Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
- Matthew 16
The idea of living in the Spirit is, I believe, a lot different than what we have been told, or taught. People that are "in the spirit," make a lot of show with it. They give you lots of visuals - hands waving, dancing, smiling, crying. And there's nothing wrong with all that.
An interesting observation someone made to me once, and I had to think about it and even check it out for myself, was that the people that are the most demonstrative in their worship expressions, tend to be the people most likely to be stand offish, judgmental, angry, patronizing. Now far be it from me to make a sweeping statement like that. But I think the point is, if you're going to make a show of your faith, then make doubly sure that people do not also observe you being gossipy, judgmental, haughty.
Christ says that the way of flesh and blood is the opposite of the way of the Father. The Spirit of God, the godly life, is not to be evidenced by shows common to the works of the flesh. The flesh makes a show of it. It is based on hearing, touching, seeing, feeling . . . even tasting and smelling. You know - the human senses.
But with God, is all about what you can't see. And we can't see what goes on inside the mind. When Peter knew that Jesus was the Son of God, it was something he had to put his intellect into. Yes, he was touched by God's spirit. Yes, he felt something stir within him. Like John Wesley, he might have felt a "strange warmth" in his chest. I have experienced that tugging on your heart, when you feel as though a power outside yourself is pushing you forward.
But the will of God, and our worship of Him, is activated also, willfully, in our minds.
So - - - while it is essential that we show our faith in acts of love, and in service to one another, and in the pursuit of justice and peace; still, as we think it through, and weigh the evidence, and discuss it with others; as we get away from our feelings (which can be massaged in a rock concert as easily as they can in a worship service), let us enter into the throne of grace, where our minds and eyes behold the God of the Universe.
Friday, August 22, 2014
The Perfect Will of God
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.
- Romans 12
A lot is made, in our times, of an emotional type of worship. We have a "feel-good" gospel. It is exciting, but has shallow roots.
In the Star Trek franchise, there is a character that has captured the imagination of the American pop culture, for almost half a century now. It is the Vulcan, Mr. Spock.
Spock's native race places a high premium on acting and behaving according to logic, and not emotions. They tame their feelings. They do not act on impulse, or instinct. If it feels good, they do not necessarily do it. And fact, if it has anything at all to do with feelings, they don't do it at all.
And this quality transfixes us as humans. There's something about controlling ourselves that appeals to us on a fundamental level. We are drawn to it, because we see it as the impossible proposition that it is.
Yet, when Spock dies in the Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, he is eulogized by his best friend, Captain Kirk. Kirk says, hesitatingly, almost embarrassingly, of his friend and spiritual brother: "Of my friend, I can only say this: Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most . . . human.
There is something about being human, and fully logical, that draws us. We want to be in control. We would give up so much, perhaps even our ability to laugh, if we could control our anger, our hate, and our instinctive drives.
There is something to the human will, that God expects us to tame. There is something uniquely compassionate and loving, in a person that is fully logical. Imagine really, only, saying, "yes" or "no," when that is all that is required? Imagine only talking when there is something valuable to say. Imagine avoiding saying anything that could be misinterpreted by someone else. Logic dictates that you hold your tongue, and control your emotions.
God talks about transforming our minds. Why? Because the world is passionate and hunger-driven. The world thinks only of itself. It takes an act of your will, to truly love someone else. Because real love is willful and deliberate.
Out of the taming of our own will, comes adherence to the will of God. And not just any will of God - the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
- Romans 12
A lot is made, in our times, of an emotional type of worship. We have a "feel-good" gospel. It is exciting, but has shallow roots.
In the Star Trek franchise, there is a character that has captured the imagination of the American pop culture, for almost half a century now. It is the Vulcan, Mr. Spock.
Spock's native race places a high premium on acting and behaving according to logic, and not emotions. They tame their feelings. They do not act on impulse, or instinct. If it feels good, they do not necessarily do it. And fact, if it has anything at all to do with feelings, they don't do it at all.
And this quality transfixes us as humans. There's something about controlling ourselves that appeals to us on a fundamental level. We are drawn to it, because we see it as the impossible proposition that it is.
Yet, when Spock dies in the Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, he is eulogized by his best friend, Captain Kirk. Kirk says, hesitatingly, almost embarrassingly, of his friend and spiritual brother: "Of my friend, I can only say this: Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most . . . human.
There is something about being human, and fully logical, that draws us. We want to be in control. We would give up so much, perhaps even our ability to laugh, if we could control our anger, our hate, and our instinctive drives.
There is something to the human will, that God expects us to tame. There is something uniquely compassionate and loving, in a person that is fully logical. Imagine really, only, saying, "yes" or "no," when that is all that is required? Imagine only talking when there is something valuable to say. Imagine avoiding saying anything that could be misinterpreted by someone else. Logic dictates that you hold your tongue, and control your emotions.
God talks about transforming our minds. Why? Because the world is passionate and hunger-driven. The world thinks only of itself. It takes an act of your will, to truly love someone else. Because real love is willful and deliberate.
Out of the taming of our own will, comes adherence to the will of God. And not just any will of God - the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Just Listen, or . . . Hear
All the kings of the earth will praise you, O LORD, when they have heard the words of your mouth.
- Psalm 138
Have you ever heard something like this:
"Woe unto them that listen, but do not hear."
or how about . . .
"Woe unto them that hear, but do not listen."
And I've always wondered, which is it? And do the two statements mean something different?
But the point is . . . it's one thing to listen to, or hear, another person. But's a far different thing to hear, or listen to them. It depends on the meaning. And we know what is meant.
When I say "listen to," I have added the directional word "to," at the end of the verb "listen," which implies movement, action, with an object.
But if I say "have heard," as in, "when they have heard the words of your mouth," we are using the perfect form. "Have heard" means that it has been done, to completion.
Obviously, the Kings of earth have not heard the words from the Lord's mouth, for they have not started praising Him yet. And aren't the rulers of earth the real problem? They don't mind their own business. They don't trust the people. They can't handle power. They wage war, levy taxes, conscript armies, charge and prosecute criminals.
Behind the Psalm, is a promise. All the kings of the earth will praise You, O Lord.
- Psalm 138
Have you ever heard something like this:
"Woe unto them that listen, but do not hear."
or how about . . .
"Woe unto them that hear, but do not listen."
And I've always wondered, which is it? And do the two statements mean something different?
But the point is . . . it's one thing to listen to, or hear, another person. But's a far different thing to hear, or listen to them. It depends on the meaning. And we know what is meant.
When I say "listen to," I have added the directional word "to," at the end of the verb "listen," which implies movement, action, with an object.
But if I say "have heard," as in, "when they have heard the words of your mouth," we are using the perfect form. "Have heard" means that it has been done, to completion.
Obviously, the Kings of earth have not heard the words from the Lord's mouth, for they have not started praising Him yet. And aren't the rulers of earth the real problem? They don't mind their own business. They don't trust the people. They can't handle power. They wage war, levy taxes, conscript armies, charge and prosecute criminals.
Behind the Psalm, is a promise. All the kings of the earth will praise You, O Lord.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Look Up, Look Down
Had it Not Been for The Lord
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
- Psalm 124: 7
The Psalmist seems to be describing Christians in Iraq, in 2014. Imagine being a Christian community that has been in existence for 2,000 years. And then ultimately, in the upheavals of the early 21st Century, it becomes prey to a sweeping wave of ISIS invaders.
The vivid terminology of the passage is eerily appropriate today:
"Enemies rose up"
"Swallowed us up alive"
"Waters overwhelmed"
"Torrent gone over"
"Raging waters"
"Prey for their teeth"
Truly, these words are describing ISIS. David may have had an image of the year 2014, and multitudes of families (men, women and children) that looked like him, and his own, being hunted down like animals, disposed of as garbage, plowed into the ground as late-summer weeds.
But we escaped the snare. And what is this snare? How about our trust in others? Our naivete, our gullibility, our misplaced hope in things audacious?
Snares are traps. And evil has always relied on traps to open pathways for them to devour God's good people.
But had it not been for the Lord . . .
- Psalm 124: 7
The Psalmist seems to be describing Christians in Iraq, in 2014. Imagine being a Christian community that has been in existence for 2,000 years. And then ultimately, in the upheavals of the early 21st Century, it becomes prey to a sweeping wave of ISIS invaders.
The vivid terminology of the passage is eerily appropriate today:
"Enemies rose up"
"Swallowed us up alive"
"Waters overwhelmed"
"Torrent gone over"
"Raging waters"
"Prey for their teeth"
Truly, these words are describing ISIS. David may have had an image of the year 2014, and multitudes of families (men, women and children) that looked like him, and his own, being hunted down like animals, disposed of as garbage, plowed into the ground as late-summer weeds.
But we escaped the snare. And what is this snare? How about our trust in others? Our naivete, our gullibility, our misplaced hope in things audacious?
Snares are traps. And evil has always relied on traps to open pathways for them to devour God's good people.
But had it not been for the Lord . . .
Thursday, August 14, 2014
An Early Baptism
When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
- Exodus 2:10
The command had gone out from Pharaoh, to cast every boy born to the Hebrews, into the Nile River.
How many times have you read this account from Scripture? How many times has it been read to you? Dozens of times? Scores? Surely we all know that Pharaoh had ordered the execution of all the baby boys born to the Hebrews.
Baby boys.
If a Hebrew woman became pregnant, and gave birth to a boy, the baby was taken instantly, and thrown into the river, where presumably he would float down and perhaps wind up in the Mediterranean. There's no telling what was to be the final state of these babies.
Were they typically thrown in, alive? How much thinking do we do as newborns? Do we feel fear? Pain? Loneliness? Sadness?
These thoughts do not enter the minds of people that kill babies. If it can't talk back to you, it doesn't count. Has it ever occurred to you what monsters these servants of Pharaoh were? Even Hitler's Nazis would recoil in horror at the thought of it!
And what's the result, when governments start destroying our most innocent people? Slavery, more violence, war . . . it doesn't get better. Evil always begets more evil. And evildoers always reap what they sow.
My thinking is that we need to read this passage with new eyes, and let the real meaning of what happened sear our hearts and souls. Moses emerged out of the most vile of societies, perhaps in the world's history. And when we see the same thing happening today, we can either ignore it, or respond as though it were our own baby boys being thrown into the Nile.
So the Nile River represented the most depraved form of death. Remember now . . . death was our punishment for sin. In the end, we all die. We die because we are selfish, vile, sinful creatures. God did not want such to live forever.
If death is a curse, humanity has become quite adept at making it worse still, by the manner in which we kill; the people we kill, and the reasons we kill. We kill in ways that make it even clearer why we must die in the first place.
But Moses' mother placed him, as a baby, in a basket, on the bank of the Nile. They must have had guards all over the place, making sure all baby boys were surely placed on the way to their certain death. When she could hide him no longer, at three months of age, she took him out among the reeds of the Nile, along the banks. Maybe she was being watched by Egyptian sentries.
But carefully she placed him where he would be safe, while ostensibly following Pharaoh's dictate to kill him.
But out of the Nile, where Hebrew baby boys died, an Egyptian woman found the baby Moses, and took him in. Like a baptism, into the water and out of it, from death to life, Moses came forth. This signaled new life for the Hebrews . . . and in the end, became life for all of us.
- Exodus 2:10
The command had gone out from Pharaoh, to cast every boy born to the Hebrews, into the Nile River.
How many times have you read this account from Scripture? How many times has it been read to you? Dozens of times? Scores? Surely we all know that Pharaoh had ordered the execution of all the baby boys born to the Hebrews.
Baby boys.
If a Hebrew woman became pregnant, and gave birth to a boy, the baby was taken instantly, and thrown into the river, where presumably he would float down and perhaps wind up in the Mediterranean. There's no telling what was to be the final state of these babies.
Were they typically thrown in, alive? How much thinking do we do as newborns? Do we feel fear? Pain? Loneliness? Sadness?
These thoughts do not enter the minds of people that kill babies. If it can't talk back to you, it doesn't count. Has it ever occurred to you what monsters these servants of Pharaoh were? Even Hitler's Nazis would recoil in horror at the thought of it!
And what's the result, when governments start destroying our most innocent people? Slavery, more violence, war . . . it doesn't get better. Evil always begets more evil. And evildoers always reap what they sow.
My thinking is that we need to read this passage with new eyes, and let the real meaning of what happened sear our hearts and souls. Moses emerged out of the most vile of societies, perhaps in the world's history. And when we see the same thing happening today, we can either ignore it, or respond as though it were our own baby boys being thrown into the Nile.
So the Nile River represented the most depraved form of death. Remember now . . . death was our punishment for sin. In the end, we all die. We die because we are selfish, vile, sinful creatures. God did not want such to live forever.
If death is a curse, humanity has become quite adept at making it worse still, by the manner in which we kill; the people we kill, and the reasons we kill. We kill in ways that make it even clearer why we must die in the first place.
But Moses' mother placed him, as a baby, in a basket, on the bank of the Nile. They must have had guards all over the place, making sure all baby boys were surely placed on the way to their certain death. When she could hide him no longer, at three months of age, she took him out among the reeds of the Nile, along the banks. Maybe she was being watched by Egyptian sentries.
But carefully she placed him where he would be safe, while ostensibly following Pharaoh's dictate to kill him.
But out of the Nile, where Hebrew baby boys died, an Egyptian woman found the baby Moses, and took him in. Like a baptism, into the water and out of it, from death to life, Moses came forth. This signaled new life for the Hebrews . . . and in the end, became life for all of us.
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