Following Jesus Son of God …

She never completed this song, but I have always liked it; ran across it a few days ago.

You Give Peace Like a River

I sometimes almost finding myself feeling apologetic because that is what I want to know.

What does God actually say in his book?

No offense, but as much as I may like or even love you, your opinion is not what I am after, as neither is mine.  Because the words that make up our opinions don’t last forever, they don’t penetrate the deepest parts of our lives, personally, socially …

God’s words shaped into our opinions are no longer God’s words.  We have removed the “pizzaz,” the forever factor, the sharpness and the power of the words.  We have made them much more manageable.  And the words now do fit our lifestyles that much better, may even encourage us or make us more moral.

But they can’t do what God intended because we have brought them down to earth.  We have made his ways and thoughts our ways and thoughts, and we can’t do that without really dirtying up the place with mere human thinking.  It is really like trying to save ourselves although we would never admit something so awful, as good Christian people and all.

And, also, when I probe my question, I’m not talking about the “we really study the Bible” clan.  No, I’m not speaking of stroking my pride with the abstractions of God’s word, and the depths we often go to in what we call word studies, cultural/historical background, etc.

That’s not what I mean.  I will say that those are good places to hide from the will of God;  places that are very conducive to doing what we want to do and rationalizing that God is pleased with our defiance.

What we don’t realize that sometimes “those other people” are us.  We are the “religious” ones, the ones insincere in our faith, the ones with a semblance of godliness but lacking the power and presence of God.  But that couldn’t be us; look at how we “study the Word.”  Did you notice how I capitalized Word?  That’s how I show reverence.  Smirk.  Thought I would add that so you wouldn’t miss the sarcasm.  I mean I could show my reverence by bowing before the words in acceptance and obedience, but that is much harder, so much more demanding than playing the word game.

In Mark 10 we run into a young man who played the numbers game, a young man who had an impressive check list of why he was in good standing before God, or at least hoped to be.  So he took a risk and came to Jesus for his thoughts.

And that is what we always need to do; come to Jesus for his thoughts on our whack-a-doodle ideas we drag kicking and screaming from the Bible.

On the “I am a good person so I hope I am going to heaven” quiz, he got six out of seven.  Check, check, check, check, check, check … oops!  But the one he missed was the crucial answer.  He was able to answer the first six questions and still not confront God’s will for his life, but when it came time to confront his submission to the Lord of the universe, he went away in great sadness.

He couldn’t give up the life he had chosen for the life Jesus directed him to.

• Mark 10:17-22 (NIV)
• 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
• 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'”
• 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
• 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
• 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

• Do not murder  √
• do not commit adultery  √
• do not steal  √
• do not give false testimony  √
• do not defraud  √
• honor your father and mother  √

Whoo-hoo!  Doing good on the “Jesus” test until …

Until the challenge came to his life direction with these words:  “One thing you lack.”  Go sell everything, give it to the poor and follow me.

Six out of seven on a quiz is normally pretty good, but not in this case when the young man’s religion and morality were keeping him from God rather than drawing him to God.  He was using his religious determination to rationalize his autonomy, keeping control of his life.  And because of that he couldn’t follow Jesus.

Note the irony.  Familiar with the Scriptures, successful in obeying his hand-picked rules of morality but could not bring himself to follow Jesus, God in the flesh, literally standing there in front of him, urging him to do the right thing before God.

So my initial question grows.  What does God say?  And now what does God say to me?  That is what I want to hear.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

It’s not that we deserve a second chance but we should follow God’s lead and keep giving second and third and fourth and …

Grace.  You may have heard the word, heard of it.

But life experience tells us that we need plenty of it, whether we realize it or not

I think I may finally get the podcast started this week.  I found a music player that works like a dream and causes no conflicts, corrupts no files, etc.

Hallelujah by Lori Ann Scott

American Dream by Lori Ann Scott

Yes, I am going to brag a little bit … no, I’m not really, but listen in.  These thoughts came to me as I listened to this Scripture being read in church this morning.

I am so important. I am instrumental in many of God’s important accomplishments as he proves his greatness among people.  And I can prove it from the Bible.

He uses me to shame the wise and the strong as he destroys what the world thinks is important.  I am so useful to God.

• 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (New Century Version)
  26 Brothers and sisters, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families.  27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  28 He chose what the world thinks is unimportant and what the world looks down on and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important.  29 God did this so that no one can brag in his presence.

Did you see me in the words above?  Foolish, weak, unimportant and insignificant.  Yesiree, Bob, I am fully qualified to be a vital part of God’s plan.

But I’m not going to brag because I am fully into humility, dude!

My oldest son bought that book for me for Father’s Day.  How timely.  I’m not surprised, not really, but it had been a while since I had read Tozer, so I had forgotten why I am so impressed with his writing.

His words reach so deeply into my soul.  Here is an excerpt that describes two strong thoughts I have, one concerning the professing church, specifically the conservative, fundamentalist part of the family speaking to our fear to preach the image of God because the damn liberals have overtaken that teaching.  And, secondly, he addresses the “wildness” caused in us because eternity has been set in our hearts.  We all know there is more, but some find the light and others remain in the teasing and the pull away from this world that eternity dwelling in a temporary being brings.

• A.W. Tozer, And He Dwelt Among us, p. 20
  If we had more courage, we would preach more on the image of God in man. That does not mean that unconverted man is saved. He specifically is lost and except he repent and be born again, he will never see the kingdom of God.  If he dies unshriven and unforgiven, he will certainly go to hell.  All that I believe, and the only reason a man can be saved is that God has put eternity in his heart. God made man in His own image and though man fell, he keeps the longing after eternity there and the appreciation of everlastingness there.  He has a desire after everlasting life within his heart, and that upsets him. Man goes wild and calls it one thing, but deep down in him it is another thing that is bothering him.

No amount of affluence and earthly conquests can overcome man going wild because of this deep down influence of forever in his or her life.  Only a relationship with Jesus Son of God addresses the issue of eternity in a way that satisfies ultimate reality.  Only Jesus can satisfy the soul.

“We” say we dig deep into Scripture.  Sounds pretty spiritual, I think we mean it to, but what do we really mean?  And what do we really do?

We probably get the expression from passages such as the following in Luke.

• Luke 6.46-49 NIV
  The Wise and Foolish Builders
  46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

It seems, doesn’t it, that we usually equate digging deep with our intense Bible study.  We are going to dig deep into the Scriptures, really study our Bibles.

The problem is, besides the fact that no text teaches that premise, that both groups here that Luke refers to seem to have a true appreciation for the words of God.  They both hear.  They both invest time in finding out what God says.

Two things stood out to me this morning as I read this.

First:  One groups digs a foundation before building and the other just builds.  To dig or not to dig, and it is not speaking of how long or how intense our study of the word is.

Second:  The digging is described in the text.

Digging described …

• comes to me
• and hears my words
• and puts them into practice

Jesus begins this discussion with a question:  “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Why do they give Jesus such honor with their words but do not do do what he says?  Lord is such a high term of respect and honor, even worship, but Jesus is not “Lord enough” for them to live by what he tells them.

Many people build their lives on Jesus and his words but have no foundation in God.  Jesus shares this same story in Matthew seven, people who try to get to heaven on the broad way, utilizing many things of God, fighting and serving in his name, calling him Lord, but not acknowledging him as Lord by actually letting him direct their lives.

This three-pronged approach that produces digging leads us to change, transformation.

• comes to me
• and hears my words
• and puts them into practice

We can study the words, share the words, seemingly love the words and stay entirely on the surface.  Build our lives with no foundation.  We think we have a foundation, the words of God, because we listen, we hear.  But there is no foundation because there is no putting what our “Lord” says into practice.

And the end is collapse and complete destruction.

Scary stuff, I know!  But shouldn’t we hear the scary stuff now.  While we have an opportunity to quit being stupid in our approach to God.

How dishonoring to call Jesus Lord and not even bow before him enough to do what he says.  Do we think we know better?  Do we doubt he cares?  Doubt he can choose the best path for us?

Maybe the next time we enter into a discussion of “digging deep,” we will determine to move this past hearing a message preached or the principles we come up with in our BS – Bible Study 🙂

Maybe the next time, we will listen to Jesus and let him tell us how to dig and how to build.

If you are thinking about blogging, then you should check out WordPress; very powerful, FREE; this new default theme is very customizable; you will notice this by my header specifically.