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October 24, 2010
October 12, 2010
"Follow Me" – Luke 9:57-62
Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."
And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
Then He said to another, "Follow Me."
But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
We sometimes assume the primary cost of following Christ is that we must walk away from those sins which were once so much a part of our lives. But if we think about it, we should realize this process is not actually a cost, but a gift. What in fact takes place is that the Spirit of God provides us with wonderful freedom from the bondages of lust, of addictions, of pride and anger and complaining and fear. This is miraculously accomplished as we learn to draw upon the grace He makes available.
Nevertheless, there is a cost to be paid. In Luke 9:57-62, we discover the three very specific sacrifices which we are called to make if we are truly to be followers of Christ, "fit for the kingdom of God."
The first of these I will call our need for refreshment. God created us with certain basic physical needs, including the need for sleep, food and water, and an environment that is safe for our bodies. A large portion of our time and attention is given to insuring that we receive at least these minimal comforts. In fact, much of our gratitude toward God is directly in response to His provision of our daily bread and His protection from that which could threaten our well-being.
But as Jesus pointed out, "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." The path He walked was one of great uncertainty and self-relinquishment. He had no home, no bed of His own, no storehouse of food, no savings in the bank. If we would choose to follow Him, we must be willing to lay aside our comforts and our physical securities.
It's no coincidence that this was the first test Jesus faced in the wilderness (see Luke 4:1-13). After forty days of fasting, He was hungry. Satan then challenged Him to "command a stone to become bread." It was something Jesus could most definitely do, having Himself created the very molecules of which the stone was made. What's more, His hunger was intense. The thought of eating something pleasant may have echoed out from the very roots of His humanity. It was the same thought that had gone through the minds of Adam and Eve.
But Jesus knew that life comes not from what we might eat, but "by every word of God" (Luke 4:4). God had not given Him permission to feed Himself, to solve His own problem (see Isaiah 50:10,11). Instead, Jesus chose to wait without refreshment until the time when His Father's angels would bring it to Him (see Matthew 4:11).
The second point of sacrifice, and the second temptation of Christ, involves the desire for a good reputation. When Jesus asked the man to follow Him and the man explained he must first bury his father, what was at stake was his reputation. Of course a good son would care for his own father. If he left that undone, his family and community would be horrified. How could Jesus expect him to endure such misunderstanding?
When Satan asked Jesus to worship him, the enticement was all the world's submission and all the world's glory. Apparently it was Satan's to give, for Jesus did not question that. But He knew that worship and obedience were due to God alone. He also knew that in the proper time, God would place His Son in His rightful position of honor. Rather than grasping for that honor prematurely, Jesus had already "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 4:7). This gave Him the ability to resist the second temptation of the devil.
The third sacrifice to which we are called is the laying down of our relationships. All the third man wanted to do was to say goodbye to his family. How easy would it have been for Jesus to wait those few extra moments. Instead, in what seemed to be a very harsh response, He described this desire, this "looking back," as something that would make the man unfit for the kingdom.
"If you are the Son of God," Satan taunted, "let's prove it! Your Father will certainly take care of you. He's already promised you that." Satan knew that the Father loved His Son with an intensity that was beyond all comprehension. Surely the Father would not allow His Son to die. Surely He wouldn't. . . .
When Jesus challenged His three would-be followers, at every point He was only asking them to accept a sacrifice He Himself had already faced in the wilderness. These were, and are, the requirements of all Christian disciples: the willing relinquishment of refreshment, of reputation, and of relationships. In fact, earlier (in Luke 9:23) Jesus had described this price of obedience with stark clarity. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
What does that mean, to take up our cross? How is that different from simply denying ourselves? I would suggest that the answer can again be found in Jesus' own example. In the wilderness, He denied Himself the bread, the glory, and the demonstration of His Father's loyalty. Those were truly tests which He had to pass. But it was at the other end of His three years of ministry that He actually "took up His cross."
This time He wasn't in a wilderness, but rather in a garden, the garden of Gethsemane. According to the account given by Matthew (26:36-46), Jesus prayed the same prayer three times. "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
Why did it require three prayers? We cannot of course know the answer with certainty, but it is very possible that these agonizing decisions of relinquishment represented Jesus' willingness to once again lay down the three things He personally most longed to preserve. When Jesus "took up His cross," it began not on the road to Golgotha, but in those garden moments when He said yes to His Father.
The first thing Jesus knew He was being asked to endure was physical pain--the merging of every kind of suffering humanly possible. It included fatigue, hunger, thirst, cold, the stabbing wounds of the thorns, the torn flesh from the scourging, the searing pain from the nails, and of course the slow, torturous death from suffocation. Every source of refreshment was removed from His human body in those last unspeakable hours.
Then there was a second price He was being asked to pay, that of His reputation. He would be put on trial and accused mercilessly of crime and fraud. He would be mocked and spit upon. He would be nailed to the cross naked before the world. But even deeper than these humiliations, the pure Son of God would somehow have imputed into His being the vileness of all of humanity's sin. In that hour, the holiness which was His very nature would be completely defiled.
But the third price He was facing may well have been the hardest. Jesus knew that in the final moments of His suffering, there would come a point where His Father would turn away from Him. We can never comprehend this severing of the most powerful bond which ever existed, the actual separation of the Eternal Father from the Eternal Son. It was a pain so deep that it caused Jesus to cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
These three relinquishments, dear friend, were the cross of Christ. He endured them willingly, because He had chosen to submit to His Father in all things. We must realize, however, that had Jesus not accepted the will of His Father, laying aside His own deep human desires, we would all in fact end up bearing the cross of Jesus. We would all one day suffer eternal physical torment in hell; we would all one day live in an existence of complete humiliation; and we would all be separated not only from our earthly loved ones, but from God Himself.
As the result of His obedience, our crosses are now much, much lighter. Still, as Christ so clearly explained, there is a "daily cross" which each of us who would be His disciple must pick up and carry. How can we know the nature of this cross? I believe we will find it in those occasions where our human nature would demand its own well-being and where it must be deliberately, even forcefully, denied.
An easy-to-understand example is the matter of eating. God truly intends us not only to eat, but to gratefully enjoy the food He provides. Nonetheless, Jesus gave us specific instructions that apply to when we fast, not if we fast (see Matthew 6:16-18). Unless we are able for a period of time to say no to the craving of our stomach (which, we are warned in Philippians 3:19, can actually become our god), then we won't be able to follow our Master when it might cost us a few meals.
While must we hold lightly to our sources of physical refreshment--and be willing to lay them aside as God requires--in other areas we may be called to deny our desires completely. In particular, we should refrain from any form of mental or emotional refreshment which is not centered on God and consistent with His nature. Jesus instructed the multitudes, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). There is a weariness of soul that would drive us to a vast array of secular distractions and amusements. The authentic follower of Jesus will turn instead quickly and only to Him.
The "cross" of a relinquished reputation may be somewhat harder to discern. Most of us unconsciously protect ourselves from the misunderstandings or judgments of others in any number of little ways. The automatic excuses for our failures, the quick diverting of blame, the impulse to establish our value through name-dropping or other subtle boastings--how easily these become part of our daily conversations. From another angle, we may hesitate to speak of Jesus or otherwise appear to be "religious" in those situations where such choices might invite rejection or scorn.
Are we truly willing to be despised for Him? Are we willing to accept ridicule or persecution, perhaps even from our own family and friends? These are not rare possibilities, but in fact promised realities--if we are to take Jesus' words seriously. "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.. . .Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:22,23,26).
The final cross is always the hardest. God created us with a capacity for relationship that has its origin in the Trinity itself. We are able to bond deeply--with our friends, with our parents and children, with our husband or wife--because God intended these ties to communicate the realities of His love for us. It can even be said that deep interpersonal love is the most sacred force in all creation. How then can Jesus make this disturbing statement, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26)? How can the One who commands us to love also tell us to hate?
The answer lies in the next verse: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27). The cross is actually a crossroads. We approach it, and we see that we can either turn right or left, or we can "come after" Jesus. On the right and left are what appear to be other viable choices that offer us peace and safety and happiness. Ahead, we face death. We are asked to yield up our rights, our rest, our pleasures, our reputation, our relationships. . .in essence, our very identity.
If this were only a one-time grand event, our sense of the heroic would probably carry us across the line. But instead we reach this place daily, even hourly. The question always is this: "Will I choose something else over Christ?" You see, our gods are those things to which we give our money, our time, our energy, our thoughts, and our emotional attachments. Our theology may be impeccable, but if something delights us more than Jesus, then we have given ourselves to another god.
The solution, however, is beautifully simple. In His death and resurrection, Christ has fully provided everything we need. Here is how Peter describes it. "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (II Peter 1:2-4).
"All things that pertain to life and godliness" come specifically through "the knowledge of Him." As we come to know Him, we discover Him to be our provider and protector, our great comforter, and the giver of refreshing rest. As we come to know Him, we discover our complete and unwavering value in His eyes, and are thereby able to join Paul in saying, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). Finally, as we come to know Him, the sufficiency of His love enables us to release all human ties as the means of our emotional and spiritual support.
Then wonderfully--out of these hundreds of points of dying--there arises new life, life that brings with it great freedom and joy, and the capacity to give and to serve others through the overflow of grace we ourselves have received. As we follow Him, He will lead us into the highways and byways of life, where we will encounter others who need desperately to be shown the way to the foot of the cross.
The call of Jesus is the same to each of us. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also" (John 12:24-26).
And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
Then He said to another, "Follow Me."
But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
We sometimes assume the primary cost of following Christ is that we must walk away from those sins which were once so much a part of our lives. But if we think about it, we should realize this process is not actually a cost, but a gift. What in fact takes place is that the Spirit of God provides us with wonderful freedom from the bondages of lust, of addictions, of pride and anger and complaining and fear. This is miraculously accomplished as we learn to draw upon the grace He makes available.
Nevertheless, there is a cost to be paid. In Luke 9:57-62, we discover the three very specific sacrifices which we are called to make if we are truly to be followers of Christ, "fit for the kingdom of God."
The first of these I will call our need for refreshment. God created us with certain basic physical needs, including the need for sleep, food and water, and an environment that is safe for our bodies. A large portion of our time and attention is given to insuring that we receive at least these minimal comforts. In fact, much of our gratitude toward God is directly in response to His provision of our daily bread and His protection from that which could threaten our well-being.
But as Jesus pointed out, "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." The path He walked was one of great uncertainty and self-relinquishment. He had no home, no bed of His own, no storehouse of food, no savings in the bank. If we would choose to follow Him, we must be willing to lay aside our comforts and our physical securities.
It's no coincidence that this was the first test Jesus faced in the wilderness (see Luke 4:1-13). After forty days of fasting, He was hungry. Satan then challenged Him to "command a stone to become bread." It was something Jesus could most definitely do, having Himself created the very molecules of which the stone was made. What's more, His hunger was intense. The thought of eating something pleasant may have echoed out from the very roots of His humanity. It was the same thought that had gone through the minds of Adam and Eve.
But Jesus knew that life comes not from what we might eat, but "by every word of God" (Luke 4:4). God had not given Him permission to feed Himself, to solve His own problem (see Isaiah 50:10,11). Instead, Jesus chose to wait without refreshment until the time when His Father's angels would bring it to Him (see Matthew 4:11).
The second point of sacrifice, and the second temptation of Christ, involves the desire for a good reputation. When Jesus asked the man to follow Him and the man explained he must first bury his father, what was at stake was his reputation. Of course a good son would care for his own father. If he left that undone, his family and community would be horrified. How could Jesus expect him to endure such misunderstanding?
When Satan asked Jesus to worship him, the enticement was all the world's submission and all the world's glory. Apparently it was Satan's to give, for Jesus did not question that. But He knew that worship and obedience were due to God alone. He also knew that in the proper time, God would place His Son in His rightful position of honor. Rather than grasping for that honor prematurely, Jesus had already "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 4:7). This gave Him the ability to resist the second temptation of the devil.
The third sacrifice to which we are called is the laying down of our relationships. All the third man wanted to do was to say goodbye to his family. How easy would it have been for Jesus to wait those few extra moments. Instead, in what seemed to be a very harsh response, He described this desire, this "looking back," as something that would make the man unfit for the kingdom.
"If you are the Son of God," Satan taunted, "let's prove it! Your Father will certainly take care of you. He's already promised you that." Satan knew that the Father loved His Son with an intensity that was beyond all comprehension. Surely the Father would not allow His Son to die. Surely He wouldn't. . . .
When Jesus challenged His three would-be followers, at every point He was only asking them to accept a sacrifice He Himself had already faced in the wilderness. These were, and are, the requirements of all Christian disciples: the willing relinquishment of refreshment, of reputation, and of relationships. In fact, earlier (in Luke 9:23) Jesus had described this price of obedience with stark clarity. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
What does that mean, to take up our cross? How is that different from simply denying ourselves? I would suggest that the answer can again be found in Jesus' own example. In the wilderness, He denied Himself the bread, the glory, and the demonstration of His Father's loyalty. Those were truly tests which He had to pass. But it was at the other end of His three years of ministry that He actually "took up His cross."
This time He wasn't in a wilderness, but rather in a garden, the garden of Gethsemane. According to the account given by Matthew (26:36-46), Jesus prayed the same prayer three times. "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
Why did it require three prayers? We cannot of course know the answer with certainty, but it is very possible that these agonizing decisions of relinquishment represented Jesus' willingness to once again lay down the three things He personally most longed to preserve. When Jesus "took up His cross," it began not on the road to Golgotha, but in those garden moments when He said yes to His Father.
The first thing Jesus knew He was being asked to endure was physical pain--the merging of every kind of suffering humanly possible. It included fatigue, hunger, thirst, cold, the stabbing wounds of the thorns, the torn flesh from the scourging, the searing pain from the nails, and of course the slow, torturous death from suffocation. Every source of refreshment was removed from His human body in those last unspeakable hours.
Then there was a second price He was being asked to pay, that of His reputation. He would be put on trial and accused mercilessly of crime and fraud. He would be mocked and spit upon. He would be nailed to the cross naked before the world. But even deeper than these humiliations, the pure Son of God would somehow have imputed into His being the vileness of all of humanity's sin. In that hour, the holiness which was His very nature would be completely defiled.
But the third price He was facing may well have been the hardest. Jesus knew that in the final moments of His suffering, there would come a point where His Father would turn away from Him. We can never comprehend this severing of the most powerful bond which ever existed, the actual separation of the Eternal Father from the Eternal Son. It was a pain so deep that it caused Jesus to cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
These three relinquishments, dear friend, were the cross of Christ. He endured them willingly, because He had chosen to submit to His Father in all things. We must realize, however, that had Jesus not accepted the will of His Father, laying aside His own deep human desires, we would all in fact end up bearing the cross of Jesus. We would all one day suffer eternal physical torment in hell; we would all one day live in an existence of complete humiliation; and we would all be separated not only from our earthly loved ones, but from God Himself.
As the result of His obedience, our crosses are now much, much lighter. Still, as Christ so clearly explained, there is a "daily cross" which each of us who would be His disciple must pick up and carry. How can we know the nature of this cross? I believe we will find it in those occasions where our human nature would demand its own well-being and where it must be deliberately, even forcefully, denied.
An easy-to-understand example is the matter of eating. God truly intends us not only to eat, but to gratefully enjoy the food He provides. Nonetheless, Jesus gave us specific instructions that apply to when we fast, not if we fast (see Matthew 6:16-18). Unless we are able for a period of time to say no to the craving of our stomach (which, we are warned in Philippians 3:19, can actually become our god), then we won't be able to follow our Master when it might cost us a few meals.
While must we hold lightly to our sources of physical refreshment--and be willing to lay them aside as God requires--in other areas we may be called to deny our desires completely. In particular, we should refrain from any form of mental or emotional refreshment which is not centered on God and consistent with His nature. Jesus instructed the multitudes, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29). There is a weariness of soul that would drive us to a vast array of secular distractions and amusements. The authentic follower of Jesus will turn instead quickly and only to Him.
The "cross" of a relinquished reputation may be somewhat harder to discern. Most of us unconsciously protect ourselves from the misunderstandings or judgments of others in any number of little ways. The automatic excuses for our failures, the quick diverting of blame, the impulse to establish our value through name-dropping or other subtle boastings--how easily these become part of our daily conversations. From another angle, we may hesitate to speak of Jesus or otherwise appear to be "religious" in those situations where such choices might invite rejection or scorn.
Are we truly willing to be despised for Him? Are we willing to accept ridicule or persecution, perhaps even from our own family and friends? These are not rare possibilities, but in fact promised realities--if we are to take Jesus' words seriously. "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.. . .Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:22,23,26).
The final cross is always the hardest. God created us with a capacity for relationship that has its origin in the Trinity itself. We are able to bond deeply--with our friends, with our parents and children, with our husband or wife--because God intended these ties to communicate the realities of His love for us. It can even be said that deep interpersonal love is the most sacred force in all creation. How then can Jesus make this disturbing statement, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26)? How can the One who commands us to love also tell us to hate?
The answer lies in the next verse: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27). The cross is actually a crossroads. We approach it, and we see that we can either turn right or left, or we can "come after" Jesus. On the right and left are what appear to be other viable choices that offer us peace and safety and happiness. Ahead, we face death. We are asked to yield up our rights, our rest, our pleasures, our reputation, our relationships. . .in essence, our very identity.
If this were only a one-time grand event, our sense of the heroic would probably carry us across the line. But instead we reach this place daily, even hourly. The question always is this: "Will I choose something else over Christ?" You see, our gods are those things to which we give our money, our time, our energy, our thoughts, and our emotional attachments. Our theology may be impeccable, but if something delights us more than Jesus, then we have given ourselves to another god.
The solution, however, is beautifully simple. In His death and resurrection, Christ has fully provided everything we need. Here is how Peter describes it. "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (II Peter 1:2-4).
"All things that pertain to life and godliness" come specifically through "the knowledge of Him." As we come to know Him, we discover Him to be our provider and protector, our great comforter, and the giver of refreshing rest. As we come to know Him, we discover our complete and unwavering value in His eyes, and are thereby able to join Paul in saying, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). Finally, as we come to know Him, the sufficiency of His love enables us to release all human ties as the means of our emotional and spiritual support.
Then wonderfully--out of these hundreds of points of dying--there arises new life, life that brings with it great freedom and joy, and the capacity to give and to serve others through the overflow of grace we ourselves have received. As we follow Him, He will lead us into the highways and byways of life, where we will encounter others who need desperately to be shown the way to the foot of the cross.
The call of Jesus is the same to each of us. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also" (John 12:24-26).
July 15, 2010
If My People - 2 Chronicles 6 and 7
Solomon has finished building the temple, they have sacrificed more animals than could be counted, and God’s cloud of glory has filled His house. Now Solomon (with his unmatched wisdom, and with insight gained from ruling the kingdom for at least eleven years) has a list of very specific requests to bring before God. These represent situations which Solomon knows only God can resolve.
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands . . . and he said: "Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. . . .Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. . . .
"If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness."
Without such tools as fingerprinting, video cameras, or DNA testing, the guilt or innocence of a person could be determined only by actual witnesses. When there were none, the accused would come before the altar and swear that he was innocent. Solomon is asking God to make the final determination in these cases.
"Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers."
This appears to describe a prisoner-of-war scenario. Solomon understands that God does not bless efforts in battle when His people have sinned. Solomon is asking God to forgive and rescue them when they repent and turn back to Him.
"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance."
Another consequence of sin might be drought. When God afflicts the nation in this manner until they acknowledge their sin, Solomon is again asking for forgiveness. He sees this pattern as a training effort, to "teach them the good way in which they should walk," so God's blessings could continue in their land.
"When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers."
This list is more comprehensive, including both natural disasters and human oppression--all of which are seen as designed by God to bring His people to repentance. Solomon understands that God deals not only with the entire nation but also on an individual level in this training process.
"Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name."
Solomon here asks God to respond to foreigners who have heard of His power and travel sometimes great distances to pray in the temple.
"When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
This request applies to those times when the Israelites are away from Jerusalem. Solomon asks God to accept prayers that are prayed "toward the city" when the people cannot actually go to the temple.
"When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness'; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place."
In this final request, Solomon is addressing the most serious matter of all. Unlike the training process described earlier, he knows there might come a point when God would become angry with His people, so much so that He would send them into captivity. Even in this extreme situation, Solomon is once again asking for forgiveness.
After the dedication festivities are completed, everyone returns to their homes. Later, in the privacy of Solomon's bedroom, God responds to his prayer.
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. . . . But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
"And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, 'Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.'"
In this response God reaffirms the distinction between ordinary sins (those "wicked ways" which His people could be trained to turn away from) and the direct rejection of God Himself. While God promises to forgive when His people humble themselves, pray, and cease their sinning, there is no such offer of forgiveness when they reject Him as God and deliberately choose to worship other gods. Should this happen, God tells Solomon, He will not only send the people into captivity, but He will also destroy the temple itself.
America was founded as a Christian nation, just as Israel was God's chosen people. There have been many times when we too have been disciplined, both as a country and as individuals. However, it is arguable that we are now a post-Christian nation and are deliberately following after other gods. While God will continue to show mercy to those individuals who obey Him, He may very well have become angry with our nation.
But in our case, rather than being carried off to Babylon, it appears that Babylon is coming to us. We are being swallowed up in an anti-Christian culture. We need to face the sobering possibility that our country may be at the point of no return. In other words, we may be past the "If My people" option. If this is true, then I believe we should prepare ourselves spiritually for the long term--for life in exile--as did Daniel and the other believers of his day.
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands . . . and he said: "Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. . . .Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. . . .
"If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness."
Without such tools as fingerprinting, video cameras, or DNA testing, the guilt or innocence of a person could be determined only by actual witnesses. When there were none, the accused would come before the altar and swear that he was innocent. Solomon is asking God to make the final determination in these cases.
"Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers."
This appears to describe a prisoner-of-war scenario. Solomon understands that God does not bless efforts in battle when His people have sinned. Solomon is asking God to forgive and rescue them when they repent and turn back to Him.
"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance."
Another consequence of sin might be drought. When God afflicts the nation in this manner until they acknowledge their sin, Solomon is again asking for forgiveness. He sees this pattern as a training effort, to "teach them the good way in which they should walk," so God's blessings could continue in their land.
"When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers."
This list is more comprehensive, including both natural disasters and human oppression--all of which are seen as designed by God to bring His people to repentance. Solomon understands that God deals not only with the entire nation but also on an individual level in this training process.
"Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name."
Solomon here asks God to respond to foreigners who have heard of His power and travel sometimes great distances to pray in the temple.
"When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
This request applies to those times when the Israelites are away from Jerusalem. Solomon asks God to accept prayers that are prayed "toward the city" when the people cannot actually go to the temple.
"When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness'; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place."
In this final request, Solomon is addressing the most serious matter of all. Unlike the training process described earlier, he knows there might come a point when God would become angry with His people, so much so that He would send them into captivity. Even in this extreme situation, Solomon is once again asking for forgiveness.
After the dedication festivities are completed, everyone returns to their homes. Later, in the privacy of Solomon's bedroom, God responds to his prayer.
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. . . . But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
"And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, 'Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.'"
In this response God reaffirms the distinction between ordinary sins (those "wicked ways" which His people could be trained to turn away from) and the direct rejection of God Himself. While God promises to forgive when His people humble themselves, pray, and cease their sinning, there is no such offer of forgiveness when they reject Him as God and deliberately choose to worship other gods. Should this happen, God tells Solomon, He will not only send the people into captivity, but He will also destroy the temple itself.
* * *
America was founded as a Christian nation, just as Israel was God's chosen people. There have been many times when we too have been disciplined, both as a country and as individuals. However, it is arguable that we are now a post-Christian nation and are deliberately following after other gods. While God will continue to show mercy to those individuals who obey Him, He may very well have become angry with our nation.
But in our case, rather than being carried off to Babylon, it appears that Babylon is coming to us. We are being swallowed up in an anti-Christian culture. We need to face the sobering possibility that our country may be at the point of no return. In other words, we may be past the "If My people" option. If this is true, then I believe we should prepare ourselves spiritually for the long term--for life in exile--as did Daniel and the other believers of his day.
May 11, 2010
Two Kinds of Love - Mark 12:30,31
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Love is that which binds one person to another. If love is true and complete, it will reside in our hearts, in our minds, in our words, in our choices, and in our actions. For many of us however, love is partial, or even artificial. We say what we know we're supposed to say, or do what we've been told we must do. But it splits us up, because our hearts don't agree with what our words or deeds say.
The only source of true and complete love is God Himself. All of us have some connection to God, because we have received from Him our life, our identity, our personality, and our desires. No living human can be entirely separated from God, no matter how evil or destitute his nature becomes. At the same time, no human can be fully connected to God apart from the redemptive act of Christ's salvation and His imparted Spirit.
These are not new thoughts or new teachings, but rather are the bedrock of Christian truth that has endured through the centuries. What we may not have understood, I believe, is the twofold character of love. When Jesus taught that we must love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and yet still have love left over for our neighbors and ourselves, it is arguable that He is speaking of two different kinds of love.
A close examination of I Corinthians 13 will give us a very clear picture of one of these loves. Paul describes this love as patient and kind, self-giving and forgiving. It hopes for all things and endures all things. It is a love that has its basis not in the goodness or beauty or desirability of the one who is loved, but in the nature of the lover himself. This is the love God shows to us. If we were to name this love, we could call it cherishing love.
In contrast, the other kind of love is love that specifically responds to the nature of the one who is loved. This is the love we have toward God. As we come to know more and more deeply His beauty and His holiness and His power and His goodness, we respond with a love that eventually fills our hearts and minds and souls, and causes us to serve Him with all our strength. Whereas cherishing love loves "in spite of," this kind of love loves totally "because of." We will name it honoring love.
It is this division of love that is implied in Christ's commandment in Mark 12:30,31. We are to give God all honor, because He is all-deserving. At the same time, we are to cherish our neighbor in the same way we cherish ourselves, with patience, kindness, and a strong hope for his highest wellbeing.
What might appear to be a simple dividing line is, however, a little more complex. You see, the Bible often speaks of us honoring other individuals, such as our parents, those who rule us, and even "all people" (I Peter 2:17). We can understand this best when we define honor as being an acknowledgment of value. The honoring love we give to God is our confession that in Him alone is everything of value. However, His valuableness has been dispersed throughout His creation. Thus, wherever we see the valuableness of God, we are to give it honor as though we are giving it to Him.
For example, we are commanded to honor our parents because they are the channel of God's life-giving power and authority in our lives. To mistreat or to rebel against a parent is to essentially do the same to God. We are to honor the king because he also represents God's authority. We are to honor each other because each of us is made in the image of God. Peter tells husbands to honor their wives specifically because they are fellow inheritors of the “grace of life” (I Peter 3:7).
We should note, however, that these are all examples of what might be called "positional" honor. We give honor to those who in some way have been given a position of worth in God's created order. If we fail to give this kind of honor, we are effectively dishonoring God. But this positional honor is not exactly the same as honoring love. These people are to be treated as valuable whether or not they have any commendable or desirable personal qualities whatsoever.
Honoring love, on the other hand, honors because there is something powerfully attractive in the one who is loved. As we've said, this honor is only completely deserved by God alone. However, because God's beauty and goodness can be seen in others as well, it is not contradictory to give honoring love to those in whom that godly nature is manifested. Thus when someone is kind to me, or when someone demonstrates God's strength or beauty or wisdom or creative power, then it is not inappropriate for me--because I appreciate the value of these qualities--to respond through an expression of love for that individual.
The problem arises not in my loving that person, but in the misunderstanding of what my love means. Our tendency is to see the person himself as deserving the love, whereas it is ultimately God who deserves it. This will become clearer if we temporarily change the phrase "honoring love" to the word "worship."
Worship is the strongest expression of our "“because of" response. Worship acknowledges the attractiveness and desirability of another. At the same time, worship innately requires the perfection of that other person. Worship thus sets itself against "in spite of" love. When I worship someone, I not only want them to continue to be the source of the good things I see in and receive from them, but I will press them to become the source of other good things, even all good things. For this reason, only God is the proper object of our worship.
I have come to believe that the only solution to this human tendency to seek out false gods is to set our minds and hearts and wills on discovering the full beauty and strength of the true God Himself. We have a profound need to worship, and to the extent we do not know God we are driven to create imagined gods out of whomever or whatever we find at hand. But none of these will adequately nourish our spirits, and eventually we will become angry with them and will become filled with despair ourselves.
Let us now consider the other love, which I've termed "cherishing love." Whereas honoring love is centered on the acknowledgment of value, cherishing love is distinguished by its ability to establish value. It is clear that this creative power must originate with God, as do all forms of creativity. Thus while we may have some residual capacity to cherish others simply because we are made in God's image, our fallen natures are predominantly preoccupied with our own neediness, and most of our natural love focuses on what we can receive.
When, however, we have our true neediness filled by God's own cherishing love, there arises in us the ability to share in His creative outflow. As we saw in I Corinthians 13, cherishing love is characterized by its willingness to accept someone "in spite of" every disagreeable aspect of their nature. The origin of cherishing love is described in Ephesians 1:3-6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The Greek word that is here translated "accepted," charitoo, is the same word the angel spoke to Mary when he told her she was "highly favored." This kind of acceptance is far more than a casual tolerance, but is rather a full reception of that other person into the realm of all that is of great worth. Paul describes this process in Romans 15:1-7.
How much better is the gift of true acceptance and true safety which God has offered to those who will receive it. We must understand however that while this accepting, cherishing love raises us to a place of infinite value, it does so at a cost. Christ allowed our “reproaches” to fall on Himself, and He calls us to pass this kind of love on to others in His name, pleasing them instead of pleasing ourselves.
This then is how the two commandments of Jesus are joined together. As we deliberately direct the full force of our neediness toward His all-encompassing completeness (which is a much more profound activity than what we often envision worship to be), we enter into the authentic place of joy of which the addict's euphoria is a counterfeit. There we come to understand both our absolute worthlessness apart from Him and our total acceptance "in the Beloved."
From this place of healing there arises the strength and incentive to love as we have been loved. When we see the pain and despair of those around us, our spontaneous desire will be that they might share in what we ourselves have gained. Instead of focusing on their corruption and failures (as we might have done when we ourselves were searching for God in all possible corners), we begin instead to comprehend His vision of what they could become. This comprehension moves quickly to the expressions of cherishing love, for it is our greatest joy to see God's nature fully displayed in every element of His creation--in others even as it has been in ourselves.
Love is that which binds one person to another. If love is true and complete, it will reside in our hearts, in our minds, in our words, in our choices, and in our actions. For many of us however, love is partial, or even artificial. We say what we know we're supposed to say, or do what we've been told we must do. But it splits us up, because our hearts don't agree with what our words or deeds say.
The only source of true and complete love is God Himself. All of us have some connection to God, because we have received from Him our life, our identity, our personality, and our desires. No living human can be entirely separated from God, no matter how evil or destitute his nature becomes. At the same time, no human can be fully connected to God apart from the redemptive act of Christ's salvation and His imparted Spirit.
These are not new thoughts or new teachings, but rather are the bedrock of Christian truth that has endured through the centuries. What we may not have understood, I believe, is the twofold character of love. When Jesus taught that we must love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and yet still have love left over for our neighbors and ourselves, it is arguable that He is speaking of two different kinds of love.
A close examination of I Corinthians 13 will give us a very clear picture of one of these loves. Paul describes this love as patient and kind, self-giving and forgiving. It hopes for all things and endures all things. It is a love that has its basis not in the goodness or beauty or desirability of the one who is loved, but in the nature of the lover himself. This is the love God shows to us. If we were to name this love, we could call it cherishing love.
In contrast, the other kind of love is love that specifically responds to the nature of the one who is loved. This is the love we have toward God. As we come to know more and more deeply His beauty and His holiness and His power and His goodness, we respond with a love that eventually fills our hearts and minds and souls, and causes us to serve Him with all our strength. Whereas cherishing love loves "in spite of," this kind of love loves totally "because of." We will name it honoring love.
It is this division of love that is implied in Christ's commandment in Mark 12:30,31. We are to give God all honor, because He is all-deserving. At the same time, we are to cherish our neighbor in the same way we cherish ourselves, with patience, kindness, and a strong hope for his highest wellbeing.
What might appear to be a simple dividing line is, however, a little more complex. You see, the Bible often speaks of us honoring other individuals, such as our parents, those who rule us, and even "all people" (I Peter 2:17). We can understand this best when we define honor as being an acknowledgment of value. The honoring love we give to God is our confession that in Him alone is everything of value. However, His valuableness has been dispersed throughout His creation. Thus, wherever we see the valuableness of God, we are to give it honor as though we are giving it to Him.
For example, we are commanded to honor our parents because they are the channel of God's life-giving power and authority in our lives. To mistreat or to rebel against a parent is to essentially do the same to God. We are to honor the king because he also represents God's authority. We are to honor each other because each of us is made in the image of God. Peter tells husbands to honor their wives specifically because they are fellow inheritors of the “grace of life” (I Peter 3:7).
We should note, however, that these are all examples of what might be called "positional" honor. We give honor to those who in some way have been given a position of worth in God's created order. If we fail to give this kind of honor, we are effectively dishonoring God. But this positional honor is not exactly the same as honoring love. These people are to be treated as valuable whether or not they have any commendable or desirable personal qualities whatsoever.
Honoring love, on the other hand, honors because there is something powerfully attractive in the one who is loved. As we've said, this honor is only completely deserved by God alone. However, because God's beauty and goodness can be seen in others as well, it is not contradictory to give honoring love to those in whom that godly nature is manifested. Thus when someone is kind to me, or when someone demonstrates God's strength or beauty or wisdom or creative power, then it is not inappropriate for me--because I appreciate the value of these qualities--to respond through an expression of love for that individual.
The problem arises not in my loving that person, but in the misunderstanding of what my love means. Our tendency is to see the person himself as deserving the love, whereas it is ultimately God who deserves it. This will become clearer if we temporarily change the phrase "honoring love" to the word "worship."
Worship is the strongest expression of our "“because of" response. Worship acknowledges the attractiveness and desirability of another. At the same time, worship innately requires the perfection of that other person. Worship thus sets itself against "in spite of" love. When I worship someone, I not only want them to continue to be the source of the good things I see in and receive from them, but I will press them to become the source of other good things, even all good things. For this reason, only God is the proper object of our worship.
I have come to believe that the only solution to this human tendency to seek out false gods is to set our minds and hearts and wills on discovering the full beauty and strength of the true God Himself. We have a profound need to worship, and to the extent we do not know God we are driven to create imagined gods out of whomever or whatever we find at hand. But none of these will adequately nourish our spirits, and eventually we will become angry with them and will become filled with despair ourselves.
Let us now consider the other love, which I've termed "cherishing love." Whereas honoring love is centered on the acknowledgment of value, cherishing love is distinguished by its ability to establish value. It is clear that this creative power must originate with God, as do all forms of creativity. Thus while we may have some residual capacity to cherish others simply because we are made in God's image, our fallen natures are predominantly preoccupied with our own neediness, and most of our natural love focuses on what we can receive.
When, however, we have our true neediness filled by God's own cherishing love, there arises in us the ability to share in His creative outflow. As we saw in I Corinthians 13, cherishing love is characterized by its willingness to accept someone "in spite of" every disagreeable aspect of their nature. The origin of cherishing love is described in Ephesians 1:3-6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The Greek word that is here translated "accepted," charitoo, is the same word the angel spoke to Mary when he told her she was "highly favored." This kind of acceptance is far more than a casual tolerance, but is rather a full reception of that other person into the realm of all that is of great worth. Paul describes this process in Romans 15:1-7.
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.For even Christ did not please himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me" For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
I have been told that when someone is in a drug-induced state of euphoria, one of the strongest feelings they experience is that of being completely safe and completely accepted. For those few surreal moments, all fear and failure and rejection mysteriously disappear. When the user is cruelly plunged back into the horrors of reality, this moment (enhanced no doubt by other physical dependencies on the drug) drives him to set aside any other desire but to return to that small oasis of peace.How much better is the gift of true acceptance and true safety which God has offered to those who will receive it. We must understand however that while this accepting, cherishing love raises us to a place of infinite value, it does so at a cost. Christ allowed our “reproaches” to fall on Himself, and He calls us to pass this kind of love on to others in His name, pleasing them instead of pleasing ourselves.
This then is how the two commandments of Jesus are joined together. As we deliberately direct the full force of our neediness toward His all-encompassing completeness (which is a much more profound activity than what we often envision worship to be), we enter into the authentic place of joy of which the addict's euphoria is a counterfeit. There we come to understand both our absolute worthlessness apart from Him and our total acceptance "in the Beloved."
From this place of healing there arises the strength and incentive to love as we have been loved. When we see the pain and despair of those around us, our spontaneous desire will be that they might share in what we ourselves have gained. Instead of focusing on their corruption and failures (as we might have done when we ourselves were searching for God in all possible corners), we begin instead to comprehend His vision of what they could become. This comprehension moves quickly to the expressions of cherishing love, for it is our greatest joy to see God's nature fully displayed in every element of His creation--in others even as it has been in ourselves.
March 1, 2010
Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit - Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
For quite a few years I had been enjoying FreeCell, one of the solitaire games on my computer. Each possible way the cards can be dealt is numbered, and I had a little scoresheet where I checked them off as I won them. Of course, I knew my propensity to get caught up in this kind of activity, so I carefully disciplined myself. After each game I would get up and do something constructive before allowing myself to play another.
One afternoon I had started a game when the phone rang. It was a woman who sometimes called for either counsel or sympathy. I was glad when my daughter picked up the phone, for I knew she would probably be able to provide the needed encouragement. A short while later the call was over, and Amy came in to report on her talk. When she sat down in the chair by my desk, I looked at her to decide if now she would need a chance to talk. She seemed fine, and when I asked if everything had gone okay, she assured me it had. So as she recounted her conversation, I divided my attention between her words and my game.
Then all of a sudden I had one of the strangest experiences of my life. It was as though I was looking at an old-fashioned movie film, the kind where there are a series of frames that create the illusion of motion. Everything was normal--except one frame was different. For the briefest of seconds, I clearly saw a Figure standing behind my daughter.
Three things were instantly and forever impressed into my soul. The first impression was simply the knowledge that this was Jesus. I did not see His face, but I knew without a doubt it was Him. The second thing I knew with absolute certainty was that He was not angry. I've known what it's like to have someone angry with me, and that feeling was not there. The third thing however gripped me the most strongly, which was that I had made my Savior sad. Even without seeing His face, His heart somehow touched mine and I felt His grief.
As Amy got up to leave, I sat there processing what had just happened. Slowly I reached up and clicked out of my game. I then made my way to my bedroom closet. There on my face before God, I wept. At first all I felt was deep repentance. But gradually, I realized I was also grateful. My God had given me a clear revelation of what did and did not please Him. I returned to my desk, deleted the program and threw away my scorecard. Today I don't even remember how to play FreeCell.
When at Calvary Christ received the full wrath of God against our sins, it did not remove the fact that they still bring Him great sorrow. Paul spoke of this grieving process in Ephesians 4:25-32.
Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
I cannot say with certainty that playing cards is always sinful. What I do know is that our entertainments are powerful, drawing us into hours of distractedness, making it very easy to ignore the quiet opportunities God might give us--either to commune with Him or to be used in service to others. I also am fairly certain they do not give Him pleasure, and that in the final count they will be of no eternal value.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (I Corinthians 3:12-15)
For quite a few years I had been enjoying FreeCell, one of the solitaire games on my computer. Each possible way the cards can be dealt is numbered, and I had a little scoresheet where I checked them off as I won them. Of course, I knew my propensity to get caught up in this kind of activity, so I carefully disciplined myself. After each game I would get up and do something constructive before allowing myself to play another.
One afternoon I had started a game when the phone rang. It was a woman who sometimes called for either counsel or sympathy. I was glad when my daughter picked up the phone, for I knew she would probably be able to provide the needed encouragement. A short while later the call was over, and Amy came in to report on her talk. When she sat down in the chair by my desk, I looked at her to decide if now she would need a chance to talk. She seemed fine, and when I asked if everything had gone okay, she assured me it had. So as she recounted her conversation, I divided my attention between her words and my game.
Then all of a sudden I had one of the strangest experiences of my life. It was as though I was looking at an old-fashioned movie film, the kind where there are a series of frames that create the illusion of motion. Everything was normal--except one frame was different. For the briefest of seconds, I clearly saw a Figure standing behind my daughter.
Three things were instantly and forever impressed into my soul. The first impression was simply the knowledge that this was Jesus. I did not see His face, but I knew without a doubt it was Him. The second thing I knew with absolute certainty was that He was not angry. I've known what it's like to have someone angry with me, and that feeling was not there. The third thing however gripped me the most strongly, which was that I had made my Savior sad. Even without seeing His face, His heart somehow touched mine and I felt His grief.
As Amy got up to leave, I sat there processing what had just happened. Slowly I reached up and clicked out of my game. I then made my way to my bedroom closet. There on my face before God, I wept. At first all I felt was deep repentance. But gradually, I realized I was also grateful. My God had given me a clear revelation of what did and did not please Him. I returned to my desk, deleted the program and threw away my scorecard. Today I don't even remember how to play FreeCell.
When at Calvary Christ received the full wrath of God against our sins, it did not remove the fact that they still bring Him great sorrow. Paul spoke of this grieving process in Ephesians 4:25-32.
Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
I cannot say with certainty that playing cards is always sinful. What I do know is that our entertainments are powerful, drawing us into hours of distractedness, making it very easy to ignore the quiet opportunities God might give us--either to commune with Him or to be used in service to others. I also am fairly certain they do not give Him pleasure, and that in the final count they will be of no eternal value.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (I Corinthians 3:12-15)
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