by RobertCummins | Feb 1, 2016 | 04. Hunger and Thirst
Hunger and Thirst – John 6:25-35
When they found him back across the sea, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.
It appeared the numbers of Jesus’ congregation were up this week but contrary to popular seeker-friendly strategy, Jesus challenges their motives for even attending. I suspect Judas was in the wings thinking, “Man, this guy is going to kill our cash flow.” But Jesus just pours it on…
Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.
But, their hearts are set, so they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?” I wonder if Jesus was thinking, “There’s no way this crowd will ever understand me but, for those who will one day get the printed version, I’ll say …
Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.
But again, the multitude wants what it wants, when it wants it, and makes its counter proposal…
Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
God, in his patient and persistent love, pursues this multitude (and us as well) with these words, which he desires should produce eternal fruit in us rather than temporal benefits. He explains…
The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.
This is what they came to hear!
They jumped at that, “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”
Jesus then summarizes his sermon…
I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.
It appears The First Church of Jesus in the Wilderness is poised for growth but Judas knows better. He has heard Jesus’ sermons. He knows the multitude’s stomach for the Bread of Life will be soured when Jesus tells them they are going to have to take up their cross daily if they really want to chew it.
Perhaps, because Judas had less delusions regarding Jesus’ intentions, he knew that while miracles are impressive, you can’t rule men with them. Ruling requires power. Power requires money. So even though Jesus was not going to produce a kingdom to Judas’ liking, he could still exchange Jesus for some real cash when the time was right.
The question remains,”What do you really hunger and thirst for?” Do you want revival – complete with God’s presence, signs and wonders? Do you want to feed, clothe and shelter the poor? Do you want to go abroad where people are really more open to Jesus? Would you like to simply find a good church with good music and strong teaching where your family could attend? These are certainly worthy but what if they were preceded by this answer, “Actually Lord, I have no wants, Christ in me is sufficient for every need.”
Jesus’ words have always done as much stirring as they have settling. But, in the heart-turmoil his words create, there is always a loving Father’s intention. He knows, bound up in our hearts, there is folly that needs exposed so that it doesn’t end up leading to our wasting energy and striving for the temporal. He is always persistently sending out his invitations for us to partake of his Son – the Bread of Eternal Life. By abiding in Jesus we are vested into a counterintuitive kingdom – a domain where he reigns, saying and doing things that will last forever, from his earthly base of operations – our hearts.
Thank you Father for your persistence in challenging our heart-level understandings of your words. We pray that you alone, at the center of our motives, will build your Church in your timing and in your ways. May you become the loving and persistent disturbance in our hearts so that you might ultimately become, in yourself, our exclusive satisfaction. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 1, 2016 | 05. The Heart
The Heart – Jeremiah 29:10-14
As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” — God’s Decree. — “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you” — God’s Decree — “I’ll bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.
Can a Christian take Jeremiah at his word that God will not abandon him and that he has plans of a hopeful future for him? Absolutely. Is it right for a Christian to anticipate these blessings because of the intensity of their searching and prayer? No. Jeremiah is speaking to Israel – a nation under a different covenant, with a specific calling and with specific transgressions. We are not Israel and we have not been exiled.
Why would we claim old conditional promises when the ones we have in the New Covenant are far superior? This passage implies we are estranged from God when in fact we have been reconciled to him and have access into the holiest place in-Christ. Far from being abandoned because of our deficient fervor, we have been seated with Christ in heavenly realms because of his efforts in seeking us. While Jeremiah’s words imply distance between God and his people, those who have believed and repented have been grafted inseparably into Christ. Zero distance. This is the good news!
These old testament promises, contingent on man’s stony-hearted performance are inferior to the New Testament’s promise of life. Jesus, who is our life, is a gift independent of all effort, however whole-hearted it might be. Sadly, our flesh seems to have a default-religious setting that insists on self-dependence instead of Christ-dependence. The consequence is religion which is both tragic and comical.
It leads us to pray prayers and sing songs in a spirit of desperation. We plead with God to draw near to us while, in that very moment, he is dwelling in us. While we are begging him to come, he is asking, “What gave you the impression I left?” It is no wonder we burn out. We spend massive amounts of energy and resources trying to purchase what we already own. God does not want us going backward, entangling ourselves in an outdated covenant. He could not have made this any clearer to me.
It was the turn of the century and I was in my weeping prophet phase of spirituality. In pitch darkness I ascended the grassy knoll. This was just one of the many lonely places I had found where I offered up my petitions (and perhaps a few modest complaints). On this particular night, I was ratcheting up my seriousness, asking if, as my reward, he would please reveal himself to me and restore the joy of my salvation, “Lord. please do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me!” I was doing some serious Jeremiah-style pleading and I believed my impassioned prayers would surely end my (somewhat undeserved) exile from God. “Lord, rain down your Spirit on me!”… And the Lord, he did smile.
As I was praying, I heard something below and I felt the earth literally tremble beneath my feet. My prayers had reached such a crescendo it would not have surprised me if a burning bush would have appeared! As I was listening intently for the long awaited (and I might add, deserved) word from God, I was assailed, not by the rain of His Spirit from above but by the RainBird below. (I live next to golf course) I was lifted off the ground by a jet of water that had to be 1000 psi. I was standing directly over (as in straddling) a sprinkler head. I was so shocked and disoriented I did not escape its aim before I was drenched. It was as though its machine gun bursts were trained on me whichever way I moved. The heat of my passion had been extinguished and, to make matters worse, I knew who it was who had such excellent timing and aim! Yes, the Lord, he did smile.
I should have picked up on what God was doing sooner because of an incident that took place in our home 20 years earlier. One evening, when our second daughter was just a baby, she was provoked and had worked herself into an irreversible emotional tailspin. She could not talk but boy could she wail! Mustering all our parental wisdom, we sat her down into a bathtub of unheated tap water. The effect was magical! Whatever had been her problem had given way to a new and more immediate issue. The child we retrieved from the tub was the quieter version of the daughter we enjoyed and preferred. We dried off her wrinkly pink skin and wiped away all her tears. Thankfully, all was once again well with her soul and she was off to her next adventure. I think the word of the Lord to both – my daughter and myself, after our unorthodox baptisms, was (and remains) …
Dear Ones, seriously, You need to chill out.
It is so pivotal to know we have not been exiled – no matter how we may feel. In Christ we can’t even leave home. To many of his super-busy, super-zealous (and often frustrated) children, the Lord is saying something like this …
Its in quietness and rest you will find Me. By all means seek me with all your heart but do it with the new one that I have given you that intuitively knows I have not left you and never will. I want you to learn to rest in me. I am your life, so in every sense, I am your sufficiency. Our lives are permanently entwined. Celebrate that! Repent of your strife. The emotions you desire will follow your renewed thinking. Chill out a little. It is going to be alright. I promise.
Father, It is a good thing to give thanks to you and sing praises to your name. As I take account of the exceedingly great promises you have entrusted us, I am stunned at the wisdom and generosity of your plans and the extravagance of your love! Truly Lord you are The Wonder of all wonders! I love You too.
by RobertCummins | Jan 31, 2016 | 04. Hunger and Thirst
Hunger and Thirst – John 4:1-26
Jesus and his disciples were headed back to Galilee through Samaria. This route carried with it the risk of robbers and the inherent tension of being in Samaria, a nation of people considered by the Jews to be illegitimate sons of Abraham. To the Jews, Samaritans were disgusting imposters. When they stopped in Sychar, Jesus was left alone near Jacob’s well. In this unlikely setting we will learn much about our God.
Jesus is the biggest deal in Israel at the time (for more reasons than anyone even knew). Jewish culture would have inherently seen him as the holiest and purest man in their nation, a prophet, keeping the law, adhering to the traditions with perfection. A Jew of this caliber, intent on maintaining his purity, would have been on religious-DEFON 3 (an increase in readiness above that of normal). What is about to happen to Jesus is a holy man’s worst nightmare – an isolated encounter with a soiled Samaritan woman. In his interaction with her, Jesus overturns all Jewish notions of holiness. That this scene takes place at a well is no coincidence. Wells hold that which quench human thirst.
Rather than retreating in an effort to maintain his purity, Jesus instead humbles himself, asking her for a drink. The woman is floored …
How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?!
Jesus, as he did throughout his life, unapologetically spoke truth from heaven which is incomprehensible on earth. Jesus knows he has addled this poor woman’s mind.
If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
As the woman is letting the bucket down into Jacob’s well, Jesus is letting his bucket deeper and deeper into hers. To probe her depths, Jesus uses words that make no sense (at least on the surface). Jesus’ prophetic insight into this woman’s morality drops the bucket about 50 feet, splashing into her pool.
He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
She does what every one in sin does when the truth hits too close to home – she changes the subject. She tries to divert the conversation from the facts of her life to religious generalities.
Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus is the master fisherman. Since this one is already on the line, he uses the opportunity to go ahead and overturn the traditional notions of worship.
Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus might as well still be in the temple overturning tables. He is crashing through all Jewish thinking about gender, geography, race and even morality. These are no longer barriers to enter into worship; they are themselves points-of-entry. Salvation is for everyone!
I suspect, at just the right time and place, the Spirit reminded her of what she had heard and the puzzle pieces slipped together and this woman realized just what Jesus meant, when he said …
I who speak to you am He.
In the blink of an eye, when her heart said “Yes” to Him; “I believe you are the son of God and I believe you are risen from the grave to give me that living water.” In that moment the well in this women’s heart was transformed. The stagnant waters were replaced with water originating in heaven. Jesus became to her living water and her life was ruined for this world but her thirst, nevertheless, was quenched. She was just the sort of person…
the Father seeks to be His worshiper.
We must each let God probe our depths, allowing his Word and Spirit into the dark and hidden places deep within us. And we must not despise the prophetic word or the probing question, which may cause the bucket to drop 50 feet into our own dark pool. If we respond rightly, our water will be exchanged for living water. Our thirst will be quenched and we will understand when Jesus says …
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Father, as you did with this compromised woman, let Truth find His way into the compromised places we hide. Liberate us that we may become those whom you seek to be your worshippers and those who run to tell others of what you have just done. Crash through our barriers and addle our minds if need be. Do not lot our flesh prevail. Amen.
A suggestion: If we are not hearing God speak, we should back up to those words that addled our brains, those words that offended our traditional views. Instead of redoubling our defenses on these points, protecting the stagnant waters of our own status quo religious experience, we must invite God to speak. He is an excellent communicator. We must slow down that we may hear.
by RobertCummins | Jan 31, 2016 | 03. Longing
Longing – Hebrews 11:1-16
If God wanted a family, why didn’t he just create one? He created angels didn’t he? But angels were not made in the family likeness so he created Adam – the seed of his intentions, but we know the setback in Eden. Consequently, we now live within a mysterious plan of restoration. God will have his family.
En route to this destination we can think of earth as a vestibule. We must all pass through it. Hebrews 11 and the balance of the New Testament describe how we must conduct ourselves in the vestibule. Above all we must have faith and faith is a peculiar thing indeed.
As its starting point, faith requires that we rip up all the previous surveyor’s work. None of the old stakes mean anything. This is very disorienting! What is seen is not made out of things which are visible? Faith requires us to exchange the familiar for the invisible. How important is this? Without faith it is impossible to please Him. By faith we develop a working understanding of the things established by the Word of God. We grasp what has been lost and the glorious potential of its restoration. It is in the vestibule that our love and our loyalties, which at times are scarcely more than longings, are transferred to the kingdom of God.
Faith’s understanding eventually goes public. We confess that we are strangers and exiles on the earth. By our speech we make it clear we are seeking a city of our own, one which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. With our declarations we burn the bridge behind us and God is not ashamed to be called our God. By faith of this type, we please him.
The visible will grow strangely dim. We will not know exactly where we are going but we can look ahead by faith, and see our destination. We can even have assurance of it and conviction, even though we can’t see it with our natural eye.
The type of men and women we become in the vestibule will speak even after we have made our exit. In Christ, our lives will have served as warnings by God about the things not yet seen. Our lives will testify against the wisdom of this world, condemning it by our simple devotion to Jesus Christ.
Father have your way. Establish your family for the world to see. Let our bones ache with longing for you and for each other until our hearts cry out. May faith work itself out, revealing you as the radiant contrast to death and its lame threats. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 30, 2016 | 03. Longing
Longing – Psalm 36:5-10
God’s love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, His verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. How exquisite your love, O God! How eager we are to run under your wings, To eat our fill at the banquet you spread as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water. You’re a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light. Keep on loving your friends; do your work in welcoming hearts. The Message
Those who have had dealings with God understand why adjectives of cosmic proportion are used to describe him. While the psalmist’s words sound like hyperbole, they are anything but. To even approximate the granduer and majesty of God, human imagination and language must be stretched to their limits, then be multiplied by infinity. I love The Psalms for this reason. They are not theologically precise discourses. They are more like convulsions, spilling out of honest hearts, expressing their deepest longings, making declarations of who God has become to them.
Because we are created in his image, there are longings within us. Those fortunate enough to never succeed in blunting them are referred to by Jesus as the poor in spirit to whom belongs the Kingdom of heaven. In cultures such as ours where affluence and technology create endless distractions as well as the time to indulge ourselves in them, longing can be blunted. It can even be killed. We are the wealthiest, busiest, best fed, most entertained culture that has ever lived. We are also one of the most ungrateful, impatient, unfulfilled, angry and empty ones. Why is this? How could this be?
We are told that in stillness we shall discover God for ourselves. We are told to only dwell on things that are true and lovely and worthy of praise. We are told to watch over our hearts with all diligence because that is where life begins. We disregard these most fundamental of commands at our own peril. While all of God’s promises are “yes” and “amen” our response to the particulars of knowing God often seem to be, “Oh no.”
Learning to respond with an inner “yes” to our longings will expose us to the radical extremes of God’s love. Our longings can lead us to Jesus who is our abundant provision. When we reciprocate with our “Yes” we are responding to his invitation to the banquet. Our ongoing encounters with him fill our lamps. Those who never slow down, whose hearts are seduced by the spirit of this age, who could neither bear silence nor stillness, who never learned to stop and fill their own lamps, will find themselves standing outside a very important door.
But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.‘ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:6-12
I rarely lean upon fear as a motivator. However since reading Neal Postman’s, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, I have had some fear and trembling in my soul as I have been working this topic out in my own life. It is currently very out of vogue to have an “Oh no” response to any command since it might throw us back into the dark ages of legalism, quenching the grace of God and the liberty it affords us.
Can we have an ongoing experience with the meteoric love of God through the keeping of a list of thou-shalt-nots? I don’t think so. Can we have an ongoing experience with His cosmic goodness by ignoring his warnings and admonitions to live a circumspect life? I don’t think so. So, are we stuck? I don’t think so.
There is a pathway in the Spirit where obedience is no longer a means toward an end. As we walk in the Spirit, obedience is a natural byproduct of a new and grateful heart. Thou-shalt-nots create a tight-rope upon which the saint must balance where his energies are consumed with holiness and sin-management. While this lifestyle sounds noble, it produces nothing but guilt and pride.
On the other hand, those walking in the Spirit travel in a wide open space where all things are permissible, yet not all are profitable. These saints do not convey a life of white- knuckled obedience where well being is dependent on personal discipline. Instead, in simple joyful ways, they convey they have been caught up into something grand and beautiful. Consequently, their hearts will provide the safety and refuge of God’s grace to many.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Matthew 13:31-32
Father, teach us to see and nurture our longing. May longing grow full-term within us. May it be birthed into the fulness of Christ’s life. May our hearts radiate the contentment of those being loved by you and the satisfaction of those who dine with you. Oh God, in simplicity and rest, may our lives eloquently state just how exquisite is your love! Amen.
