Due Diligence

 

 

 

The opinions are multitude on the person of Jesus.  A politician claims that Jesus would be thought a radical if He came to the U.S. capitol; probably right but for reasons different than she thinks.  A pop singer opines that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a love affair going on, singing songs about it to promote the idea.    Authors portray current day followers of Jesus as mindless people, unable to think or reason.  Popular lecturers claim His entire life a myth.  Where does that leave the honest seeker, the honest follower of Jesus?

 

The source of information about the one we follow is as important as the information itself.   Finding the most honest and truthful source is important in evaluating the accuracy of the facts you are seeking.  We do not turn to plumbers for information on effective cancer treatments, and we would not ask an oncologist how to repair a leaky pipe!  The question to be asked then is why do we look to those with only a fleeting acquaintance of Jesus to explain Him to us?  And especially puzzling is why ask others when He has left us four accounts of His life and words?

 

Some will say that Jesus welcomed all people.  That is indeed true, but look at the accounts of His life and you will find that He not only welcomed them, but also challenged them on what He called their sin. 

 

Some will say that Jesus took the side of the downtrodden and poor, which is true.  However in His life story, He also took the side of the rich and ruthless tax man, who repented.  He expressed love for the rich young ruler, who sought answers.  He voiced respect for the Roman soldier whose faith was strong.   The rich, the poor, the oppressor and the oppressed could all find a welcome, but it was at the feet of Jesus.

 

Some will say that Jesus was a mild mannered, soft spoken teacher.  His story includes several episodes of Jesus as wildly angry, destructive and loud.  Injustice, hypocrisy, foolishness and pride annoyed Jesus and He had no problem expressing that.  He was not always patient, He was never tolerant of sin.  He let his hearers know what he was about and in strong language.

 

The Person of Jesus is introduced to us in the gospels.  The accounts were written or dictated by people who were there, who saw and heard Jesus.  Furthermore, the Spirit of God superintended the writing and made it exactly as it should be.  That is why it is the place to begin learning about Jesus and the place to go to fact check anything you hear from others about Him.

 

Don’t make the mistake of listening to gossip about Him from those that have not known Him.  Don’t go following the opinions of others who have altered His story.   Go to the source. Do your research.  Life eternal is forever; don’t rely on the words of a politician.    

Unity

                                            

 

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  Eph 4:1-3

 

 

It seems that the effects of Covid-19 are more than just physical.   Followers of Jesus Christ are arguing, publicly, about church closures and the state mandated  restrictions for  church goers.  One viewpoint says churches should open while observing reasonable precautions.  Another viewpoint says churches should stay closed relying on internet church services until there is a vaccine or sure treatment.  A third viewpoint holds that churches should open but obey whatever mandates the state requires; for distance, masks, corporate singing and the like.

These three viewpoints, and there may be others, are not similar.  They divide us as the body of Christ on earth.  And while suspending the gathering together of the saints has many drawbacks that is not the whole of it.  Rather the blemish is how we are treating those with whom we disagree, our brothers and sisters. 

 On social media, fellow Christians are treating each other with disdain.  They are using words to degrade the intelligence and morality of each other, calling into question the legitimacy of the other's  faith.  Churches are taking confrontational stands against each other, not seeking to understand but to humiliate the other and boost their own position.  And this is for the entire world to see.  How did we come to this?   How did we come to scorn our brothers and sisters and discredit other churches?

 I believe the primary point of departure for all of us is that we have neglected practicing grace.  That sounds a bit awkward, but grace is missing in the bulk of these circumstances.  SO back to the beginning we go.

 “It is by grace you are saved.. and that not of yourselves,” Paul writes.   And again he says; “When you were dead in your sins… God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins…” 

 We, in the body, were all at one time traitors to God, idolaters having turned our backs on Him so that we could do whatever we jolly well wanted; and it left us dead.  Dead to goodness, dead to joy, dead to love, dead to beauty and dead to hope.    That was who we were.   We existed in the place of darkness, evil and wickedness.  But then the very God we had discarded reached out to us.  He reached across the infinite gulf of our inherent evil and because He loved His creation, He rescued us.  He rescued us from our sin, from the evil in which we lived.  In His holiness, He sought us out and judged us as sinners and then sent His Son, Jesus, to serve the mandatory sentence due us; death.  

The holy, perfect Creator, Lord and King of all that is seen and unseen stooped down to us to offer us all a way out of the destiny that our sin had carved out for us.   

 And we, having a disagreement with a fellow sinner, find it difficult, if not impossible to extend grace.  I fear we open ourselves to the condemnation that fell on the unmerciful servant, who sought repayment of a tiny loan after receiving total forgiveness for his huge and impossible loan.   We are urged by Jesus to forgive each other from the heart and to do that as often as needed.  And further we are instructed to be unified.  You may ask, “how can I be unified with those who call me foolish or frightened or worse?’  You do that by recognizing that Jesus has put us into the church, His Body, through His death, His painful, torturous death.  You do that by realizing that grace has been lavished on you, the little creature that sought to oust God from His throne.  You do that by realizing you are not enemies with those of other viewpoints on Covid-19.  You have an enemy, but it is not your fellow believers.  You do that by remembering what you have in common with other believers, namely you are sinners saved by the grace of God for His purposes, not yours.  And then you repent and behave in  as Christ like a manner as you are able through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Even if the others are wrong, even when you disagree, we are called to unity in the essentials.  And the reaction to Covid-19 is not one of the essentials. 

Qualified?

Have you ever considered the people God uses to work out His will?  Often we think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or Hannah and her struggle to have a son, only to give him, Samuel, back to God.  These are indeed admirable people. Stellar women, sacrificial and obedient.   But they are in the minority when you read through the Scriptures.  Let's consider just these three; Samson, Cyrus and David.
You may be familiar with the account of David, raised from shepherding  to be king by God, only to take another man's wife and kill off her husband.  In addition, he was so attached to his son, Absalom, that David nearly caused the  mass desertion of the army that defended him against Absalom's treachery.  Yet, God used David in all his weakness, womanizing and weeping.  David authored many of the psalms, he lead Israel as king for forty years, he saw to it that Israel worshiped God and not idols.  His sins were real, but that did not stop God from using him.

Or consider Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia.  The Scriptures tell us that "the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia to make a proclamation...he has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem...any of His people among you...let him go up,"  2 Chronicles 36.  In Isaiah 45 the Lord, speaking of Cyrus says, "This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of...For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me."  In the life of Cyrus, God directed him God honored him and God used him to restore the Jews to their land after the exile in Babylon.  Cyrus also commanded the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem,  even though he was not a worshiper of God.  The legacy of this pagan man is bright.

In the book of Judges we learn of Samson, a man of physical strength and moral weakness.  Samson's desire to marry a foreign woman, which was forbidden by God, turned out to be used by God to begin liberating Israel from the Philistines.  The ensuing battles and skirmishes arose mostly because Samson was seeking revenge on his  Philistine enemies.  He used wild foxes to spread fire in grain fields. Not exactly an animal lover it seems.  But Samson's downfall was his lust for women.  Lured into a romance with the pagan Delilah, he told her the secret of his strength and she betrayed him.  Imprisoned and humiliated, God used him one last time to kill the  Philistine elites and so he killed more while dying than he did previously.   He was an obstinate, passion filled man who let his passions lead him astray.

None of these men were saints.  I think many of us would not want them near our children.  They were known for strength, but also for lust, anger, cruelty and more.  YET, God used them.  God moved upon them to direct His will for His purposes.

Two thoughts I take away from this.  The first is that God will use whomever He chooses.  Their character, beliefs and actions are not necessarily a part of the job requirements.  And that leads to the second thought; the  realization that  there are not any people qualified to serve God. It is time we wise up and stop looking for them.  Stop looking for the perfect husband, the perfect wife.  Stop hoping God will find the perfect, sinless person to be a  leader, ruler,  judge, legislator.   God does not look for perfect people, because there are none.   Until the day Jesus Christ returns we live as flawed persons among flawed people in a broken world.   It is astonishing that God uses any of us, but I thank God He does.

Beware the Drift

Since March our country has been closed down due to the Covid-19 virus.  To one degree or another, we have stopped following our normal routines and substituted alternate activities.  School in a school building became home school via computer.  Shopping for groceries became either an online order with contactless pickup or an extended wait in line as stores limited the number of shoppers.   Even corporate worship services at churches became personal internet worship in the home.  We have all been sequestered.  Life has been circumscribed by the walls of our homes.  For many, Sunday morning, with brothers and sisters at a meeting place, became a time to sleep in, lounge around and perhaps tune into the church’s video presentation.  Church attendance became like watching a favorite television show, you could watch live or watch at your convenience.  Of course, no one would know if while watching you were also doing something else-multitasking; which according to Barna Research 15% of practicing Christians do while watching the service.

More importantly to me is how many of us over the last four and a half months have simply lost the practice of worship on Sunday mornings.  Research claims that breaking a habit can take anywhere for two months to a year, and we are four months into limiting church, into meeting together as the church.  My fear is that some of us, having changed the routine of our Sundays, will simply continue in the new habit. 

Belief in God and following Jesus Christ are evidenced by certain actions which include gathering together to worship the Lord and encourage one another.  Certainly we can all worship alone, we have been doing that since the quarantine began, but being physically together in worship, is what the church does. We can reach out to each other through the internet, call or mail, but face to face support is what the church does.  You may say, “The New Testament is filled with long distance, written encouragement from various apostles.”  That is true.  But that is not the only encouragement those people received.  They were in close contact with fellow believers, contact which bolstered and encouraged the one who gave and the one who received.

If we continue to avoid contact, personal contact and corporate worship it will be easier and easier to simply drift away.  We can find other things to do on Sunday, needful things, and forego church on television.  We can find others who are of like mind and leave behind our brothers and sisters.   The drift away will be gradual, almost leisurely.

Then, almost without noticing it we will wake up one Sunday morning and realize we have been without worship or encouragement for a month or two, and it won’t really be that upsetting.  This is what I fear.  This virus upsetting our country will infect more than our bodies.  Don’t let it infect your soul and hinder your relationship to the Lord of Life.

Open My Eyes

Have you ever been doing some chore around the house and your child comes up to you to ask you a question?  You continue your work but listen also to the words your child speaks to you, answering as needed; getting the gist of the conversation.  Neither of the activities has your full attention, but you have been able deal with both.  Perhaps later, when your child revisits the conversation, you have scant memory of what was said and what was decided.

This is often how I treat time with God, when I am reading His word or talking to Him.  I am busy with several things in addition to being with God.  Today I realized I need to really pay attention. Just as it is rude to only half listen to my child; it is rude to partially pay attention to my Creator.

How often God shows Himself in His word and I am too busy planning my day while reading.  There have been times, because I was dividing my attention, that only after the fact have I realized God has been using a person or a scripture to bless me. I had missed what was intended in my attempt to be efficient.
 Trying to use my time wisely, I end up squandering my time with God and people, short changing them and my self by allowing my attention be elsewhere.

In thinking of this new realization it made me recall the episode in 2Kings 6 when the prophet Elisha was trapped in the city of Dothan surrounded by the army of the king of Aram.  Elisha’s servant was fearful and worried when he looked out and saw the huge army, leaving them no way of escape.  The servant was not paying attention to what he knew of God, only trying to figure out how to flee.   Elisha was not fearful even though he could see the same situation as his servant. Elisha’s attention was on God, on the movements and ways of God.  His prayer for his servant needs to be my prayer for my self.    “And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire…’”2Kings 6:17.

 How often have you been fearful and done nothing but fear?  How often have you tried to combine too many activities and do none with your whole heart?  Far too often that is the case for me.  But then God breaks through my stubborn heart and I see.  I see His grace at work as a long, lost friend shows up at the door. I see clearly His handiwork in the lives of those around me as I visit with a friend and we talk about what is truly important.   The incessant chatter around me is silenced and I see the obvious love of the Father for His children. 

I don’t want to be so occupied that I miss seeing God’s work, that I become oblivious to His presence.  Being of earth, we often get so involved in the acts of daily living that we forget that we are also the children of God.  But because we have the Spirit of God within us, we are more than just clay.  It is God who opens our eyes and gives us our time; but we are required to see through open eyes and to invest ourselves in the time given. We certainly can leave the chores and the concerns of life aside for a while and listen to Him with our whole mind and our whole heart. Because then we will really see.

Furious Rage Anger Wrath

Have you ever read through the comments section on a social media site?  Interesting, isn’t it that so many people are trying to argue a point, sometimes with perfect strangers.  Frequently the exchange is an angry back and forth that devolves to name calling and dismissive words.  Passion about the subject at hand becomes inflamed and heated vitriol is spewed and no one changes their thinking.  It reminds me of two verses of scripture regarding anger.  The first is from Ephesians 4:26-27; “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”   The other verse comes from James 1:20 “…for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

There seems to be an anger that is not sinful, and a way for each Christ follower to control the anger they feel.  After all, we are given the ability to grow the fruit of the spirit one of which is self control.  We are able, through the power of Christ within to direct and have power over any anger we feel.   We are told not to go to bed angry and cede control to the devil.  Holding onto anger is not good.  But, you ask, what about anger over a hideous evil?  Should we not be angry at what angers God?  Of course! If the things that grieve and anger God do not grieve and anger us we are truly immature in the faith.  So then, how do we deal with the anger that rises when evil is at work around us? 

Many of us act out of anger, hitting a wall, hitting a person, throwing objects, breaking things; anger is so powerful and we cannot carry it, we have to get it out of ourselves. Remember Peter’s angry response to Jesus being arrested in the garden?  He drew his sword and chopped off a man’s ear!  These actions may release the anger and give momentary relief, but afterwards they only create more problems. 

We all need to recognize the power anger has in our lives.  We must acknowledge the reason for the anger and then we need to direct that power to fight the evil, to right the wrong.  Anger submitted to God can impel us to work for the Kingdom that the peace of Christ may be offered to all.  We can work for the justice of God to be available to all.  Our own anger can never bring about what God desires; it can only feed our old nature.  We have a new nature and a Risen Lord.  We have been given all that we need to for life and godliness, we are all called to reject our old life and welcome the new life in Christ.  Do you want to be angry and harbor evil or do you want to be angry and sin not.  We have the power to choose.

Shadows

Have you ever looked at your shadow?  Walking along a sidewalk with the sun at your back, and there on the ground is your shadow.  What you see of your self in the shadow is an outline of your shape, but little more.  The shadow we each cast is only one dimensional; there is no depth or width to the shadow.   No matter how you turn your body, the shadow remains flat.  There is no color variation in the shadow either, because it is the absence of light.  It is only dark, no shading or intensity, just flat black.  Even upon further examination, you will find no details.  Eye color, crooked teeth or straight, big nose or small; none of these are evident, none will show up in the shadow.  It is just an outline, an empty surface.

How should we then understand it when scripture compares a shadow with something else?  In Colossians 2:17 Paul writes the following; “These are a shadow (the religious regulations and practices) of the things that were to come, the reality, however is found in Christ.”  Paul is reminding the believers in Colosse that their salvation from sin came through the grace of God in Jesus Christ and not through the works of the law.  The reality is in Jesus, the shadow was all that came before.

This is an astonishing comparison: the practices of the law, the shadow and Jesus, the reality.  Think about your shadow, the flat one dimensional outline of you.  Compare that   to your reflection in a mirror.  The mirror shows the particulars of your face and body, not simply an outline of your shape.  The reflection is detailed, and like a photograph, tells much more about you.  But even a photograph, or a reflection, is not like being in the same room with a person. It is not like sitting next to someone and feeling their breath as they speak, seeing the expressions play over their face, hearing them sigh.  The mirror and the camera can give an adequate representation, and it may be accurate as far as it goes, but it is incomplete. 
 
When I was dating my husband, he went into basic training in the army.   We were going to be apart for several months and during that time all we had for communication were letters and a few photographs.  While those were comforting, the silent photograph was not an object to put my arms around and hug.  The letters, were wonderful, but were a one way conversation.  I was glad to have the pictures and letters, but both were limited and partial.  Nothing could compare with being together.

I believe God, through Paul, is trying to help us see that all we know of Jesus, of what He has done for us, of what awaits us, is far beyond what we perceive now.  What we have now is flat, colorless, one dimensional and silent.  We have a shadow, an incomplete outline of something we have never seen before.  We have the words given us in the scriptures and the indwelling Spirit to help us, but all in all it is still partial.   We must not invest too much in the shadow; we must desire the reality, which is Jesus, because what waits is as different as the shadow of a loved one from that person running to greet you with a hug.

Social Distance

Of all the reactions I have seen to the threat of Covid-19 and the social distancing now expected of all of us, two stand out to me.  The first is the fearfulness I have seen on the faces of others. Walk down any aisle in a grocery store and turn a corner and watch the expression on the face of the person you pass by.  While it is sometimes difficult to see the expression, there may be gestures or muttered words which make their feelings clear. Your bodily presence is too close.  As I walk outdoors and come near a person walking toward me, I have noticed that many walk way around me, avoiding even eye contact. It seems that each of us is seen as a potential carrier of death; and therefore malicious and to be avoided at all costs.   This reaction saddens me greatly, because we are seeing each other as the enemy.  We are assuming the worst of each other, no longer acting out of grace, just fear. 

The second reaction I have noticed is the longing for connection with others.  This action is nearly opposite the fear based behavior, but I believe they can exist together.  We desire the company of others precisely because we were made to live in community.  For even God, our creator, the One whom we reflect, lives in community as the Triune God.  Love and community exist in the Trinity, there is relationship there, and as image bearers of God, we need those things too.   Recall that when God created Adam and brought him all the animals to name it was not enough. God declared that it was not good for man to be alone; man needed someone suitable to him.  Not an animal or a fish, not even God, but another human.  So we also need one another.  We need the companionship of fellow human beings.  We do so much for one another by our presence, and when we cannot be together, we realize all we have taken for granted.  To sit and talk with another, hash out ideas and thoughts is much better face to face than via a video chat.  To be able to reach out and touch another, give a hug or hold a hand has meaning beyond mere words.  To cry on the shoulder of another, or kiss a child conveys emotions that words cannot carry.  These all have been hindered by the requirements of social distancing.  We are told to keep physically apart, but our hearts are also being distanced.  
How do we proceed in both the fear and the lack of connection?   I am not certain, but I do know that we are better off to not let fear drive our actions. Fear leads only to suspicion, worry and meanness. Instead we must be lead by God through His word.  We can lead lives of caution without the fear controlling us. And we can remember the example of Jesus who when confronted by the unclean leper, reached out and touched him.

Evidence

Have you ever been up against a wall?  You are faced with a choice and unsure of how to choose?  Perhaps a new job opportunity, or a new love in your life, or maybe, a medical emergency; and now you need to decide what to do.   Do you gather all the facts you can?   Making a list of the pros and cons about the issue is often helpful.  Having a list of all the evidence you can find to inform your decision is not only smart, it is necessary if you want to choose wisely.

So what constitutes evidence?  A dictionary definition reads; “evidence is the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.”  Evidence is all that information we can gather with our senses and learn with our brains.  Gathering evidence can be as simple as asking if the sun is shining or if it is raining outside.  We are all gathering evidence daily.  But, when it comes to making an important decision, we all want as much evidence as we can, in order to make right choices.  Evidence is important.

As I read the account in Numbers 10:17-33 where Moses sends out twelve men to spy out the land of promise I was challenged to consider the importance of evidence gathering.   The spies were sent out to gather facts about the type of people lived in the land, what their fortifications were like, what the land was like in geography and the types of produce grown there.  They were to gather evidence, using their five senses, about the land.  This was the land promised to them by God. It was known to them as the land of milk and honey, the place God had told them about, their promised future home.   They had departed Egypt under miraculous circumstances less than two years previous and now they were nearing their goal, they were soon to be settling in the Promised Land.

So the twelve men set out to gather first-hand eyewitness evidence of the Promised Land.  Can you imagine the excitement?  They were to be the first to actually see the land.  Having heard about it for ages, they were now going to experience it for real.  From the desert, they trekked north, nearly as far as modern day Lebanon, and then returned back.  For forty days they looked at cities and farmland. They were able to see the type of people that populated the land and how they lived.   All the evidence they were asked to gather, they did.  

Once they returned to the camp, the twelve men were called upon to give their report on the evidence they had gathered with their own eyes.  And so they did.  The men reported that the land was a good land.  The soil was fertile for growing crops and fruit; they even brought back an enormous cluster of grapes as evidence of the productiveness of the land.  Indeed the land did flow with milk and honey.   It was a beautiful land, this land of promise.  The men also reported on the type of people that lived in the land and how the people fortified their land.  The spies reported that the people were frightening. The land was super fortified, the cities were walled. Giants lived in the land!   This was the evidence the men had gathered on their exploration of the Promised Land.  This was their list of the pros and cons on whether or not to enter the land.

Twelve men spied on the land and gave the facts about the land, but only two of the twelve supplemented that evidence with additional facts.  Recall that evidence is “the available body of facts…”

 In that list of pros and cons, ten of the spies neglected additional evidence, evidence of recent experience, which was also necessary to make an informed decision.  That evidence, of seeing the God of promise work and of believing His words was as crucial for them as it is for us. All the people, spies included had not only seen this evidence, they had actually lived it.   Not more that a couple of years earlier, all these men had seen plagues affect their Egyptian masters, but not themselves, to the detriment of the entire land of Egypt.  Not more that a couple of years previous, all these men had seen their first born sons protected from a plague which took the life of all the first born sons of the Egyptians.  Not more than a couple of years in the past, all these men had seen the barrier to their freedom, an uncrossable  body of water, drawn aside to allow them to escape from their captors as they walked  on dry ground through a parted sea.  And not more than a couple of years previous, these men had all seen the mighty army of the Pharaoh of Egypt drowned in the very waters that had been parted for them.  

The evidence of the power of God for them was right there.   The proof that God would protect them, lead them, fight for them was a part of their experience, a part of the evidence.  Two spies believed this, the other ten did not.  The ten did not count the evidence of God’s fulfilled promises, of His track record.  Promises kept, leading that has proven true; these are as much evidence as the size and type of fortifications and need to be as much a part of the decision making.  The ten ignored these remembered facts, perhaps out of fear, perhaps due to unbelief.  For whatever reason, the ten spies did not evaluate all the evidence.  Their list of pros and cons concerning this decision was woefully incomplete. 

What about us?  Do we believe the evidence of God’s work in our lives or do we doubt He can or will do it again?  When we are up against giants and fortified cities, do we forget that God has already dealt with all that in our past and can do it again?  When the evidence we see looks bleak, do we not recall that God has already proven Himself?  When we are hemmed in, do we forget Who is leading the way, Who has called us?

Evidence that is seen always looks bigger than facts that are remembered.   We may fear that God will not come through this time; that He won’t be there or rescue, or protect.  And that fear is what quashes the evidence of the past, the evidence of God’s track record.  If you are facing a difficult decision, a closed door or an uncertain future, what ever the evidence before you, recall the evidence of the past too.  Recall what God has already done, what He has already promised you, how He has proven His words to you.  Don’t be like the ten spies and leave your list of evidence incomplete.  When you draw up your catalog of evidence, can choose to list only what you see with your eyes or you can list the evidence of your eyes and the evidence of God’s faithfulness.  Make sure you consider all the evidence, because it could mean the difference between reaching your goal or taking a long, dry detour.

Death's Door

Do you ever wonder what heaven is like?  I do.  It’s the getting there that scares me!  The best book I ever read about it is the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn.  If you are wondering, read it.  But there remains the getting to heaven part; like the song says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

The prospect of death as we observe it from this side of life is often frightening.  I think because we just do not know what it will be like, how it will feel and the total unknown of it all makes us guarded.  We don’t run to death, we don’t even like to talk about it.

One minute we are taking a breath and the next minute, it becomes our last breath.  We are gone, leaving behind the body in which we have lived our entire existence. How can we hope to even have a clue about the process of dying, it is foreign to everything we have ever known.

But we do have some clues, given us by the only resident of heaven and earth to actually go through death and then return to life, Jesus.  Do his words have any instruction or encouragement for us in this the most unknown of all journeys every one must take?

I believe they do. 

To begin, have you ever been away from home?  When I went to college, I lived three hours from home, away from all that was familiar to me.  Still, I was thrilled to be on my own, living and making my own rules and schedules.  What young person doesn’t enjoy being free of parental restrictions, having the chance to prove themselves in the world?  No younger siblings to pester and annoy me.  No Saturday chores that had to be finished before the weekend began.  I was the captain of my ship.  And yet, those familiar routines and the affections of family were also gone.  Even though I could decorate my half of the dorm room in whatever way I choose, I missed that particular way my mother could make a room welcoming.  Although my meals were my choice, somehow a cafeteria table was just not the same as the dinner table at home with all of my family around it and my mother’s homemade dessert on the menu. 

Even with the reality of new of freedoms and new responsibilities, the lure of home was strong.  I just missed home.   There was one time I decided to surprise my family and go home for a weekend visit.  Since I had no car, travel entailed a three hour train ride north to the city and then a commuter train ride to my town and then a walk to my house.  I remember hoping that my visit would be a good surprise for my family.  They must have missed me, right?  When I got to my house I stood at the front door and wondered if I should knock, or just walk in.  It was my house, but the door stood between me and all that I loved in the house. 

And that is what I picture when I think about death; a door.  It is the one thing that stands between me and all that I love, and all who love me.  Just a door.  Do you recall Jesus saying in John 10:7 that He is the door?  The door that stands in the space linking life and heaven is the One who had proven His love for us by dying for us. Yet it is still daunting. 

I still must take that step through the door.  But how wide is a door threshold?  The span of one step?  It is perhaps twelve inches total, from one side to the other.  That is what stands between all I love and me.  Two questions arise from this; do I really love what is on the other side of the door, and do I really know what is on the other side?  Perhaps some of the fear of death results from being unfamiliar with the God we claim to follow.  If we really don’t know Him well, know what He has said, what He has promised, then it will feel strange and daunting.  Rather like knocking on the door of a stranger. 

But if over our lifetime He has become Father to us, and like an older brother, then it is like family.  If we have sent ahead all our treasure, then it is like our safe place, our dream home.  If we have talked daily to Him about all things on our minds, if we have argued with Him,  if we have wept with Him and felt His comfort, then it is a place of peace and calm. If we have disappointed Him, failed Him, sinned against Him and yet been forgiven then it is a place of welcome, of forgiveness, of love. 

The door, which leads to all we have ever longed for, all we were made for is just a door, a threshold to be stepped over.  For all who are redeemed, death is not a dead end, death is not a stranger’s door, it is the way home.

I Hope I Win the Lottery

“I hope I win the lottery.”  “I hope he asks me to go out.”  “I hope she comes back to me.”   “Hope for the best.”  

Hope is that word we use to express a wish for the good things which we want to happen.  Hearing this word from another person is to learn what they want, no matter how unlikely it is to happen.  Almost like rubbing a magic lamp, for many, to hope is to wish.  The hope may have no basis in reality; it may be impossible or wildly unlikely.  This hope is based on a desire, on a craving, nothing more than that.  And that is not a bad thing necessarily, but it is not an assurance that the hope will come to pass.

  
But look at the way the word is understood in the bible, what it means.  The word most commonly translated hope in the Bible means a favorable and confident expectation, the happy anticipation of good.  Certainly the expressions of hope noted above are happy anticipations of good but what is missing from those hopeful statements is a confidence in that hope. Confidence in the hope is more than simply wishing.  It is more than the strength of my belief in that hope, more than my power to envision the reality of the hoped for outcome.   The confidence in the hope expressed in the scripture rests on one thing only, the person of Christ.  It is important, therefore, to know if Christ is worthy of the trust we give Him, of the hope we place in Him.  So we look to see the evidence.

God has said many things about Himself; has He backed up His words with actions?   To see if there is evidence that His words are trustworthy we must see if he has come through on His promises.  A examination of this shows that  He has demonstrated the power to make His words real and true, actually doing what He said He would.  The whole of scripture shows this over and over.   His words have not been empty; they have the force of His works and actions behind them.    There is no dithering, wavering or hesitancy on His part; He says it and it is.

What this means for those who hope in Him is monumental.  To hope in what God says is to know that it will come about.  It is no wish, no waste of time and imagination.  Because hope is based on God; His being and His words, it is both the confident and the happy anticipation of good.   The hope of life eternal is real and assured.  The hope of being with God and of being like Jesus is sure to happen. 

 That is why the tomb in which Jesus lay was not the end; it was not over.  For every other person who died, the grave became the final resting place.  For Jesus there was nothing final about it.  There was no power to hold Him there, no reason for Him to remain in that grave.  For every other person, the debt they could not pay confined them to the grave.  While the fight for life in each of us is strong, the weight of the debt crushes the life and leaves us at a literal dead end.

 But hope remains. We have hope, as St Paul explained to Titus; “a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time…”  Hope that is assured because Christ both died and came back to life by the power of God, by the plan of God, by the purpose of God.   It is this hope that sees the unseen and trusts.  It is this hope that endures through trials large and small.  It is this hope that sustains the child of God in all the waiting.  It is this hope that does not disappoint because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as Romans 5:5 teaches.  And it is this hope that is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure, (Hebrews 6:19).  An anchor that is connecting our souls and God’s promises revealed in the person of Jesus, as He lived, died and Lives Again.

Make No Image

Out of the ten commandments God gave the people of Israel, one dealt with the making of images of God.  Of all the things to require for this newly formed nation, why would a prohibition against physical images of God be so important that it constituted  one tenth of the commands?

The people were leaving a culture with a deep spiritual component.  The Egyptians surrounded themselves with images of all their gods and goddesses and  worship also was a regular aspect of Egyptian life.  The people Israel knew that the God who had rescued them from their lives of slavery in the land of pharaoh was not an Egyptian god. He was the God of Abraham their progenitor; He was the God of promises made to Abraham.  But the God of Abraham, their God, didn’t have a form; He did not have a physical aspect.  Physical representations of the gods of Egypt and the worship that was paid them involved seeing the god’s image and the giving of offerings.  How could a mere human hope to give Abraham’s God food and offerings if there was no place where His image dwelt; if He was unseen?

The instructions given to Moses were “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God…”

Pretty clearly, the creating of any image from any source is forbidden.  But doesn't this prohibition stifle worship?  What does one do in order to pay respects to God?  How can I indicate that I believe He is God if there is no thing  to see and bow before? 

Can you picture this?  Having only ever seen people worship images, what would the worship of God look like?   The people of Israel had kept alive the promises and words given by God to the patriarchs; they knew God was to be honored. 

Now the people are a newly formed nation.  They are learning how to be free people, how to worship an unseen God.   But again the question remains, why did God forbid the use of images?

How could an image hurt or dishonor God?  By its very nature an image is a created thing;   created by a human who forms the shape and puts it in the place of honor.  To be fashioned by a person is to be man made… How can God be man made?  Even the likeness of God created by a person reduces God; as though His image can be reproduced.  As humans we are called to be worshipers, not creators of God.

An image is also limiting in physical scope.  Since God is not limited in His being, how can an image capture him, because an image with dimensions is inherently limiting.  The limits go beyond just size and mass. They extend to the very stuff of the image.  Should the image be gold or marble or both?  But God is neither a precious metal nor a beautiful rock.   All the materials available with which to fabricate an image are things produced by the God one is hoping to represent. Think about having some of your handiwork being used to express the totality of who you are.  That does not do justice to the entirety of you, and it cannot do it for God.

Temples are often used to house the image of a god.  This means the place where the god is located becomes the place of worship.  The god becomes tied to a specific place at a specific time.  This is limiting because the gods become associated with places and cultures, eras and the elements.   There is no way to make an image that reflects a universal and timeless god.  One ends up with a god attached to one nation or one people, one natural element,or one period in history. 

No matter what image is selected to represent the god; a bull, an owl, a nurturing woman; none can express the full extent of the power, wisdom and care of a God who is infinite in capacity.  Whatever representation is chosen focuses on the strength of the image while ignoring other aspects of the god.  For example, the golden calf made by Aaron in the desert shows the promise of strength and virility, but it indicates nothing of wisdom, love, mercy or justice.  Nothing created can show the full range of abilities or the character and person of the God of the universe.

 
I certainly don’t know all the reasons God had in forbidding the making of an image of Himself.  But I do know that when I create an idea of Him in my mind, I am making an image and so am limiting Him.  When I try to fit Him in a box of my making, so that He can be tamed, I am limiting Him.  When I ignore what He has told me of Himself and substitute what I want to believe, I have limited Him.  In effect each one of us limits God when we insist on defining Him.   “He just wants me to be happy.”  He doesn’t want me poor.”  “He wants me to be successful.”  Each time we create an image of God we are lying about Him because our image omits things that are true about God and adds things that are not true.    We are very good at glossing over the hard to understand parts of God because we don’t agree with or understand them.  We omit His purity, justice, omniscience and holiness when we sacrifice Him on the altar of our happiness and comfort.  We each need to step back, repent and remember HE is beyond our understanding, beyond our full knowledge.  He exists of and in Himself, we are because He is. Not the other way around.

What to Wear

Exodus 28 is the style section of the book of Exodus.  In it God gives Moses precise instructions on the clothing the priests are to wear when serving in the Tabernacle.  When reading through the descriptions and directions on how to make the various items of clothing,  it becomes apparent that God has every detail figured out.  From the material to be used for the ephod-yarn of gold, blue, purple and scarlet, to the placement of the twelve precious gems in the breastplate-every aspect of the uniform of the priests is laid out. 

It was these clothes, designed by God, that were worn by the High Priest when he entered the Most Holy Place to offer the sin offering for the himself and for the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement.   On this day all the sins of the past year were placed on the sacrificial animals, a bull and two goats.  The bull and one goat were offered as blood sacrifices; the second goat was sent into the wilderness bearing away all the sin and rebellion of the people.   The garments and sacrifice commanded by God were precise, exact and not to be altered.  Even the garments worn by the High Priest were to remain in the Tabernacle, as God instructed the priest to change out of the garments, wash and put on his regular clothing.  

What then of our High Priest, because we do have one.  In Hebrews 4:14-16 we are told that our High Priest is Jesus, the Son of God.  The High Priest who has gone through the heavens, who understands our weakness, who was tempted but remained without sin, this is the One who enters the most holy place.  As High Priest, He entered the ‘greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made,’ Hebrews 9:11.  As with the priests of old, He also entered the holy place with blood, but not animal blood; He entered with his own blood.  He was at once priest and sacrifice. 

Think of our High Priest and Sacrificial Lamb, Jesus.  When He offered up the sacrifice of Himself for us, He was not wearing priestly robe.  He was not clothed.  The scripture tells us he was stripped naked, a humiliating experience for anyone.  Yet our High Priest/Sacrifice wore nothing save his humanness.  He was naked before God and mankind as He offered Himself.  And I am reminded that the first Adam was naked before God and unashamed until sin spoiled him and shame became real.  Jesus, the second Adam was naked before the world and bore the shame that all people know.  In His nakedness, our High Priest offered us His robes of righteousness, His garments of salvation.  The adornment of our High Priest was humiliation; so that the chains of sin and death we all wear might be eliminated and we could wear the garments of salvation.

A Mother's Faith

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee, Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”  “Dear woman, why do you involve me?”  Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.””  John 2:1-5

The first recorded miracle of Jesus takes place at a wedding celebration. It is a familiar passage to many and rather delightful.  All the apostles and some family members are enjoying the celebration together; even the mother of Jesus is there to enjoy the party.

 But the bad news is that the wedding festivities are about to be throttled.   The wine has run out! For the host family there will be embarrassment at this oversight.   Help is needed and needed fast. It is as if only Jesus can save the celebration from an abrupt end and the hosts from awkwardness.  

I love how Jesus’ mother, Mary, behaves in this passage.  She is truly a mother who knows her son and believes in Him.  When she notices the supply of wine has been exhausted, she strolls up to Jesus and tells Him the problem.  Why would she seek Him out, why inform Him?  Does she expect Him to run to the corner liquor store and buy a couple more cases of wine?  No, it is more than that.  This is the woman that has been watching this Person grow up; the one human who has known Jesus like no other.  Recall the words of Luke in the account of Jesus’ birth; “But Mary treasured up all these things (the birth, the shepherds, the angel chorus) and pondered them in her heart.”  Again after Jesus’ time in the temple when He was 12 years old, we are told the same thing:  “But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.”  Mary seems a thoughtful person who would consider the experiences she had been through and only then make up her mind.   This child she birthed was no ordinary child, to be sure, and Mary saw much of what He was, what was evident.  More important, she believed in Him.  

Jesus’ reply to Mary’s request is straightforward, not rude.  He is on His own schedule, not ours. We ask, He responds when the time is right.  Often, this is neither easy nor pleasant, but we are not God.  When Mary asks for help, Jesus lets her know that He is not ready then.  Does Mary go off in a huff?  Does she go to plan B?  When we ask for help from God and He says wait, do we respond with a pouty face and long sighs?  Do we get angry or frustrated? Do we turn our back on Him and attempt our own way?

 Mary shows a way for us, when the right time is not our time.  Her faith in the power of Jesus, for it is faith that is evident, leads her to tell the servants to follow any directions given by Jesus.  What could she have in mind?  Did she even know what to expect?  I think what she did know was Jesus.  She had enough experience with Him to know He could do something and perhaps might.  I think that throughout the time she had pondered all the events of His life, she knew enough to not give up, to continue to hope.  She knew He was able. 

I come away thinking my faith could stand to ponder more about Jesus.  My faith needs to remember and hold in my heart all the things I know of Jesus and all the experiences He has already carried me through.  Then, when He says ‘Wait,” I can wait and also be ready at the same time.   

Abiding

The verb abide has often confused me, not in the meaning of it, but in the doing.  Defined as to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): - abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for).  It simply  means don’t move.  That part is not difficult.  What is difficult is doing the abiding, the staying.  For instance, when Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you,”   I wonder what that would like like and how it plays out.  Because Jesus is not a place, He is God who is not physically present with us, just how do I abide?

I came across a passage in Exodus that helped me understand, a bit better, what abiding looks like.  It says this: “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.  You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. “ Exodus 12:21-22

Commanded by Moses to paint the doorframe of their homes, the people are then to remain inside the home, to abide in the home.  Remaining inside a house with lintels painted in blood affords them protection from the death that is without.  Inside is life, outside is death; inside there is hope of deliverance, outside is misery; inside is community in the ritual meal, outside is collective sorrow for  the deaths in every Egyptian home.    Those who were abiding were sheltered from all the terror around them. 

The people were protected from the punishment God meted out to Egypt; they were spared the sorrow and the horror of the unknown.  All this came about because they remained, they abided in their homes. 

Picturing this gave me a better understanding of how abiding plays out in my life.  To remain in Jesus, to remain in the relationship which He has begun with me means knowing what that relationship is and Who He is.  It means listening to Him and talking to Him.  My role is to learn of Him, from Him, even as He has told us; “Take My yolk upon you and learn from Me…” Matt 11:28.

Some of the things that belong to those who are abiding in Jesus are listed in the first chapter of Ephesians, and it is a glorious catalogue!   We are told that in Christ we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  What does that mean?  I am not sure, but it sounds good to me!  Next we learn that we are chosen.  Have you ever been left out, or that last one picked for a team?  You can endure that a bit better knowing that you were picked out by God before the world even began.  God had His eye on you, being one who abides in Jesus.  What were we chosen for?  We were chosen to be holy and blameless.  I know myself pretty well and I know that I am not holy at all and far from blameless, but being in Christ changes that because it is Christ who stands in for me, His life is now mine.   The next thing in the list is the fact of our adoption as children of God.  We have a new family, a new name, a new home.  And this is all because we are in Christ.

The list goes on to include redemption, forgiveness, knowledge, an inheritance.  How much more can we receive?  How marvelous is it that abiding in Jesus provides so many great gifts.  Yet think what we are protected from when we remain in Him.

We do not have to bear our own sin before the holy God of the Universe. We are protected from the just punishment of our sin and treachery.  We are no longer on the outside where the danger lurks, we are in Christ, in the new home, with the new Father.

We are not helpless before the enemy of our souls, but have all we need to stand firm before a defeated enemy. 

We are not in ignorance any longer about the truth of God and love and reality.  We are walking with eyes that see truly now and a mind that is the mind of Christ.

We are not in fear any longer.  There is no need to dread what happens because we are in Christ and He has promised to be with us through all things. 

We are not striving to prove ourselves because in Christ we are made new, we are accepted because of Him, not because of what we are or can do.  We are freed from the chains of performance and loosed to joy.

All this and more is ours because we are abiding in Jesus. As we remain in the close relationship to our Lord, we gain what we could never earn.  We fulfill the destiny for which we were made.   He asks us to take on His yoke and learn from Him.  Yoked to Jesus, remaining in that relationship, walking with Him and seeing His ways and what He gives to us simply because He loves us that is abiding.    Yes, I think staying in the house with the blood painted doorframe is a plan, because that is where life is.