Seek (Wednesday) – 1 Chronicles 28:8-10

by RobertCummins | Feb 25, 2016 | 08. Seek

…Observe and seek after all the commandments of the Lord your God so that you may possess the good land and bequeath it to your sons after you forever…Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. For the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act. 1 Chronicles 28:8-10 NAS

The spiritual / national rule at the time these words were penned was the Law of Moses. That Law, with its priest system and sacrifices was the essence of the covenant through which Israel related to God. We who have been born anew are partakers of a newer and better covenant that is administered by the Spirit of grace (not law).  As attractive as many of the old covenant promises may have been, they are conditional and pale in comparison to the ones we have in Christ as partakers of the New Covenant. The differences in these covenants are worth understanding. A primary one has to do with identity.

The old covenant established a national identity; “We are the children of Israel.” They were a nation established and sustained (at least in their thinking) through very particular rituals and the blood of animal sacrifice. Theirs was a corporate identity dependent on a priest class that served as mediator between God and his people. Contrastingly, the New Covenant establishes an individual’s identity as an offspring of God! Though they could not see it clearly, having personal communion with God, is what the ancients longed for. The New Covenant is not dependent on mediators and rituals. It is established and sustained by the very life of Christ. This a definite covenant upgrade! Solomon’s experience highlights it.

While the Lord told Solomon he had chosen him to build a house as his sanctuary and for him to be courageous and do it. God has told the partakers of the New Covenant they are His sanctuary. He is saying, in essence; “In Christ, courageously be my address on earth.” What a scandal that He chose willful man with his dismal track record instead of the more dependable compliance of bricks and mortar! Such is the risk and wager of God.

What is God thinking? Based on what new variable could man possibly succeed in knowing and serving God with a whole heart and a willing mind? The crux of this answer is that, with the New Covenant, came a new nature. As the Spirit has entered our lives, our natures have been altered. We no longer are governed by hearts of stone. We have been given softened hearts that thrive in grace and shrink in law.

We can live unburdened by the weight of compliance. Sin is still sin but it doesn’t affirm the saint as a sinner. Remember; We are new creations in Christ! The old things passed away! New things have come! Saints can still sin and we do, but we have a new provision, a once-and-for -all sacrifice, in Christ. The saint who sins does not overcome because they doubled down on their assumed depravity with holy resolve. The saint who overcomes recalls the reality of his new birth and his new nature. He orients himself to his place in a new creation which is underway. God never scrapped his original intentions. He has pursued them through various covenants. Do you recall the original one? To Adam and Eve he said;

I bless you; Go and be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

The common denominator of both testaments is God’s heart and his original intentions. These things have not changed. The old testament is simply the story of one of the covenants God implemented to re-establish communion with man, and in doing so, fulfill his original human-administrated kingdom of God. The New Covenant reveals God’s secret weapon in this battle – Jesus Christ, and Himself living in and through the interconnected community His children. I don’t believe I will ever tire of saying this; It is Christ in us, the hope of God’s original and ultimate glory. Given that so much is riding on our new hearts, he…

searches them, and understands every intent of the thoughts. For the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. 1 Chronicles 28:9 NAS

What he hopes to find in our hearts is not our doubled-down, dead-serious resolve. He is not applauding our holy convictions and compliance. He wants to establish us in simple rest and keen awareness of our altered identities and natures. One day the resurrected Christ will establish his government through the collective hearts of his chosen people. Our hearts, the temples of God, play heavily into the administration of God’s Kingdom. This is immeasurably more than just being save from hell isn’t it?

The foundation God is endeavoring to build his kingdom on is under repair just now. Some of that repair has to do with our identities. Only sons and friends can build in the kingdom. Fear-motivated slaves, laboring under the burden of performance religion, motivated by fear, working for God in the strength of their flesh will receive whatever rewards they have coming in this life – not in eternity. Things we do in our own strength are wood hay and stubble.

Since our hearts are God’s base of operations in the establishment of his kingdom, he endeavors to incinerate mere human motivation before we must stand before him and give account. The refining process of our fiery trials on earth, when they are necessary, are useful in exposing where our flesh is ruling instead of His Spirit.

The baton has been passed from the Old Testament saint to the New. It will also be passed from old wineskins to new wineskins. The new ones are not bound by conviction, rules and rituals. Through brokenness they are being weaned from the strength of human resolve and are becoming pliable and responsive to the Holy Spirit – God’s primary agent on earth and the Occupant of our hearts. He has hedged His bet with Himself.

If we can grasp this, we will be free to unbuckle our religious seat belts and move about the kingdom. We will possess this good kingdom real estate and we will bequeath it to all in our spiritual linage, all to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Father, in full view of our great cloud of witnesses and a skeptical and unbelieving world establish your throne in our hearts in wisdom and rest. May we go out and courageously be the kingdom agents who establish your reign in this earth. So be it.

Seek (Tuesday) – Matthew 7:7-12

by RobertCummins | Feb 24, 2016 | 08. Seek

Seek –  Matthew 7:7-12

There is a type of seeking which is very intentional and energetic. It is rooted in the idea that God is way up in heaven and that intimacy with him is hard for us, who are way down here on earth. We tell our selves our seeking bridges the gap, our zealous seeking more so. This type of wrong-heartedness evidences our entanglement in religion. It spills over into everything we do in relationship with Him and what we perceive we are doing in ministry for him. This error becomes embedded in the foundations of our identity and our perception of God. We might ask, “Then how are we to know if we have gone toxic in our seeking? How would we know we are entangled in-religion?” That is a good question.

I have been this type of super seeker, bridging the distance between God and myself with all the zeal I could muster, or so I told myself. I discovered my entanglement with religion painfully. It was like this: If you can imagine a car (fairly shiny) running down the highway and the dash board lights start issuing warnings. First, the power steering goes out and the car lurches hard to the left. Next the hood snaps up and crashes the windshield. Smoke starts billowing from the engine which is making some horrendous noise. The tires all pop and the thing flies off the road into the ditch where it sits, smoldering. It doesn’t preach well, but I call this the kindness of God which leads to repentance. If you know my story, there is less exaggeration here than you might imagine. MwM often supples the actual details related to this auto metaphor.

MwM started flowing from post-roadside-incident Rob in 2012. It serves as a good contrast between one type of seeking and another. I began writing because the idea of telling my story came to me in a fashion I have learned to understand as God speaking. First Clue; The idea came, for the most part, out of nowhere, yet it sounded familiar. It didn’t come from behind me as a goad to perform. It came from in front of me as an invitation. It had a Father/son – let’s-do-this-together kind of feel. In tone and content, it resonated within me.

Second Clue: The familiarity may have been due to my awareness of New Testament commands such as; “Give an account of the hope that is within you.” “Comfort others with the comfort with which you have been comforted.” “Hold fast to your confession.” “Pass these things (I have taught you) onto other faithful men who will do the same.”

Third Clue: A prophetic word Daneille and I received at the beginning of 2013 indicated that our family was going to undergo a major change. When I originally heard God’s invitation to write, it was accompanied by this thought; “When you do (write) you will you will find your family.” This was the third witness to my word from God. I can report that a community has come into view although it does not have the geographic features I had anticipated. I have discovered my family is scattered all over the earth.

Today, when I discover I have drifted back and am operating out of that spirit, that pushes from behind, I feel a bit ill. It is as though I have betrayed him. When I think my doing of anything effects his love for me or the fruit I bear in him, I have violated something very fundamental in our relationship. I cannot reconcile seeking, in this spirit, with Jesus’ words…

Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:11 NAS

God is a generous Father but we treat him like a reluctant slot-machine that only pays out when we adhere to a creed or heed the proscriptions of a our religious sub-cultures. While we are storming heaven with our zealous seeking, he is saying,

“Kids, I am down here already. Recall – my address on earth is your heart. Keep this in mind when you are knocking and seeking.” Paul understood this…

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 NAS

When Father tells us He loves us and He invites us to love Him and seek Him with all our hearts, we must not let our feelings, which have been conditioned in religion-birthed estrangement, flavor our seeking. When Father tells us He would never leave nor forsake us, that means He is right here, right now in our hearts and in the midst of our lives in all their varied expressions. We are inseparable. Trouble in no way indicates His absence. Our hearts becomes whole-hearted only when they are at rest in the reality of His presence, which is totally independent of our feelings and actions. God doesn’t descend on demand when we utter Jesus’ name. He is saying, “Kids, I’m here already! Simply ask.”

The lyrics to an old Jackson Browne song come to mind …

Father, my eyes have seen the years / And the slow parade of fears / Without crying
now I want to understand  / I have done all that I could  / To see the evil and the good without hiding / You must help me if you can.

Father, my eyes tell me what is wrong  / Was I unwise to leave them open for so long ? /
Cause I have wandered through this world  / And as each moment has unfurled
I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams

People go just where they will / I never noticed them until I got this feeling  / That it’s later than it seems  / Father, my eyes  / Tell me what you see / I hear their cries / Just say if it’s too late for me  / Father, my eyes  cannot see the sky  / Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry?

I suppose its the seeking I hear in Brown’s poetic-honesty that strikes me. I wonder if there is not more hope in discovering God through a broken hearted minstrel’s search than through the seeking that tries to bring God down from way up there with zeal and methodology. This secular psalmist has captured the ache without any religious pretense. Way to go JB! I trust he will forgive me for having substituted “Father“ for “Doctor” in his lyrics.

Father, if we need to cry a bit now over how we have thought of you and related to you, so be it. Apply your salve to our eyes. Tell us what you see. Fill our hearts with pure and simple devotion that trusts in You alone. Ween us of all the religious supplements we take in vain to nourish our spiritual lives, when You Yourself are our Life. Help us to rethink our thinking in light of this truth-and-grace ruled-kingdom. We do aspire to love you rightly. Amen.

Seek (Monday) – Matthew 6:25-34

by RobertCummins | Feb 23, 2016 | 08. Seek

Seek – Matthew 6:25-34

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34 NAS

We might ask, “For what reason, Lord?” and He replies, “For this reason;

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Matthew 6:24 NAS

The two-edged sword is sharper and may be nearer to our hearts here than any place in Scripture. I don’t know how the sacred texts of other religions read but I could imagine them placing demands on their adherents without explanation and levying heavy consequences on them for non-compliance. Instead, ever so gently and ever so directly, Jesus appeals to us with story after story, inviting us to come higher up, further in. When I add up all the things Jesus has said about our hearts and idolatry, it sounds like this to me;

“Children, I made your hearts such that they only function when they are dependent on me. Your heart’s task is simply to learn to listen and heed the voice of the right master. Birds, with nothing more than my gift, soar. They never exchange worry for bread yet, even with your superior worth, you manage to worry. This is my point. Worry is a malfunction of your heart and is evidence you are listening to the wrong master. You have embraced the appeals from an alien kingdom and are unable to soar as I intended you to.”

The flowers are preaching the same message. Take some time and look at them. They say more than Solomon. Equipped with nothing more than their being, they exhort. They never exchange worry for rain. They do not sweat to gain sunshine or labor to be planted.

Let’s test ourselves. How heavily is the uncertainty of tomorrow weighing on our hearts?  The answer, if we will hear it, can lead us into the skies where we were intended to fly. God’s remedy, if we can swallow it, will adorn us as the radiant citizens of another kingdom, which in fact we are. God’s council; “Seek first My kingdom and My righteousness.” If we do we will discover Life within us that, in the joy and satisfaction it provides, displaces the false and fragile external things our hearts are tempted to trust in. As alien as it might seem in this worrisome moment, the abundant life Jesus is describing is not a life to be had after death. It is the Life of My Son, who was and is, in us, and is to come.”

The false and familiar gods of this temporal world will ultimately break all their promises and enslave us before they do. They will all make themselves wings and fly away. Choose the kingdom of God and we shall indeed soar far above the clamor of this world which is fading away. If we say that we do not know how to stop worrying, here is Jesus’ council;

Go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6 NAS

Father, disentangle us from this world. Show us the bad temporal investments we have made. Help us to be honest about our anxiety and recognize what it is saying about our portfolio. May we soar on the wings of eagles. May the enslaved and downtrodden captives of this world look up and see us, provoking their own hunger for flight. Amen.