Following Jesus Son of God …

Luke 1:26-30 ESV In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, (27) to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. (28) And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (29) But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. (30) And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

The vision of the Christ child was clear and brilliant once Mary was eased through her surprise and confusion. But you have to believe that over the course of the thirty-three years of her son’s life that at times this vision wavered and dimmed. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not criticizing Mary, just trying to help us understand the process of God bringing inspiration to us and bringing said inspiration to pass.

Like with heaven. So real and so far away at the same time. Do I believe it? Oh, yeah! Is it always crystal clear and at the front of my consciousness? No.

Of course, none of us will have an experience like Mary did, but God will come to us through his Spirit and direct us to the road ahead, the life assigned to us, our inspiration. Maybe God directs us to a particular ministry or a relationship he wants us to build in our neighborhood or on the job.

We must keep walking toward these things that God pointed us to in these intimate moments with him, even when the curtain closes and things quiet, even when that moment in prayer or reading seems far away.

We must keep these things in our hearts, as Mary did.

To often we let go of what God has promised us because the excitement dies down or things seem to stall.

Another example: What a calling it is to be “the servants of the Most High,” what a vision of our lives to grasp. But if you are like me, you let it wain at times. And that is okay too, because that is part of the process. But we keep moving toward the goal, even if we stumble, even if we have to crawl at times, even through our tears and disappointment, we keep moving toward the good thing that God has set our eyes and hearts on.

Because he is God.

Job is maybe the best example of this. Poor old buddy had the hell beat out of him, he whined and fought but he clung to God during his entire ordeal. His fighting with God was more an example of faith than many realized. His belief in God went to the absolute core of his being, and he related to God in honesty and faith, even if it meant battling as he did.

Maybe I haven’t articulated that very well, but hopefully you get the point: The book of Job is all about real, true, genuine, sincere, honest, bodacious, audacious, gutsy FAITH.

And as I write this that is what bubbles to the top. That is what our lives are to be about, isn’t it? Audacious, bodacious, gutsy, “I ain’t lettin’ go” FAITH.

Can you imagine all the back and forth David did between being called from the hillside watching the sheep to be anointed until he was actually king? Well, we don’t have to imagine as we can read about much of his journey in the Psalms.

My particular thing at this time is this book that God has called me to write. Beyond Pretend – The Grass Really Is Greener on the Other Side.

I don’t think I have had an experience like this before, not this specific, not this different, not sure how to express.

But we keep going, tired. . .keep going, discouraged. . .keep going, distracted with life. . .keep going. Treasure the things God calls each of us to. Grasp a vision of being his ambassadors, his ministers, his servants, his children.

And don’t let go, my friend. Never let go till heaven.

(1 Corinthians 7:17 ESV) Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

From “The Final Move” on “Amusing” album

It was love that set this fragile planet rolling
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three
Molecules and men infused with holy
Finding our way around the galaxy
And Paradise has up and flown away for now (it’s flown away for now)
But hope still breathes and truth is always true
Just when we think it’s almost over
Love has the final move
Love has the final move

Call me a fanboy, I think that’s the term I heard, but I just keep getting impressed by the artistry and creativity of Chris Rice. Wow! His latest album “What a Heart Is Beating For” is so great. Sorry, I am not normally so loose with the superlatives, but this guy is great. My only fear in writing this is that all this will go to his head and ruin him. (Please, please note “tongue in cheek”).

From “Sneakin’ into Heaven”

Hey Mr. Pedro, I have a little confession
I don’t belong here, and this halo isn’t mine
Peter laughs and says, “Well, boy, haven’t you noticed?
We’ve all been broken, but now we’re doin’ just fine!
‘Cause nobody’s good enough, and up here we’re all the same.
We all get to heaven under Someone Else’s name!”

(Acts 4:12 CEV) Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone.

I don’t know what it is but I have been floored by God’s kind and caring display of beauty in his creation this spring, his flora and fauna extravaganza. Wow!

As I walked around our modest “estate” this morning I felt like the richest person in the world. I believe we have maybe one-third of an acre, but it is God’s gift to us. There’s something about life that expands and deepens when we recognize the source of everything good. Eating a simple breakfast knowing that our Father in heaven provided that daily bread is a humbling experience filled with thanksgiving. It’s more than bacon and eggs, or a bagel, or a bowl of Cheerios. It is our gracious God providing for his child, his servant, his creation. Yo, baby!

Late summer of 2006 my wife and I purchased $3 clearance trees from our local Rural King. One of them wasn’t even tagged; we didn’t know what it was, but for three bucks. . .

Walking this around the yard early this morning and seeing little crab apples and miniature pears. . .I worshiped.

We have transplanted trees and bushes and pampas grass from my late mother-in-law.   This spring a friend gave us a blue spruce and an apple tree.  Pretty cool to already see little apples on that tree, Larry.  Thanks.

And grass.  Does God know what he’s doing or what?  Simple, beautiful, functionally superb.

God provides.  We plant; he waters and causes to grow.

And it keeps going.  We have a dog and a cat inside that usually provide joy and companionship.  Two big neighbor dogs that come to the back door like hobos and help us keep the fridge clean.  How can such a big, powerful animal be so affectionate and make us feel the way we do?  God.  That’s how he does stuff.

And I can’t leave out the birds.  We love watching them, providing food, water and shelter.  God is there also,  another picture of his involvement in his creative work.

Can’t wait to see the robins enjoying some of those apples!

(James 1:17 GW)  Every good present and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the sun, moon, and stars. The Father doesn’t change like the shifting shadows produced by the sun and the moon.

I am spending this weekend working on my book.

Beyond Pretend:  The Grass Really Is Greener on the Other Side.

Thanks!

Amos 🙂

I read it in the newspaper what I have heard so many times. Something to the effect of putting the cookies on a lower shelf where everyone could reach them.

And we accept this very unbiblical thought and practice.

Compare this silliness to the soul searching, mind stretching, heart bowing search for wisdom and truth in Proverbs 2.

Proverbs 2:1-5 ESV My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, (2) making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; (3) yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, (4) if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, (5) then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

Pardon me, but how can we possibly consider this “cookie nonsense” in view of texts such as this?

I know. It seemed right. Oops.

Or how about thinking of the cookies on the lower shelf in view of Isaiah 55.8-9?

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. (9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

This is a reflection on the state of Christianity even among those of us who would die over the issue of the authority and inspiration of Scripture.

We try to close the gap between God’s thoughts and our thoughts instead of bowing before his divine instruction.

And we end up with religious cookies instead of the vision of God.

“So, what is going on in your life?”

And I am prone to answer that my life is a mixture of joy and sadness.

Life is great and life is agony, at the same time often. And I think I am understanding more and more that this strange mixture of life is God-given, God-planned.

This morning as I read 2 Corinthians 1, I saw at least a partial explanation of this enigma.

(2 Corinthians 1:5 MSG) We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort–we get a full measure of that, too.

I didn’t read this in The Message but liked the punch that Peterson gives this text.

The ESV states:

(2 Corinthians 1:5 ESV) For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

This is a God thing: Share suffering of Christ, share the comfort of God.

A delicious blend of the activity of God in our lives. I am a more “comfort”able person than I was a year ago because God allowed the dagger of life to rip my heart open as I followed him. Anguish and great sadness, tremendous joy from the presence and healing of God.

Go figure.

But we can’t. All we can do is rely on God and keep following. In fact this is also part of the Plan.

(2 Corinthians 1:9 MSG) We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally–not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead!

And, yes, I am now also more “reliable.” It is either trust God or not; believe him or not. The dagger comes and rips away self-reliance. Pain, anguish, tears and joy as my faith grows.

And I praise God.

I apologize to you for my neglect of the blog over the last several weeks, couple months or so.

As I mentioned some time previously, I am writing a new book – Beyond Pretend: The Grass Really Is Greener on the Other Side. With the other things I am doing – like working so we can pay the bills – that kind of puts me over the top. I hope to have a solid first draft done by the second week of July. I am taking a week off work then to help make that ambitious goal a reality.

God is not only good, he is “gooder” than we realize.
Many of us aren’t tasting God because we aren’t truly trusting him. We are in love with the life that God has given but we are enjoying things on the “creation track” and the best of God comes in trusting him on the “redemption track.”  Sometimes we mistake tasting God for merely tasting the things that God has provided.  We are in love with the gifts of life but not the giver of life.  However, Psalm 34.8 exhorts us to taste God.  How?  By taking refuge in him; by trusting in him.

(Psalms 34:8 ESV)  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

 (Psalms 34:8 MSG) Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see– how good GOD is. Blessed are you who run to him.

The best stuff, the abundant life that Christ came to provide, comes through living in the redemption track.

(John 10:10 ESV)  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The entire world in one sense enjoys the goodness of God as every good gift comes from him, everything thing we see, touch, feel, smell and taste.  It is spring in Indiana and it is absolutely beautiful this morning.  God began this beauty project on the third day of creation and said it was good and it still is very good.

The majority of people in this world only taste God’s goodness through this creation track.   Unfortunately many who profess to know God only know him in this way.  The goodness of God and some religion can add up to a pretty good life on this Earth.

But it is not the abundant life that Christ promised to bring when he came.  It is not the best that God has to offer.  Many people who passed through the broad gate and who are tasting the goodness of God’s creation and have some Bible and theology “under their belts” mistakenly believe they know God.  You can find this group in Matthew 7.22 and following.  They missed the narrow gate Jesus spoke of earlier in Matthew 7 and their religion deceived them until they came before ultimate reality in the presence of Christ.

They had built their lives on a knowledge of the Bible but they were not living the knowledge on the redemption track.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are each assigned to, called to, a life on the redemption track.

(1 Corinthians 7:17 ESV) Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

Understanding these things and living them not only helps us to walk in God’s abundance but walking the redemption track reflects not just the goodness of God’s creation but the goodness of God’s redemption.

As we walk the redemption track, people see God, get a whiff of God, a smell.  Maybe like walking into Wal-Mart and the smell of cotton candy catches your sensory attention as it wafts through the air.

Walk the redemption track and people smell eternity, something deep within them is stirred.  Maybe they don’t come to Christ but they have at least seen his reflection, been flashed by the light and love of God.

And as good and powerful a witness that God’s creation of grass and trees and flowers and water is, it doesn’t compare to having a reflection of God’ life and light beaming from one of his children in their private world.

May God bless us as we follow the path of Jesus.

(Matthew 26:59 GW) The chief priests and the whole council were searching for false testimony to use against Jesus in order to execute him.

This stood out in my daily reading. The religious overseers, the ones entrusted with the stewardship of the things of God, were not seeking truth or righteousness, but false testimony to support their cause against the Messiah.

What went wrong?

Now before we caricature these folks as evil-meanies and despicable dunderheads, let’s examine the story for a moment. These people were the honorable, upstanding community leaders. Part of our problem when reading the Bible is that we often miss where we would be “in the story” if we lived back then. We are always the hero, not the villain, the good guy, not the bad guy.

We wouldn’t have been so stupid and stubborn as to cling to our religion instead of embracing Christ. Or would we have? The majority of those in the crowd yelled crucify him. The majority weren’t in on the secret meetings and judgments but they also didn’t question what surely most of them knew in their hearts must be wrong. They had seen this man, heard him teach in the temple, listened as spoke with heaven’s authority, watched him heal their sick and cast demons out of the tormented among them.

But they went along with the waves of accusation anyway.  To not go along might mean the loss of everything.  And after all, these were their spiritual leaders, their counselors and preachers, their pillars of the community.  No, these men would embrace the Messiah, not spit on him and hit him with their fists and mock and ridicule him.  These men wouldn’t hire riff-raff to lie in their religious courts.

There’s no way that their spiritual leaders would be so far off base as to kill the Son of God!

Or is there?

Just what extremes will a man or a woman go to if someone dares mess with their religion anyway?

(Psalms 37:4 NKJV) Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

So what are the desires of my heart? What does this text mean?

I had for some time accepted the company line that the closer I drew to God that he would change the desires of my heart, thus he would then be able to fulfill these desires.

But some time back another idea came into the picture. Being created in God’s image I believe we all have certain desires deep within in us that are in line with the character and will of God because he is the designer. When we delight ourselves in God, these good desires begin to be fulfilled.

What might some of these be? Significance, meaning, love, creativity, belonging, purpose. . .

With the rebellion described in Genesis 3, our means of fulfilling the desires were perverted. Adam and Eve were convinced that total fulfillment was being withheld from them by God. So they took matter in their own hands and set out toward self-fulfillment with the guidance of the serpent.

They set in motion the pattern to find fulfillment outside of God’s care and instruction. So we may give ourselves in sexual relationships to feel loved. A person might sacrifice everything in his life for a career that gives him meaning. Many people do drugs because that is the only world in which they find meaning and significance. Drugs are their hope. And we don’t understand the problem. We say, “How can they do drugs and ruin their lives?” But that may be the only realm in which they can touch these desires of the heart. Is it wrong and sinful and stupid and self-destructive? Duh! But it is all they have.

Why have so many people been able to overcome their addiction and destructive lifestyle? Because they reconnected with their original purpose to enjoy God and delight in him. They come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and their life has more meaning than they ever imagined. Their world of significance now matches God’s “world” of eternal significance.

Why do we abuse credit cards? Because we are discontent. The desires of our hearts are not being fulfilled. New furniture is a temporary fix, as is a new car or home or a new relationship. . .all are dead-ends. We buy things and do things that seem to touch meaning and significance and reality, but the trail always ends in disillusionment.

This is why we need to have a better understanding of the glory of God. Because that is the only “end of the trail” that doesn’t disappoint. And that is why when we delight ourselves in the Lord that our heart desires are fulfilled. They aren’t changed. God just changes our watering hole, where we go to get a drink of life. All of the things that matter deep within us find their fulfillment in God.

I also believe that this is part of the freedom that Christ refers to in John 8.32. The truth allows us to live in the light of God’s forever. We are freed from our illegitimate attempts to live life. We are freed from the constraints of sending the bucket down the well by our own means. We are freed from the “drugs” of self-fulfillment.

I don’t have to buy this to feel significant or find meaning. I don’t have to violate my conscience to remain accepted in my social group. I can live free before the glory of God. Do I want to be accepted by my peers? Yes. But am I no longer a prisoner to my fear of rejection because God himself has fulfilled by heart’s desire to be accepted. That is why they could face being burned or hanged or sawed in to. Because they were “in a zone.” They were living in the fear, the reverence, of God. Their lives had the light of God’s glory illuminating every dark crevice.

They weren’t alone. You are not alone. I am not alone. The only way that desire to not be alone is completely filled is in God. I believe this text teaches us that having our delight in him brings us into this truth in our daily lives.

But in all of this, I am not talking about a mere knowledge of these things, but living them out. Live this truth. Delight yourself in God. Live your life like God is there. Here is an example Christ gives in sharing with the needy.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:3-4 ESV).

Don’t try to fulfill your heart’s desire for significance by giving so people notice. Keep it between you and God, a secret between you and your invisible Friend, who happens to be the Creator and Redeemer of the world.

When you are having an interpersonal struggle with someone, and maybe they withdraw their love. Don’t take your wounds to the gossip circuit. Go to the secret place where you can share intimately with the King of the universe.

Give up the illegitimate means to find life and fulfillment. Delight yourself and God and he will touch you in the deep places of your soul. Delight ourselves in God and get a glimpse of what God intended in the first place and what he will one day bring about fully in his children.

One day he will wipe away the last tear from your face.

Adam and Eve set the human race on the downward spiral of fulfilling our heart’s desires by stepping away from God’s kind instruction. Not until we come to a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ and subsequently delight ourselves in God will we once again find that wonderful contentment and fulfillment of Eden before the fall.