What am I supposed to do with words that explain my daily reality. How do we begin to explain what it feels like to be so completely unknown, to be a foreigner in the middle of my own city. We are not of this world. It is cliche' and it is painfully true. "Beloved what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." (1 John 3:1) Here is the truth. If the world gets your God, you are probably telling the story wrong.
What do we do with a God that does not exaggerate? What do we do with a God who is merciful and jealous and mighty and humble? What do we do with a God who asks for our everything, who says go and sin no more? Oh this God, He so captivates my heart that I forever feel unworthy and at all times I have this deep longing that I cannot explain even to myself. I want to run, to just run around and yell at whoever will listen. I want to stand on a street corner and hold a sign that says, "You have no idea." That's what I want to do because it is how I feel at all times. I see people and I don't even know where to begin. I want to make t-shirts and buttons. I want to just stand there with tape over my mouth and just point to my sign over and over as I wave. Just this endless pointing and waving thing. That is what I want to do there on the corner with my sign.
Oh that I could explain this upside down kingdom where the point isn't self actualization. How do you explain a kingdom forged in weakness, a kingdom founded on prayer and fasting. How do you explain Jesus to a world that does not know Him. They stare at us with empty, blank stares. They have decided that He is not real or even worse they have decided that He does not care.
And then it all makes perfect sense as John nicely puts it. The world does not know us because they do not know Him. See, it is a rubik's cube only way worse. It's a catch 22 only way more tragic because eternity is at stake. They cannot know us because they cannot know Him. And we can tell them about Him with all our cool fancy tricks and we can make it way easier for them to understand (because God is so complicated?) Heck we can settle for raised hands during dark ministry times. Why bother with the formality. We have almost declared everyone saved if they will at least admit He was a real person.
The truth is that He is other than. This God is not like us. The truth is that the world does not know Him and they cannot know Him until they are no longer of the world. He makes us new (set's us free) and then we open our eyes and then we know Him. We finally see see Him. It's the matrix without the karate and the plug that goes into our brain. Whoa, I know kung-fu. Something like that. I wave, I point, I hold my sign. "You have no idea." It's all I want to say, ever.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
This is a hard saying.
In John 6:35-69 Jesus is walking with his disciples and really explaining who He is. He is walking with a large crew of people who He just did the very cool feed the masses thing with. Sure, they are all followers now that He has given them food to eat. And isn't this just like people to follow whoever is keeping them fed. We are just so empty like this. If you feed us we will follow. And Jesus, being Jesus, knows who is following for the food, and He knows who is following for the bread of life. See it's not the same and this is what Jesus is teaching on that fateful day when He reduces His crew from thousands back to just about the 12.
On that day He reminds them that He is the food and that He is the living water, "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." And there goes His mega church. The followers begin to look at each other and say, "This is a hard saying." Oh and how things never change with the unchanging God. Because at the end of the day He has so many hard sayings. This is His truth. He is all together unlike us. If His sayings are not hard we are probably not hearing Him.
And so what is the point? The point is in verse 67 and 68. Jesus looks at the 12 and He says, "Do you want to go away as well?" Such an important truth about Jesus. He is unafraid of these moments. In verse 64 Jesus says, "But there are some of you who do not believe." And then John explains that "Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe." Here is the hard word. There are those who follow but do not believe and Jesus knows it. In Matthew 22 and 23 we are told that many will prophesy, cast out demons and do good works in the name of Jesus. We are then told that He will say I never knew you. So Jesus is not afraid to ask if they want to leave as well because Jesus understands that when He reveals all of who He is, most will say no thank you. Oh, this Jesus we follow. Oh, to know more of who you are oh, to love you rightly.
But alas we arrive at verse 68 where Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and we have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Peter, who will make mistakes, knows the truth. There is no other one but this one. He gets so many things that we need to get. He gets that Jesus is Lord. He gets that believing and knowing are different and he gets that Jesus is God. Peter is witness to the truth that there must be more than this. Peter has seen followers come and go and what he knows is that believing in Jesus and knowing Him are way different. And what Peter knows is that believers will come and go and that there are no guarantees and he doesn't know much about once saved always saved but he knows that this Jesus is the eternal God and for Peter that is good enough. There is no turning back.
On that day He reminds them that He is the food and that He is the living water, "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." And there goes His mega church. The followers begin to look at each other and say, "This is a hard saying." Oh and how things never change with the unchanging God. Because at the end of the day He has so many hard sayings. This is His truth. He is all together unlike us. If His sayings are not hard we are probably not hearing Him.
And so what is the point? The point is in verse 67 and 68. Jesus looks at the 12 and He says, "Do you want to go away as well?" Such an important truth about Jesus. He is unafraid of these moments. In verse 64 Jesus says, "But there are some of you who do not believe." And then John explains that "Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe." Here is the hard word. There are those who follow but do not believe and Jesus knows it. In Matthew 22 and 23 we are told that many will prophesy, cast out demons and do good works in the name of Jesus. We are then told that He will say I never knew you. So Jesus is not afraid to ask if they want to leave as well because Jesus understands that when He reveals all of who He is, most will say no thank you. Oh, this Jesus we follow. Oh, to know more of who you are oh, to love you rightly.
But alas we arrive at verse 68 where Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and we have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Peter, who will make mistakes, knows the truth. There is no other one but this one. He gets so many things that we need to get. He gets that Jesus is Lord. He gets that believing and knowing are different and he gets that Jesus is God. Peter is witness to the truth that there must be more than this. Peter has seen followers come and go and what he knows is that believing in Jesus and knowing Him are way different. And what Peter knows is that believers will come and go and that there are no guarantees and he doesn't know much about once saved always saved but he knows that this Jesus is the eternal God and for Peter that is good enough. There is no turning back.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Who then is this?
In Mark 4:35-41 we witness the story of Jesus calming the seas. It begins simply enough. Jesus says, "let us go across to the other side." By verse 37 we see that the winds have come and that the sea is raging. We learn that the boat is filling with water. By verse 38 the disciples are running about in a panic and they wake Jesus up with what seems to be nothing short of an accusation, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And that right there is at the heart of what is on my mind.
These are His people, His chosen ones. They are with Him and they have said yes. We know they have left things behind, they have traveled with Him and have seen what He can do. And when the storm comes they are expectant, they are quite sure that He will arise and wave His hands and do something cool. After all, He has been doing one very cool thing after another. They are not in doubt in this moment, but they are wondering if He is going to bother to save them all.
We know how the story ends. Jesus wakes up tells the winds to calm their crazy selves down and then He turns to the disciples and teaches them. It is the teaching they always struggle with. He tells them, "Why are you still afraid? Have you still no faith?" They walk away and say to each other, "who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" Indeed who is this man?
So much to see here. They have been walking intimately with Him and they are blown away that the elements obey Jesus. This is what they seem to take away from this moment. They have seen Him cast out demons and heal some sick people. They have seen Him forgive sins, (which is just a whole different point to ponder.) They have seen more in these first few chapters of Mark than most of us will see in our lifetime and yet they are still perplexed, they still go to bed at night and wonder who the heck they are following. You see, they are convinced it is the Messiah (sort of) but really they just don't know. And yet they continue to follow. They are Christ followers, for real. And the Messiah is constantly teaching them and they can't quite process His crazy stories and these signs and wonders.
But that night, on that boat Jesus reveals to them something that they let pass by, but it is something that we must not miss. He is not scolding them for having no faith after the sea is calm. He is telling them something way bigger. He is telling them That He is the Messiah, that His word is eternal, true. Where? Return to verse 35. Jesus says, "Let us go across to the other side." You see when Jesus says that we are going to the other side, He means it. The other side is a done deal. There is no maybe. If Jesus says that something is going to happen we can rest assured that it will happen. He is unshakeable and unmoveable. He is faithful to the end. On that night Jesus said to His followers, "we are going to the other side." And He meant it. This is where we need to settle it in our hearts that He will see us through all things, that there is nothing that He cannot do. When the disciples awakened Jesus in a panic He calmed the storm, but really He wanted them to know that storm or no storm we are going to reach the other side. He chastises them because He wants them to know that the storm doesn't need calming. The other side is coming. It is coming because He said so. Our faith has to be placed firmly in the Jesus said it, so it will be, place in our heart. In His kindness, He will sometimes calm the storm, but He wants us to find that place where we know the other side will be reached, even while He does nothing to calm the storm. This is where our faith meets our Messiah.
These are His people, His chosen ones. They are with Him and they have said yes. We know they have left things behind, they have traveled with Him and have seen what He can do. And when the storm comes they are expectant, they are quite sure that He will arise and wave His hands and do something cool. After all, He has been doing one very cool thing after another. They are not in doubt in this moment, but they are wondering if He is going to bother to save them all.
We know how the story ends. Jesus wakes up tells the winds to calm their crazy selves down and then He turns to the disciples and teaches them. It is the teaching they always struggle with. He tells them, "Why are you still afraid? Have you still no faith?" They walk away and say to each other, "who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" Indeed who is this man?
So much to see here. They have been walking intimately with Him and they are blown away that the elements obey Jesus. This is what they seem to take away from this moment. They have seen Him cast out demons and heal some sick people. They have seen Him forgive sins, (which is just a whole different point to ponder.) They have seen more in these first few chapters of Mark than most of us will see in our lifetime and yet they are still perplexed, they still go to bed at night and wonder who the heck they are following. You see, they are convinced it is the Messiah (sort of) but really they just don't know. And yet they continue to follow. They are Christ followers, for real. And the Messiah is constantly teaching them and they can't quite process His crazy stories and these signs and wonders.
But that night, on that boat Jesus reveals to them something that they let pass by, but it is something that we must not miss. He is not scolding them for having no faith after the sea is calm. He is telling them something way bigger. He is telling them That He is the Messiah, that His word is eternal, true. Where? Return to verse 35. Jesus says, "Let us go across to the other side." You see when Jesus says that we are going to the other side, He means it. The other side is a done deal. There is no maybe. If Jesus says that something is going to happen we can rest assured that it will happen. He is unshakeable and unmoveable. He is faithful to the end. On that night Jesus said to His followers, "we are going to the other side." And He meant it. This is where we need to settle it in our hearts that He will see us through all things, that there is nothing that He cannot do. When the disciples awakened Jesus in a panic He calmed the storm, but really He wanted them to know that storm or no storm we are going to reach the other side. He chastises them because He wants them to know that the storm doesn't need calming. The other side is coming. It is coming because He said so. Our faith has to be placed firmly in the Jesus said it, so it will be, place in our heart. In His kindness, He will sometimes calm the storm, but He wants us to find that place where we know the other side will be reached, even while He does nothing to calm the storm. This is where our faith meets our Messiah.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Snakes in the bread
Oh the things that catch my eye. In Luke 11 Jesus tells a parable about going to a friend for a friend. In this parable what is needed is some bread for a friend who is hungry. So friend A goes to friend B to get bread for friend C. It is late and there is a lot of door knocking and friend B is irritated but eventully gives friend A the bread. And all this bread giving occurs not because friend B is in the mood to give bread but because friend A just won't stop knocking. And all this is a picture of our Lord who at times answers prayer because of persistence. But here is what I have been thinking about for a week. When Jesus wraps up this parable He says, "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"
What to do with a God who does give snakes as a gift? While Jesus tells us that the Father will give us more of the Spirit (very nice) He does not tell us that God will not give us snakes when we ask for bread. The truth is that God does give snakes instead of bread. In Numbers 21 we find an amazing story where God sends a "gift" to the Israelites. This "gift" from God is snakes that bite their heels. You see the Isralites were tired of walking around getting nowhere and they were bored of eating food from the sky everyday. And so they started to complain. They began to say things like "We loathe this worthless food." They actually were longing for the good old days in Egypt were the food was good and different. And so "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died." There you go the Father sends snakes when the people were asking for different food. The story only gets crazier as Moses asks God to get rid of the snakes that bite and kill. God refuses to get rid of the snakes but He does have Moses make a bronze serpent and He has him put the bronze serpent on a pole so that whenever one of the people is biten by a snake they can go look at the pole and be healed. How completely weird is that?
So what is the point? Well there are many points here. But the biggest point is that we must wrap our heads around this truth. Our God is good. And so when He sends snakes He is sending a good gift. His gift of snakes turned the people back to Him. So often we want to have a God who looks like us. We want a God who heals terminal diseases and sends us a new car. (And sometimes He does that) What we don't want is a God who sends snakes. And because of this we have stopped teaching this God. We pretend He doesn't exist. And so when He does send snakes we are left in utter shock. Beyond that unbelievers are even more shocked because nobody has mentioned this God. We are so busy telling them that God loves them that we have forgotten to tell them that He loves them so much that He has a snake for them. We are not sure of this God because we don't really believe in Him because we have created a God that behaves with our definition of Good. For us good always seems nice and polite. Our definition of good fails to take into account righteousness and eternity. Our good is woefully short of His. We question God when He sends snakes. And yet the same God who sends snakes sent a snake pole. The snakes are going to keep coming until He returns. But He sent His Son and had Him put upon a pole. And when we have revelation of this act we realize the snakes are good. Because the snakes force us to the snake pole. And only through this process is there hope for eternal life, for redemption.
What to do with a God who does give snakes as a gift? While Jesus tells us that the Father will give us more of the Spirit (very nice) He does not tell us that God will not give us snakes when we ask for bread. The truth is that God does give snakes instead of bread. In Numbers 21 we find an amazing story where God sends a "gift" to the Israelites. This "gift" from God is snakes that bite their heels. You see the Isralites were tired of walking around getting nowhere and they were bored of eating food from the sky everyday. And so they started to complain. They began to say things like "We loathe this worthless food." They actually were longing for the good old days in Egypt were the food was good and different. And so "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died." There you go the Father sends snakes when the people were asking for different food. The story only gets crazier as Moses asks God to get rid of the snakes that bite and kill. God refuses to get rid of the snakes but He does have Moses make a bronze serpent and He has him put the bronze serpent on a pole so that whenever one of the people is biten by a snake they can go look at the pole and be healed. How completely weird is that?
So what is the point? Well there are many points here. But the biggest point is that we must wrap our heads around this truth. Our God is good. And so when He sends snakes He is sending a good gift. His gift of snakes turned the people back to Him. So often we want to have a God who looks like us. We want a God who heals terminal diseases and sends us a new car. (And sometimes He does that) What we don't want is a God who sends snakes. And because of this we have stopped teaching this God. We pretend He doesn't exist. And so when He does send snakes we are left in utter shock. Beyond that unbelievers are even more shocked because nobody has mentioned this God. We are so busy telling them that God loves them that we have forgotten to tell them that He loves them so much that He has a snake for them. We are not sure of this God because we don't really believe in Him because we have created a God that behaves with our definition of Good. For us good always seems nice and polite. Our definition of good fails to take into account righteousness and eternity. Our good is woefully short of His. We question God when He sends snakes. And yet the same God who sends snakes sent a snake pole. The snakes are going to keep coming until He returns. But He sent His Son and had Him put upon a pole. And when we have revelation of this act we realize the snakes are good. Because the snakes force us to the snake pole. And only through this process is there hope for eternal life, for redemption.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Salvation?
We throw the word around, unsure of what it fully means. You would think we would get it exact because what is at stake is eternal. When we land on an interpretation of this doctrine and preach it if we get it wrong or change it or make it simpler then there is the gravity of eternity in hell at stake. Our Father is unchanging. He will not make exceptions for our incorrect teachings.
In Matthew and Luke Jesus gives us a series of parables that essentially end with some who spend eternity with Him and some who are given to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A Closer look shows us that Jesus is not talking about unbelievers versus believers in a modern sense but rather these Parables talk about "believers" only. These are parables of those who knew the master, but tired of waiting for his return, acted unjustly when he wasn't looking, ran out of spirit, mismanaged his money or wore the wrong clothes. At the heart of each parable is the simplicity that these "believers" didn't know the master's heart or his ways. And because of this they were not followers. At the heart level they remained unchanged even after spending time with the master. They did not have a conversion.
These parables are very real warnings that there is more to our salvation than believing in Jesus. In our context belief means very little. I believe in the stars in the sky and I believe that the sun is out there and we rotate around it. It is time we moved away from selling belief in Him and it is time we started declaring His worthiness and holiness. It is time we started telling of His greatness. He is the mighty God who saves. He is Holy and He is worthy of all praise. He will destroy everything that does not declare this truth.
For many there is the great truth that in their "salvation" they have exchanged one idol for another. They have moved from believing that hard work and long hours will bring them worldly success to believing that Jesus will do this. They are no different than those who believed golden calves would bring good fortune. Those who worshiped golden calves didn't believe the golden calves were mighty or holy they just thought it would bring them more food or children or wealth. If our belief in Jesus is such that He becomes the thing that will get us to a better place we have just created a new idol, a new golden calf. Jesus did not die so we could avoid hell and have a better day. He died so that the Father would be glorified. It is time we understood that we are here to glorify the Father. Our salvation is so that He might be glorified through our transformation. It is for Him. It is His way. He will be glorified. This is the eternal truth of the Father. He will be glorified and there are many ways in which He will do this and until we understand this we are hopelessly lost. We need revelation on this truth. We live so that He will be glorified. Evidence of a life given to Him is in the way we live. And we are not talking about the things we do, or the way we conduct ourselves (these are important things). But the real truth of our conversion is that we die daily to our desires and live to His. We live to bring Him glory not ourselves. We must embrace His ways. And before we can embrace His ways we have to know Him for real.We need to get out of the business of selling fire insurance and we need to get into the business of glorifying the Father.
Why do you want to give your life to Christ? The answer is that He is God and He is holy and He is worthy of all our praise. When we sell the wrong Jesus we run the very real risk that those who have signed up will be turned away when Jesus says I never knew you. (Matt 7:23)
In Matthew and Luke Jesus gives us a series of parables that essentially end with some who spend eternity with Him and some who are given to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A Closer look shows us that Jesus is not talking about unbelievers versus believers in a modern sense but rather these Parables talk about "believers" only. These are parables of those who knew the master, but tired of waiting for his return, acted unjustly when he wasn't looking, ran out of spirit, mismanaged his money or wore the wrong clothes. At the heart of each parable is the simplicity that these "believers" didn't know the master's heart or his ways. And because of this they were not followers. At the heart level they remained unchanged even after spending time with the master. They did not have a conversion.
These parables are very real warnings that there is more to our salvation than believing in Jesus. In our context belief means very little. I believe in the stars in the sky and I believe that the sun is out there and we rotate around it. It is time we moved away from selling belief in Him and it is time we started declaring His worthiness and holiness. It is time we started telling of His greatness. He is the mighty God who saves. He is Holy and He is worthy of all praise. He will destroy everything that does not declare this truth.
For many there is the great truth that in their "salvation" they have exchanged one idol for another. They have moved from believing that hard work and long hours will bring them worldly success to believing that Jesus will do this. They are no different than those who believed golden calves would bring good fortune. Those who worshiped golden calves didn't believe the golden calves were mighty or holy they just thought it would bring them more food or children or wealth. If our belief in Jesus is such that He becomes the thing that will get us to a better place we have just created a new idol, a new golden calf. Jesus did not die so we could avoid hell and have a better day. He died so that the Father would be glorified. It is time we understood that we are here to glorify the Father. Our salvation is so that He might be glorified through our transformation. It is for Him. It is His way. He will be glorified. This is the eternal truth of the Father. He will be glorified and there are many ways in which He will do this and until we understand this we are hopelessly lost. We need revelation on this truth. We live so that He will be glorified. Evidence of a life given to Him is in the way we live. And we are not talking about the things we do, or the way we conduct ourselves (these are important things). But the real truth of our conversion is that we die daily to our desires and live to His. We live to bring Him glory not ourselves. We must embrace His ways. And before we can embrace His ways we have to know Him for real.We need to get out of the business of selling fire insurance and we need to get into the business of glorifying the Father.
Why do you want to give your life to Christ? The answer is that He is God and He is holy and He is worthy of all our praise. When we sell the wrong Jesus we run the very real risk that those who have signed up will be turned away when Jesus says I never knew you. (Matt 7:23)
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
I deserve Hell
These Levites, they pop up everywhere. It may not be earth shattering to come to the conclusion that as far as the bible goes the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Levi really do play center stage. We would all do well to sit in the presence of the Father and just try to absorb what He wants us to take from the two tribes. But this really is not more of my insanity as i discover the Levites this is about Malachi, who of course is a Levite. Malachi ends the old testament with powerful words about John the Baptist, another Levite. He tells us that, "he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers." Powerful words that I have been pondering in context of a man crying out in the wilderness for a generation to get ready for the Lord's return. But right before that gem he talks about something that has been sitting with me for some time. Malachi 2:17 says, "You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, 'How have we wearied him?' 'By saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them.' Or by just asking, 'where is the God of justice?'" Why this sits with me should be clear to anyone who knows me.
For clarification: Those who are righteous are not those who are evil. Those who are righteous would be those who are walking with Christ keeping His commandments. (See John 14:15-17). By contrast those who are not in Christ are in darkness and therefore are by default evil. (See John 3:19-21)
So I'm struck. There is just such a clear line, such a real line in the eyes of the Lord and there seems to be so much confusion and delay. People are in fact walking in the dark. In truth way more are in dark than are in the light. Darkness does not comprehend the light. Oh sure it can mimic it, it can copy it, it can dress like it and do all sorts of cool things but at the end of the day darkness will still spend eternity in hell, no matter how many schools it built or people it fed. This is so critical in my mind. Where is God's justice? Oh I could smash windows with that. God's justice is clear. Those who walk in the light spend eternity with Him and those who walk in darkness spend eternity apart from Him. That is about as just as things can ever be. He is holy. He is mighty. He is worthy. He is completely other than. Oh how we want him to look like we look. Oh how i am glad he looks nothing like me. I will continue to throw myself at His feet. I will continue to cry Holy and Worthy. I will continue to remember that I deserve hell and He showed me mercy. This God, His ways are perfect and I will never be the same again.
For clarification: Those who are righteous are not those who are evil. Those who are righteous would be those who are walking with Christ keeping His commandments. (See John 14:15-17). By contrast those who are not in Christ are in darkness and therefore are by default evil. (See John 3:19-21)
So I'm struck. There is just such a clear line, such a real line in the eyes of the Lord and there seems to be so much confusion and delay. People are in fact walking in the dark. In truth way more are in dark than are in the light. Darkness does not comprehend the light. Oh sure it can mimic it, it can copy it, it can dress like it and do all sorts of cool things but at the end of the day darkness will still spend eternity in hell, no matter how many schools it built or people it fed. This is so critical in my mind. Where is God's justice? Oh I could smash windows with that. God's justice is clear. Those who walk in the light spend eternity with Him and those who walk in darkness spend eternity apart from Him. That is about as just as things can ever be. He is holy. He is mighty. He is worthy. He is completely other than. Oh how we want him to look like we look. Oh how i am glad he looks nothing like me. I will continue to throw myself at His feet. I will continue to cry Holy and Worthy. I will continue to remember that I deserve hell and He showed me mercy. This God, His ways are perfect and I will never be the same again.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Levite
It should never amaze me that our God is a God of redemption. But still it does. Every time it does. Because who does things like that? Who really chooses the weak and makes them great? And yet His word is filled with these very stories. Ours is not a story of the great always being great and the weak always being weak. It is also not a story of perseverance and the exceptional spirit of success inherent in man. Ours is a story of weakness, of failure, inevitably over come by God through man. And this is what makes what we believe so amazing and so other than. Because we believe in a God who is so wholly other than that His ways make absolutely no sense and yet His way is always perfect. It is a story about Him and not about us. And that is what makes Him The God.
The redemption of the Levites is an amazing truth that clearly speaks to the perfection of our God. The tribe of Levi begins with a curse upon their head. Put in place by Jacob because of their wrath and uncontrollable anger we are told the Levites have such a passion but it inevitably results in death and destruction. And isn't it just like our God to claim them as His own. While God tells Moses that He is claiming the first born from all the other tribes He is claiming the entire tribe of the Levites as His own. And the Levites then are set apart to serve the Lord. Their job is to take care of the tabernacle. They manage the sacrifices and the security, They sit before the Lord and represent the people to Him. They are no longer their own but they become servants of the Lord.
And so it is no surprise when we meet John the Baptist and it turns out he is of the Levite tribe. How perfect it is that the one chosen to cry out that the Lord has come to earth is also one that God has chosen from the days of Moses. It should also come as no surprise that after Jesus has departed and the early church is formed and for the first time in history we have people who are called Christians we hear as Peter addresses them that they are "a royal priesthood." See it all seems so trivial when taken in separation. We have a bunch of Christians running around with a phrase that gets so abused that we are all part of the priesthood. We are all priests in the Kingdom therefore we don't need anything or anyone especially a church or a church body. But in the context of the truth of it all our perfect God chose the Levites and called them His, they became the servants of His church. And now He has called us out of darkness, not into a place of individual privilege but into a place of servant hood. A place of privilege too deep for words. We are His priests, we are His servants. He wants our everything and in return He is our everything. That is His plan, that is His way.
The redemption of the Levites is an amazing truth that clearly speaks to the perfection of our God. The tribe of Levi begins with a curse upon their head. Put in place by Jacob because of their wrath and uncontrollable anger we are told the Levites have such a passion but it inevitably results in death and destruction. And isn't it just like our God to claim them as His own. While God tells Moses that He is claiming the first born from all the other tribes He is claiming the entire tribe of the Levites as His own. And the Levites then are set apart to serve the Lord. Their job is to take care of the tabernacle. They manage the sacrifices and the security, They sit before the Lord and represent the people to Him. They are no longer their own but they become servants of the Lord.
And so it is no surprise when we meet John the Baptist and it turns out he is of the Levite tribe. How perfect it is that the one chosen to cry out that the Lord has come to earth is also one that God has chosen from the days of Moses. It should also come as no surprise that after Jesus has departed and the early church is formed and for the first time in history we have people who are called Christians we hear as Peter addresses them that they are "a royal priesthood." See it all seems so trivial when taken in separation. We have a bunch of Christians running around with a phrase that gets so abused that we are all part of the priesthood. We are all priests in the Kingdom therefore we don't need anything or anyone especially a church or a church body. But in the context of the truth of it all our perfect God chose the Levites and called them His, they became the servants of His church. And now He has called us out of darkness, not into a place of individual privilege but into a place of servant hood. A place of privilege too deep for words. We are His priests, we are His servants. He wants our everything and in return He is our everything. That is His plan, that is His way.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Who is our model?
The answer is a no brainer really. We hear it all the time that Jesus is our highest model and He is. But I have really been thinking about John the Baptist lately. And when I say thinking I really mean he has been consuming my thoughts. JTB is perhaps the most under rated man in our modern church. He is almost never taught and yet Jesus, himself called him the greatest man born of a woman. And don't even get me sidetracked on to the implications of that. But JTB is our perfect model. We so desperately want to be sort of like Jesus in the western church. We would love to do a few healings; maybe gather a few disciples. We also love talking about how Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. And really we love these things about Jesus that allow us to really be very unlike Him in most ways. We love how He died for us and that He paid our price and that we are saved if we believe in Him and again that really is a way different tangent for me. But JTB, if you model him, then you cannot hide. You cannot be lukewarm or apathetic. If you are modeling John the Baptist, the man that is fully man and zero God, then you are proclaiming the truth of our Lord and you are living the reality that we are called to. John pointed everyone to the Christ. He glorified God every single day. He pointed every single person who would listen to the one who was coming. He cried out "people get ready." His message was not culturally relevant, it was bold with an occasional side of "you brood of vipers." He turned his would be followers to follow Christ. He sends Andrew who tells Peter of the Messiah. He is filled with the Spirit and he is on fire in every way for the coming King. This is the man who knows the Messiah when he sees him. This is the man whose first and foremost calling was to know the savior. And I look around and we have placed the hanging out with sinners and the being kind aspect of Jesus so far ahead of the knowing Him. Oh we can feed five thousand if we pull our money together and so often that is what we do. But we can turn those five thousand who are hungry to Jesus if we know Him. Because if we know Him then we know He can feed the five thousand with nothing but some kid's lunch. We would rather solve the world's problems with the world's resources than cry out the truth that our Lord is coming and what He has is better than food. We would rather entertain the masses with niceties of our our Jesus than cry out "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" See John wasn't messing around. He new the truth. And the truth is that we can sell our Jesus any way we want but God is not changing and we have sold congregations worth of people a half truth. And to how many of them will God say "I never knew you" even while they spent their years on earth, sitting in a church, feeding five thousand.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I wanna know what makes you smile
There are days when i am not burning, days when i feel infinitely far from Him. I am not one to say how i am supposed to feel, i am just convinced it should be somehow different than this. I want to walk in His presence. I want to feel these things that i see in others. I want to lay flat on a floor for hours because the revelation of His presence is that real, that powerful. I am convinced that if we ever have a moment where we enter into right understanding of who it is we worship we will be broken, we will lie motionless for hours on end with the overwhelming truth of who He is. There are these brief moments for me, these small nanoseconds of Him in me where I find myself walking down a hallway at school and breaking into a joyful laughter. There are these fleeting seconds of overwhelming who knows what to call it where i am struck for an instant and i find myself tearing up, not so much that it could be defined as crying, but enough that i wonder what it must really feel like to know Him.
I am torn. That's enough right there. That sums up perfectly this moment. I am torn. If I could explain that to you then it would all be settled.
In Matthew 11:7 Jesus says of John the Baptist, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind." In my mind's eye I imagine a fiery John the Baptist, steadfast, solid, with crazy eyes and hair. I don't think about Him baptizing or proclaiming, though I know he did quite a bit of both. What I see is a man who spent hours with his God, a man who was unmovable, unshakable. I don't think about ministry, it almost never crosses my mind. What I think about is will I ever know God? For real. Will I ever see what John the Baptist saw? And If I do see it. Oh how I want to look all crazy and insane. I want to be that guy. I really do.
I am torn. That's enough right there. That sums up perfectly this moment. I am torn. If I could explain that to you then it would all be settled.
In Matthew 11:7 Jesus says of John the Baptist, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind." In my mind's eye I imagine a fiery John the Baptist, steadfast, solid, with crazy eyes and hair. I don't think about Him baptizing or proclaiming, though I know he did quite a bit of both. What I see is a man who spent hours with his God, a man who was unmovable, unshakable. I don't think about ministry, it almost never crosses my mind. What I think about is will I ever know God? For real. Will I ever see what John the Baptist saw? And If I do see it. Oh how I want to look all crazy and insane. I want to be that guy. I really do.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Jesus' first words
"Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
I have always been a person who looks at the little things and dwells on them. And in this brief passage I have been struck by these few words of truth from a twelve year old fully man fully God (person?) While at IHOP KC I heard God speak that it was time to return to the Word with fresh eyes. Go back to basics is more closely what He said. SO I began to read Luke and stop every few verses and just sit in a place of listening to God on His word. And when I arrived at this passage I had to stop for the very first time and realize wait a minute: these are His first words. These are them. Of all things that Jesus could say. of all the infinite possibilities of word combinations to be recorded for all eternity, these are the ones that come first. And because I fully am convinced that these words in our Bible are real, are perfect, then I have to stop and do more than highlight or underline or whatever it is we do and I have to stop and in my brokenness say yes to the Father. Because here, in this moment, Jesus stands in front of probably some amazing scholarly men and He teaches them. And then His mom and dad show up, after having lost Him for a day, and mom says, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." Wow? I try to see this in my mind and when Jesus answers, in my mind, it is with such tenderness, it is with such humility. And He just tells them He has been in His Father's house.
And so who cares? but it is so important for us. It is the first thing. He MUST be with His Father. He declares it. It is not a rule He follows, it is the desire of His heart. He aches for the Father, He longs for the Father, He wants to be with the Father, talking about the Father. And here is where we are either gripped or we are hopelessly A.D.D. We either have this same longing for our Father or we don't. Jesus was consumed with the Father, He knew where He was supposed to be and He knew where He wanted to be.
In Psalm 69:9 the psalmist cries out, "Zeal for your house consumes me." Oh that we would have a glimpse of this truth. Oh that we would maybe, just maybe, catch it from the corner of our eye. Just that much would be something.
I have always been a person who looks at the little things and dwells on them. And in this brief passage I have been struck by these few words of truth from a twelve year old fully man fully God (person?) While at IHOP KC I heard God speak that it was time to return to the Word with fresh eyes. Go back to basics is more closely what He said. SO I began to read Luke and stop every few verses and just sit in a place of listening to God on His word. And when I arrived at this passage I had to stop for the very first time and realize wait a minute: these are His first words. These are them. Of all things that Jesus could say. of all the infinite possibilities of word combinations to be recorded for all eternity, these are the ones that come first. And because I fully am convinced that these words in our Bible are real, are perfect, then I have to stop and do more than highlight or underline or whatever it is we do and I have to stop and in my brokenness say yes to the Father. Because here, in this moment, Jesus stands in front of probably some amazing scholarly men and He teaches them. And then His mom and dad show up, after having lost Him for a day, and mom says, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." Wow? I try to see this in my mind and when Jesus answers, in my mind, it is with such tenderness, it is with such humility. And He just tells them He has been in His Father's house.
And so who cares? but it is so important for us. It is the first thing. He MUST be with His Father. He declares it. It is not a rule He follows, it is the desire of His heart. He aches for the Father, He longs for the Father, He wants to be with the Father, talking about the Father. And here is where we are either gripped or we are hopelessly A.D.D. We either have this same longing for our Father or we don't. Jesus was consumed with the Father, He knew where He was supposed to be and He knew where He wanted to be.
In Psalm 69:9 the psalmist cries out, "Zeal for your house consumes me." Oh that we would have a glimpse of this truth. Oh that we would maybe, just maybe, catch it from the corner of our eye. Just that much would be something.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Worthy and Holy
I have been on a journey. I am not one to say whether i have moved on this journey, truth be told i look back over 3 and 1/2 years (and don't think for a minute that that number does not astound me because it does)and it feels like it has taken a long time for God to get this point across. The truth is that He is both Holy and Worthy, the end.
In 2008 i began to sit in a place of expectation that God would give me revelation on the book of Revelation. It needed to be settled for me. And while people are comfortable with saying it is not a major point in the world of theology, for me, it is. This book is the truth of things to come. It is not a wild story or an interesting metaphor. It is the absolute truth of our Savior's return. And when I read in Luke that the people had expectation of His first coming I realize that we have lost something. I am in expectation of His second coming. The Church has lost something of this. We have lost our expectation. But this is not my point, this is not what I am on about in this hour.
Six weeks ago I sat in a chair at IHOP KC and God spoke to me that He is both Holy and Worthy. He made clear that we can only understand this in the context of knowing His ways. And I was like, "what?" Because of course He is holy and worthy, but I was also like, "why am i not broken at this truth?" Sure we claim it, we say it. We agree to it even, but then what? And that right there is what has been eating at me since that day, in that chair. And then this weekend off we went in this direction. He is holy and worthy and everyone was all yes I am down for that but I was sitting there stunned for lots of reasons. But two mainly. Reason one is that God tells me this thing six weeks ago and He is also telling other people who are trying to wrestle with it. And we are wrestling because there is something huge in this truth, something that makes you scream, "I'll never be the same again."And while you are screaming it you know others are looking at you and wondering when you will get to the good part where they can see themselves in the story. But see that is the thing right there. We are not really in the story. And that doesn't sell as well as the story where you are so important that God sent His son for you. Cuz we are people and for us it is always about us.
And reason two you ask? Well reason two is the truth of it. Reason two is that the four living creatures cry holy and they do this because He "was and is and is to come" The elders cry worthy because He "created all things." The creatures and the elders know the truth of it. He is God. and that settles it. They are forever broken because He is God. It is not about us. It is not a story about reconciliation(sure it is this really cool chapter cuz it's the part where we are important) It is about Him. He is Holy and He is Worthy. The end.
In 2008 i began to sit in a place of expectation that God would give me revelation on the book of Revelation. It needed to be settled for me. And while people are comfortable with saying it is not a major point in the world of theology, for me, it is. This book is the truth of things to come. It is not a wild story or an interesting metaphor. It is the absolute truth of our Savior's return. And when I read in Luke that the people had expectation of His first coming I realize that we have lost something. I am in expectation of His second coming. The Church has lost something of this. We have lost our expectation. But this is not my point, this is not what I am on about in this hour.
Six weeks ago I sat in a chair at IHOP KC and God spoke to me that He is both Holy and Worthy. He made clear that we can only understand this in the context of knowing His ways. And I was like, "what?" Because of course He is holy and worthy, but I was also like, "why am i not broken at this truth?" Sure we claim it, we say it. We agree to it even, but then what? And that right there is what has been eating at me since that day, in that chair. And then this weekend off we went in this direction. He is holy and worthy and everyone was all yes I am down for that but I was sitting there stunned for lots of reasons. But two mainly. Reason one is that God tells me this thing six weeks ago and He is also telling other people who are trying to wrestle with it. And we are wrestling because there is something huge in this truth, something that makes you scream, "I'll never be the same again."And while you are screaming it you know others are looking at you and wondering when you will get to the good part where they can see themselves in the story. But see that is the thing right there. We are not really in the story. And that doesn't sell as well as the story where you are so important that God sent His son for you. Cuz we are people and for us it is always about us.
And reason two you ask? Well reason two is the truth of it. Reason two is that the four living creatures cry holy and they do this because He "was and is and is to come" The elders cry worthy because He "created all things." The creatures and the elders know the truth of it. He is God. and that settles it. They are forever broken because He is God. It is not about us. It is not a story about reconciliation(sure it is this really cool chapter cuz it's the part where we are important) It is about Him. He is Holy and He is Worthy. The end.
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