Compassion (Thursday)—Psalm 41:1-3

by RobertCummins | Dec 8, 2016 | 49. Compassion

How blessed is he who considers the helpless;

The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.

The Lord will protect him and keep him alive,

And he shall be called blessed upon the earth;

And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.

The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed;

In his illness, Thou dost restore him to health. (Psalm 41:1-3)

I was recently caught in a fairly intense crossfire that broke out in the midst of an adult Sunday school class. The issue in contention just happened to be “the helpless.” More accurately, it had to do with what the government’s role should be in caring for them.

I will try and reconstruct the scene of this shootout. One group (actually just one person) was advocating that the government should increase funding on the merits of the Bible’s mandate to care for this group, whom he saw primarily as a socio-economic class. This drew fire from the other side that advocated a reduction of funding because, in their view, the government’s involvement was actually creating and sustaining the illusion of helplessness, thus creating a growing culture of socio-economic dependents.

The armed-majority, desiring a very limited role for the government proposed that it is the Church’s job to care for the helpless. The armed-minority agreed, and with the most accurate salvo fired in this skirmish, he said, “You are right. But the Church is not doing it!” It occurred to me that both sides were pretty good shots and their bullets were finding their marks.

For the record, I was recruited by a worried party to attend this class to serve as peacemaker should the need arise. So, as I attempted to stand in the middle and listen, It seemed obvious that both sides had merit to their cases but it also seemed, realistically, that the Church, regardless of her convictions, will have to partner with the government to meet the needs of the helpless at least until it is willing and able to shoulder this burden. Since Jesus tells us the helpless will always be with us, it will be good to keep this subject on the table before us in the halls of government and the Church.

The timing of today’s verse was amazing because I was attending a meeting on this day that was being hosted by a prominent believer who occupies one of the highest posts in Oklahoma’s Department of Human Resources, who had some things to say about this unlikely church-government partnership. I will be all ears and heart. (FYI: This post was written in 2012.)

While I am grateful that God promises some super fringe benefits to me if I will consider the helpless, I honestly believe there is a higher road than the divine, quid pro quo motivation our passage lays out. I think Jesus came to the downtrodden, not because of what He would get from God by doing it, but rather because He simply loved them. Something about their needs attracts His heart, and He identifies as one of them.

I don’t believe that the helpless and downtrodden are just a socio-economic class. When Jesus saw the helpless, I don’t think His view was limited to the slums of Jerusalem: His vision took in the full spectrum of humanity who are helpless to save themselves from their inward or outward poverty, regardless of how hard they try. The downtrodden range from the old and impoverished to rich young rulers. This is an arena the government cannot address—the heart of man, from which all the issues of life flow.

The dialogue that determines how the government will relate to the poor often breaks down due to the polarization of partisan politics. My hope is to one day see a Church, who by virtue of proving herself faithful with “little,” is entrusted with the “much” of this need. My hope is that on this day all men may see her good works and glorify the Father in heaven as this arena of care is entrusted into her increasingly willing and capable hands.

Father, may Your Church arise and earn the right to stand, in Your Spirit, in the middle of opposing factions and facilitate this dialogue from the perspective of Your Kingdom. Let them be free of the motivation to receive anything in return for her service; let us merely want the privilege of seeing that Your majestic Name has been duly honored. May Your Church fulfill her destiny, bringing Your Kingdom’s righteousness, peace, joy, and wisdom into this arena that most see as a hopeless battle that cannot be won. Come Lord and give this mocking and unbelieving world evidence that You are a God for whom nothing is impossible. Amen.

Compassion (Wednesday)—Luke 4:14-21

by RobertCummins | Dec 7, 2016 | 49. Compassion

Jesus walks into His local synagogue and boldly announces that He was the one the great Isaiah had spoken of when he said:

 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are downtrodden,

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus came to proclaim and live out, as the first born of a new race, a comprehensive gospel that touched the spirits, souls, and bodies of all those who had been trodden down by the Fall.

My 40 years as a follower of this same Jesus have been lived in either a cease-fire or crossfire between camps who are divided on just how comprehensive this salvation Jesus proclaimed is. Both camps believe that Jesus is still in the business of restoring life to stillborn spirits, that if they will repent, He will set these prisoners free from the power of sin, making them God’s children and giving them eternal life. The bullets fly and the family separates, however, on whether Jesus still heals people physically and delivers them from demonic torment (or if, for that matter, demonic torment even exists).

In my sojourn, I am traveling alongside tribes who are on both sides of this divide. And as much as we may hunger for the certainty one camp’s theology might provide, no one seems to offer a certified (preferably seminary-derived) patented truth that will bring peace in the family. I am just going to tell my story (in super-condensed form) as it has evolved so far and describe what I have peace about in my heart. (Without a certificate, what else can I do?)

I surrendered my life to Christ in 1976 in a very missions-oriented church, but (please promise to not shoot me) this was a church that spoke in tongues. As I gave Christ permission to move in and rule, He brought some immediate and dramatic changes to my life. And I too (please don’t run away) received a prayer language early into my new life in Christ. For the record this was not, as far as I know, the Acts 2 kind of speaking in tongues, intended for interpretation. Mine has been what I think of as private prayer language.

I just assumed that Jesus was the same as Isaiah had introduced Him and the New Testament had presented Him. I reasoned in childlike innocence that if He could transform my life and save my soul, He must be able and willing to heal our bodies as well. Surely He had not just given the New Testament as a teaser! Surely Isaiah had not gilded the lily!

At that time, I didn’t realize how much fun I was going to have and how many new friends I was going to make, proclaiming that I now prayed in an unknown language and that Jesus was still healing folks. However, I am certain that my family and friends completely agreed I was now speaking in an entirely different language (sarcasm intended).

God, what have You gotten me in to? The reception I received with these proclamations made this shy, reclusive young man quickly aware that he was either going to need a life boat or a bullet proof vest on this journey. (A bullhorn might not be necessary, as I had initially thought). To my grand disappointment, I had been born again into a house divided!

What transpired on my trail as I put miles behind me, was a forfeiture of the childlike innocence I had first known. My heart made some adjustments for the tension created by believing in things that don’t come true in the timing and in the sense I had anticipated. However, because of my own miraculous origins, and how I read the New Testament, I was still unable to adopt the readily available doctrine that relegated miracles to the first century only as sign-gifts needed at that unique moment to launch the Church. (Did the Church need power then that it doesn’t need today?)

It is crushing to watch disease take its toll, especially when you have believed and proclaimed that God is good, powerful, and willing to heal. It would be much easier to join a cessationist camp and relieve myself of the deferred hope that has often made my heart sick in regards to healing. At least there I would be free from the temptation to raise questions (or even make a case in my heart) about the goodness, power, and willingness of God. As one who takes a fair amount of medicine and who has a fair amount of aches and pains that he would like to be free of, I still cannot adopt, in good conscience (as convenient as it would be), a gospel that is limited to salvation (sozo in the original greek) as the forgiveness of sins and a get-out-hell free pass. (Have cessationsists done a word study to see how comprehensive this Greek word sozo actually is?)

I have decided that, even in the presence of apparent evidence to the contrary, I am going to continue thinking of Jesus as the one who heals bodies and restores men to righteous sanity and wholeness. He is my Savior, Teacher and as the first-born of a new race (of which I am a member), He is also my Example. I confess that I still live in a crossfire of arguments on this topic. Sometimes the debate even ricochets around within my own heart. However, I am determined, by God’s grace, to hold on to the God I first met when I was 23. Again, I am no scholar, but this Jesus, with His comprehensive good news, lines up with the whole counsel of scripture better than the other partial-sozo Jesuses I have been offered.

If I am in error, I figure the worst scenario I will face is having to explain, when I stand before Him, that I had believed and proclaimed that He was more willing with the supernatural than He actually was. I am willing to take that risk. I prefer giving this account than trying to explain why I had buried my talents and brought Him no return on His (Christ-in me) investment. I also feel that (in light of Hebrew 11) I am not alone living with the tension experienced between the believing and the coming true.

I hope your gun is not drawn when we meet or that you won’t withdraw the right hand of fellowship (or offer me the limp one). For the record, I no longer carry a gun and I assure you my hand will be extended to you wherever you are in your trek with the Lord. Oh, and by the way, when we meet, I also pledge to speak in English (my native tongue) and not in a foreign one.

Father, may you teach us in Your fragmented body to be at peace with all men, especially our eternal family, as much as it is possible. May we realize as a family what the full extent of Your Kingdom’s good news is. May we live it and proclaim it from the rooftops. Amen.

Compassion (Tuesday) – Micah 6:6-8

by RobertCummins | Dec 6, 2016 | 49. Compassion

With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)

“With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?” I wonder, in this sentence, if Micah was not asking the question that has been present in some form, at some time, in the heart of all men? If we all descended from Adam, beings created in God’s likeness, banished from Eden, where we had once known (in our natures), intimacy with God, what manner of catastrophe occurred in Adam’s (our) heart at the Fall? I also wonder what manner of trauma did God experience as this first born son brought separation between Him and His would be, and now mutated, family?

I suspect as Adam looked back over his shoulder at Eden and ahead at the ground he was about to plow, he was certainly shocked at the change in scenery. But that was nothing compared to the devastation of having lost the treasure of relating intimately, moment by moment, to God. The separation was not just geographic. Original sin had destroyed the communion between the spirits of God and man.

I believe the perfect harmony that God had crafted between Adam’s spirit, soul and body was also lost at the Fall. As the toxins that derived from the Tree of Knowledge were being absorbed into Adam’s being, I imagine they went directly to his spirit, which had been originally animated by the breath of God, and put it to sleep. Then like a computer virus, the invasive code moved into Adam’s soul, corrupting it with a program that was never intended to operate in a human. In the vacuum created by a lifeless spirit, the self expanded to become the primary operating system. The body too would succumb to a finite existence.

Operating now by his wits alone, Adam no longer had the spiritual capacity of simply and instinctively knowing God. All his fallen nature can now do, with its fading memory of God and Eden, is attempt to manage things with his still agile mind. As many answers as that mind was destined to generate in the manipulation of his physical world, it remains tragically incapable, by itself, in answering the fundamental questions of; “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?” and “What is my purpose?” Adam left the Garden and God’s presence with a cosmic-sized rejection complex. Consequently, his legacy to us is a misshapen and insecure identity that perpetually wonders what will be required of it to please God and return to His presence. I believe this is behind Micah’s inquiry.

Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my first-born for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sins of my soul? (from Micah 6:6-7)

These are the questions asked by our enlarged souls, still reeling from the Fall, running on a corrupt program that suggests to us that we have the ability within us to do something that will save us and restore us to what we instinctively know is missing and are still groping to find. The name of that program running in us can be thought of as religion. The lie embedded in this program code is that we can do something that will atone for our sin and win God’s favor. As noble as this might sound, and as impressive as it might look, it is a satanically inspired idea designed to distract man from the only real solution he has ever had – the acquisition of a new heart.

Micah’s answer to his own question in 6:8 is true, poetic, yet incomplete. Ezekiel, I propose, has a better answer to the separation problem created by sin.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

An even more complete answer is found in a conversation Jesus had with a pharisee named Nicodemus.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ( John 3:5-6.)

The New Testament is the surprising and mysterious revelation of God’s Fatherly heart. It is absolutely true that man is a fallen being who has inherited a nature estranged from God, disabled in fulfilling its created function which is communing with God spirit to spirit. It is also true that God is a holy being that despises this satanic code running in His beloved creation because it has robbed them and Himself of the joy of fellowship. God has wrath and anger toward sin. The great news is that the portion of it that was due man was absorbed on the cross in Jesus Christ who was the only sacrifice (as an unblemished sinless lamb) who could atone for the catastrophe inherited by our hearts.

So, the biggest headline about God’s heart is not His anger and wrath. The Father’s heart is not inclined exclusively with anger and wrath toward men. The deepest truth about God’s heart is that it is inclined toward man in compassion. In Christ, we have become the apple of His eye, the dream in His heart, the love of His life. He was predisposed toward us in kindness even before we surrendered to Him. This is the heart of the gospel and the New Testament. Jesus Himself is the essential anti-religion revelation that, alone, destroys the toxic code that operates within our hearts and, unfortunately, has driven so much of what the world has seen as Christianity.

When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, His Spirit comes into us, restoring the spirit-to-spirit connection Adam had enjoyed. In Christ, God has once again breathed His life into us and we are born from above. We have new hearts (natures, if you will) that are formatted and compatible with both the Word and the Spirit of God. To be sure, we have old natures that have grown accustomed to living out of our enlarged souls but the transformation God intends for His children is awakened and nurtured by His Word and Spirit. His life, now within us, can take precedence over the spiritual virus that has been the rule of our hearts.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20) 

Father, animate Your life within us. May Your Spirit burn so bright and hot that it consumes the remaining effects of religion in us and in this world. In the freedom of our rest, may we learn what it is to live and move and have our beings in You. May You receive the reward of Your suffering and Your sacrifice as we avail ourselves of the spirit-to-spirit union that has been restored to us in Your Son. May the world see Your Bride who has rediscovered and claimed her rightful treasure of intimacy with You. Amen.