glory of God, that is all set to be revealed in us, the fruition of His plans to give us an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11), far outstrips the weight of what we deal with on this terrestrial ball.
I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The old hymn says this best: "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory!"
Thank You, Father
Ephesians 1:15-23 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Now, that's a prayer! Perhaps our prayers could be more effective sometimes, if they came out more as thanking God for what He has done, is doing, and is going to do, that as a list of things we ask Him to do? Reading this selection for the topic, it struck me that my prayers often jump right into the needs that I need God to address. But I said in an earlier piece, as it occurred to me, that faith, after all, "is not working the pump handle until the gush of water comes, but placing the bucket and turning the spigot open." So, I need to retrain my prayer life to be more like Paul's...and that of Jesus.
Paul began his letter to the Christian church at Ephesus with his usual salutation praising God, the founder of their faith, and then he says to them, "I do not stop giving thanks for you," ...and I love this, because it is Paul living out the advice he gives to the Philippians, "in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (4:6).
Just look at what he goes on to ask of God, to do for these Ephesian believers: he wants them to have the spirit of wisdom, and revelation in the knowledge of God (not just that they would know neat stuff about God, but that that knowledge would expand their confidence in God), so that their understanding, their mind's eye, might be 'enlightened'.
I do think it is time to deal with this idea of enlightenment. For starters, I think the Church needs to take it back. The word itself has been corrupted into various new-and-improved applications: in the Age of Enlightenment, the word meant something like, casting off all the folderol of mysticism and looking at the world with cold, hard reason, unaided by faith in the unseen. In the twentieth century as Eastern religions swept over America, enlightenment meant something like, emptying the mind of all reason and laying oneself bare to whatever opportunistic spiritual forces might come in. But neither of these was the original meaning of enlightenment.
What Paul means by enlightenment, is the ability of the mind and heart (the soul!) to 'see' God, to sense how He is moving in one's life. In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul says that "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor 4:6) That shining in the hearts, is the Holy Spirit, to whom we learned in the previous study topic, we need to tune in. In that one sentence, Paul neatly packages the supreme ideals of Jewish, Greek, and Roman thought (light, knowledge, glory - respectively), and all these are attributes of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
And now to the reason for Paul's request on behalf of the saints at Ephesus (and, I believe, what God wants for all of us as believers): it is purely for our encouragement in the faith! We need to know the hope in the calling of living as God's reborn child; we need to understand that we are going to be brought into a staggering weight of glory when we are joined finally with him in eternity; and we need to remember that the same power that God used in raising Christ from the dead, is at our disposal, is being dispensed on our behalf.
Spirit and Life
Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The hope of the Christian is concrete - because it is founded in the resurrection of Jesus, and by extension, in His ability to bring us after Him. Into the bargain, the "earnest of the Holy Spirit" assures us that our hope is secure. So the Spirit of Life infuses our life with hope. We like to say in the natural, that while there is breath, there is life. By the same token, where the Spirit dwells, there is spiritual life, and a source of real hope.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Every human is at least born of the flesh, but the Spirit 'rebirth' comes secondarily, when the individual soul submits to God and asks, "May the redemption provided in Jesus Christ, be for me." (This couching of the Spiritual transformation as a 'rebirth' harks back to the day God breathed life into Adam's nostrils, making him a living soul. Only one man was so alive - since the Fall, all men have come into the world first lacking the spiritual vitality that Adam experienced for a short time.)
And with entrance of the Holy Spirit, "life" is a different thing altogether. Life in the Spirit is real life, inasmuch as it is life that flows from Immanuel's veins.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
In the flesh, a physically healthy man can lose the will to live...and without that will or spirit to live, his body will weaken.
We speak of 'hope' as 'a spark,' when thinking of such instances. And all the records of Jesus' life and direct ministry among men are recorded, as John explained it, in order to encourage belief in Christ as Savior Lord, and offer the hope of life to our spirits.
Words have an amazing power over us, and God's Word in particular, has the power of life in it.
Enlightened
Ephesians 1:7-9 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself...
I reiterate: the word 'enlightenment' has been much abused. From what I think was the most original meaning, "to bring understanding," it has been through a phase of plain intellectual significance (the Age of Enlightenment), and most recently a phase of plain, disembodied spiritualism devoid of intellect (New Age Spiritualism).
Paul himself came first from the perspective of a supremely educated intellect, and latterly that of a spiritual illumination he hadn't known he was missing. So when he speaks of enlightenment, Paul fully knows what it is to experience the fusion of mind and heart, and to be able, at last, to see.
Sixth Sense
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
II Kings 6:15-17 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
We aren't reading about blind physical eyes being repaired, in these verses; we are reading about the sixth sense, the eyes of the heart, being opened. With this wisdom can come sorrow, as in the case of Adam and Eve having their innocence replaced by shame, or great encouragement, as when the servant of Elisha was allowed to see the heavenly host that had been commanded to protect the man of God.
So the point of both selections here, is ...
II Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Adam and Eve had the choice to walk by faith, to take God's word about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Elisha's servant could have taken Elisha's word of assurance that God had provided for their defense. Elisha himself was the one to walk by faith. And in fact, while this is neither here nor there, it is fun to ponder this: did Elisha himself see the heavenly army, or did he just believe that God had his back, and pray out of of concern for his quaking servant?
Our world has conflicting things to say about physical sight. One is, 'Seeing is believing.' The other is, 'I can't believe my eyes.' And to both stances, the Word of God is, "Believe, and you will see."
Supernatural - In the Saints
II Thessalonians 2:14 ...the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is God's purpose in His self-sacrifice, in raising Jesus from the dead -- in sending believers to deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth: it is that you obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus, in being conformed to His image. We were made with God's imprint on us - and the Christian, having accepted the redemption, is equipped to develop Christ's image on his soul. It may be a bit blurry at first, like the old Polaroid snapshots, but it does develop.
Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
No matter what, the glory of God, that is all set to be revealed in us, the fruition of His plans to give us an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11), far outstrips the weight of what we deal with on this terrestrial ball.
I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The old hymn says this best: "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory!"
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Didymus
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Author of my faith,
help thou mine unbelief!
I saw you hang between heaven and earth,
scourge of God's judgment
upon my hardened heart.
Out of the depths,
out of the mirey clay
You rescued my soul with nail-pierced hands,
Your blood has made my foulness clean.
These are the wounds that hate bestowed.
These are the wounds that Love accepted.
At the nail-pierced feet
of my Risen Lord,
I will never doubt again.
Author of my faith,
help thou mine unbelief!
I saw you hang between heaven and earth,
scourge of God's judgment
upon my hardened heart.
Out of the depths,
out of the mirey clay
You rescued my soul with nail-pierced hands,
Your blood has made my foulness clean.
These are the wounds that hate bestowed.
These are the wounds that Love accepted.
At the nail-pierced feet
of my Risen Lord,
I will never doubt again.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
While I was supposed to be writing up a dictation on the Dark Ages, my mind wandered
The work of education is that of extricating a human, body and soul, from the dishonored and truncated state into which he is born, and training the individual into a state that equips and inspires him to reach toward the glory and honor for which his Creator has designed him. It is a mission of implicit spiritual and moral, as well as civil, significance - and therefore, education has no natural alliances with minions of State machinery. The State is grounded in this world; education prepares us to seek the next.
Before the reader jumps to any conclusion - namely, that this grand vision of education's purpose necessarily excludes a majority of the world population which will never have the money for "education"...allow me to suggest that you reach this judgement because you believe that education comes out of reading great tomes and ends with "PhD." I submit that such education is part of a system of centralized, homogenized indoctrination, or at least injection. True education is the concept of 'leading' (from the Latin root word ducere 'to lead') 'out from' (e, the Latin preposition meaning 'away from or out of') the beginning state, implicitly one of spiritual and intellectual darkness.
Understood in this most basic way, education obviates only the transmission of knowledge and the development of wisdom, which is the capacity to apply knowledge in conscientious ways. (If knowledge is put to evil use, we call this craft, or guile.) There is no reason to stipulate that illiterate or destitute persons cannot be educated, then. Long before mankind studied the printed page, he listened to the words of those who knew, and watched the people and their conduct around him. And indeed, we still have the term, "book-smart" to differentiate John who has accumulated recorded knowledge, though not necessarily the requisite wisdom to function at large, from Adam who navigates society very well without a diploma.
I am in no way denigrating basic training or higher academic pursuit: on the one hand, I have appreciated and experienced both for their own virtue. On the other hand, my educated status does not fit the bill of market-ready skills so much as it equips me for motherhood, which, as G.K. Chesterton paints it, is the profession of shaping children into men and women of quality - no small task, that. But, I digress....
What I long to see is a restoration of the term 'education' to its first implications and its complete value, and next the liberation of education from its puppet role in the hands of politically-motivated agendas. In my view, the most advantageous step towards restoring education is to amputate the NEA goiter from the national throat. We need to rescue education from the category of a languishing, government-controlled business in the hands of those who love to rule, and put it back as a cherished trust into the hands of people who love to lift up their fellow man.
Before the reader jumps to any conclusion - namely, that this grand vision of education's purpose necessarily excludes a majority of the world population which will never have the money for "education"...allow me to suggest that you reach this judgement because you believe that education comes out of reading great tomes and ends with "PhD." I submit that such education is part of a system of centralized, homogenized indoctrination, or at least injection. True education is the concept of 'leading' (from the Latin root word ducere 'to lead') 'out from' (e, the Latin preposition meaning 'away from or out of') the beginning state, implicitly one of spiritual and intellectual darkness.
Understood in this most basic way, education obviates only the transmission of knowledge and the development of wisdom, which is the capacity to apply knowledge in conscientious ways. (If knowledge is put to evil use, we call this craft, or guile.) There is no reason to stipulate that illiterate or destitute persons cannot be educated, then. Long before mankind studied the printed page, he listened to the words of those who knew, and watched the people and their conduct around him. And indeed, we still have the term, "book-smart" to differentiate John who has accumulated recorded knowledge, though not necessarily the requisite wisdom to function at large, from Adam who navigates society very well without a diploma.
I am in no way denigrating basic training or higher academic pursuit: on the one hand, I have appreciated and experienced both for their own virtue. On the other hand, my educated status does not fit the bill of market-ready skills so much as it equips me for motherhood, which, as G.K. Chesterton paints it, is the profession of shaping children into men and women of quality - no small task, that. But, I digress....
What I long to see is a restoration of the term 'education' to its first implications and its complete value, and next the liberation of education from its puppet role in the hands of politically-motivated agendas. In my view, the most advantageous step towards restoring education is to amputate the NEA goiter from the national throat. We need to rescue education from the category of a languishing, government-controlled business in the hands of those who love to rule, and put it back as a cherished trust into the hands of people who love to lift up their fellow man.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Turn On and Tune In
(notes prepared for Bible study, 8/1/12 and following)
{It seems the Church has been taught so long and hard on its worldly and spiritual faults, that we have learned to approach God (if at all) in abject fear and trembling, with a thousand apologies in advance for His trouble with us. There is some truth to this side of things. The other side of the cookie is just as important, and so much more palatable that some of us hesitate to taste and see: when God looks at you, a born-again believer, He sees not the worm you know yourself to be, but Christ, the Son.
God looks at you, and He sees Christ. So we can stop this maudlin bowing and scraping, shilly-shally in the hallway, walk through the door that is Christ, and come boldly to the throne of grace. (Heb 4:16)
The purpose of this current study is to help us "activate, already!" all the potential stored up for us. First we have to "turn on" the more-than-conquerors consciousness. Then, we must "tune in" to the Holy Spirit so that we, like Paul, may labor more abundantly...and it will be not we who so labor, but the Spirit working in and through us.}
You Were Healed
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
As beings with a dual nature, fleshly and spiritual, our spiritual health can be subjugated to our fleshly needs of health and fitness. When we are sick or damaged, a delay in the recovery of the body can sicken or damage our spiritual fitness. All the more needful, at such times, to stay firm in this verse's blessed assurance: Christ has healed the spiritual virus and damage we had from birth. He has broken down the wall of separation that sin had built between us and God. The hymn says it best: "Let this blest assurance control: that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul."
Knowing that I am healthy in Christ, able to approach God's throne of grace with confidence, knowing that I am clothed with Christ's righteousness, goes a long, long way to help me trust God for other areas, of temporal healing. Whole ministries, movements, and sects are built on the miraculous physical healings by Jesus. They are what they are....and God is still in the business of healing bodies.
The healing I think is most important, since it is of eternal significance, is the healing of the soul; the opening of the spiritual ears, eyes, and heart; the deposit of the mind of Christ into the believer.
I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
At this point in this study series, a little bit of grammar to illuminate our spiritual enlightenment: we tend to read the 'should' as 'ought/must,' when what the Elizabethan English of the King James translation really conveys is, "Christ took the penalty for our sins on his body, so that now we can live in a state of righteousness. See, this is not a case of 'Jesus has done X, so you are duty-bound to do Y,' and leading us all a tortured dance of dos and don'ts in search of righteousness, with a dead-ending focus on self. But it is a statement of what Christ our Peacemaker has done, and so doing he has put us on the high and narrow road.
Remember, when God looks on you, he sees Christ. At Calvary you were healed of all that offends the holy eyes of God. On Resurrection morning, you were redeemed. When the Holy Spirit entered your heart, you were empowered.
{The next section of readings falls, I think, into three discernible phases. I think this makes it easier to swallow the suddenly-liberating, and somewhat-terrifying revelation of being.......}
Already Anointed
Isaiah 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.
Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Without wishing or meaning to disparage the earnestness of many people who conduct various ministries or publish principles of spiritual warfare based on these scripture verses, it must be said for emphasis....these are Old Testament prayers, prayed under Old Testament conditions! (No, this is not my throwing up the Old Testament, for I love it dearly. It is a matter of understanding its relevance.)
O, how I love the Old Testament! I have meditated in it night and day. (Shades of Psalm 119)
In recent months I have been challenged to reassess how I should apply what I glean there. The history of God's work is awe-inspiring, and every one of us can find parts of ourselves in the parade of characters under construction through the ages before Christ. But as far as picking prayers to emulate, it is important to remember that everybody in the Old Testament was before the incarnate Christ, and their prayers represent pre-Pentecost conditions on this earth: no salvation-revealing, no messiah come in the flesh, no work of redemption done, no indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit.
For all these reasons, to pray the beautiful, sincere prayers in the two Old Testament verses, anymore, is to deny all that the New Testament records as accomplished. To ease the shock of that statement, take each element in turn.
God did rend the heavens, and come down to live a human life. As he gave up his spirit, Jesus' torments were reflected in the very atmosphere as a storm came and earthquakes cast dead bodies out of graves. (Can you imagine it - that reverberation must have been felt across the universe!)
God did find a way to wash our hearts clean, and he has given us a clean conscience in Christ. He has promised never to leave or forsake us, so let God be true, and every man a liar.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Moving into phase 2, the emphasis is on Christ's perpetual companionship, and that this is THE THING, more than things, which should occupy and inspire us, in word and deed.
A very wise friend pointed out that the thrust of these two verses is not, 'name it and claim it,' but 'name Him and claim Him.' (Hallelujah, there's the Gospel for you!)
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.
What about the matter of 'anointing'? In general, time will see a tale much embroidered, while a practice is watered down. Just as some sects will sprinkle the head with water and call it baptism, so a smear of oil on the forehead is counted as anointing. I believe both practices so performed are weakened in their spiritual significance by the over-simplifying of their physicality.
Baptism by immersing illustrated the burial of a sinful past, and the raising up of a 'new man.' The whole body went into the water because the whole man needed cleansing.
Now when Samuel was told to anoint David, he took a vessel of oil, either a large horn or a bag made from a skin, for the purpose. He took sufficient oil to pour over David's head, to run down his entire body. Even in the Middle Ages, a person being anointed for holy office or for burial was given a full-body treatment. To be anointed has always meant to be soaked, marinated, whether we are dealing with perfuming spices or medicinal ointments, and definitely where the Holy Spirit is concerned. Think about this: as you start the day with the world's morning news, are you craving a few drops, a sprinkling of Holy Spirit equipping, or do you opt for the full suit of armor, thank-you-very-much?
This is where the verses from Matthew and Luke put us: in a group of two or three believers, indwelt by God's Holy Spirit, there is so much Spirit presence that the joint vessel is full of Christ. The Holy Spirit was upon Jesus, as at the opening of the heavens after his baptism, and we know that in the transfiguration, Jesus allowed three disciples a glimpse of the glory He shared with the Father - proving He was steeped in Spirit anointing! And so, if this is who dwells in your heart, then yes, you have been soaked, you have been sent, to live the gospel.
Never let the devil talk you down with your shortcomings. The finest craftsmen use handtools that seem rude and inexact compared to precision machinery. And do you doubt that God Almighty can make a masterpiece from imperfect clay?
Agree With God's Word
II Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.
It is God doing the establishing, the building of us all together, in Christ His chosen foundation, and who are we to dispute God's blueprint? or His choice of building materials, or the proposed schedule for the project?
I John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
'Unction' is used only once in all of scripture, and it is the Greek word 'chrisma', an unguent or smearing (in the figurative sense), and as it relates to God, an endowment of the Holy Spirit. So there you have it: as a Christian you are fully anointed with the Holy Spirit and all of the consequent potential waiting to be activated. That is why you have those "a-ha!" moments in reading scripture. And it is why, after ten years of reading a favorite psalm, you still learn from it...or should I say, more exactly, you recognize something else. You know, in your spirit, more than you think you know. Selah.
What About Daniel? Check Your Receiver
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Don't we all love Daniel, for his humble heart, his sincere ability to repent on behalf of his nation, his amazing transmission to us of heavenly visions. Indeed Daniel's experiences are a perfect example of the great contrast between one man whose heart is seeking to know God, and a whole nation that has turned off their receiver, and tuned out God's transmission.
We are in a time when there is a glut of information - things to know - available to anyone with internet access, so that we don't actually place enough value on the knowledge we have, never mind the knowledge we forego. Of course, the relevant category for this topic is, knowledge of God.
If David, Isaiah, and Daniel were unable to be "born again" living in their pre-Messiah times, still it has always been possible to know God. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and so many more walked with God. Joseph and Moses and Joshua endured great hardships because they were certain of the LORD's upholding them with His righteous right hand.
Daniel certainly walked with God, in captivity, in servitude, under close surveillance by the most jealous and dangerous men in the land. Where the circumstances of Daniel's life might cause many to reject God's presence, Daniel became vey intentional about turning on and tuning in his receiver -- that is, opening his heart to God, he poured out the grief and repentance, and found himself filled with the confidence to keep walking with God.
I think Daniel's life shows us this: trust in what you know of God, pursue Him, and you will know that you can trust Him.
{It seems the Church has been taught so long and hard on its worldly and spiritual faults, that we have learned to approach God (if at all) in abject fear and trembling, with a thousand apologies in advance for His trouble with us. There is some truth to this side of things. The other side of the cookie is just as important, and so much more palatable that some of us hesitate to taste and see: when God looks at you, a born-again believer, He sees not the worm you know yourself to be, but Christ, the Son.
God looks at you, and He sees Christ. So we can stop this maudlin bowing and scraping, shilly-shally in the hallway, walk through the door that is Christ, and come boldly to the throne of grace. (Heb 4:16)
The purpose of this current study is to help us "activate, already!" all the potential stored up for us. First we have to "turn on" the more-than-conquerors consciousness. Then, we must "tune in" to the Holy Spirit so that we, like Paul, may labor more abundantly...and it will be not we who so labor, but the Spirit working in and through us.}
You Were Healed
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
As beings with a dual nature, fleshly and spiritual, our spiritual health can be subjugated to our fleshly needs of health and fitness. When we are sick or damaged, a delay in the recovery of the body can sicken or damage our spiritual fitness. All the more needful, at such times, to stay firm in this verse's blessed assurance: Christ has healed the spiritual virus and damage we had from birth. He has broken down the wall of separation that sin had built between us and God. The hymn says it best: "Let this blest assurance control: that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul."
Knowing that I am healthy in Christ, able to approach God's throne of grace with confidence, knowing that I am clothed with Christ's righteousness, goes a long, long way to help me trust God for other areas, of temporal healing. Whole ministries, movements, and sects are built on the miraculous physical healings by Jesus. They are what they are....and God is still in the business of healing bodies.
The healing I think is most important, since it is of eternal significance, is the healing of the soul; the opening of the spiritual ears, eyes, and heart; the deposit of the mind of Christ into the believer.
I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
At this point in this study series, a little bit of grammar to illuminate our spiritual enlightenment: we tend to read the 'should' as 'ought/must,' when what the Elizabethan English of the King James translation really conveys is, "Christ took the penalty for our sins on his body, so that now we can live in a state of righteousness. See, this is not a case of 'Jesus has done X, so you are duty-bound to do Y,' and leading us all a tortured dance of dos and don'ts in search of righteousness, with a dead-ending focus on self. But it is a statement of what Christ our Peacemaker has done, and so doing he has put us on the high and narrow road.
Remember, when God looks on you, he sees Christ. At Calvary you were healed of all that offends the holy eyes of God. On Resurrection morning, you were redeemed. When the Holy Spirit entered your heart, you were empowered.
{The next section of readings falls, I think, into three discernible phases. I think this makes it easier to swallow the suddenly-liberating, and somewhat-terrifying revelation of being.......}
Already Anointed
Isaiah 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.
Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Without wishing or meaning to disparage the earnestness of many people who conduct various ministries or publish principles of spiritual warfare based on these scripture verses, it must be said for emphasis....these are Old Testament prayers, prayed under Old Testament conditions! (No, this is not my throwing up the Old Testament, for I love it dearly. It is a matter of understanding its relevance.)
O, how I love the Old Testament! I have meditated in it night and day. (Shades of Psalm 119)
In recent months I have been challenged to reassess how I should apply what I glean there. The history of God's work is awe-inspiring, and every one of us can find parts of ourselves in the parade of characters under construction through the ages before Christ. But as far as picking prayers to emulate, it is important to remember that everybody in the Old Testament was before the incarnate Christ, and their prayers represent pre-Pentecost conditions on this earth: no salvation-revealing, no messiah come in the flesh, no work of redemption done, no indwelling of believers by the Holy Spirit.
For all these reasons, to pray the beautiful, sincere prayers in the two Old Testament verses, anymore, is to deny all that the New Testament records as accomplished. To ease the shock of that statement, take each element in turn.
God did rend the heavens, and come down to live a human life. As he gave up his spirit, Jesus' torments were reflected in the very atmosphere as a storm came and earthquakes cast dead bodies out of graves. (Can you imagine it - that reverberation must have been felt across the universe!)
God did find a way to wash our hearts clean, and he has given us a clean conscience in Christ. He has promised never to leave or forsake us, so let God be true, and every man a liar.
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Moving into phase 2, the emphasis is on Christ's perpetual companionship, and that this is THE THING, more than things, which should occupy and inspire us, in word and deed.
A very wise friend pointed out that the thrust of these two verses is not, 'name it and claim it,' but 'name Him and claim Him.' (Hallelujah, there's the Gospel for you!)
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.
What about the matter of 'anointing'? In general, time will see a tale much embroidered, while a practice is watered down. Just as some sects will sprinkle the head with water and call it baptism, so a smear of oil on the forehead is counted as anointing. I believe both practices so performed are weakened in their spiritual significance by the over-simplifying of their physicality.
Baptism by immersing illustrated the burial of a sinful past, and the raising up of a 'new man.' The whole body went into the water because the whole man needed cleansing.
Now when Samuel was told to anoint David, he took a vessel of oil, either a large horn or a bag made from a skin, for the purpose. He took sufficient oil to pour over David's head, to run down his entire body. Even in the Middle Ages, a person being anointed for holy office or for burial was given a full-body treatment. To be anointed has always meant to be soaked, marinated, whether we are dealing with perfuming spices or medicinal ointments, and definitely where the Holy Spirit is concerned. Think about this: as you start the day with the world's morning news, are you craving a few drops, a sprinkling of Holy Spirit equipping, or do you opt for the full suit of armor, thank-you-very-much?
This is where the verses from Matthew and Luke put us: in a group of two or three believers, indwelt by God's Holy Spirit, there is so much Spirit presence that the joint vessel is full of Christ. The Holy Spirit was upon Jesus, as at the opening of the heavens after his baptism, and we know that in the transfiguration, Jesus allowed three disciples a glimpse of the glory He shared with the Father - proving He was steeped in Spirit anointing! And so, if this is who dwells in your heart, then yes, you have been soaked, you have been sent, to live the gospel.
Never let the devil talk you down with your shortcomings. The finest craftsmen use handtools that seem rude and inexact compared to precision machinery. And do you doubt that God Almighty can make a masterpiece from imperfect clay?
Agree With God's Word
II Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.
It is God doing the establishing, the building of us all together, in Christ His chosen foundation, and who are we to dispute God's blueprint? or His choice of building materials, or the proposed schedule for the project?
I John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
'Unction' is used only once in all of scripture, and it is the Greek word 'chrisma', an unguent or smearing (in the figurative sense), and as it relates to God, an endowment of the Holy Spirit. So there you have it: as a Christian you are fully anointed with the Holy Spirit and all of the consequent potential waiting to be activated. That is why you have those "a-ha!" moments in reading scripture. And it is why, after ten years of reading a favorite psalm, you still learn from it...or should I say, more exactly, you recognize something else. You know, in your spirit, more than you think you know. Selah.
What About Daniel? Check Your Receiver
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Don't we all love Daniel, for his humble heart, his sincere ability to repent on behalf of his nation, his amazing transmission to us of heavenly visions. Indeed Daniel's experiences are a perfect example of the great contrast between one man whose heart is seeking to know God, and a whole nation that has turned off their receiver, and tuned out God's transmission.
We are in a time when there is a glut of information - things to know - available to anyone with internet access, so that we don't actually place enough value on the knowledge we have, never mind the knowledge we forego. Of course, the relevant category for this topic is, knowledge of God.
If David, Isaiah, and Daniel were unable to be "born again" living in their pre-Messiah times, still it has always been possible to know God. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and so many more walked with God. Joseph and Moses and Joshua endured great hardships because they were certain of the LORD's upholding them with His righteous right hand.
Daniel certainly walked with God, in captivity, in servitude, under close surveillance by the most jealous and dangerous men in the land. Where the circumstances of Daniel's life might cause many to reject God's presence, Daniel became vey intentional about turning on and tuning in his receiver -- that is, opening his heart to God, he poured out the grief and repentance, and found himself filled with the confidence to keep walking with God.
I think Daniel's life shows us this: trust in what you know of God, pursue Him, and you will know that you can trust Him.
Believe and Receive
(notes/study prepared for 6/13/12 and following)
True Biblical Faith
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved though faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul sets out one of the most concise presentations of the gospel. Each chapter contains a different metaphor to explain the church - what it is, how it came to be, God's design for his Church.
Chapter 2 is a before-and-after narrative of how far the believers have come by the gracious hand of God. "By grace"=because God decided to make it so; "ye are saved through faith"=faith is the sole requirement, and the only means, of accessing the salvation bought by Christ's blood.
Biblical faith is a gift of illuminated perspective from God, not an intellectual deformity. It isn't that by faith we see spiritual truths because we are hypnotized into 'seeing' things that aren't there or that aren't so. It is, rather, that by faith we are enabled to see reality from something more akin to God's point of view. I think the whole faith journey that we speak of so much, is the process by which each of us learns to polish that glass through we see but darkly, to adjust the mirror in which we see but still dimly. For us, the Church on Earth, our faith journey is always a matter of being an expatriate: this is a foreign country to us, this temporal realm.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God...(Hebrews 11:6) for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Now that the foundation of saving faith is laid, there are the benefits of our trust, our belief in Jesus. The disease of sin has been wiped out. Sins remain, but we have a Holy Spirit immunity that keeps righteousness, as an identity, for us. We have been healed - of what? of the consequences of sin, which would have meant death (Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord") and destruction (Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire").
As believers in Christ, we stand able (forgiven, and restored) and equipped (indwelt by Christ's Holy Spirit) to receive daily from God's hand.
Matthew 27:26 Then released he Barabbas unto them; and when he has scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The crowd at Pilate's court believed that Barabbas deserved freedom, and so they received a murderer back into their midst - like asking for a scourge and receiving it. Hmm.
Raising-from-the-Dead Power
Ephesians 1:19-20 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
How do we understand, "the power of God", much less the extent of it! Proportionately speaking, a very few ever experienced resurrection from physical death. And only a few more witnessed those miracles.
As a human, I get it, that the resurrection of the dead body (John 11:43-44; Luke 8:50, 52-55; II Kings 4:32-35; II Kings 13:20-21) is the ultimate improbability and hence the most miraculous. BUT. From God's perspective, to revive the clay is just a starting point. From this side of eternity, still fettered in the finite, we must work hard to expect that, if it fills God's purpose, a dead body will revive. We are not born knowing how to rule our own bodies - we learn it. God doesn't have that handicap. And when He closes the present Age, all the physically dead will rise - from the caskets, from the soil, out of the deep blue sea, from the ashes - to acknowledge our Maker.
All of this tends to distract us from a greater miracle, the resurrection of the human soul.
Just as Adam and Eve's bodies died a slow, decelerating death, we reach our physical prime and then begin to run inevitably down. And just as Adam and Eve's souls immediately were separated from their formerly face-to-face communion with God, we are missing that soul-life, from the moment of our physical birth.
What should make sense to our senses and our minds, is that God has absolute ability with the physical realm, His literal 'dream child.' What should bring us to our knees, is the revelation that God has power to save to the uttermost that which we cannot hear/see/taste/touch/smell. He is able and He is willing, to restore what we cast away, and what is more - He already has done this!
When Jesus' blood was shed, it washed out the stain of sin from humanity. When Jesus' body came out of the tomb, God's grace was shed abroad. Think of that grace, like rainfall that soaks in and remains, percolating through the soil but never drying up no matter how many root systems it sustains. That gracefall is [the exceeding greatness of God's mighty power towards us], activated in the resurrection of Jesus, and the resumption of His rightful place in heaven.
Believers, our God reigns!!!
Paradigm Shift - Complete in Christ
(Yes, a paradigm shift in our thinking and believing is what we need, all over our land and all through the Church: a revolution away from the spiritual-works-for-credit-and-holiness ethic, to the confidence we are meant to have in Christ, who has completed our restoration. We ARE his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10) We are not to "work on" being holy, but to believe on the holiness imparted to us...and in the context of grace, gratitude will inspire holy living! It will become 'the natural thing' for us.)
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
If Christ dwells in you, you are also in Him. This is an unbreakable union (see John 10:28-29), because it is the work of God. What God does, will not come undone.
"To whom" = his saints, believers, those sanctified by their faith in Christ.
"The mystery" = Christ in us, indwelling us with His power, His righteousness, and the fullness of His identity...
Colossians 2:9-10 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power...
To flesh out this completion work, read the wider scope of verses 8-12 in the same chapter, and see v. 11 and 12 in particular for confirmation. => v.11 in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ => v.12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
We don't always see ourselves as completed, do we? Not completely reformed, completely released from certain tendencies, completely victorious over circumstances.
But we are still in the body, which makes all the difference to our perception (or the inaccuracies thereof).
When God prescribed circumcision of the foreskin, he required pain as a sign of sanctification. It was a temporary pain that was soon forgotten, even while it left a mark.
Followers of Christ, still living in the body that is of this world, endure a spiritual circumcision - the pain (tribulation?) we endure while waiting to be perfectly united with Christ for eternity, rises from the new consciousness the Holy Spirit gives us, of all that is counter to God's will in the present world. So, the daily pain of our circumcision is proof that the circumcision holds.
As long as it is a struggle for us to live in the world, it is a sign of our being set aside for Christ (sanctified - "made holy"), who declares us risen already from the body of this death (Romans 7:24), and born in Zion.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Again, perhaps you do not see in yourself a constant degree of any of these fruits...(does anyone?) however, a single act of any one of these should reassure you that you have been completely sown, and that a crop is forthcoming. These are fruits of the Holy Spirit - results of Christ dwelling in you! So if your life demonstrates any love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, self-control...it did not come from your flesh (Romans 7:18), but from the fulness of the Godhead that is in Christ, who is in you.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
I know you will never accuse Paul of using short, choppy sentences. Nevertheless, he is as succinct as any reporter could wish -
Who: God, the Father
What: has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
Where: in heavenly places
When: already ("hath blessed")
Why: to complete our sanctification
How: in Christ (through, by Christ)
Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
"Water seeks water" is one example of a law of nature. The water of regeneration, the Word of God that washes us, we call this the Living Water. It is a living Spring that resides in our hearts, ever bubbling up to calm and refresh our spirits.
This never-ending deposit of living water is the "earnest of the Holy Spirit," to help us know that we are risen with Christ, who is risen indeed.
Now, that's been taken care of, and we are free to behave as water must - to seek to flow into the main Branch.
True Biblical Faith
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved though faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul sets out one of the most concise presentations of the gospel. Each chapter contains a different metaphor to explain the church - what it is, how it came to be, God's design for his Church.
Chapter 2 is a before-and-after narrative of how far the believers have come by the gracious hand of God. "By grace"=because God decided to make it so; "ye are saved through faith"=faith is the sole requirement, and the only means, of accessing the salvation bought by Christ's blood.
Biblical faith is a gift of illuminated perspective from God, not an intellectual deformity. It isn't that by faith we see spiritual truths because we are hypnotized into 'seeing' things that aren't there or that aren't so. It is, rather, that by faith we are enabled to see reality from something more akin to God's point of view. I think the whole faith journey that we speak of so much, is the process by which each of us learns to polish that glass through we see but darkly, to adjust the mirror in which we see but still dimly. For us, the Church on Earth, our faith journey is always a matter of being an expatriate: this is a foreign country to us, this temporal realm.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God...(Hebrews 11:6) for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Now that the foundation of saving faith is laid, there are the benefits of our trust, our belief in Jesus. The disease of sin has been wiped out. Sins remain, but we have a Holy Spirit immunity that keeps righteousness, as an identity, for us. We have been healed - of what? of the consequences of sin, which would have meant death (Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord") and destruction (Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire").
As believers in Christ, we stand able (forgiven, and restored) and equipped (indwelt by Christ's Holy Spirit) to receive daily from God's hand.
Matthew 27:26 Then released he Barabbas unto them; and when he has scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
The crowd at Pilate's court believed that Barabbas deserved freedom, and so they received a murderer back into their midst - like asking for a scourge and receiving it. Hmm.
Raising-from-the-Dead Power
Ephesians 1:19-20 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
How do we understand, "the power of God", much less the extent of it! Proportionately speaking, a very few ever experienced resurrection from physical death. And only a few more witnessed those miracles.
As a human, I get it, that the resurrection of the dead body (John 11:43-44; Luke 8:50, 52-55; II Kings 4:32-35; II Kings 13:20-21) is the ultimate improbability and hence the most miraculous. BUT. From God's perspective, to revive the clay is just a starting point. From this side of eternity, still fettered in the finite, we must work hard to expect that, if it fills God's purpose, a dead body will revive. We are not born knowing how to rule our own bodies - we learn it. God doesn't have that handicap. And when He closes the present Age, all the physically dead will rise - from the caskets, from the soil, out of the deep blue sea, from the ashes - to acknowledge our Maker.
All of this tends to distract us from a greater miracle, the resurrection of the human soul.
Just as Adam and Eve's bodies died a slow, decelerating death, we reach our physical prime and then begin to run inevitably down. And just as Adam and Eve's souls immediately were separated from their formerly face-to-face communion with God, we are missing that soul-life, from the moment of our physical birth.
What should make sense to our senses and our minds, is that God has absolute ability with the physical realm, His literal 'dream child.' What should bring us to our knees, is the revelation that God has power to save to the uttermost that which we cannot hear/see/taste/touch/smell. He is able and He is willing, to restore what we cast away, and what is more - He already has done this!
When Jesus' blood was shed, it washed out the stain of sin from humanity. When Jesus' body came out of the tomb, God's grace was shed abroad. Think of that grace, like rainfall that soaks in and remains, percolating through the soil but never drying up no matter how many root systems it sustains. That gracefall is [the exceeding greatness of God's mighty power towards us], activated in the resurrection of Jesus, and the resumption of His rightful place in heaven.
Believers, our God reigns!!!
Paradigm Shift - Complete in Christ
(Yes, a paradigm shift in our thinking and believing is what we need, all over our land and all through the Church: a revolution away from the spiritual-works-for-credit-and-holiness ethic, to the confidence we are meant to have in Christ, who has completed our restoration. We ARE his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10) We are not to "work on" being holy, but to believe on the holiness imparted to us...and in the context of grace, gratitude will inspire holy living! It will become 'the natural thing' for us.)
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
If Christ dwells in you, you are also in Him. This is an unbreakable union (see John 10:28-29), because it is the work of God. What God does, will not come undone.
"To whom" = his saints, believers, those sanctified by their faith in Christ.
"The mystery" = Christ in us, indwelling us with His power, His righteousness, and the fullness of His identity...
Colossians 2:9-10 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power...
To flesh out this completion work, read the wider scope of verses 8-12 in the same chapter, and see v. 11 and 12 in particular for confirmation. => v.11 in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ => v.12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
We don't always see ourselves as completed, do we? Not completely reformed, completely released from certain tendencies, completely victorious over circumstances.
But we are still in the body, which makes all the difference to our perception (or the inaccuracies thereof).
When God prescribed circumcision of the foreskin, he required pain as a sign of sanctification. It was a temporary pain that was soon forgotten, even while it left a mark.
Followers of Christ, still living in the body that is of this world, endure a spiritual circumcision - the pain (tribulation?) we endure while waiting to be perfectly united with Christ for eternity, rises from the new consciousness the Holy Spirit gives us, of all that is counter to God's will in the present world. So, the daily pain of our circumcision is proof that the circumcision holds.
As long as it is a struggle for us to live in the world, it is a sign of our being set aside for Christ (sanctified - "made holy"), who declares us risen already from the body of this death (Romans 7:24), and born in Zion.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Again, perhaps you do not see in yourself a constant degree of any of these fruits...(does anyone?) however, a single act of any one of these should reassure you that you have been completely sown, and that a crop is forthcoming. These are fruits of the Holy Spirit - results of Christ dwelling in you! So if your life demonstrates any love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, self-control...it did not come from your flesh (Romans 7:18), but from the fulness of the Godhead that is in Christ, who is in you.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
I know you will never accuse Paul of using short, choppy sentences. Nevertheless, he is as succinct as any reporter could wish -
Who: God, the Father
What: has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
Where: in heavenly places
When: already ("hath blessed")
Why: to complete our sanctification
How: in Christ (through, by Christ)
Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
"Water seeks water" is one example of a law of nature. The water of regeneration, the Word of God that washes us, we call this the Living Water. It is a living Spring that resides in our hearts, ever bubbling up to calm and refresh our spirits.
This never-ending deposit of living water is the "earnest of the Holy Spirit," to help us know that we are risen with Christ, who is risen indeed.
Now, that's been taken care of, and we are free to behave as water must - to seek to flow into the main Branch.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Somewhere in the Kingdom
I do not know his name, and I did not feel moved to even make eye contact with the older man sitting across a very narrow aisle from us in the Johnstown Burger King. All the same, the not-quite-encounter seems to have been pivotal to his day. That's the vibe I got.
We had left two daughters with Grandma for the day, having arranged that she would drive them back home in time for barn chores with the hired man. Then we continued on the familiar annual journey, to leave two more of our children at DEC camp, Pack Forest near Warrensburg.
This time we chose to vary the route by taking in a tour of the Saratoga National Historical Park, going over the top-notch visitor center, and the drive-through tour of the battlegrounds. We have been teaching about the Revolutionary War part of New York's history last school year, and I'd gone over it with the oldest two girls several years before. The time was ripe to see where it all happened over two centuries ago. The day was a muggy, hot one, and it struck my imagination that the atmospheric conditions illustrated the tensions that erupted on this rolling farmland nestled in a bend of the Hudson River, when Redcoats and their Loyalists clashed with Patriot Freedom-fighters, and were defeated. The land, too, was embattled: crops were dug up to feed armies, fences used for firewood, fields of maize reinvented as burial sites. Now it is all waving grasses, wildflowers, and trees who are grandchildren of the originals. Monuments, an original farmhouse, and posts marking the lines of entrenchment are familiar to the wildlife, as are the cars passing through, pausing to explore here and there.
Rain began to fall as we left the park, and moved along the road to see the Schuyler House, home of Johannes and Catherine. It is a lovely colonial dwelling, the third edition to stand on the site, after the first two burned down. We had a short but informative private tour, but while the daughter who so loves history was full of excitement/nervousness to get to camp, she was holding back her normal enthusiasm, and this infected our son, as well, anticipating his first-ever time at camp just an hour away.
And then we finally left two more children, and turned towards home with just two little boys in the van, and great spaces where all the luggage and lunch gear had been. Two little boys and a long ride home, and we found ourselves winding endlessly around Great Sacandaga Lake at 40 miles per hour, for what seemed like an hour itself. When we were nearly at the end of that phase, I couldn't help bursting out, "Are we EVER going to get out of camp country?!"
By the time the boys were getting tired of each other and we were getting tired of them, it seemed a good idea to stop at Johnstown, stretch the legs, use the facilities....might as well eat supper, too. So there we were.
Daddy ordered, I took the little men to wash up, and we prayed at the table before the food came. I'd chosen the closest 4-seater booth, and this older customer, almost done with his meal, was within arm's reach, alone. Landon said the little blessing, and we handed out burgers and fries and juice boxes. From there it just kept getting better. "Mama," queries Jonathan, munching a full cheek of burger, "why do you have fwee boys?" I felt, rather than directly saw, the man's attention intensify. It was partly for his sake, now I think of it, that I replied to Jonathan, "Why, to balance the three girls." The boys tried on their paper crowns, and discovered the sheets of sticker gems, with which the crowns were embellished even before the first helping of catsup was used up. I noticed that there were no more peripheral glimpses of our neighbor making eating motions. I wondered to myself why he would linger in this place, right under the radio loudspeaker playing muzak from the 70s and 80s. While Jonathan proclaimed himself and his brother to be Kings of the World, I was reviewing the day thus far, of a gradual splitting-off in different directions, the steady reduction of a family of eight to half our normal size, and a deepening sadness. There sits this old guy, obviously listening and loitering.
It came to me, all in a moment, that he might be getting something very different out of my day. A little boy thanking God for food, onion rings being shared, juice boxes being traded unselfishly, little witticisms and familiar giggles exchanged...all of this for the observer undoubtedly spoke of family coming together, hanging in, and carrying on. I said as much to my husband after we left, for he tends to observe the same things and appreciate them, without the analysis (that being my department).
So it's alright with me, if that fellow took with him a living-color picture of a family: two parents who enjoy eating and talking with their children, two blonds with great big blue eyes and aspirations to share the paper crown throne. The world has gone crazy, but just maybe, for him, a few monuments still stand who are grandchildren of their originals.
We had left two daughters with Grandma for the day, having arranged that she would drive them back home in time for barn chores with the hired man. Then we continued on the familiar annual journey, to leave two more of our children at DEC camp, Pack Forest near Warrensburg.
This time we chose to vary the route by taking in a tour of the Saratoga National Historical Park, going over the top-notch visitor center, and the drive-through tour of the battlegrounds. We have been teaching about the Revolutionary War part of New York's history last school year, and I'd gone over it with the oldest two girls several years before. The time was ripe to see where it all happened over two centuries ago. The day was a muggy, hot one, and it struck my imagination that the atmospheric conditions illustrated the tensions that erupted on this rolling farmland nestled in a bend of the Hudson River, when Redcoats and their Loyalists clashed with Patriot Freedom-fighters, and were defeated. The land, too, was embattled: crops were dug up to feed armies, fences used for firewood, fields of maize reinvented as burial sites. Now it is all waving grasses, wildflowers, and trees who are grandchildren of the originals. Monuments, an original farmhouse, and posts marking the lines of entrenchment are familiar to the wildlife, as are the cars passing through, pausing to explore here and there.
Rain began to fall as we left the park, and moved along the road to see the Schuyler House, home of Johannes and Catherine. It is a lovely colonial dwelling, the third edition to stand on the site, after the first two burned down. We had a short but informative private tour, but while the daughter who so loves history was full of excitement/nervousness to get to camp, she was holding back her normal enthusiasm, and this infected our son, as well, anticipating his first-ever time at camp just an hour away.
And then we finally left two more children, and turned towards home with just two little boys in the van, and great spaces where all the luggage and lunch gear had been. Two little boys and a long ride home, and we found ourselves winding endlessly around Great Sacandaga Lake at 40 miles per hour, for what seemed like an hour itself. When we were nearly at the end of that phase, I couldn't help bursting out, "Are we EVER going to get out of camp country?!"
By the time the boys were getting tired of each other and we were getting tired of them, it seemed a good idea to stop at Johnstown, stretch the legs, use the facilities....might as well eat supper, too. So there we were.
Daddy ordered, I took the little men to wash up, and we prayed at the table before the food came. I'd chosen the closest 4-seater booth, and this older customer, almost done with his meal, was within arm's reach, alone. Landon said the little blessing, and we handed out burgers and fries and juice boxes. From there it just kept getting better. "Mama," queries Jonathan, munching a full cheek of burger, "why do you have fwee boys?" I felt, rather than directly saw, the man's attention intensify. It was partly for his sake, now I think of it, that I replied to Jonathan, "Why, to balance the three girls." The boys tried on their paper crowns, and discovered the sheets of sticker gems, with which the crowns were embellished even before the first helping of catsup was used up. I noticed that there were no more peripheral glimpses of our neighbor making eating motions. I wondered to myself why he would linger in this place, right under the radio loudspeaker playing muzak from the 70s and 80s. While Jonathan proclaimed himself and his brother to be Kings of the World, I was reviewing the day thus far, of a gradual splitting-off in different directions, the steady reduction of a family of eight to half our normal size, and a deepening sadness. There sits this old guy, obviously listening and loitering.
It came to me, all in a moment, that he might be getting something very different out of my day. A little boy thanking God for food, onion rings being shared, juice boxes being traded unselfishly, little witticisms and familiar giggles exchanged...all of this for the observer undoubtedly spoke of family coming together, hanging in, and carrying on. I said as much to my husband after we left, for he tends to observe the same things and appreciate them, without the analysis (that being my department).
So it's alright with me, if that fellow took with him a living-color picture of a family: two parents who enjoy eating and talking with their children, two blonds with great big blue eyes and aspirations to share the paper crown throne. The world has gone crazy, but just maybe, for him, a few monuments still stand who are grandchildren of their originals.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Already Provided
Now that we have settled the matter of "making God move" by concluding that faith is a matter not of making God move, but of getting ourselves ready to see how God moves...let us consider the following:
Not a Comparison
Luke 11:5-8 "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in the bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him an many as he needeth."
If you have ever labored under the misunderstanding, or the incorrect teaching, (as I have, both) that Jesus is describing how God is talked/badgered/persuaded into giving you what you need if you only keep asking long enough...happily, you can drop that right now!
In the sketch Jesus describes a friend who, though he is able to meet the need, will do what is needful more to be rid of a pest, than for the sake of friendship. This sort of 'friend' is friendly out of convenience: even if you feel certain of his receiving you at any hour, you will find that there is a cut-off. Sometimes a friend can let you down.
This does not fit the character of God at all! The Father who so loved the sin-rotted world, that he gave His only begotten Son to redeem it. The God of provision (Jehovah-jireh), who sets up camp around us who trust in Him (Psalm 34:7), the Lord who will never leave or forsake us, out of whose mighty hand nothing can snatch us.
God does not need the importunity, to meet your need.
I John 4:8 "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
One more time, God. is. love. and this is not a sometime, business-hours thing. To say that God is love is to say he embodies the concept of serving, saving, helping, encouraging, giving. There is never a question of God's willingness to love you.
Furthermore, any person who does attach conditions or caprice to serving another (aside from proper discernment), is not imitating Christ. The Apostle John is very firm on the point that an inability or unwillingness to love - an absence of loving behavior - betrays the absence of actual relationship with God. Because by extension, if God dwells in your heart, He shapes your heart so that people can see Him in you.
The Opposite
Luke 11:9-13 "And I say unto you, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
God. is. willing. to meet your needs! He will always supply what is appropriate, when and where it is needed. We do not need even to be too specific in our requests, since for all we know, God may have a better idea! "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or imagine, according to His power, which is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20)
Notice how Jesus gives an authoritative prediction of how God responds to our faith. Ask, and God will give. Seek, and He will reveal it to you. Knock, and it shall be opened. Notice, too, that more than food, clothing, and shelter, ("the Father knows you have need of all these things" - Matt. 6: 32) God gives His Holy Spirit. And just how much good is the Holy Spirit to your empty stomach or your freezing body? It is a matter of priority, focus, and resulting perspective. The Holy Spirit's job is to guide you into all truth. He is the source of all wisdom. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter, and He intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, making up for the prayers we cannot even express in times of extreme spiritual travail. After all, your immortal soul and its equipping for eternity are of far greater import than the daily needs of the temporary flesh...and God has promised to supply those, anyway, just to keep testifying of His love for us. (Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:19) He will not refuse to satisfy your hunger for wisdom, discernment, or knowledge of Himself, any more than he would refuse to rain bread on the dessert to feed the children of Israel, or to multiply several loaves and a couple of fishes into a hillside feast for thousands.
Confident and Consistent - Directing Angels
Matthew 18:10 "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."
Notice, "No man has seen God," (John 1:18) but the angels do. They behold him.
In the larger context of Matthew 18, the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them who could qualify for the highest eschelon in God's kingdom. Always one to deal with the first thing first, Jesus replied, in effect, that they needed to be more concerned with getting in! But granting that admission, the answer turns out to be, humility. This is the 180-degree opposite of pride. It is pride that goes before a fall, be it Lucifer or Adam. The humility of Jesus removed the curse from us, therefore whoever is the most humble will be the greatest in heaven. In my mind, I think the implications of being "greatest in the kingdom of heaven" may have to do with the depth of appreciation and comprehension of the glory of God, rather than with an amount of glory (greatness) accrued to ourselves. I think that the depth of our humility here and now will have a bearing on the depth of our experience hereafter.
Meanwhile, the angels (Gk. "messengers") await God's orders on our behalf - and the cries of the children, the weak, the needy always get a direct link to God, through their humility. If you wonder why I am bringing humility into this exegesis so prominently, it is because Jesus has just commanded us not to despise 'the little ones' (whether little in stature or is status)...and that means, "rather, look upon them as examples, for in response to their humility, God will despatch the angels."
Hebrews 1:14 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
The word, 'ministering', is the Greek word from which we get the English 'liturgical', meaning, 'functioning publicly, beneficent, ministering.' To 'minister' is 'to attend on, to aid.' As children of God, the King of the universe and whatever lies beyond (think of it!), we are royal heirs. This verse points to the royal retinue all lined up to attend us, to aid us in our walk, until we are fully in God's presence.
Real Effort
We are sure that God is a good, loving and provident God. We are certain that he is well-equipped to minister to our needs. With God taking care of so much, where does our real effort need to be directed?
Hebrews 4:11 "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."
God has a great sense of humor in the way He inspires this verse: 'labor' and 'rest' are patently antithetical, of course...but it is a true labor for us to take our own hands off the helm and trust in God's guidance.
Labor, in the spiritual sense, is about unbelief. It is about distrust. It is about pride. Read any account of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, and you'll see the faults he could find with all their self-righteous labors. Labor, in the physical sense, is about doing what is necessary. Plant vegetables to feed your family, study to pass a test, look both ways before crossing the street. But you cannot just put in a few more hours at the office or on the assembly line, in order to enter into the rest that Jesus portrayed. You have to stand still, to sit still, to be still while you pray, while you read, while you listen. To do that constitutes labor, does it not, in a society that mandates, go! go! go!
I Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
Here on the flip side, Paul tells the truth: the grace of God begets, aids, and abets meaningful labor, and then multiplies the labor. "By the grace of God..." Paul says, "I labored more abundantly [than all the other disciples]." Grace was the fuel of all Paul's labor. By His grace, God called Paul, commissioned him, and sustained him ("My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Cor 12:9). In thirty years of serving Jesus Christ, Paul learned what it is to first be loved by God, and to love Him in return. He learned to trust God, and to be entrusted by Him. In other words, Paul was humble, submitted to God's direction, dependent on God's provision, and in the end he was surpassingly effective - all as he was at rest, acting on what God had already provided, living the peace that passes all understanding.
Not a Comparison
Luke 11:5-8 "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in the bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him an many as he needeth."
If you have ever labored under the misunderstanding, or the incorrect teaching, (as I have, both) that Jesus is describing how God is talked/badgered/persuaded into giving you what you need if you only keep asking long enough...happily, you can drop that right now!
In the sketch Jesus describes a friend who, though he is able to meet the need, will do what is needful more to be rid of a pest, than for the sake of friendship. This sort of 'friend' is friendly out of convenience: even if you feel certain of his receiving you at any hour, you will find that there is a cut-off. Sometimes a friend can let you down.
This does not fit the character of God at all! The Father who so loved the sin-rotted world, that he gave His only begotten Son to redeem it. The God of provision (Jehovah-jireh), who sets up camp around us who trust in Him (Psalm 34:7), the Lord who will never leave or forsake us, out of whose mighty hand nothing can snatch us.
God does not need the importunity, to meet your need.
I John 4:8 "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
One more time, God. is. love. and this is not a sometime, business-hours thing. To say that God is love is to say he embodies the concept of serving, saving, helping, encouraging, giving. There is never a question of God's willingness to love you.
Furthermore, any person who does attach conditions or caprice to serving another (aside from proper discernment), is not imitating Christ. The Apostle John is very firm on the point that an inability or unwillingness to love - an absence of loving behavior - betrays the absence of actual relationship with God. Because by extension, if God dwells in your heart, He shapes your heart so that people can see Him in you.
The Opposite
Luke 11:9-13 "And I say unto you, 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.' If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
God. is. willing. to meet your needs! He will always supply what is appropriate, when and where it is needed. We do not need even to be too specific in our requests, since for all we know, God may have a better idea! "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or imagine, according to His power, which is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20)
Notice how Jesus gives an authoritative prediction of how God responds to our faith. Ask, and God will give. Seek, and He will reveal it to you. Knock, and it shall be opened. Notice, too, that more than food, clothing, and shelter, ("the Father knows you have need of all these things" - Matt. 6: 32) God gives His Holy Spirit. And just how much good is the Holy Spirit to your empty stomach or your freezing body? It is a matter of priority, focus, and resulting perspective. The Holy Spirit's job is to guide you into all truth. He is the source of all wisdom. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter, and He intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, making up for the prayers we cannot even express in times of extreme spiritual travail. After all, your immortal soul and its equipping for eternity are of far greater import than the daily needs of the temporary flesh...and God has promised to supply those, anyway, just to keep testifying of His love for us. (Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:19) He will not refuse to satisfy your hunger for wisdom, discernment, or knowledge of Himself, any more than he would refuse to rain bread on the dessert to feed the children of Israel, or to multiply several loaves and a couple of fishes into a hillside feast for thousands.
Confident and Consistent - Directing Angels
Matthew 18:10 "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."
Notice, "No man has seen God," (John 1:18) but the angels do. They behold him.
In the larger context of Matthew 18, the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them who could qualify for the highest eschelon in God's kingdom. Always one to deal with the first thing first, Jesus replied, in effect, that they needed to be more concerned with getting in! But granting that admission, the answer turns out to be, humility. This is the 180-degree opposite of pride. It is pride that goes before a fall, be it Lucifer or Adam. The humility of Jesus removed the curse from us, therefore whoever is the most humble will be the greatest in heaven. In my mind, I think the implications of being "greatest in the kingdom of heaven" may have to do with the depth of appreciation and comprehension of the glory of God, rather than with an amount of glory (greatness) accrued to ourselves. I think that the depth of our humility here and now will have a bearing on the depth of our experience hereafter.
Meanwhile, the angels (Gk. "messengers") await God's orders on our behalf - and the cries of the children, the weak, the needy always get a direct link to God, through their humility. If you wonder why I am bringing humility into this exegesis so prominently, it is because Jesus has just commanded us not to despise 'the little ones' (whether little in stature or is status)...and that means, "rather, look upon them as examples, for in response to their humility, God will despatch the angels."
Hebrews 1:14 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
The word, 'ministering', is the Greek word from which we get the English 'liturgical', meaning, 'functioning publicly, beneficent, ministering.' To 'minister' is 'to attend on, to aid.' As children of God, the King of the universe and whatever lies beyond (think of it!), we are royal heirs. This verse points to the royal retinue all lined up to attend us, to aid us in our walk, until we are fully in God's presence.
Real Effort
We are sure that God is a good, loving and provident God. We are certain that he is well-equipped to minister to our needs. With God taking care of so much, where does our real effort need to be directed?
Hebrews 4:11 "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."
God has a great sense of humor in the way He inspires this verse: 'labor' and 'rest' are patently antithetical, of course...but it is a true labor for us to take our own hands off the helm and trust in God's guidance.
Labor, in the spiritual sense, is about unbelief. It is about distrust. It is about pride. Read any account of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, and you'll see the faults he could find with all their self-righteous labors. Labor, in the physical sense, is about doing what is necessary. Plant vegetables to feed your family, study to pass a test, look both ways before crossing the street. But you cannot just put in a few more hours at the office or on the assembly line, in order to enter into the rest that Jesus portrayed. You have to stand still, to sit still, to be still while you pray, while you read, while you listen. To do that constitutes labor, does it not, in a society that mandates, go! go! go!
I Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
Here on the flip side, Paul tells the truth: the grace of God begets, aids, and abets meaningful labor, and then multiplies the labor. "By the grace of God..." Paul says, "I labored more abundantly [than all the other disciples]." Grace was the fuel of all Paul's labor. By His grace, God called Paul, commissioned him, and sustained him ("My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Cor 12:9). In thirty years of serving Jesus Christ, Paul learned what it is to first be loved by God, and to love Him in return. He learned to trust God, and to be entrusted by Him. In other words, Paul was humble, submitted to God's direction, dependent on God's provision, and in the end he was surpassingly effective - all as he was at rest, acting on what God had already provided, living the peace that passes all understanding.
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