by RobertCummins | Jan 10, 2017 | 54. Direction
As Ezra read God’s law, the Jewish throng wept as one. The book of Moses was a painful reminder that, as a people, they had a history of hardening their hearts against God. What has changed? Were they any different than their parents who were taken from this city seventy odd years ago? Nehemiah did not seem comfortable with this purely emotional direction. He said, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
It was as though Nehemiah looked at their collective heart and thought, they are either going to be weak-in-mourning or strong-in-joy. As their governor, aware they had much rebuilding ahead, he promoted strength, and as we shall see, he had good cause.
For myself, grief and joy are not either/or propositions. They are co laborers in leading us into the fullness of God, so I grieve with these Jews, knowing that humans, including me, harden our hearts towards God. I grieve knowing that God’s discipline is not pleasant. While we have not been carried off as slaves to a conquering nation, I grieve that we are slaves nevertheless to a pantheon of masters to whom we have given our hearts.
God often gives us the desires of our heart until we choke on them. I believe my own nation is currently choking on her demands for personal liberty and happiness. I grieve because I do not see an Ezra standing above the crowd, calling us to repentance. Yet, for those with new hearts, grief does not have to metastasize into weakness. Because of Jesus, grief can be channeled into prayer and ultimately into joy. Grief can lead us into fullness of joy.
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:11)
In Christ, we have joy. In him, we recall that:
Ours is a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; and He did not forsake Israel, even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, ‘This is our God who brought us up from Egypt.’ God, in his great compassion, did not forsake them in their wilderness. (Nehemiah 9:17-19)
Can you imagine a day when an Ezra (or ten thousand Ezra’s) bless the Lord and all the people answer, “Amen!” some lifting their hands and others bowing low to worship the Lord with their faces to the ground? I don’t know the timing, but I can imagine this because I am sure that:
At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10)
For God is on record saying, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” (Isaiah 45:23)
We can have joy because Christ is our life. Nehemiah was right—ultimately joy and strength are our direction. We may pray that he comes but we must not wait on an Ezra, or any preacher or a new President. Paul has told us the path we are to take.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Father, may the Ezras arise and may their recital of your word break our hearts. More than that, I pray that our knees might bow and see the holiness of this moment, so pregnant with possibility. I pray that in our Christ-strengthened hearts we might see our idols and cast them down. Thank you that you do not forsake your own people even after we have chosen leaders who help us build and sustain our golden calves. May our tears flow freely until we have room for you as our Treasure. Faithful Father and Dearest Friend, for your name’s sake, let this be.
by RobertCummins | Jan 9, 2017 | 54. Direction
There are certain truths that bear repeating. Peter and Paul believed this wholeheartedly:
Because the stakes are so high, even though you’re up-to-date on all this truth and practice it inside and out, I’m not going to let up for a minute in calling you to attention before it. This is the post to which I’ve been assigned—keeping you alert with frequent reminders—and I’m sticking to it as long as I live. (II Peter 1:12 The Message)
To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. (Philippians 3:1)
New people must hear. Established ones must be reminded. All good pastors celebrate core truths. I listened to a message of this sort yesterday. While the material is in the School of Christ 1000-level classes, it remains alien to the core curriculum in many mainline evangelical churches. A great refresher course, in harmony with our passage, can be heard on YouTube. Look for: “Bill Johnson—The War in Your Head.”
Jesus is big on remembering as well. He returned to this one regularly: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” No doubt the Holy Spirit continued to remind the disciples of it and expand upon its meaning after Jesus ascended. When they recalled Jesus’ words: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends,” there is little doubt, a dying man on a cross came to mind. But who is that man hanging there! Would love hang them on a cross, too? As they processed this question, the Holy Spirit made his key point: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.” (Matthew 10:24)
Jesus absolutely had Israel on its heels. To religious leaders, he was practically an anti-Jehovah. It was obvious he was from God. His signs could have only come from heaven, but he defiled the traditions of the elders: he broke the Sabbath and he associated with unclean persons, even women!
Why? Why couldn’t Jesus simply comply—then die on the cross? Because he was showing them what God was actually like, and it was so unlike the God they had imagined. Everything until this time had been mere staging to reveal God as Father and Friend.
Religious Jews were choking on this. Running in their mind was a well-conditioned tape saying, “God is holy! God is an all-consuming fire! God is angry and ready to punish sin! God demands sacrifices of blood to cleanse men of wickedness.” God might have been Abraham’s friend, but the Pharisee’s wineskin had no place for a Father or a Friend. The leaders knew intuitively, a tribe of people thinking about God in these familiar terms was going to raise questions about their titles and roles (not to mention their neat robes.) What relevance would they have if God came down, looking man eye-to-eye, speaking to him openly and directly?
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)
Jesus knew his old wineskin audience was tough. They had invested much, if not all, in the traditions surrounding the old covenant. Jesus had to face off with the advocates of old revelation. Religious sects like the Sadducees, the Essenes and Pharisees had collected the crumbs, but this manna (as interpreted by them) had long since gone stale. While Jesus blessed little ones he spoke woes to those misrepresenting God:
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)
We are blessed people if we find the Holy Spirit has come, troubling us with notions which are out of sync with the traditional tape running in our minds, upsetting our complacent ideas about him. God is not a spoiler as we might propose. He is our Teacher, Father, and Friend. In this capacity, it is no trouble for him to remind us:
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:9-11)
Jesus must win The War in Our Head so that “His joy may be in us, and that our joy may be made full.”
Father, by your great mercy, erase every inferior and competing thought recorded on the tape running in our heads. Slay every lofty thought exalted above the actual knowledge of who you want to be to us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 8, 2017 | 53. Calling
Word from the Lord was rare in those days. (1 Samuel 3:1)
Is word from the Lord rare in ours? The devout would respond, “Absolutely not!” yet they would have different reasons for their confidence. One group would say ‘no’ because they have the Bible and it is the full and inerrant communication from God to man. Another group would say ‘no’ because they have apostles and prophets who share words from the Lord. One of the big reasons I named this blog In The Middle With Mystery is that I have good friends in both of these camps yet who will have little or nothing to do with each other. It is a mystery to me that co-heirs in Christ of God’s Kingdom, where unity is of preeminent value, view each other as heretics.
I don’t believe either group’s source of inspiration is as inerrant as they think and I certainly don’t have a monopoly on truth. I need my family on both sides of this divide. I really do. I recognize the invaluable contribution that scripture has made to the Church, to culture and to my own life. It has been profound. Yet powerful changes took place in the first three centuries of Christianity without the Bible. Some amazing transformation also occurred in me in three months, before I had ever opened the scriptures.
This offends part of my family and that grieves me but I must be honest. I have also heard the word of the Lord independent of scripture. It is blasphemous for my sola scriptura family to hear me say this but his Spirit is within me, and he is not silent. Learning to hear God’s voice (and making mistakes) is one big reason there is some fear and trembling left in the working out of my salvation. Did you hear that? I not only have salvation. I am working it out.
I (Jesus) do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:20-21)
What I see of the future comes by way of hearing God’s heart in scripture. I believe, in his sovereignty, while never violating an iota of our free will, he is going to have a Bride and she will not be the bipolar one that is still struggling with her identity on earth at this time. I don’t know if it will be because of a single, or many bursts of light, but something is going to give, and when it does, in some sense, I believe we shall be one in some recognizable way that will cause the world to see and to believe. When we pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” unity, among other things is what I anticipate as God’s answer.
One thing really stands out to me in our passage; that is, God can be speaking and we can fail to understand that he is speaking to us. How blessed we are if there is an Eli, whose lamp is still alit, who can help us to process what we are hearing. This is a primary reason why we were commanded to not forsake our interaction with each other. Our relationships are not optional. They are vital and we must understand this, because in reality, we are spiritually conjoined in Christ.
So, what is our application? To begin, I would suggest that it is to find the community of saints God has called us to be a part of. This could be those who gather in the established institution with its bricks and mortar or it could be among a more nomadic tribe who has been called to function together without the overhead and tradition. Either way, my point is that we must present ourselves to God and to each other with the same attitude Samuel acquired;
Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening. (1 Samuel 3:9)
Most authentic believers carry within them a that-the-world-might-know ambition. Since they have been saved from terminal spiritual cancer they are left with the same hope and aspiration for others. How could this be otherwise? And since unity was so prominent in his final request to his Father, and since unity is also sited as a remedy to the world’s unbelief, then this same motivation must become an operational part of our hearts. Since Christ lives in us, nothing could be more natural than our gathering, anticipating that, by way of our unity, others might come to see and to attain eternal life in Christ.
Christians are odd balls to say the least. The scriptures refer to us as aliens and strangers. Coupling this with our understanding that all things are possible with God should equip us to think outside the box (or wineskin, as the case may be). Our world has zero hope outside of Jesus and he is currently being represented by 42, 000 denominations at last count. I am willing to be so bold as to imagine that God might indeed do something new in response to his own prayers and ours that would draw attention, of the most positive type, to his Bride. Perhaps our story, as the Church, will conclude as did our passage;
“Behold, I am about to do a thing at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.” (1 Samuel 3:11)
Father, awaken your Bride to her ultimate calling – to glow radiantly in the midst of darkness, to such a degree that the hopeless, the captives and the downtrodden look upon her and find Life. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 7, 2017 | 53. Calling
Everyone has their heroes – people whose experience inspires us to think in new and hopeful ways. Paul (or Saul, at this point) is one of those guys for me. He is a living demonstration of repentance – one who was traveling with purpose and passion in one direction and then, after a divine ambush, began traveling in the exact opposite direction. In a matter of weeks, he went from breathing threats and murder to speaking out boldly and arguing in Jesus’ behalf!
His life also highlights God’s sovereignty. It is pretty clear that Saul was elected and was the blessed victim of irresistible grace. The gospel Paul heard was a snap of light that knocked him off his horse. Ringing in his spirit as he lay upon the ground was the question, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He might have thought “that” is a very good question but instead he asked, “Who are You, Lord?”I would love to know the involuntary convulsion of Paul’s heart when he heard his answer, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Saul was stunned but no more so than was Ananias – God’s special currier, who actually protested his assignment. Given Zacharias’ (John the Baptist’s dad’s) experience, Ananias may be lucky he even had a voice. (Perhaps Jesus is more patient than Gabriel?) But Jesus prevailed, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Chosen? To suffer? The linkage of these two ideas (except in regard to dead apostles) is alien to most of us in modern evangelical Christianity. In fact, even though it is false, there is a great deal of doctrine that wars against this pairing. The root lie goes something like this; “After all, we are the head – not the tail. We are sons, not slaves.” (These are beautiful truths but only if viewed within the whole council of scripture.) Most of us see Paul as one set apart and above the type of lives the rest of us are called to live. While I recognize Paul’s unique calling as an apostle, I also recognize God’s unique way of raising his children.
Although He was a Son, He (Jesus) learned obedience from the things which He suffered.(Hebrews 5:8)
I don’t believe Jesus and Paul were exceptions. The New Testament does not teach this; why should we believe it?
“As He (the Son of God) is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)
“A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40)
“Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me (Paul).” (1 Corinthians 4:16)
Jesus influenced Paul. Paul influenced Timothy. Timothy, in turn, was faithful to influence those God entrusted to him. Who influenced us? The circle is not unbroken. Has evangelical teaching even attempted to draw from the way God parented his original disciples? The apostle’s current relevance seems to have far more to do with the doctrines they advanced than with the lives they lived. I believe this is a tragedy.
While I am no fan of suffering, of trials, of tribulations or testings, they are part and parcel of life in Christ. (At least this was true in the scriptures.) In God’s economy nothing has to be wasted. However, I believe that treating the New Testament as a mere historical account of the early church is a recipe for bad stewardship. Relating to the second generation (Jesus was the first) of a new race of men as if it were something childish that must be put away is the ultimate expression of burying one’s talents.
What would be involved in digging up our treasure? Of seeing the glory of God resting upon his Bride – the Church? Shall we wait for God to knock us off our horses? Or, having the New Testament as living words, could we simply dismount of our own accord and repent of any notion that would discount the present value of the apostle’s lives?
Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set. (Proverbs 22:28)
Father, we have always had a propensity to misunderstand your heart. In this hour, take whatever measures you must to insure that we are on the narrow (yet secure) path of life in your Son. May your Church be built up once more and go on in the rightful kind of fear and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. As we revisit your role as Father and Lord, may we reframe our understanding of suffering and bear your name with the same honor as did your first disciples. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 6, 2017 | 53. Calling
Let’s look in on a social gathering, taking place two thousand years ago, in the spacious home of Levi the tax collector. He is just now welcoming his guests…
“Good evening everyone. Most of you know me as Levi. I am the popular Jew who collects taxes for the nation of Rome.” The humor was not wasted on his fellow publicans. “This is my home and you have been invited here to meet Jesus—the man who has become the big story in our nation. He and Zaccheus will be arriving shortly. Before they do, I want to tell you how I met him or, shall I say, how he ‘called’ me. I’m not really sure which happened first but I would like to tell you my story.”
Levi proceeds, “It was just a few week ago, I was tending my booth when Jesus approached. I was stunned. What would the Teacher have to do with me? Had he come to make things right with the Emperor?” The crowd laughed. Levi was putting his guests at ease with hard-bitten publican sarcasm. “You know, in our line of work, we can get to the point pretty quick, but I’m telling you, we don’t hold a candle to Jesus. We were barely in voice range, when he simply said, ‘Follow me Matthew.’”
The evening’s host continued, “I was on my heels—Matthew? How could he have known my childhood name? That is what my father called me. There are so many things about Jesus that mystify me. Did you know Matthew means ‘gift of the Lord?’ Jesus tells me Matthew suits me better than Levi, which means—not surprisingly, ‘to take.’ Going for the laugh, another taxman said, “Can Jesus give us all new names?” The crowd roared at this joke, but Matthew just smiled. As his guests warmed in the humor, he was recalling that Jesus had just told him he was to become a fisher of men. He was making his first casts.
Matthew let the good will flow among his guests for another minute or so then ask if he might continue. It was no problem. They wanted to know what he meant when he said Jesus had called him. Matthew continued;
“For whatever reason, it was quite easy to walk away from the booth that day. It was another thing altogether to process what it meant to follow him. What about my vocation? What would Pilate say? What about my home? My family?”
As his guests pick up on the dilemma of following Jesus, Matthew continues, “It turns out my apprentice will handle the business just fine. Pilate doesn’t care who runs the booth. As to my family—you can see I am still blessed to have one.” The crowd murmured their recognition. “And, you can also see that I still have a house. My wife, keenly aware of Jesus’ leave-everything-behind teaching, has informed me how handy she personally thinks walls and roofs are in raising our family. And I notice…this house is serving us quite well this evening.
“We know the Teacher told a rich landowner that, for him, to follow, it would require that he sell everything. Did this apply to all Jesus’ followers? This question is the elephant in the room, isn’t it? Friends, in the past weeks I have listened to Jesus teach numerous times regarding wealth and possessions. He sees them as snares capable of trapping a man. Jesus is walking me through this right now.”
Matthew’s passion builds. “I and the other eleven have given him permission to say whatever he wants to us. Truly, anything less would be insanity. He has wisdom and authority like you can’t imagine. I enjoy a free flowing dialogue with Jesus, and he has said nothing to me, as yet, regarding liquidating my assets. However, what has changed since meeting the Teacher is title.”
In the presence of a great deal of wealth, Matthew offers priceless advise: “I can see from his teaching and his leading that he is calling all men, not just twelve, to follow him. It is clear to me this means the relinquishing of our rights to all that we are and all that we own so that they do not own us. Jesus is laser focused on our hearts. He is inviting men to cede their personal and property rights to the kingdom of God. My sense, and I was not born yesterday, is that this is the best bargain, and the only sane response a soul can make to Jesus.
Matthew addresses those gathered with as much sincerity as he possess: “I don’t know what the future disposition of my holdings will be. Jesus is not big on telling us what is ahead. I do know that I trust him. It is nearly impossible not to. As he looks me in the eye, I know he is gazing at my heart. And perhaps the greatest mystery is this; as defiled as I know I am, he does not retreat like other so-called religious leaders. To me, this makes Jesus a shepherd in the truest sense of the word. He is what my heart has been waiting for.
“Jesus will be here in a few minutes. Allow me to wrap this up. What does relinquishment look like? I have concluded this leave-all feature of following him will be literally applicable for some but legally applicable for all. Our hearts must be ceded to him and thus begins a process. I have already found my heart trying to back peddle. My career? Really? Yet, as I entrust this potential worry to him, I find an inner freedom I had not known existed. In responding to his call, I have inherited a windfall of life. As to these goods we so highly value—it is not foolish to relinquish our rights to things we cannot keep in order to gain that which we cannot loose. This, my friends, is the kingdom of God, and you will soon be hearing more about it. Excuse me while I welcome Jesus into my house.”
Father, it is you with whom we have to do, and this is not burdensome. May your kingdom government have increasing rule within us. We welcome you into our hearts – your home. Amen.
