Following Jesus Son of God …

The flip side of love – Never pay back evil for evil.

Romans 13:8 (New King James Version)

  
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 12:17 (New King James Version)

That’s what Jesus calls us to.

Die to live.  Lose to gain.

Matthew 10:39 (English Standard Version)

39^(A) Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

John 12:24 (The Message)

 24-25“Listen
carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the
world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried,
it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way,
anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if
you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and
eternal.

We have to not be afraid to believe God.  We do live by faith, not by sight.

Easier said than done but totally worth it.

How do I handle the guys at work who tend to make me want to take a hammer to them rather than to pray for them? 

Let’s just think about that expression – “in the real world” – for a minute.

“We have people.”

You’ve heard and maybe used that expression.  If you’re a Verizon
customer, you have people, “the network,” a group of people who can
very effectively help you carry out your business, do your stuff.

It means a great deal to have connections.

With the  Christian. . .”we have Person,” as in Jesus Christ and that is connection to the nth degree.

That’s what it comes down to.  In the most holy of places, in the
place where the authority and direction of the universe dwell, we have
a direct connection to everything that is God through Jesus Christ.

And that is just how it hit me this morning as I read the phrase.

“We have such a high priest.”

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have
such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true
tent that the Lord set up, not man (Hebrews 8:1-2 ESV).

There is nothing past or beyond this “tent.”  Authority of
authorities, power of powers, name of names, King of kings, Lord of
lords.

Holy.  The most holy place.  Where God sits on his throne.

Where Jesus our High Priest takes cares of business for you and me.

And if it can get even more amazing, he perfectly identifies with our struggle on Earth because he lived here for over thirty years.  He has felt the road, experienced the pain and the joy of living in a fallen world.

The Holy Place:  Where Jesus our High Priest takes cares of business for you and me.

We have a great high priest, who has gone into heaven, and
he is Jesus the Son of God. That is why we must hold on to what we have
said about him. Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he
was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! So whenever
we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our
merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we
will find help(Hebrews 4:14-16 CEV).

Let’s follow a time line:  Christ lived in perfection, loved us so moved to our fallen planet so we would have a way out (salvation), then back to heaven preparing a place for and waiting for all those who have believed in him for eternal life.

What a story, what a Savior.

And we have such a high priest.

We all do it, it seems.  Kind of fall in love with the stage, enjoy the laughs and everyone actually listening to what we have to say.

Can be pretty heady stuff.

I found myself at “too cute” one day listening to the cassette replay of the previous Sunday’s message.  (Yes, back in the dark ages we recorded to cassette.)

Wow, I thought, very upset.  Too cute.  Too much horsing around, entertaining, not enough content.

And so I decided to change my approach.  It wasn’t that I was a horrible person, not for that anyway.  It is just that I had caught a malady common to public speaking – “too cute-itis.”

Listen to the guys who have been on the radio for a while.  If you are not drawn into the moment, it is too much, too much of the person and not enough of the message.

I guess this is on my mind as I think about standing before a group of men this Saturday.  Have fun, yes.  Forget my focus, no.

To those of you in our area:  I will be speaking at the Vigo County Fairgrounds in Terre Haute at a men’s event hosted by the Berean Brothers Fellowship of Maryland Church.

Day & Date:  Saturday  November 15

Time:  8 – 10 am

Subject:  Daylight Living in a Land of Darkness

Text:  Romans 13.8-10 & broader context Romans 11.33 – 13.14

C’mon down now, ya’ll.  🙂

Driving Directions:  Proceed south of Interstate 70 maybe a mile or so; can’t miss fairgrounds sign on right (west) side of road; turn in and proceed west possibly .2 mile; can’t miss building on left; parking on right.

Check out this video.

First heard Dr Chittick in Wyoming, then asked him to hold seminars at our churches in Portage, IN and Traverse City, MI

Gives excellent background and perspective for earth history

Can buy the book at this link for $15.

Google “anti-Christ” and see what you get.  That’s what he said.  In fact his pastor had suggested it.

So easily we do it.  Slander, character assassination.  But don’t worry because it’s okay if your cause is just.  Actually we don’t usually say that out loud but we do live by the rule.  And it doesn’t matter whether Republican or Democrat, God-believer or atheist, every group does it.

My friend passed that suggestion along to me from his pastor the other morning.  As we were visiting, he gave me a handout which demonstrated how John McCain was the clear choice for president over Barack Obama.  A little later in the conversation he suggested that I “google” the word anti-Christ as I may be interested in the results.

I wasn’t.  I already had the point.  Demonize the enemy so our righteous cause prevails.

It’s kind of like how some people view the process of selling a car.  It’s just business, nothing personal.  So what if a little information is withheld or embellished, everyone does it.  After all, it’s just business.  So the single mom who scraped together just enough money to provide transportation for her family shouldn’t take it personally when the transmission gives out in four or five weeks.

It’s just business.  It’s just politics.  Obama is this distant figure, a target, the object of our rallying cry.  Don’t take it personally, Barack.  We’re just calling you the anti-Christ.  It’s just politics.  And it’s so easy.  So easy in fact that we can do it in our churches and no one raises an objection.

So that is what I am doing as an evangelical, fundamental, Bible-toting believer in Jesus Christ.  I’m saying it is wrong.  It is very wrong.

I learned this several years ago as we evangelicals delighted in slinging mud at “Slick Willie.”  You remember ol’ Willie, don’t you?  President William Jefferson Clinton.  I was a pastor then and did my part in bashing Slick Willie.  Until I read one day in Paul’s letter to the Romans that Slick Willie was one of God’s ministers of government, that his being president was a God-thing.

So I had a choice to make.  I would either honor and respect President Bill Clinton, the person God had appointed to lead our country, or I would choose to disobey God.

That ended the Slick Willie talk for me.  My cause wasn’t righteous enough to justify ignoring God’s instruction.  Is yours?

This is what I sent in to our local newspaper for the editorial page.  I hadn’t written an opinion letter for twenty years but felt compelled to do so.

Here is a link to the Romans text.

Within all the insecurity of the financial markets in the US and around the world, I have found some true encouragement and peace.  I wasn’t really looking for it; wasn’t really expecting it; wasn’t looking for meaning or wisdom or for something to blog.  It just happened. . .this strange sense of peace that shouldn’t have been there.

I mean, it’s not like things didn’t bother me somewhat, but I just wasn’t afraid, and in fact, weirdly enough have been strangely comforted.

I don’t know how well I will articulate this but I have such a sense of the presence of God in all of this.   And as I work my way through this I also sense the voice of God, speaking to us if we win out over anxiety long enough to listen.  “I am here.  Have been, always will be, like forever.”

Can you see how little even the big people are?  We can run corporations and even countries but we are not in control.  We are not.

Okay, I think I am getting closer to clarity.

We are not in control which can be the scary part, if it were not for the way God can show us in the center of this how he is in control.

I think that’s it.  Nothing is secure apart from God; everything is secure within God.

It is like shake everything up and what is not moving is God.  Because everything else is moving, stock markets are bouncing up and down, gasoline is less than $3 a gallon, countries around the world are trying to rescue their banks. . .

But God does not have to call his broker, come up with a contingency plan, refinance, run out to fill up the car while the price at the pump is lower than it has been for months. . .

Nope.  God is God.  And we are people.  And if we can believe him, he will turn the picture frame right side up so you can see what is really going on.

Yes and amen!  God B. God!  Amen again!

Have you not been paying attention?

Have you not been listening?

Haven’t you heard these stories all your life?

Don’t you understand the foundation of all things?
(22)  God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas– yes, like a tent canvas to live under.

(23) He ignores what all the princes say and do. The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
(24)  Princes and rulers don’t amount to much. Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them. Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.

(Isaiah 40:21-24 MSG)

Here is one thing that will happen as you continuously read through the Bible, especially if you read through in different translations.

Familiar texts will sneak up on you.

You will arrive at this familiar text from another direction without all the usual layering which comes from our highlighting marks, underlining and notes written in the margin.  Not that this is always bad but all our previous notes are sometimes more like baggage than helpful insight.

Some of you, very possibly many of you, don’t want to hear this, don’t like to hear this, but it is true.

All that well-worn Bible shows sometimes is just a person who has worn multiple paths through their Bibles because they stay in the familiar.  And, yes, if I have not stated it clearly enough, I am saying that many of our notations, underlining and highlighting are more harmful than good.

Sure, it is easier to find “what we believe” in a particular text of Scripture, but wouldn’t you really prefer hearing the voice of God, seeing the text more as God has displayed it?

Sometimes my wife and I take rides in the country.  Sometimes we just take a random route, this way, that way, not caring really where we are going, just enjoying the scenery.

We did this one day and as we were driving into a town, I could not figure out where we were.  But it was a very familiar place to us.  We had been there many, many times; we just hadn’t come in from that direction before, and we saw it much differently.

I have done this in my Bible reading; seeing texts as I never had before because I didn’t have all the “markers” telling me where I was and what everything meant before I even read it.

Here are some examples:  The beauty of life found in the book of Deuteronomy.  Finally understanding what we call “the beauty contest” in the book of Esther actually is.  Jesus making wine at a wedding feast that could actually get people high.  Taking every thought captive in 2 Corinthians 10, not taking every “bad” thought captive as we were always taught.  Too many instances of this for me to remember.

But two things at least have to happen.  One, we have to read the words of God regularly, and listen and think and meditate.  We need a regimen that reflects our stated professions of how wonderful God’s word is.  And, two, we have to be willing to be changed, or “perish the thought” have our minds changed.

We need to do less studying and more bowing down, taking the words of God in as life.

And that is living.