by RobertCummins | Feb 29, 2016 | 09. God's Voice
Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!” But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it. The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” John 3:13-14 MSG
I find it surprising that God Almighty, in his power and might, does not look down upon men and assert his authority to accomplish righteousness. In the way he engages us he appears more like a brother than a monarch. Jesus wants John to baptize him. John thinks this is a bad idea and Jesus gives him the space to say so! That God would position himself eye to eye with us in such a way that we could oppose him takes me by surprise.
God suffered with Israel throughout the centuries, endeavoring to establish righteousness in the earth through them, so I am also surprised by God’s continuing patience. He doesn’t twist John’s arm. He just explains that you need to do this my way so that you can do your part in ultimately putting all things right.
John the Baptist and his fellow Jews knew that God had once destroyed the earth with water due to unrighteousness. They knew that he had instructed their forefathers to utterly destroy unrighteous people groups. They knew he caused the earth to open up and swallow rebellious factions of their own people. If God was going to send His Spirit as his agent to earth in the form of an animal, what species do you think these Jews would anticipate, and what would they anticipate hearing from that creature’s voice? Given their backdrop, I would guess these weary religious people might anticipate the animal to be a Lion prepared to voice his strong displeasure with a loud and terrifying roar. At Christ’s baptism we are surprised as the Spirit comes as a dove, a gentle messenger of peace. This was consistent with the angelic visitation in Luke 2:
Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people…This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel…saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. Luke 2″10-14 NAS
While it seemed to be setting the stage for a God with centuries of pent up wrath, the Old Testament does nothing of the sort. Instead it delivers a God who comes to us as a servant, inviting us into his kingdom. This surprise was so great the chosen of God totally missed it.
Since I was once one of them, I believe there are many of us Christians who also see God as worn slick with our unrighteousness. We anticipate (some eagerly I think) God’s judgment. I wonder (because of my own experience) how much of this orientation toward judgment comes from hearts that are strangers (as mine was) to any affectionate in God’s voice.
This blog is frequently the story of how I have come to hear God’s voice differently. As a zealous disciple who, even on his best day, secretly felt that he was a disappointment to God, I was plagued with an image of myself that simply was incompatible with the one God had of me. After a challenging season where I was forced to take a deeper look into my heart, I experienced a fairly radical transformation at the heart level. One of the great upsides has been a surprising sense of God’s pleasure—his pleasure in me—and a renewed capacity to hear his approving voice.
It may seem very arrogant for some to hear me say this, but I am very sure that God feels about me the same way he does about Jesus. If he were introducing me, I feel certain I know what he would say, “This is my son Rob, chosen and marked by my love, a true delight to me.”
I can testify that living life wrapped up in his pleasure has truly been good news and a great joy to my soul. I now see that thing which I had called the fear of God, which drove me to work out my salvation in the wrong kind of fear and trembling, only produced dead religious works which were not the kind of sacrifice he was looking for.
From scripture and experience I have come to expect the Holy Spirit in ways that I would not expect. I am grateful that I am not rejected when, like John, I may initially protest because the tone or content of his voice is contrary to my understanding and expectations. He simply perseveres, never leaving nor forsaking me. To my surprise, he is greater than my ignorance and even my obstinance.
Father, continue to be your surprising self among your people. Take us off guard with your love and patience. Shock us with your initiatives. Succeed wildly in your end runs around our puny ideas. Overtake our earthly perspectives with your eternal wisdom and vindicate your truth now and forevermore. Allow the skies to open up above us and permit us to see you, not as we have perceived you, but as you actually are. Put things right by way of your love. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 28, 2016 | 08. Seek
God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:1-8 NAS
We are asking you King David, “Are our lives with God to resemble a war or a romance? If this really is a war, are we to wait for the rapture so we can be taken up, equipped in heaven to return one day, armed with our long awaited new bodies? Or, in Christ, do we have all we need in this life to defeat the enemy? And, David, if you know, could you tell us whether the kingdom is more of a sole proprietorship in which God reigns supreme in spite of us; or, is it more like a partnership in which its success involves our participation?”
In our western culture with its fixation on black and white, we have little tolerance for things in the grey zones of uncertainty, those arenas of mystery that do not bow the knee nor yield simple answers to reason alone. No, we want those facts that will get us promoted, elected or produce things more efficiently. Our titles and accomplishments are the undisputed measures of worth in our culture. But what about God’s kingdom? Where do these values fit in with that culture?
Locked inside this western wineskin, we dare not as Christians acknowledge how little we really know. Can you imagine what it would do to Christianity as we know it if we were to abandon our certainties regarding the black and the white, those things we believe we know beyond a doubt about God? In light of our lean experience with this Being of limitless dimension, perhaps we should exchange our certainty and bold assertions for simple questions. How much of what we know, for instance, consists of our opinions, which have evolved into convictions and rigid creeds, incompatible with the richer, more mysterious wine that God aspires to serve?
Just for the record, the mystery I am referring to all happens within these bounds…
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
This being said, do we really know enough about God’s ways to divide our selves into Calvinist and Armenian camps? I know people who will die on these fields of battle. There are cessationists mentally locked into battle with continuationists. Are we really that certain about these things? Before a rightfully skeptical world we stand divided–a city set upon a hill for sure, but casting a strange and not so convincing light upon our surroundings. We are a highly visible spectacle, but of the wrong sort. Instead of the unity God desires, we portray division. In this condition we are not conveying an accurate picture of God and His love. While we are at odds with each other, we don’t appear to be anything more than another dysfunctional earthly community. From the world that Jesus is reaching out to, we don’t hear an “amen.” We here, if we are listening a, “No way.” (There are currently 33,000 denominations.)
What can we learn from David then, whose heart seems to so often be schizophrenic and undecided? A great deal, I believe. We can hear David’s ‘yes’ to our questions: ‘Yes’, life with God is a trek through the desert where hunger and thirst feel as though they will overcome us. And, ‘Yes’, life with God is like a joyous dance in fields ripe for harvest. ‘Yes’, life with God is a ferocious, high-stakes battle. And, ‘Yes’, it is a partnership and, ‘Yes’, while it is making no earthly sense to us now, God is the proprietor who is solely and absolutely in control. And, ‘Yes’ his children are mission critical. The sum of these yes’s = mystery, at least to me.
What I learn from David, the man after God’s own heart, is that God’s ways are exceedingly higher than mine—that God, in Christ, has set out a banquet for the hungry, right in the very presence of their enemies. Christ’s Spirit is the Living Water and Jesus is the Bread of Life. This is true whether we perceive our circumstance as a drought, a flood, a dance or a duel.
I believe the value of mystery (appreciation of the vast arena of uncertainty) is something David passed down to his son. Solomon, in his wisdom, tells us how we should posture our hearts in the presence of so much glorious unknown:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS
God becomes our God in the same way he became David’s. He becomes ours as we learn to trust him in the midst of the mystery of life. It may feel like a battle or a desert when God knocks the props out from under us. If we are dependent on our understanding, He knows it will ultimately be very costly to us. God becomes ours in the midst of our deserts when we, as partners, place our trust in that which we cannot see or understand.
God becomes ours when we ascend to places with panoramic views where we can look back with thanksgiving on his faithfulness in our driest and hungriest moments. Those who persevere with God, taste of something from another world. They learn, experientially that nothing in this world slakes their thirst or satisfies their hunger other than God alone. In the desert God becomes our Living Water, and on the mountain we see and give thanks. Both the battles and the feasts are natural and critical.
Thanks you, King David, for your transparency. Thank you for modeling gut level emotional and intellectual honesty. Thank you for showing us how your God becomes our God.
God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.
Father, whatever it takes, knock the props out from underneath us so that when we stand before you, it will be Christ alone in whom we have trusted and not someone else’s god or their convictions. May we stand before you, not as strangers on that day who followed other’s journeys, but as those who came to know you personally in the journey we travelled together through all the varied terrain of your kingdom. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 26, 2016 | Eulogies
A tribute to “Brother” Dale Hicks:
For 20 years I was part of a small group of believers in Enid, Oklahoma 73702 (In case God is looking for us.) That was a stab at humor. God knows the actual zip code is “03.” Dale had a sense of humor.
This was a charismatic oriented assembly. It was birthed and, at that time, travelled under this prophetic word;
“The light of Jesus will shine unhindered over our city.”
While we were waiting for that coming day, I would sometimes get a glimpse of it (i.e. – the light of Jesus). It was Dale Hicks. A gentler spirit I have never known. He was shy and gracious. He was quiet, unless of course you broached the subject of the outdoors. Dale loved the outdoors and all the guy things that can happen out there.
As I would find my way to my seat, I would often make time to connect, if just for a moment, with Dale. And he did shine! As I would await a, “Hello Rob” I would, without fail, hear instead, “Hello brother.” I’m sure he knew my name but Dale was a creature of habit and I was “Brother” to him. That was OK. To Dale, this was not just religious-speak – Dale knew we were related. I loved this guy. He would always bring to mind a quote (the jest of which), I carry like a pearl, in my heart.
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” C.S. Lewis
Dale was one of the everlasting types. He would always follow up his greeting with a conspiratorial wink, and ask; “Kill anything lately brother?” Then we would squeeze our little guy stories into the remaining 2 minutes and 30 seconds before I had to strap on my guitar and do my thing.
I also like the balance of Lewis’ quote.
“(Because there are no mere mortals) this does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and is in fact, the merriest kind) which exist between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
This was precisely the type of light that Dale cast. No. Dale Hicks was no ordinary person. He was created in God’s image. He was a member of God’s family. He was indeed my brother and, eye-to-eye, he shown brightly. He is now breathing freely and deeply in the Presence of the one for Whom he was created. Well done my good and faithful brother.
May Ruth Ann and the rest of the Hick’s family be blessed in Dale’s life and graduation.
by RobertCummins | Feb 26, 2016 | 08. Seek
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
While men, in pride, think they are riding along the main highway, without God’s Spirit, they are in reality on the low way, traveling without a map along a very dangerous path. However when man responds in humility, acknowledging his low ways, and turns to God, he meets God’s abundant readiness to pardon and to set him upon a higher path. On this path, navigation occurs by faith in God instead of by man’s own wits.
Do you know that we can live the Christian life by our own wits and in our own strength? I should be more accurate. Do you know that we can try to live the Christian life by our own wits and in our own strength? I am awaiting a prophetic voice to issue forth, “My children, how’s that working for you?” Thus asketh the Lord.
Much of what I write about is my answer to the question, “My son, how did that work out for you?” Today however, I need to provide a backdrop.
A principle that was built into the gospel which I responded to in 1976 was that of ownership: if God paid the high price of His Son for me, it followed that I was no longer my own. Yes, God was mine, but, more importantly, I was His. To say the least this had implications on my thoughts and ways. The mental math seemed straightforward. If I could be totally clueless for 23 years about the risen Christ and his loving designs for me, then cluelessness is a part of my make-up. In other words low-way living was my bent. Clueless depravity was my deepest nature. Honestly, that scared me. In response, I vowed that I would work hard so that I could retain my “His” status. In retrospect this was the off–ramp from the main highway onto a number of low ways.
I prayerfully calculated (in a bit of a lather), “Lord, this new life is the sweetest deal I’ve ever known. I cannot bear the thought of loosing my grip on you.” You see, God had revealed to me privately with crystal clarity (in a way that explains why I am not a cessationist), “You will fall many times, but I will always be there, ready to lift you out of whatever trouble you are caught up in.” This was tremendously good news to a lifelong stumbler, who had just stumbled again—who, in his well-established low-ways, did not yet know his heavenly Father’s readiness to abundantly pardon and rescue. (Following the prayer today I have an additional note related to this same word of promise—which explains why I am not a Baptist either—or a member of any other franchise, for that matter.)
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
sortie—(noun) the sudden issuing of a body of troops, usually small, to attack or harass the besiegers; a sally. Also: an offensive air force mission.
My salvation experience was a clear demonstration of God’s willingness to launch a sortie, to send out his word and knock a sinner right of his horse, blinding (at least dazzling) him with light. It seemed obvious to me from that encounter that God reserves the right to preemptive offensive strikes, our hearts being his targets. Being the target of a God-sortie displaced any assumptions I might have had about the randomness of life; it only made sense to go ahead and give God my advance permission for these sorties as He saw fit. Thus, the prayer of my life to the God, with whom I have to do, became:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way. Psalm 139: 23 & 24
Psalm 139 is one of God’s cruise missiles aimed directly at the well-established lie (a stronghold) that life is an arbitrary, random affair. It obliterated my defenses at 23. I surrendered, as best I knew how, to a way so high that David said it was intellectually unattainable. In other words–God’s thoughts and ways are mysteries, which are not hidden from us; they are rather hidden for us. And yet, they are reserved for revelation in the appropriate moment.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Psalm 139:6 NAS
I have come to believe that the hope within us is nothing more than a byproduct of God’s sorties. Much of my life story consists of the bombing runs God has made on my own heart where I had been held captive by cruel religion-tainted lies. His most recent heart attack produced surprising and welcomed results—not the least of which has been joy, precious, eternal and indestructible joy.
It is important that I identify the specific lie God was attacking. The stronghold was this, the Christian life can be accomplished through hard work and discipline. In my low-way of religious thinking, I was deceived in believing that I could perform well enough to insure and sustain my status as “His.” This is a monstrous satanic lie that can thrive like thistle in a religious atmosphere.
For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,
And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,
And it will be a memorial to the Lord,
For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off. Isaiah 55:12-13 NAS
This joy has become a strength so pronounced in the past few years that it has even changed the reception the world gives me each day. After having the religion in my heart carpet-bombed for several years, God sent some words into my heart that I believe are even now returning to him. They’ve accomplished (and are accomplishing) the kingdom objectives for which they were sent. I believe that when God sees my smile and the joy in my heart, He looked to his mission team and said, “Our mission objectives are being accomplished. My kingdom is growing as planned. Nice sortie!”
Father, deliver us from our low-ways. Renew our minds such that we understand clearly and fully that with no assistance from us, you are ours and we are yours. Help us to see what sorties you have launched on our behalf. Help us to see that your redeeming love guarantees that there are always sorties underway in our hearts. Update our stories that we might have fresh ammunition. In our new freedom and joy, arm us with heart-piercing ammunition. Help us to train our weapons on our true enemy. Let us see satanic-religious strongholds explode in the presence of your irresistible love. Amen.
Additional note regarding my word of promise:
I will also say that on that same occasion in 1976 where God had spoken to me so clearly about his intent to faithfully rescue me, He also conveyed an unforgettable impression of a few other things: His place in my life as my Father; His love (which cannot be described in mere words); and, the majesty of Jesus’ name.
To my dismay, this encounter of mine was not good news to my denominational partners in Evangelism Explosion. I am pretty sure my Baptist teammates wished that something to this effect had been said at my public confession: “And I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and hereby attach this muzzle to your mouth until you can see the higher road we are traveling where we are dead certain that encounters with God’s presence and his voice passed away 2000 years ago.”
A further note: although I count many of Baptist persuasion as close friends, I was pretty much given the left foot of fellowship. “Unfriended” is a recently coined word that might apply.
Here is the good news! When we are foolishly looking for some pleasure in the gutter, God is not way up there somewhere in heaven, shielding his holy eyes from our sin. He is with us, ready, in a moment’s notice to lift us up. My lifelong prayer is that I will be infectious with the reality of God’s nearness. I’m convinced, He’s closer than our skin.
by RobertCummins | Feb 25, 2016 | 08. Seek
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4 NAS
We need to ask, “Father, what are you saying to us through this spectacle from II Chronicles? How could this blood bath set to music possibly be intended for our instruction?
For a start, it’s helpful to see the contrast between the old and the new covenants. It doesn’t take much math to calculate that our new covenant is vastly superior to the old. And, even though ours is better, it is important to note that, with God, things still center around the place of sacrifice–that place God has chosen for his house. In this grand moment in Jewish history, the place of God’s choosing was the newly built temple, which Solomon had just dedicated, saying: “I have built You a lofty house, and a place for Your dwelling forever.” After these words
The Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice…For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. (from 2 Chronicles 7:12-22 NAS)
Let’s allow the apostle Paul to speak to us regarding the contrast in covenants. He believed that the new covenant revelation that should grip our hearts with awe and wonder was under-appreciated by the Corinthian church as well, so he asks,
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19 NAS
Has it really dawned on us yet what we have become—what we have been caught up into—the vast superiority of our circumstance in Christ? How are our heart’s effected, knowing that the high and holy God, who once accepted freight train loads of animal sacrifice, now dwells in our hearts? Instead of attending a worship service where the fire of God consumes the animals offered up by priests, we host in our hearts the very presence of God. We have become the house of God! But, if our hearts are now the house of his choosing and the place of sacrifice, what is the sacrifice? Hold that question in mind.
Jesus is our great high priest, who offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, accomplishing what the blood of bulls could never do. The Lamb who was slain has become the resurrected King of Life, who, astonishingly and scandalously, lives in our hearts!
Scandal— (noun) a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it: a person whose conduct offends propriety or morality.
Perhaps this is why Solomon instructed us in Proverbs to watch over our hearts with all diligence. Perhaps he knew that we, being entrusted with our own powers of choice, would inherit co-priesthood responsibility with God, tending the altar of our hearts, that place where both our deepest desires and motives (some still very earthly) exist alongside God, most high and most holy. It is our holy God’s choice to dwell in flawed beings as opposed to some lofty house, to intimately relate to such radically broken beings. That’s the scandal. This also reveals God’s great wager: that the Spirit (in cooperation with human will) will one day prevail over the flesh (and its cohorts, the world and the devil).
Most, if not all, of the fire in our temples, comes (always graciously, but not without pain) to confront and to consume our idols. A heart that does not live out of the awareness that it is no longer its own must experience fire to ultimately live. God is not cruel; He just doesn’t want us to invest in and hold onto things that we cannot ultimately keep, things that will hurt us along the way and ultimately break our hearts.
Back to the missing sacrifice I referred to earlier. It turns out that the missing sacrifice is our flesh. While it is true that it was crucified and buried with Christ, the death of our flesh (which is an established reality in Christ) plays out through our lives. The Spirit dwells in our hearts, intertwined with us, with his eyes and heart perpetually searching for the things that are secretly crouching at the door, preparing to ambush and waylay us. There, too, Christ invites us to lay down all of ourselves. When we do, we can experience more of the “all” of Jesus. (If I have theologically misspoke; my intention here is to simply say that – in my perception and experience – the reality of being dead-in-Christ is worked out in the actuality of my life.)
It is here, in our daily walk around lives, that Jesus Christ becomes Lord in truth – in actual practice. In the depths of our hearts, his story is being etched as we take up our cross daily and follow him. It is from a well of new life within that we draw from, giving account of the hope that is within us. If we can grasp this, new chapters of Jesus’ conquest of this earth (through us) will be published in increasing volumes such that one day His word in and through us shall cover the earth as the oceans.
Being the temples of God must be what prompted John to say:
My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 1 John 4:4 MSG
We know it was never the blood of animals that God was after. He was always in the process of restoring things to his original design which was mankind relating freely to him and reigning over creation out of a fountain of life from within. It is through the ever-expanding kingdom of God this will happen. When we finally grasp our responsibilities and opportunities within Jesus’ eternal kingdom, the tide of battle will undergo a radical shift.
The people of God will see themselves in an entirely different light. Our identities will not just be that of sinners saved by grace (with our vision consisting of little more than the hope of not being left behind). Instead of having a tread-water-till-Jesus-comes destiny, we will rise up and intentionally receive the kingdom that Christ has been offering us since He was last seen on earth. With an indignant militancy, we will, out of our rest in Christ, wage a violent war against the powers of darkness, reclaiming all that was stolen during our season of mistaken identity. We will live with a new confidence in the reality that all things really are possible with God, and that as children of light we are vastly superior to our enemies. Truth will topple the strongholds in and around us, and the rule of Jesus will expand one heart at a time until indeed His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
So be it, Lord.
