Chosen by God (Thursday)—John 15:9-17

by RobertCummins | Apr 7, 2016 | 14. Chosen By God

I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father. You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. But remember the root command: Love one another. John 15:9-17 MSG

It might seem like Jesus is saying, “My Father has built this house for me and I want you to come in and make yourselves at home in it. But…you can only stay here as my friend if you keep all my rules. I’ve told you this so that you can be as joyful as I am.”

I don’t know about you, but the “if” in this verse would make it impossible for me to ever “make myself at home.” And as for joy, it would be out of reach because I would never know whether or not I had sufficiently obeyed the owner’s commands. This interpretation would force me to think of myself as a tenant who must work hard on obedience to remain in good graces with the landlord.  I don’t believe we can work in this sense and be at home in God’s love; therefore, I do not believe this is how Jesus intended us to interpret this passage. I’ve tried to live in the house on these terms, and I am certain I misunderstood the agreement.

If I think that my stay is dependent on my performance I have not really listened to what God is truly saying. First of all, I am in God’s love because it was there in that house that I was conceived and born. It is critical that I am living in the house on the merits of having been chosen, not on the shaky ground that I may or may not qualify through my obedience.

I certainly cannot love others unconditionally (as I am commanded) if I’m living conditionally. If I’m to obey by loving others, I cannot begin as a tenant. I must make myself at home in his love as a permanent guest—all housing costs paid by Another. Presuming upon his love for me, and His choice of me, is the essence of abiding. I cannot address the “ifs” in our passage in any head-on way. If I attempt this through my labors (which I have), abiding is immediately undermined and I am back to living an insecure tenant’s life and preaching (with my life) a false gospel deficient in grace.

We must abide in the reality of the 1 John 4:19-root of the command: Love one another. We love, because He first loved us. In other words, we can only fulfill the “ifs” if we are comfortably settled in the house, which is, by the way, large. Paul knew this and prayed that we would:

 Be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-18 MSG

Father, help us to vacate any substitute dwellings that have discounted the dimensions of your love. Help us to leave behind all the conditional contracts of performance discipleship. Help us to come to terms with the indestructible nature of your covenant with us. As your friends, let us go out afresh with Your joy, secure in Your love, living out the new Life within us. Through our love and our fruit, shake this world from its alignment with darkness. Amen.

Chosen By God (Wednesday) – Ephesians 1:3-14

by RobertCummins | Apr 6, 2016 | 14. Chosen By God

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 would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:3-14 NAS

Do we feel holy and blameless? Do we feel like God’s possession? Do we feel redeemed? Chosen? Do we feel like stewards of the mysteries of God? For most of us the mystery is; if these things are all true, why don’t we feel them?

Feelings are an essential part of being human. However, unless they are understood for what they are, they can be and often are detriments to living by faith. There are a couple of things we need to understand about feelings. First; they do not represent reality. Second; we cannot control them. They simply are. What we must do is to learn to respond to them appropriately and not  be ruled by them. Joan Jacobs explains this beautifully in her book: Feelings – Where They Come From and How To Handle Them.

We cannot control feelings but we can control what we think and what we think about. Our passage today is laden with thought-treasures we should bury in our own hearts. If we do, over time, even our feelings will be effected. The Holy Spirit communicates with us in sudden downloads but He also uses His words in the process of living our lives. This is where communion really takes place. Walking in the Spirit is, in large part, learning, in the flow of life, how to distinguish between truth and feelings, then choosing accordingly. This is how we learn to hear God’s voice.

In my battle with chronic back pain, holy and blameless are typically not the first words that come to mind as people inquire as to my well being. In my walk with Christ, pain is the odd servant that reminds me I am always presented with an opportunity and a decision. I can wallow in my discomfort, rehearsing every negative feeling or I can dwell upon the thought–treasures I store in my heart. In this way I can rehearse the reality of my spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Dead reckoning is a navigational process where one calculates their current position by using previously determined ones known as fixes, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over an elapsed time. It is a crude process that is subject to cumulative error. I think many of us navigate using a similar process that unfortunately leads us into cumulative death instead of cumulative truth and abundant life. We project where we are going by our feelings, not by the unseen and eternal realities God wants to become our fixes. 

In our passage Paul gives us an essential navigational fix; It is our orientation to Jesus Christ. We are in Him. This fix is the single greatest remedy for accumulated spiritual error that I know of. Paul used this phrase ten times in twelve verses. I suspect he learned it in the same way that we will – in the process of living with Christ in us as Lord of our hearts. No doubt Paul once felt strongly about his impecable reputation as a Pharisee or his pedigree as a Benjamite, yet he ultimately reckoned these things to be as dung to him as he discovered the eternal reality of Christ in him. If we listen to Paul’s praises, we see that being in Christ and having Christ in him touched his thinking, and ultimately his feelings in a powerful way.

I believe Paul pioneered Live reckoning, the means of heart navigation we must use in the process of living in Christ. Paul has fixed his mind upon things that are pure, true, lovely and worthy of praise. Have we?  If we will choose to, we can accept Christ’s invitation to follow Him by reckoning that our old life is dead, remembering it was buried in Christ, and calculating our current position by using the same fixes used by Paul and advancing our position accordingly. While it too may seem like a crude process it is subject to cumulative accuracy and abundant Life.

Father, thank you that you are our inheritance. Help us to honor you by resting in the reality that we are in you and that you are in us, that you are ours and that we are your inheritance. Thank you that in Christ you have sealed us with your Holy Spirit and that we are holy and blameless in your sight, regardless of how we feel about it. Thank you that you have chosen us before time and blessed us now with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ. Thank you that in your kindness you predestined us to know the glorious mystery of your will. Thank you that as time is becoming more full, you are increasingly summing up all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth, which includes us. So be it Lord.

Chosen by God (Tuesday)—Matthew 22:1-14

by RobertCummins | Apr 5, 2016 | 14. Chosen By God

Chosen by God (Tuesday)—Matthew 22:1-14

 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come.  Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’  But they were indifferent and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.  The rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them. The king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but the ones who had been invited were not worthy.  So go into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’  And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the wedding guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But he had nothing to say.  Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’  For many are called, but few are chosen.”

              Over the centuries, time after time, God’s invitations to the Hebrew nation were rebuffed. They disregarded his covenant and even killed His prophetic spokesmen. Jesus knows these hardened Pharisees he is speaking to are preparing to do exactly as their ancestors had. I believe Jesus is speaking prophetically in this parable when he says, “The king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death and set their city on fire.” In 70 AD, the Romans served God in this capacity as they razed Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.

While this parable seems crafted for the ultra-hardened hearts, I think it contains nourishment for all of us.  My takeaway is that the Father has indeed prepared a lavish banquet, right now, in the presence of the enemy. The question is: “Are we responding to God’s invitations? Do we even recognize what they look like?”

In a world where God is ever-present, always loving and all-knowing the question may be, “Is there really any place that he is not present, invitation in hand?” In the spiritual sense the main course of our banquet is Jesus, the Bread of Life. He is the giver and sustainer of Life abundant. In Christ we have everything.  No other courses are necessary. In every way in all circumstances he is our sufficiency. Resting and trusting in this reality is to take up fork and knife and partake.

The prophets were mistreated and abused as they carried the invitations to come and be reconciled to God.  Jesus, the King’s own Son was treated the same as he came and gave first right of refusal of the kingdom to his own people. We will be wise to observe that the kingdom of God has been and always will be a threat to the spirit of religion. Grace and performance-religion are irreconcilable. Nothing is more repulsive to a religious spirit than to find that their works have not been credited to them as righteousness. In contrast, nothing is more basic to the kingdom than the rule that only faith will ever be credited as righteousness. The hungry partake of Christ by grace; He becomes their life and is therefore ever-present, all-knowing and all-loving in the midst of their lives, whatever their circumstances.

Father, as those with Christ in us, may we discover the feast available to us continually. May this reality from within animate us afresh, giving the kingdom expression in the midst of our circumstances whatever they may be. Amen.

The lyrics to Bob Bennett’s song, “A Moveable Feast,” are relevant.

Staking out holy territory

Laying claim to the realms of glory

Thinking it’ll always be the same old story

But now a voice is crying out

Over murmuring and resignation

To the soul of a suffering nation

Centuries of thinking that it’s all location

Now there seems to be some doubt

Its not just where you go

It’s more of who you know

The Good News of God is now released

No more to live alone

In temples of flesh and bone

The kingdom of God is a movable feast

You who have hidden in your houses

For fear, for sorrow, for anger, for sin

As best as you’re able, rise from your table

Open the door and let Love in

Commandments handed down in stone to start

Were always to be written on the human heart

For the Word and the Spirit are never apart

From what the Father has in Mind

And so we live between a blessing and a curse

Look to a future we can only rehearse

Drawing treasure maps, chapter and verse

Until we slowly come to find …

Its not just where you go

It’s more of Who you know

The Good News of God is now released

No more to live alone

In temples of flesh and bone

The kingdom of God is a movable feast

Chosen by God (Monday)—Matthew 20-1-16

by RobertCummins | Apr 4, 2016 | 14. Chosen By God

In this passage, The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Jesus reveals something mysterious and magnificent about the heart of God. Peter had just asked Jesus one of those what’s-in-it-for-us questions. One of Peter’s great attributes was that he often said what everybody else was thinking but was afraid to ask. This trait is of great worth since the right question can set the stage for Jesus to address things we are all likely dealing with. I think Peter is great; I visited Rome in 2013—you should see how great they think he is. I wonder if Peter blushes when he looks down on the basilica built in his name.

I never cease to be awed by Jesus. He is the genesis of all knowledge. Every brilliant idea we’ve ever had was because Jesus, the Word of God, spoke that truth into the DNA of creation and, at the right moment, permitted us to discover it. Yet, in our passage, this timeless Person is bridging eternity and time with stories about farmers and laborers. From His store of knowledge He could have revealed something like germ theory and spared mankind the tragedy of infections and amputations. But He didn’t. No doubt, there is someone out there upset with God about this. Why would a good God conceal knowledge beneficial to man?

People are upset in this story as well. They were grousing because of what they considered to be the upside down judgment of the owner of the vineyard. He paid a denarius to people who had only put in one hour compared to their 12. To them, this was unjust, but Jesus is trying to tell us that their judgment—human judgment—is upside down. While we are told that the fear (I prefer awe and wonder) of God is the beginning of wisdom, an awareness that our judgment can be upside down is a good starting point for the kind of wisdom that lives in humility and dependency on God’s words. Wisdom begins by acknowledging the sizable chasm between His ways and ours.

My Dad, the late Robert L. (Bob) Cummins was an awesome man. He was the real deal, and I could go on and on about his exploits. But my dad, in the context of this story, would have been the source of great offense to those who had put in their 12 hours, bearing burdens in the scorching heat. In the context of this story, my dad may not have even put in a quarter of an hour. This is my dad’s encounter with the Man who owns the vineyard. In 2002, he was losing a battle with bladder cancer. He’d fought valiantly for several months, but while taking alternative cancer treatments, he suffered a downturn. From Florida, he was flown back to our hometown and admitted into the hospital. He was lucid and able to communicate, but his physical strength was nearly gone.

After one of my visits, I was exiting an elevator and ran into the pastor of a local church. In our exchange, he discovered that my dad was terminal and that he in all probability did not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The pastor shifted gears, and the next thing I knew, we were back upstairs where he asked my Mom if he could speak to my dad. Because organized Christianity in two of the city’s most prominent churches had hurt my parents, my mom hadn’t called the clergy. Men of the cloth, including a fanatical and unfaithful grandfather, had been a profound disappointment to her. Yet, a bit to my surprise, she graciously consented to the pastor’s request.

The pastor spent a good 45 minutes with dad, one-on-one, and came out of the room to give us an update. He explained that dad had struggled to understand God’s grace and the free gift of salvation (one denarius in our story). My dad just couldn’t quite grasp the idea that salvation was a free gift. How could it be? Dad protested that he had lived most all his days outside of the organized church and had given little thought to it—or to God, for that matter. The pastor asked if he could read this passage. My dad was quite open and I think I know why (at least in part). This preacher was known to hang out with sinners. Dad’s line of reasoning was likely that any pastor who would hobnob, as this man had, with the rabble at the golf course, like my father himself, must have at least some decency in him.

Just prior to telling this story, Jesus had said, (to all the Bob Cummins of the world):

                                But many who are first will be last; and the last first.

Dad believed that he was the least qualified and the last person God would consider for eternity because, plain and simple, he hadn’t earned it. But Jesus, the only mediator between God and man, was the one making payroll on that day. The grace of God was permitting something of the right side up heart of God to connect with the upside down heart of my father. My dad got it! The pastor came back out and reported that my dad had lost his wage dispute but had gained eternal life through his acceptance of Jesus as God’s Son. Jesus had become my dad’s personal Savior.

This passage reveals the counterintuitive nature of God’s heart—something that keeps me in awe of Him. Even though bed ridden, dad went out into the vineyard for a few days before he left his earthly body behind. Although he was about done, I saw the new light in his eyes. I heard my dad, with clarity, voluntarily profess Jesus Christ as his Savior. His last gift to our family was holding hands with my sister, myself, and my Mom and leading us in a surprisingly eloquent prayer. Utterly amazing!

My father, and I believe my mother, await my sister and I in heaven. A God such as this is not the byproduct of wishful thinking. He is the God of revelation. Because of His radically contrary nature, He had to come down and reveal Himself in simple stories to convey his heart. He had to become a human so that he could fulfill the role of a sacrificial lamb. Jesus, who was tempted in every way that we have been, yet lived blamelessly, absorbed the wrath of God in our stead, making it possible for Him to be generous, giving away His life to all who will believe and trust in Him. Really, it’s quite astonishing how good He is!

Father, may the stories of Your goodness, Your power, Your kindness, Your patience, Your wisdom, flood this earth. May the Word be made flesh in our lives for the glory of Your name. May You succeed gloriously as Mediator. May You succeed wildly in conveying your right side up heart to Your upside down children. Oh Lord, You are so, so good!