by RobertCummins | May 12, 2016 | 19. The Resurrection
And we had our hopes up that he was about to deliver Israel.(Luke 24:21)
The idea that God is about to do a new thing is a cornerstone among Christians. I understand why. Think about it: since the mercies of God are fresh every morning, what could be more predictable than a new thing. Yet, for humans whose thoughts and ways are much lower than God’s, the potential of getting the particulars of that new thing wrong are high, given the theological, dispositional, experiential and physiological variables that color our perception. But oh, how we love our particulars.
Have you ever gotten your hopes up that God was about to do something new, something that has failed to happen? If you have been a follower of Christ for anytime at all, you probably said, “Oh yeah.” Let me ask, what happened to your faith when the new thing did not play out? How have you responded in the months and years since that new thing failed to materialize? From this crossroad there are a number of paths one can take.
#1 Victims:
One path involves being emotionally wounded and blaming others (including God) for crushing our expectations. The travelers of this trail become victims who carry the heavy loads of bitterness and resentment. They may abandon the notion of a good or a sovereign God altogether because they perceive him as either the perpetrator of or an accessory to whatever the perceived injustice was. This trail just goes in circles. Even though it leads nowhere its travelers generally go there proudly.
#2 Users:
Another trail involves re-imaging God such that His goodness and sovereignty could in no way be associated with the disappointing outcome. The reasoning along this trail is tortured, but it goes like this: I am a child of royalty… God gives me the desires of my heart… I didn’t get my particular desire; therefore, I must have used the wrong technique to get my new thing… So, I will now try this new and greater technique in order to acquire the new and greater thing from God. This traveler, with the view of God as one who responds to manipulation, is headed into a wilderness of error barren of relational intimacy. It’s just hard to love a slot machine.
#3 Quitters:
Another trail is quite short, but popular nevertheless. Those taking it really just shift into neutral. They don’t want to renounce their faith. They want to retain the long-term benefits of Christianity (i.e. heaven) so they just settle into a manageable routine of Christian flavored activity and an unspoken vision of survival. They once took the risk. They put their hearts out there on some venture of faith only to have their expectations dashed. These travellers make an inner vow—a kind of pact with their own heart that says, “That will not happen again!” Since it is impossible to please God without faith (i.e. risk) this stalled-out traveler lives with the delusion that neutrality is safe.
#4 Abiders:
Then there are those who, like all travelers, have their hearts broken while living for that new particular thing which evaporated or exploded in their face. This one however has something in their heart that the victims, users and quitters do not. This one has abandoned their heart to a faithful Shepherd, who pledges to see them to their high places. It is their understanding of God that he is both good and sovereign. So even though their natural mind has collected evidence which raises questions about the goodness of God, they discount such thoughts and press on. Such people are the disciples of Jesus Christ.
As the heart relinquishes its rights to itself and its bent on particulars, the kingdom makes its advance. The heart may mourn briefly but its sorrow will be turned to joy as the disciple discovers that Jesus himself is the prize and that intimacy with Him eclipses the realization of any under-imagined particulars. Because God’s intention is to reward us with himself, he jealously attempts to protect us from putting our confidence and expectations in any of the myriad substitutes (idols).
God is indeed a rewarder of those who follow this pathway of faith where the disciple honors who God is and what he says above his own human appraisal of matters. The authentic disciple makes the same discovery that the Emmaus road travelers did: the particulars of one’s expectations can be wrong. God was up to something far greater than establishing sovereignty over a geographic region or a singular nation. He was (and is) establishing his kingdom one heart at a time.
Father, as you did with your disciples, open our hearts and eyes to grasp the bigger picture of your redemption. Help us to let go of all our idols—making way for you, the King of glory, to triumph in our hearts, winning our affections away from all the competition. May we see the pathway of abiding with unprecedented clarity. Let this be our new thing.
by RobertCummins | May 11, 2016 | 19. The Resurrection
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. (Luke 24:12)
If you will copy and paste; hymnbook.igracemusic.com/hymns/arise–my–soul–arise into a search engine you will find an Indelible Grace Music sight. You will see the beautiful lyrics of Arise My Soul by Charles Wesley. In the bottom right hand corner you will see an album cover with an invitation to Download / Buy CD. Click on it. (You won’t buy anything by doing this.) Click on #6 which is a modernized version of this hymn. Today, it might be a good idea to sing first – then read. My favorite line is from the chorus…
Arise my soul arise. Shake off your guilty fears and rise.
If “doctrine” is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word “resurrection”, I pray that today’s MwM post will shake up your thinking. Sure, the resurrection is a doctrine, as is the virgin birth and the cross. The difference between these doctrines and the resurrection is that we were not born of a virgin nor were we crucified on the cross but we have been buried in Christ and resurrected into newness of life, in Christ. The resurrection is not just a doctrine, it is the essential experience facilitating our adoption as God’s children. Outside of Christ, we are walking in death (regardless of the doctrines we subscribe to). In Christ, we walk in a brand new realm – abundant life. The old things have passed away, newness of resurrection life has come. It is one thing to be an adherent of the Christian religion and its doctrines. Its another thing altogether to be raised from the dead. When we stand before God, we will want more than correct doctrine; we will want to be resurrected in Christ’s life.
Many of my dearest friends came to faith at a young age. They were attending Sunday School or a youth retreat and something clicked; they knew in their hearts that Jesus was alive and had died for their sins. I believe from that point, they have had Christ’s life in them. They typically confessed this to someone and were then baptized into the church (and into its culture). The classical vision of the evangelical church has been to help these newborn sheep, by way of sermon and Sunday School, to continue on in their mastery of doctrinal truths. The problem is that many people on this well established track have burnt out or are burning out. Why? I believe it is God’s grace.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)
When a person believes in Christ, they are baptized into Him. This is much more than being baptized into the local community of saints (regardless of their label). I believe Christ enters a life when He is invited. I also believe the expression this new life is influenced by examples and the vision of the Church those examples portray. Are the impressionable young sheep presented with a vision of bible knowledge accumulation and compliance to church culture or are they presented with radical examples of resurrection life which caused them to marvel?
Many of my friends who have burnt out are starting to make claims upon the life of Christ within them. Why? By God’s grace they see that the institution itself was not the umbilical cord. The bricks and mortar and the programs were deficient representations of what they read about in scripture. By God’s grace many of them have had their hearts broken yet stand with fresh hunger, on the threshold of a personal discovery of Christ’s life within – the hope of glory.
While I anticipate heaven, my understanding of God’s kingdom (Jesus’ primary message) causes me to anticipate the expression of Jesus’ life in the here-and-now. This hope rests in Christ alone – Christ in us. I don’t believe many evangelical church’s have this idea embedded in the vision they have cast. If the vision cast is not a New Testament-sized-and-shaped vision, the local church has underrepresented the life of God. In light of this, I could imagine the lot of us, emitting a fowl aroma instead of a fragrant one. I could imagine us, creating a lukewarm kind of taste. I do believe God has it in mind to work on our odor and temperature. (Please keep in mind that nothing, even our odor or taste, can separate us from the love of God.)
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Transformation is a controversial subject, especially among those heavily steeped in the doctrine of God’s sovereignty. In this culture, God is in perfect control, which implies that what we have and what we see is here by sovereign design. Asking questions regarding the validity of anything is tantamount to heresy. I see sovereignty and election powerfully conveyed in the scriptures but I also see the apostles, prophets and teachers laboring to amend thinking that is in error. If these early leaders had been adequately equipped with the pure doctrine of God’s sovereignty, they should have let these errors go; God had permitted them. They were meddling.
There are other sovereigns at work in our story. A sovereign is anyone exercising authority within some sphere of influence. We are sovereigns in this sense as is the devil. Paul was waging an all out intentional war on the world, the flesh and the devil. To do this He needed to equip the Church with a vision. This vision included every beilever as a front line soldier in this sphere where three sovereigns (God, the devil and ourselves) were competing for rulership. The Church, those who are in Christ and have Christ in them are the swing vote. When they vote correctly, the kingdom of Light expands. Is this the vision young impressionable sheep have been indoctrinated with?
There is a generation of millennials who will soon inherit the leadership of this world. Many of them are question askers. What would happen if their questions regarding the old wineskin vision of the Christian religion led them to a fresh encounter with resurrection life? If the millennial leaders with Christendom were to experience resurrection life (i.e. Christ in them), the course of human affairs would be altered. My pray is that the apostles of the Church would rise up and infect this generation with a New Testament-sized vision of Christ’s life. May this be.
If you have wondered just what a millennial is, by all means check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpE1Pa8vvI. Micah Taylor sings all four parts of “You Gotta Love Millennials.”
by RobertCummins | May 10, 2016 | 19. The Resurrection
Poor Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus showed up. I believe his experience raises an important question for those who would follow Christ. How are we to think about our relationship with God when we, for reasons we cannot grasp, seem to be absent when Jesus shows up?
More Lord!
During a season in the mid-90’s, the phrase, “More Lord!” was prayed and declared thousands upon thousands of times by people around the world. Many, but certainly not all, who prayed this prayer would testify, “God indeed showed up!” Yet, there were those who earnestly desired to receive “more” who did not. How are his children to calibrate their expectations?
I came into the kingdom through two more Lord encounters. The first was what most evangelicals refer to as “a salvation” experience. However it didn’t involve deep remorse over my sin or fear of hell. It involved a lonely young man who knew he was lost and felt that hell already had its grip on him. At the conclusion of a church service (which I stumbled into while trailing a girl) I was asked if I would like to invite Jesus Christ into my heart as my personal savior. I recall my words as if they were yesterday. With more earnestness than I had ever spoken, I said, “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. But, I will do this; I will give my life unconditionally to Jesus and He can do anything He wants with it.” To my utter astonishment, He took me at my word. Over a period of weeks something incredible transpired in my heart. Although this experience was radically transformational, it did not contain much emotion or drama beyond the miracle of peace in my heart and a newfound freedom from bondage. I definitely had more of the Lord!
The second of these encounters happened a few moths later after I had reconnected with some old friends one weekend and did some carousing. To say I felt miserable afterward would be a gross understatement. Because I had lost the feelings of peace and the joy that I had known, I assumed I had lost my union with the One who had provided it. It’s hard to describe how desolate I felt, knowing I had offended Jesus and squandered the most precious relationship I had ever known. During my two-hour drive home, I experienced something that explains why I have spent most of the past 40 years among those with Pentecostal leanings. Evangelicals withdrew from me when I told them about this experience.
They are all I have, but words alone are inadequate to describe what happened after I told God that I missed Him. After my plea; “Please do not take the Holy Spirit from me” I learned a few things about my God. Here is the briefest of summaries: God was not angry. He did not express an iota of anger! He made it abundantly clear that he was my Father and that he would always rescue me when I called out to him. It was also super clear that he is still speaking today and His unseen presence can be manifest to a man. He revealed to me that his majesty is incomprehensible and His love is unfathomable. These truths were not spoken in words. These revelations came in waves. Though no words (as we think of them) were spoken I heard these things with resounding clarity in my heart. This was encounter #2. You can imagine how my expectations were now calibrated.
I use words to describe our inner life with God—this realm where our spirits connect with his. At the same tIme, I know mere words are pitifully inadequate. The best wordsmiths can only point us toward God. However, suppose words could usher us into divine intimacy; our coveted encounter would still be just our personal experience. What is to be done with the “More Lord” sentiments of our hearts? I believe, as his disciples, we must learn to steward them and our longings for them.
In the mid-90’s, how deeply I wanted a re-visitation of God that would inspire me as I had been in 1976. I felt I needed that wind of inspiration to move me through a deep slough of despond. It was not to come, at least not as I had anticipated. After I had nearly exhausted myself trying to chase down another more-Lord encounter, I eventually prayed something like this—it might sound familiar:
“I don’t have a clue what you’re doing God, but I will do this: I will (once again) give my life unconditionally to you. You can do anything you want with it.”
Again, He took me at my word, and over a few years, my heart once again enjoyed peace and joy.
If you read the Bible and if you sample the stories of believers over time and throughout the world, it is clear that God arranges for some to experience Him in dramatic fashion. We may think of these people as blessed—I believe they are. However, Jesus also says:
Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed. (John 20-29)
Because I have been both, one who has received more and one who has not, I am grateful to the Lord for permitting me both, but especially for the seasons of longing—those times where waiting has been the only option. In those unwanted (even resented) seasons, I made the counterintuitive discovery that while I was striving for more, I already had it. In Christ, we have everything. He is our All in All. In retrospect I see that my “More Lord” prayers contained unbelief, restlessness, dissatisfaction, and complaint mingled in with some legitimate hunger. While my mouth was saying, “More Lord” my heart was really saying, “This is not enough Lord!”
The strife in my heart (which I had labeled as holy zeal), may have been unavoidable, but it was by no means the long-term condition God aspired for me. God wanted rest for my soul. There is a unique place in God where we deal with the apparent contradictions of hunger and rest, where we are deeply satisfied with each moment in him while our hearts are yet crying out for the intimacy which is destined to one day be complete. Being aware of this may help us steward our thirst for Him.
I was inspired by my God encounter, but it has been the seasons of waiting where I have discovered my identity in Christ, which I consider to be my birthright. I have experienced a moment-in-time encounter with God, and it was glorious, but I believe I have benefited at least as much from waiting on God, discovering by faith that He is always present (even when my feelings are uncooperative). It is while walking with him through life’s challenging circumstances that I am coming to know Him and myself. Our stewardship in this process of encounter and waiting is a large part of what it means to be His disciple.
Father, help us to recognize our completeness in Christ. Purge every ounce of religious striving from our being. At the same time, return our heart’s to childlike joy and faith that unashamedly asks for more and rightly understands your goodness and generosity. Teach our insecure hearts to embrace both the Word and the Spirit and to honor all men in their experience with you. Amen.
Epilogue. If you read the whole passage you find that Thomas eventually had his encounter with a very patient Lord who will not loose a single one that has been given him. We are God’s inheritance. He is supremely jealous and protective of us. It may be a mystery that goes unresolved on earth, but in the process of putting our hearts and this world to rights he will use, as he always has, both encounter and process. For some, including Paul, God blesses by just pouring out revelation, making the need of initial faith of less importance. For others, he reserves for them the privilege of acquiring their birthrights by faith, reserving for them the upside blessing of those who have believed without seeing. The good news for disciples is that Thomas had his encounter; so shall we.
by RobertCummins | May 9, 2016 | 18. The Cross
One of the most common traits about God that lurks in the minds of men is that He is above. How far above? The Bible answers, “As far as the heavens are above the earth.” The prominent theme of the New Testament is; God came down to earth, walked in our shoes and looked us in the eye, revealing God – The Father. The notion of God Incarnate moves my heart as much as any idea I have ever encountered. God in the flesh makes the entirety of Jesus’ life a beautiful and mysterious revelation. This Son-of-Man move separated my God from all other contender gods.
During His 33 year stay, He experienced all the trials and temptations we do. Our passage accounts for one of the most painful – betrayal. We don’t know when Jesus chose Judas – the betrayer. What did that look like? Did Jesus come upon him as he filed out of some political action meeting and think, “Here is one rotten egg. I shall choose him because he will be very handy in betraying me when my time comes?” If Jesus had perfect foresight, He would not have been tempted in every way that we are. Clairvoyance would have cheated Him out of the temptations we would face with the sickening and sudden shock of betrayal.
I believe Jesus loved Judas and had the highest of aspirations for him, just as He did for the other eleven. I believe Jesus saw into the dark parts of Judas’ heart just as He did with Peter and his other intimates. None of the disciples had righteous motives. James and John wanted to be Jesus’ left and right-hand men. And then there was Peter who had become “The Rock.” Peter probably had no use for the Sons-of-Thunder in the co-rulership of Israel. So, was it being overly zealous as an Israeli nationalist or was it his petty theft that made Judas the scoundrel that he was? It was neither; it was unbelief – the most besetting of all sins.
Jesus exposed Himself to the ultimate of human sufferings; rejection, being misunderstood, torture and assassination. Betrayal though has its own special sting; it is one of the vulnerabilities of love. Someone has said; All sins are sins against Love. I agree and betrayal may be the grandaddy of them all. In betrayal, a heart is, at one moment, basking in the warmth of shared trust and affection when it discovers that it has instead been basking in delusion. The beloved friend or lover had in fact not been reciprocating, they had been plotting to switch sides!
I believe the pain to Jesus’ heart upon realizing what Judas had done was no less excruciating than the lashes of the Roman whip or the piercing of the Roman spikes. Jesus was betrayed by one but He was abandoned by us all. Only the Holy Spirit can facilitate this but, at some point, we have to locate ourselves in this story. We might think (like Peter) that we would have even died with Jesus but we are deceiving ourselves.
We cannot say our sin is less just because we are guilty merely by association (with Adam). In a very real sense (in Adam), we were there; it was our shared nature that facilitated the execution of God’s Son. All of us sinned against Love and fell far short of our call to love Him with all that is within us. That is why we were created and we have all gone astray from this primary call.
There is so much mystery to the heart of God! I cannot get my mind around Him. The longer I live and try, the more insane the proposal appears to me. I will never fully grasp who He is and what He has done. I am with King David on this one; “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” That is not the same as saying, I do not aspire to it or that I will not lend my heart to the possibility. Love may decide of His own accord to reveal Himself!
Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. (John 18:37)
I began to say that God executed His plan in spite of Judas’ betrayal and our abandonment. The mystery is actually greater than that. God’s grace utilized betrayal and abandonment to facilitate His plan. God’s heart is in the middle of this mystery. God’s heart is itself the mystery – a heart that accomplishes its objectives with man’s weakness and sin as His servants. Welcome to the Kingdom of God – a place where…
God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? (Romans 8:28-31)
Perhaps, a heart-level “Thank you” is in order.
Father, we do thank You. While we were helpless sinners – slaves to a host of lies, you rescued us. Thank You. In the midst of our filth you made us as clean and innocent as Jesus. Thank You. Even now, when we stumble, Your powerful right arm is there, ready to lift us up. Thank You. Even though our minds may fail in their calculation of Your glory, may our hearts pause and be filled with revelation. May our spirits concur in wonder and awe at the astonishing thing You have done, in Christ. Thank you!
by RobertCummins | May 9, 2016 | 19. The Resurrection
I am the disciple that Jesus loved. (from John 20:2)
This was John’s declaration of himself. This was how he thought of himself, and that reality shaped his identity. His head had rested only recently upon his Master’s chest. He was conditioned and entrenched in the reality of God’s personal affection for him. By most religious standards, John, in his simple childlike devotion, was outrageously presumptuous about His relationship with God. He had zero doubt regarding Jesus’ fondness for Him. He did not introspect about His fallen nature and the possible rejection by God it might portend.
John (who was certainly not without sin) had lived with Him for three years and Jesus had never once harped on his depravity. John’s soul processed everything through this filter of unqualified acceptance, and, consequently, he was spared the religious contortions of the soul that plague so many believers. He simply was not stalked, as many are, by guilt and shame.
The tremendously good news is that there is a safe place for us in Christ where we are immune from guilt and shame. In that space, which John pioneered, we can live joyously free in our identities, which are rooted and founded in Christ. Our new identities, freshly resurrected with Him, are eternally superior to our fallen identities that have been buried with Christ. Our lives, like John, can exhibit that we are those disciples whom Jesus loves. As we find our home in the broad, safe expanse of His love, we in turn will create safe space and shelter for those God has situated near us.
Father, may we lay hold of Your Life; may Your life lay hold of us. May Jesus be proclaimed from our lives and lips with a clarity yet to be heard in this earth—that we are the disciples whom You have loved. May our words and deeds make a clear declaration that You are risen from the grave and that You are exposing the lies of Satan, evicting him from his strongholds, reclaiming all that is rightly Yours and transforming Your Church. May every expression of our lives reflect that ours is a good and a sovereign God. Father, in our freshly acquired joy and freedom, receive the reward of Your sufferings. You are indeed astonishing. Amen.
