How Are Your Toes Getting Wet?

I have seen God challenge me, many times in the last 50 years or so, far beyond my own willingness to perform. Many situations in life have made me dig deeper than I wanted to, into my own motivations, subtle ways of twisted thinking, and broken ways of

The Opposite of Sin Is...

Last time I wrote, I speculated that the root cause of sin is selfishness:  putting ourselves and our own self-interest, as we perceive it, before everything else. I could be wrong, of course, and you're free to give me another view of it, but that's how it seems to me. We watch constantly for some threat

Jesus Alone

Super Bowl 50 is now over, and in case you didn't know by now, the Denver Broncos are the national champions. Even as little as I know about football, it was inspiring to see such fine athletes in action, and I certainly enjoyed Denver's win! The Super Bowl has an inherent negative message, though: that only

I Have All I Need

The list of things I wish I had is very, very long. More time to golf. More money saved for retirement. A pickup for camping trips. Time to fish. Time to read the rest of my books. And on it goes! Besides being dissatisfied by my wants, I can get bothered by

Jesus Is our One True...

In life we sometimes believe a false idea that looks simple and convenient. The urban legends cataloged at various websites such as snopes.com feed on peoples' mistaken ideas about celebrities, politicians and fads. But what if you could

"Justified by Faith"?

Does your own faith save you?  Maybe we should ask, faith in what? And what kind of faith?

Note how T.F. Torrance explained Jesus’ faithfulness:

Jesus Christ stood in our place, taking our cause upon him, also as Believer, as the Obedient One who was himself justified before God as his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased. He offered to God . . . a perfect faith and response which we are unable to offer, and he appropriated all God’s blessings which we are unable to appropriate. Through union with him we share in his faith, in his obedience, in his trust and appropriation of the Father’s blessing; we share in his justification before God. Therefore when we are justified by faith, this does not mean that it is our faith that justifies us, far from it—It is the faith of Christ alone that justifies us, but we in faith flee from our own acts even of repentance, confession, trust and response, and take refuge in the obedience and faithfulness of Christ—“Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” That is what it means to be justified by faith. (“Justification: Its Radical Nature and Place in Reformed Doctrine and Life,” Scottish Journal of Theology, vol 13, no 3. pp. 225-246.)

As Joseph Tkach explains in this article, our faith is both active and passive. We trust in Christ, and we trust in Jesus' perfect faith on our behalf, not on our own imperfect (and sometimes missing!) faith.

Children and Jesus and Welcoming

Jesus was impressed with children. Not because they knew how to do cartwheels, but because they approached the world without pretense, and accepted others at face value. In Matthew 18, Jesus calls a little child to him and says “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." More than that, Jesus said in verse 5, "And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." Now, that is a big deal -- welcoming Jesus, personally,

Singing a New Song - With Some Help

"Let's have some worship before we start our study" often, in church-speak, means playing and singing a couple of songs. Of course, worship isn't confined to singing. Psalm 96 has a lot to say about worshiping God, and some of it is about singing--but there's

John Wayne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Me (and Jesus)

When I was a boy, John Wayne was the epitome of rugged masculinity, able to fight off the Apaches with one hand and embrace

It's Time to Take Off the Veil

Moses spent time with God (Exodus 34) and his his appearance was changed. He had to wear a veil to keep from scaring everyone. Jesus was changed
in his appearance ("transfigured") before his crucifixion, to fulfill Moses' experience. After the resurrection and the start of the church, the disciples reflected Jesus by the way their inner selves were changed. (The Jewish high court, seeing them, knew they "had been with Jesus," Acts 4:13). You and I also ought to reflect Jesus (2 Cor 3:18), but sometimes we don't, because of 'the veil': either we don't see God well, so we don't see our sins; or our past is still present, and it veils the shining face of our new self in Christ.


I've been following Jesus for decades, but I still have unhealthy thinking and broken emotional patterns from the past that lead me to sin, hurting me and hurting others. And so do you. What's the cure for our disease? Paul tells us "this is the secret: Christ lives in you" (Col. 1:27). The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sends us, will keep bugging us to "be with Jesus." Time spent focusing on Jesus will help us see him more, so we can see, confess, and surrender our sins, and so reflect Jesus. For today, here is just one example of such a sin that veils the image of Christ in us. 

Fear: all of us live in self-protection. We are afraid others will hurt us, or that they'll find out the embarrassing truth about us, so we hide behind a polite mask of pretended security. We try to control everything that happens so we stay "safe." And we try to control others by stubbornly holding our opinion, or shutting others off when we don't get our way. Fear and its results inhibit love in every relationship, from a casual meeting on the street to intimacy in marriage. We even try to use the same tactic with God, out of fear he will reject us -- but he has already accepted us through Jesus. His love should rule us instead. 1 John 4 tells us "God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love."

The love John describes requires taking off the veil instead of hiding behind it in fear. You may not even be aware of a fear you have, but it's still crippling you. God has already put someone in your life who knows and loves you, and can help you, in an ongoing partnership of prayer and confession, to see the roots of your fear and surrender all of it to God. We all need someone to show the love of Jesus to us, and help us take off the veil. I'll be praying for you to find that person. Isn't it time you started this process too?

Success: Listening and Obeying

How much of 'success' is hard work, and how much is a gift from God?  A lot of people quote the old proverb that success is "10% inspiration
and 90% perspiration" which leaves the real effort up to us. Is that really it? 

A story might help illustrate.  The Lord promised Abram in Gen. 15:4, “you will have a son of your own who will be your heir” and verse 6 says that "Abram believed God."  The Lord sent Abram a vision as part of a covenant ceremony (described in the rest of that chapter) so that should have sealed Abram's belief.  But, several years later, Abram still didn't have a son.  Sarai, his wife, thought she had a solution, by having Abram father a child by her slave Hagar -- that was an accepted practice in the culture, so perhaps Abram thought it was a good way for the promise to be fulfilled.  But if you read further, you realize that wasn't the Lord's plan, and Hagar's pregnancy just complicated life.  It would have been simpler, perhaps, if Abram had stopped to ask the Lord if this was what he had in mind. 

Most of us have no trouble admitting we need divine help for the really tough parts of our lives.  But we tend not to ask for help with everything. That's not wise!

A friend of mine asked me to pray that he would rest his problems on the shoulders of the Lord instead of trying to carry them himself, and that's wisdom straight from the word of God:
"Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track."(Proverbs 3:5-6, The Message).  And I was reminded the same thing while meditating, when the Holy Spirit asked me, "So, do you really think your solutions are better than mine?  Is that why you get up some days and start trying to handle problems without humbling yourself in prayer and my words to you first?" Ouch...

To really "listen for God's voice in everything" means taking the whole day to him before it starts, responding to challenges slowly enough that we have time to listen to him, and letting him have the last word.  That's tough for us self-starters, but it takes less time to listen and make the good decision the first time, than to go fast and then have to do it all over because we didn't listen.  How about deciding, once and for all, to listen to God first, every day, about everything?  He will direct us!

What Is God's Name? (Part 5)

Have you ever understood the Bible's names for God, about how and why God is called Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  Have you ever wondered -- or doubted -- whether we can trust
those names?  And by "trust" I mean two things:  the Bible being accurate in its teaching, and trusting God intimately as we come to know him more every day.  I've been trying to understand that myself, and am attempting to explain it briefly here.

So far we've talked mostly about the name Father, and why the Bible describes him that way.  Let's examine, briefly, whether that name includes gender, or male sexuality. We've already said that Jesus called God his Father many times in the Gospels; that God is called the Father of our Lord; and that Jesus said he came to reveal the Father (John 14:9, Matt. 11:27).  In Matt. 23:9 Jesus says to us not to call a human person Father, but why would he say that?  To stop us from projecting human ideas onto God, and polluting our view of him, from two sources:  from elevating a human person too much, and from our notion of fatherhood, however good or bad.  (We've talked already of the difficulty some have of not being able to think of God as Father, because of problems with human fathers.  This is what Jesus rules out here.)

Some say that the name or title "Father" is a way to make male humans more important, and that men wrote the Bible to oppress women.  So then, is the Bible's description of God any different than other religions of the time when it was written?  Here's an extremely brief sketch.  Actually, the writers of the Bible could see many examples in the pagan world around them, of  mythological deities described as being male or female, like humans, and because of their greater powers they misused their male or female qualities worse than the humans did.  Some societies had female gods to worship, but history shows that didn't make the status of women any better.  Because of the broken relations between the sexes in the world around them, people predictably worshiped the mythological gods in broken ways:  there was temple prostitution and all kinds of other horrible activity, in the name of their gods, whether male or female.  The Bible was specifically, carefully, written to exclude all those ideas in referring to the true God.

So what do we come back to?  The God of the Bible, who is described as infinitely loving, giving and concerned for us; who has given himself, in the person of Jesus, to rescue us; and unlike the pagan gods of mythology, doesn't have the weaknesses we do.  We can trust God as Father, so long as we think of him in the way he describes himself and not in other ways.  We'll look at some other ways language is used to describe God -- including some feminine characteristics!-- next time.

Trust and Rest

We in the Western societies spend our lives pursuing more, better, bigger and higher.  We stay caffienated in order to be more alert and "productive."  A bumper sticker claims "He who dies with the most toys wins" (wins what? we wonder).  A poster advertising a workout club says "You can rest when you're dead."  A John Wayne movie has him kicking people awake long before the sun is up, telling them they are "burning daylight."  We think societies that take a mid-day break -- a two-hour lunch or a nap -- are wasting time.  We think our lives are measured by how much we can accomplish.  And sometimes we think we have to apply the same amount of effort toward "pleasing God." 

As a fulfillment of the original Sabbath command to Israel, Jesus calls us in Matt. 11:28-30 to come and rest in him: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  That's an enigma to us:  how do you rest in a person?  What does being humble and gentle have to do with rest?  How can the 'yoke' (an instrument for carrying heavy burdens) be easy to bear?  How can we rest while still carrying a load, even a light one?  And what if, while you're resting, you're really supposed to be doing something more productive?

The answer is that we must learn to trust in Jesus, not in ourselves.  That is the essence of our salvation (Eph. 2:8-10 etc.) but even more, it is the essence of daily life in Christ, the new life we are called into (Gal. 2:20).  Jesus doesn't tell us "come and rest, then go work more."  He simply says come and rest.  Robert Mulholland, Jr. in Invitation to a Journey refers us to Psalm 131, a song encouraging us to trust.  Verse 2 says "I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me."  The child is content just to sit quietly on his mother's lap, knowing he is secure there.  That's the kind of trust we are to learn.

 Life today is not just "preparation for heaven" as some put it, like prepping for an entrance exam.  Our lives are meant to be a living relationship of deepening love for God through his Son Jesus; learning to listen to him and respond; learning to trust Christ for everything, no matter how small or large.  As we learn to trust, we can rest from the frantic activity we use to seek God's approval, or even 'get ahead in the world.' 

"Just trust."  Quick to say, a lifetime to learn.  What will you surrender to God today, trusting him to handle it for you? 

Keeping it Simple (Part 2)

I miss The Lovely Joanne when she's away.  I don't sleep as well and I get distracted a lot.  On a much more powerful level, we humans are made to be connected, at the heart level, with God.  (Some of my agnostic friends and relatives disagree, but that's okay for the moment.)  We're created not to be alone, but in relationship with God.  That is so fundamentally important to us, something goes haywire in our souls when that connection is not active, or not primary, in our lives. Our thinking is confused, and our other relationships don't work the way they should. So we try to fill up that hole in our hearts with stuff, busyness, people and chores to make ourselves feel needed; but it's not the same as that one relationship.

Getting our connection with God back can be helped by practicing simplicity.  I wrote last time about how, in Jesus' words, we need to "seek the Kingdom of God above all else" (Matthew 6:33).  Richard Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, describes "an inward reality that results in an outward life-style" (page 79).  Some try to create an outward show of simplicity without the inner conviction.  Foster notes that this always results in legalism, and I've seen enough legalism to agree with him. We should be convinced, as well, that an inward simplicity of thinking and belief will result in changes that we will express on the outside. 

Jesus' words about God's Kingdom spring from an older and more basic command: "And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength" in Deut. 6:5.  We might see that as a one-time decision, but it seems to me like a lifetime journey.  Every day offers distractions, temptations, and siren songs of busyness, chores and responsibilities.  The more stuff we have, the more we work at maintaining it; and if we look at what others have -- not just their possessions, but their positions -- we are likely to try harder to catch up to where we think they are. And all of it distracts us from God.

So how can we get some of this simplicity? A focus on loving God with all we have, encourages us to trust him too.  Trusting God to supply what we need is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 6.  That trust enables us to stop striving, and to enjoy what we have right now.  It helps us to stop working for more stuff, more power, more position, more respect and awe and love from other people.  It helps us accept others, right where they are now, even as we learn to accept the position we are in now.  Paul says "I have learned the secret of living in every situation" in Philippians 4:12; and he had lived through all kinds of pain and trouble as well as comfortable living by trusting God to handle his needs and his future. 

How do you simplify life when it is just too busy?  We'll look at that next time.

Jesus' Temptations: Bread

For 40 long days -- almost six weeks -- Jesus was alone in the wilderness, fasting and being tempted by the devil.  There are three temptations listed in Luke 4:1-13 (and in a slightly different order, the same three in Matthew 4) but the text doesn't say these are the only three temptations Satan threw at him, just that these three are recorded for us.  There are many important meanings in this story; here are a few.

Forty days is probably a parallel to Moses' 40 days on the mountain fasting in God's presence (Deut. 9:9) and to Israel's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  For this time, Jesus was alone with no distractions from other people, alone in the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit.  As he fasted, he was tempted by Satan, and came to the point of extreme hunger (v. 2).  Then Satan tempted him with the idea of making food for himself.  What was the big deal about that?
As a human, Jesus had experienced hunger before; but as the Son of God in the flesh, he showed several major truths by turning down this temptation.
1.  Jesus knew his mission on earth was to serve us, not himself; but Satan tempted him to rely on his power as God for his own needs.  In his ministry on earth, Jesus ministered in the power of the Spirit, doing the will of the Father and using his power as the Son of God many times -- but never for himself (compare for instance Matthew 26:53).  Here, Jesus taught selflessness.

2.  He trusted God to provide for him.  Eve, and Adam with her, were convinced by the serpent that God was holding out on them and they deserved more.  Israel in the wilderness, though being fed by God with miraculous manna, complained about it andwanted something 'better' -- part of their pattern of disbelief ( Numbers 11, for instance).  Jesus went through a more severe test -- no food at all -- and continued to trust that God would provide.
3.  Jesus was empty of food, yet filled with the Spirit.  By contrast, Israel "celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry" in worship of the golden calf.
 4.  Jesus showed by his choices that he was who his Father described at his baptism in Luke 3:22 -- “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”  Notice, this description is before the temptation, not as a result of his success in it. 

Jesus responded to Satan with the verse from Deut. 8:3, "people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."  That verse is a summary of Israel's entire wilderness experience, and in a way, Jesus' wilderness experience too.  He said that, not to command us to memorize Bible verses, but to say we must rely totally on God's provision for us -- 'hanging on to every word' as it were, for our daily life.
Fasting from something -- food and water, or just food, or from one thing we enjoy -- is a way to recognize how much we depend on God to give us life itself.  And when we lack something we think we must have, isn't that the most important time to decide that God, who has given us victory through Jesus Christ, will certainly provide everything else we truly need?

Trust Jesus

Trust is a big deal for people. Marriage, for instance, is based on trust, not just on love. Or, for another example, would you give your wallet and keys to the next person you meet on the street? Why not? Probably because you don't trust they would take proper care of them.

Why should you trust God? What does he have for you? Well, he sent his Son to tell us about himself (John 14:9), to provide the only way to God (John 14:6) and to bring us life. John wrote at the end of his gospel, in 20:31, "But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name."

Belief is important in John's gospel; John uses the word over 75 times. That's nearly 4 times per chapter. Believing in Jesus means trusting him -- relying on him for what we can't do for ourselves. Including, first of all, saving ourselves from destruction as a result of our sins.

Do you trust him? That's the question. Do you trust that he really has died for you? Do you trust that he has given you life with him, a life without end? Do you trust that it is a gift from him to you? Or do you think it's something you can earn, if you're a good enough person? John records Jesus saying this, in 3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." See, we can believe that Jesus existed, but what's really important is believing what he said, and trusting that he meant it.

Trusting Jesus means you've already entered into the life he has for humanity: a life of knowing, being in relationship and living in the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A life that will, after your physical existence is over, lead you into the presence of God forever. Not trusting Jesus, on the other hand, is a much harder road. Refusing to trust Jesus means choosing to miss out on everything he has for you. Not much of a choice. But then, God still leaves the choice up to you.

Which one do you choose?

Trust

"In God we trust" has been a motto of the United States, by law, since 1956, and has been printed on all coins and currency since 1955. (Isn't it ironic that this motto appears on our money?)

Trust is "a reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc. of a person or thing" according to the dictionary. I think that if we really did trust in God, we'd rely less on the money.

Adam and Eve had a problem with trust. They didn't fully believe that God had given them everything they needed, or they wouldn't have believed the Serpent's argument that God was holding out on them. Their lack of trust was the root of their sin. Humanity ever since has lacked that same trust. Even though we seem hard-wired to want to believe in something greater than ourselves, when it comes to daily life we try to work things out by ourselves instead. Another way of saying that is that we don't really trust God to come through for us. And just about every sin you can name traces its way back to not trusting God to provide what's best for us.

I know some people who claim to trust God, but they seem to spend their time trying to manipulate him -- reciting verses from the Bible, claiming various promises, and figuring that their works somehow obligate God to come through with the new car or the job or whatever. As though God were a slot machine or a vending machine -- put enough coins in and something is bound to come out. But God is much wiser than we are, and he will give us what we really need, not what we think is best for us.

Isaiah 28:16 says this: "Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken." That foundation stone is Christ himself -- for salvation, and for the faith to live every day (Gal. 2:20). God tells us to trust him, to build our lives on Jesus (see Matthew 7:24-27) and not on our own efforts.

It's easy to say you trust God. But your daily schedule and your bank book show what you really trust. Looking at mine, I know that I sure need to trust him more. I pray you're learning to rely totally on God, for everything.

Change Is Coming (not just political)

The leaves on the trees are turning color, and some have dropped off; and the weather is a lot cooler than a month ago. The seasons are definitely changing. So is a lot of other stuff--mortgage rates, economic factors, gas prices. Pretty soon, the chairs in our governmental offices will have a different set of people sitting in them.

We like change. Change is the main theme of the US elections this fall. At the same time, we tend to resist it. But without change, we stop growing and die.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, had an open friendship with God -- complete access to all the power and the wisdom in the universe. When they decided they could handle things on their own, and turned away from him, everything changed for the worse. It wasn't until a long time later that God sent his Son into the world to change everything back.

A lot of people of his day didn't like the changes Jesus, the Son of God, brought. They had everything worked out in their minds about the methods a person had to use to approach God, and didn't like the idea that he was bringing in a new system of trust. They did everything they could to convince him he should follow them instead, but in the end, they couldn't handle the idea that they might be wrong and need to change, so they killed him.

That didn't work out the way they wanted, either. He didn't stay dead. And his disciples changed from a bunch of uncertain, arguing trainees to powerful speakers who helped convince even more people that they needed to change too.

That was 2,000 years ago. Change is still important to our spiritual maturity. When we're faced with some way we don't measure up to the life of Jesus, we have something he wants us to change. That's okay; we get help with it (John 16:12-15, etc). And we get to look forward to one final change that will let us see God together: "But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown." (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

I'm really looking forward to that one.

Backpack

The Amazing Joanne told me last night that I had been 'stressing' a lot lately. I didn't like to admit it but she's right. There's a lot to be concerned about! At least, so I think. Time pressure, health issues, and the ever-present "care of all the churches" as Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:28.

There's no end, it seems like. My mom used to say "if it's not one thing, it's two" and she was often right. And if worry or activity could have sent it all away by now, surely my level of both would have sent all my concerns to the other side of the moon, at least. But they never seem to leave.

Jesus promised us rest in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all who are weary of carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest." And though he meant that first in the sense of finding rest from our works, he offers rest from all the 'stuff' we carry around. Peter expanded on the idea a little in I Peter 5:7 "God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him."

There's a modern Christian song written about this idea, in case we forget:
"I cast all my cares upon you,
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet.
And anytime that I don't know what to do,
I cast all my cares upon you." (C) Kelly Willard, Maranatha Praise

Of course, God doesn't stop me from worrying if I really want to. I can keep on carrying my backpack full of junk, all of which he's already planned for. Or I can choose to accept his invitation to take it off and drop it at his feet, knowing it's all in his hands anyway; and enjoy the simple pleasure of walking with him without burdens. That's how he wanted it in the first place, in the Garden.

Ready to give it a try? On three: One, two...