False Promises

You know, it’s funny. When Jesus called Peter and Andrew to be his disciples he didn’t say “Come follow me, and it’ll be a cake walk.” (see Matthew 4:19)

But I act like that’s what he said.

I also don’t think he said “Things are going to go really, really smoothly because I’ve overcome the world.” (see John 16:33)

But again, that seems to be my expectation.

I don’t know why I act like my life is supposed to be easy. It’s not. Even the best of us has struggled trying to figure out what God’s will is.

When Peter had the vision of the sheet descending from Heaven, he was like ‘what the heck are you talking about God? I’m not eating any of that stuff!’ (Acts 10)

When Paul wanted to go into Asia, the Holy Spirit blocked him (Acts 16:6) Not to mention when he asked three times for God to remove the thorn in his flesh and God said ‘stop asking’ (2 Corinthians 12:6-8)

Jesus himself didn’t want to have to endure the agony of the cross. (Matthew 26:39)

What marks the difference in their lives is simple: obedience. They obeyed God because God is worthy of our obedience. Not because it’s fun. Not necessarily because they understood it, but because our job is to do the will of God.

We must not make up false promises. Or accept them. Any person who essentially turns faith in God into a way to make money, live in luxury and/or avoid any sense of discomfort in our lives must be rejected in the same way Jesus rejected Peters effort to avoid a life of sacrifice: “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Matthew 16:23)

Instead of deciding what will make me happy and then demanding or expecting God to give me that, I will learn to take joy from obeying him.

This, I believe, is the dying to myself I am called to by the scriptures. So that I may be made alive in Christ.

In the life he gives, not the life I try to ‘get out of him’.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is one heck of a concept. Somebody does something against you that is wrong, and you make the choice not to hold it against them.

Peter has this on his mind when he approaches Jesus in Matthew 18:21 and says “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

Have I mentioned how much I love Peter?

He’s basically saying ‘I hate to forgive, but I’ll do it the minimum number of times I’m required to do it to keep you happy, Jesus’.

You can just imagine if you did something wrong to Peter, he’d say ‘I forgive you’, then he would pull out a sheet of paper with your name on it and put a big, red “X” in one of the seven boxes under your name. Then he’d look you in the eye with a rock hard stare.

Jesus’ response is ‘seventy times seven’. Now, Jesus isn’t saying 490 times is the limit. He’s using a figure of speech that is equivalent to us saying ‘infinity plus one!’  In other words: don’t stop forgiving.

Now here’s a big question that people have: do I have to forgive somebody who hasn’t apologized/repented?

If you were abused as a kid / had a car stolen and you never found the thief / been lied to by a salesperson that you couldn’t contact, should you forgive them? Or even somebody you know and see all the time - what if they don’t ask for your forgiveness?

I had a professor who was adamant that, biblically speaking, we are under no obligation to offer forgiveness unless we have been asked for it. We are free to offer it, much like Jesus did, but don’t have to.

For a long time I agreed with him. I was willing to forgive instantly if asked to do so, but if you didn’t ask for forgiveness, I didn’t extend it. I felt it would be like casting pearls before swine.

But I’ve realized something lately. Failing to forgive can be harmful to you. Until you let go of your offense, I’m not sure God can heal the wound it caused.

It’s like being stabbed with a knife, then saying ‘I won’t pull this knife out unless you ask me to.’ That’s dumb. Pull it out and let the healing process start.

The important thing about forgiveness is this: until forgiveness is sought, none can be received.

If you forgive somebody who hasn’t asked for it, they won’t accept it. But that doesn’t change the fact that you are beginning to heal. It’s not like you’ve let them off the hook and they’ll just take advantage of your forgiveness to make themselves feel better.

If somebody doesn’t think they need forgiveness, they won’t take it.

Think about Jesus. He offers forgiveness at the cross (Luke 23:34). Is everybody immediately off the hook? No. Not until they repent. Look at Peters’ speech at Pentecost. Telling the people in Jerusalem that they killed the Messiah. And what happens? Their hearts are pierced (Acts 2:37) and they ask what they can do. Peter tells them to repent and turn to God. Why? Because forgiveness has been offered. All they have to do is accept it.

Now listen, the important thing about offering forgiveness is to learn whether it has been accepted before restoring that person to the place where they previously were. If you gave somebody your credit card and they ran it up without your permission, you need to make sure they have really repented before you think about giving it to them. One good test is that if they truly have repented, they’ll start working to pay you back.

If your husband/boyfriend beats you or your kid(s), saying ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t good enough to let him back in your house.

There will be proof to go along with genuine repentance. The Bible calls this ‘fruit in keeping with repentance.’ (Matthew 3:8) In other words, prove by the way you live that you really have changed.

I tell my daughter all the time to show me she’s sorry with her actions, not just her words. If she says she’s sorry for not listening, but then doesn’t listen to me again 5 minutes later, I have to doubt the sincerity of her apology in the first place. (Now, she’s a child, so she’s learning. I don’t hammer her over this…usually. It’s a gentle teaching process.)

Some may say that this is essentially saying ‘forgive, but don’t forget’. I don’t see it that way. I see it as ‘forgive immediately, restore slowly’.

Forgiving isn’t easy. I’d say it’s one of the hardest things we do in life. Maybe that’s why Jesus made it a little easier by putting a line about it in The Lord’s Prayer: “…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us…” (Matthew 6:12)

Jesus is saying here, ‘even if you don’t want to forgive somebody, do it for yourself’. Unforgiveness in your life will affect you much more than it will affect the person who you’re holding it against.

And in the end, it will make you unforgivable, too.

The Way of the Cross

When God came to strip away my sin, I was glad. Sin only ended up making me miserable, and in the end, I was a slave to it. He freed me. When God came to strip away my selfishness, I reluctantly agreed. I knew it wasn’t a good thing. Focusing on other people is what I’m supposed to do. But this wasn’t fun. It wasn’t as enjoyable as being freed from sin.

When God came to strip away the plans I had made for my own future, I wanted nothing to do with it. I had cobbled together my own hopes and dreams. I had looked at all my possible paths and decided on the ones that would be most fulfilling to me.

God was no longer taking bad things away from me, but good things. Things I wanted, not things I wanted to be rid of.

But this is the way of the cross. God is not a cosmic garbage can, where we only toss the things that we don’t want.

We have been called to surrender everything to him. So that he may remove from us whatever he deems necessary for reasons that may often remain his own (at least initially).

The way of the cross is the opposite of ‘what’s in it for me?’ Rather, it’s ‘what is asked of me?’

This is where I’m trying to incorporate ‘The Path Proverbs’

Proverbs 14:12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

If I set out to navigate this life based on what I can see, it’s not going to end up where I want. Remember those puzzles in kids books where you have to trace a line as it twists and turns among other lines, almost like a pile of spaghetti? I think life is a lot like that. But this one is so complex and convoluted, only God actually knows which start point gets to which finish.

As I feel like God has been sending me in a different direction that what I would have chosen for myself, I am choosing to trust in him. I trust that if he has me on my current path, it is to keep me away from ending in disaster or disappointment.

I don’t think hopes and dreams and a vision are inherently bad things; I only think they are if they get placed above trusting the Lord and following his lead.

God is the potter I am the clay. How can I get upset about how he is molding me when I don’t know how he will use me? If I think I’m going to be a planter, a handle would be silly. But perhaps God knows I will be a pitcher, and he therefore knows I need a handle.

The way of the cross doesn’t stop at God removing the bad stuff from our life. It only begins there. The way of the cross comes in accepting that God’s will for our life is going to encompass all of who we are. Not just our ‘spiritual life’, but our whole life. Mind, body, spirit, soul, finances, time, focus, etc.

Jesus gives us this example in the garden of Gethsemane - “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Matthew 26:39)

He was giving up his life then and there so that he could lay down his life in the hours to follow. It was an extraordinary life, lived in complete and total service to God. Jesus deserved accolades and adoration, not torture and murder. But God’s path led him through Golgotha.

But it didn’t end at Golgotha. It ended in eternal life. Not just for him; but also for you and me. It led to the defeat of sin and death.

From his human perspective, Jesus wanted nothing to do with the path God was leading him on. But in his obedience to God, he followed it and in the end God had led him on the path of life.

Jesus followed the way of the cross. The way of humility. The way of downward mobility.

He calls us to do the same.

The God of Daniel

 

After God saves Daniel in the lions den, the king of the Persians sent a message to all of his subjects throughout his expansive kingdom: “I decree that everyone throughout my kingdom should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel…” (Daniel 6:26a)

The king looked at the gods he subscribed to, made of wood and gold and silver, and he decided ‘Daniel’s God is better than the gods I worship’.

I know a lot of people who worship themselves, money, power, sex, etc. Shouldn’t they look at me and say ‘his God is better than mine’?

Whenever Daniel got an opportunity to shine in the kingdom of Babylon, he never hesitated to give God all the credit. When Nebuchadnezzar demanded that somebody tell him what dream he had and provide an interpretation, Daniel’s response was “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries…” (Daniel 2:27-28)

He never left any doubt as to where his special abilities came from. And as a result, “The God of Daniel” was exalted and glorified.

Instead of trying to scare people with hell, shouldn’t we be astounding them when we tell them that what he does in our life, he’s willing to do in theirs?

So I ask myself: What do people think of the “God of TC”? Is he mean? Pompous? Insignificant? Or is he kind and life giving and a source of joy? The only way they’ll be able to tell is based on how I act and what I say.

Truly, we are ambassadors of our God (2 Corinthians 5:20). And everything that people know about our kingdom and its leader, they learn from us.

Dying and Christianity

Jesus gives us some tough things to wrestle with sometimes. You want to be first? Make yourself last. (Matthew 20:16)

You want to lead? Start serving. (Mark 10:43)

You want to live? Learn how to die. (Luke 17:33)

I think the main message Jesus gives us in these teachings is that the Kingdom of Heaven, in many ways, functions the opposite of how this world is organized. Makes sense, seeing as how the person currently in charge of this world is the devil. (Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31)

I started wondering how I could tell whether I had died.

Then I recalled what Jesus says in John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

The way you can tell if a seed has died is this: there’s a ton of life growing where it used to be. Ever see a field of crops? Full of life, flowing with the wind, reaching high for the sunlight? Well that’s a field where seeds died.

The defining attribute of death in Christianity is the abundance of life.

Remember John 10:10 where Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”? Well, look at the life the Holy Spirit has brought to the world. It’s there because Jesus died.

So I think that the way to tell if a Christian has died to themselves is when you see “life more abundant” in the place where it used to be just them. Is the Holy Spirit bringing joy and peace and love and patience? That’s because the anger and depression and hate and frustration that used to be all you had is gone. Because the old you died.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:43, talks about being planted in weakness, but raised in power. He’s talking about our current bodies versus our resurrection bodies, but I think it also applies to when we leave behind our carnal lives and instead allow the Holy Spirit to flow in us and through us.

Jesus, in his death, assured the defeat of Satan. In mine, I can be a part of his Kingdom expansion. Where there was once just me, soon there will be an abundance of life.

God the Artist

I think God is the ultimate artist. An artist works with material to express themselves. They may use paint or clay or music or a million other things. But what they are all attempting to do is take something within themselves and express it to others through a medium.

An artist is the opposite of a manufacturer. A manufacturer wants to make the same thing, over and over again with as little variance as possible. A manufacturer is out for profit, not self expression.

Making lots of the same thing is easier, faster and cheaper than making each item an original, unique piece.

Sometimes, manufacturers even try to reproduce a unique item. For instance, “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”, painted by Van Gogh sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. But you can buy a duplicate for as little as $140.00 at cheapoilpainting.com. You can buy as many as you want. They can make more anytime they need to.

God is not in the business of manufacturing Christians.

He is in the business of uniquely crafting sons and daughters.

If God is a painter, I actually think that he only paints one thing: a self portrait. But each one looks a little different. Some are modernist, some are impressionist, some are abstract; some are oil, others pastel and on and on and on.

If you put them next to each other, they’d initially look very different from one to another. But each one, if you watch as he paints, shares the same theme. It begins to look more and more like Jesus.

Some paintings are early on and you can barely see any similarities. Others, he has been working on for some time and they are nearly done. You can totally pick out aspects of Jesus in those paintings.

But by looking at only one piece, we wouldn’t know very much about the artist. By looking at just ourselves, we can’t see much of God’s work. It’s when we look at many different pieces that we start to know his handiwork.

We may like some of God’s paintings and not like others, but God loves them all. The main point in his art is the message, not the material he is using. As we spend our time wandering in his gallery, we get more familiar with his message and less caught up in his varying mediums.

Maybe at first the only thing we’ll see is how different every piece is. Maybe his only tenancy is to be completely unpredictable. But as we look and examine other pieces, I think we will start to see the common thread across the various styles and materials. That each piece has a little of himself in it.

God is an artist, not a manufacturer. And in you, he’s making another beautiful, unique self portrait of himself.

Bumping Into Jesus

In Luke 8, we read about the the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years without stop. You know the story: Jesus is walking among a huge crowd on the way to help a synagogue leader with his ill daughter. In the midst of all the jostling and bumping this crowd is causing, Jesus stops cold and says ‘Somebody touched me’.

The disciples must have been wondering if Jesus was joking. Imagine you are leaving a huge sports event through a narrow gate, squeezing yourself through the crowd, almost being smooshed, then suddenly shouting “Hey - who just touched me?”

The disciples are like ‘Um, Jesus, it’s kinda crowded.”

But then Jesus says this: ”Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” (Luke 8:46)

This is amazing to me. I have no doubt that every person in that crowd has something going on in their life, some issue where they could really use the power of God. Why else would they be swarming him unless they had needs which needed to be met?

But the people who inadvertently bumped into Jesus didn’t receive a blessing from him. It was the woman who, out of faith, touched Jesus with a purpose in mind.

In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell discusses Malachi 4:2: “…the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings…” He points out that the ‘wings’ discussed here are the tassels at the end of a prayer shawl.

This woman didn’t happen to touch the edges of Jesus’ robe. She knew exactly what she was doing. She had a specific purpose in what she was doing. Her touching Jesus wasn’t on accident and it wasn’t haphazard. She set her sights on the edge of his robe because she believed he was Messiah.

I see people who go to church on Sunday, but who don’t actually follow God as being people who are bumping into Jesus. Every Sunday for a couple hours, they’re like ‘hey! Jesus! How have you been? Nice to see you! Well you take it easy for the rest of the week now, you hear?’

You don’t get anything out of accidentally bumping into Jesus.

But when you reach for him with purpose and with all your mind, strength, spirit and soul; you’re going to receive the blessing of his presence in your life. Notice that Jesus doesn’t bestow a blessing on her. It happens automatically due to her faith.

Let us in the Christian community stop being part of the mob that’s kind of going around spectating what Jesus does, occasionally bumping into him, and let’s instead set our target on connecting with him and receiving the healing and blessing he wants us to have.

Stop bumping into Jesus and start grabbing hold of him, even if it’s just the strands of clothing at the very fringe of his presence.

The God of Here and Now

There is no yesterday for God. There is no tomorrow. There is here and now.

God created time. It doesn’t limit him.

There’s a reason the Bible says ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8). It’s because he can’t change from one minute to the next. He simply exists.

For God, each moment is infinite, yet he also exists across all of time in a moment. (2 Peter 3:8)

He is right now at the creation of the world. Right now at the end of this age. Right now at your birth. Right now he is pouring his wrath out on Jesus at the cross.

Now this is the point when the whole ‘how can I really have free will if God already knows what I’m going to do’ debate comes up.

Here’s where I stand on it: God is able to know what you’ll decide without interfering with your free will. He’s God. He can do things we can’t even fathom.

God is not surprised when we get sick. Or when we sin. Or when our car breaks down.

He’s the God who is here and now. As we make our way through life, we do well to remember that we are anchored to the one who is above and beyond everything we are dealing with.

There’s no tomorrow for him. There’s now.

God's Cooking

I think God works more like a crock pot than a microwave.

When you cook with a crock pot, you put in some base ingredients and let the juices of the ingredients mingle together and slowly absorb into the vegetables and meat and beans and whatever else you throw in there. Occasionally, you may open it briefly to add a new ingredient during the process.

But by and large, you give it everything it needs, then you apply heat and you wait. It simmers and slowly swirls around, enhancing flavor and texture over the course of a half a day.m cook slowly over the course of time. You let the juices of the ingredients mingle together and slowly absorb into the vegetables and meat and beans and whatever else you throw in there. Occasionally, you may open it briefly to add a new ingredient during the process.

A microwave? It just makes things really hot, really fast.

You can cook stuff in the microwave, sure. But it’s not going to taste anywhere near as good as the crockpot. Also, you’ll have to do a lot of preparation before the microwave if you want stuff to come out tasty in the end. The microwave doesn’t do anything to enhance flavor, and not a whole lot to enhance texture unless you get it ready for that intense burst of heat.

Crock pot cooking doesn’t need a lot of preparation. You just put the right ingredients in and close the lid.

We live in a microwave society. We want it all and we want it now. If I want chili, I don’t want it in 4 hours, I want it in 10 minutes. So I’m going to open a can of slop and nuke it. It’s not very good, but it’s good enough…I guess.

I don’t think God is a “good enough” God. He does it the right way instead of the easy way. He’s willing to take a longer process to get a better result.

God once told me ‘be more worried about who you are than where you are’. The journey, the process isn’t an inconvenience to him. It’s just as (if not more) important than the end result.

I read “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller this week and it really opened my eyes to this. God is telling a story in our lives. If you went to a movie and it was over in 5 minutes, you’d be ticked. If I said “But you saw the results!”, it wouldn’t satisfy you. You go to a movie to see the story start, and develop and then finish. You’re paying to go on a journey, not just to arrive at a destination.

So as you simmer and stew sometimes in life, don’t try to force God to rush. Half stewed potatoes aren’t very good.