by RobertCummins | Dec 19, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – Isaiah 43:14-21
Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it.
Those who know me are aware I have fellowshipped among charismatics most of my Christian life, and to them, I am forever beholding. They have always had greater expectation with God than others. This always seemed wholesome in light of God’s dimensions.
However there has been considerable guilt and consternation along the way because of how many times I have heard Isaiah 43:19 used as a lead-in to a “prophetic” word; “Behold, I am about to do a new something – It will spring forth and … (add prophetic particulars), thus says the Lord.” The frustration came in that I never became aware of the new thing. Well … there was that once. I’ll come back to that.
If these subjective words had been offered to people equipped to look at the scriptures more objectively, I would have been more comfortable. My problem, as an elder and a father – entrusted with impressionable souls, was that the subjective, by default, always trumped the objective. I believed this to be unhealthy.
The subjective word of God is a gigantic subject with incredibly strong feelings attached. Most churches cultures are steeped in environments weighted toward Bible-only or Spirit-mostly modes of thinking. From 1992 to 2013, I lived among a Spirit-mostly tribe, attempting to impart a greater appreciation for the written word of God (and community). I believed objective study of the BIble was very profitable. I believed training young believers to study and to meditate on the scriptures was integral to making disciples. This is not how my co-elders had been equipped. My appeals fell on the deaf ears.
Without prophetic unction, issues were guaranteed to die in committee. They would not make it to the table for consideration. God had not spoken. How many times did I hear, “We must just wait upon a word from God.” I disagreed. I believed the Spirit lived in us and that we were to discover our word of direction through prayerful dialogue. Nothing could have been more natural to me. But an idea that did not trace its origins to a dream, or a vision, or a certified prophet, would not gain traction. Back to the prophetic word that did register with my wife and I.
“Rob and Daneille, I don’t know what this means, but God is going to do a new thing.” I winced, bracing myself for the thus sayeth the Lord. It didn’t come. “Whew!” This prophet was just speaking to us as a friend; prophetic etiquette was changing. What did come was this word– “God is going to radically changed your family.” “Wow! I wonder what this could mean! Maybe one of our girls is going to have a baby? Foster parents? Adoption? Is Daneille pregnant! If so, she won’t like this word.
Our family did begin to change, for a reason I hadn’t expected. The change began because I had grossly underestimated the unspoken ruling covenants within my religious subculture (aka; local church). The roots of this tribe were deep into a Spirit-mostly orientation. When they added the idea of apostolic leaders, it only cemented a dawning in my heart – the new thing that God is doing among this tribe will never include the things that are on my heart. The more I tried to articulate the passions of my own heart the more tension I created. I knew my family was going to change when I was asked to keep quiet.
Our family now meets in living rooms, over dinner tables, on walks around the neighborhood, on beaches and in forests. The members are believers who participate in organized weekly church and those who do not. I have a new and abiding appreciation of the power of culture. Culture is comprised of the driving ideas within a group of people. Culture is built on the spoken and unspoken agreements of why and how things are expected to happen. They are not meant to be challenged. Therefore in my family quest, I am not going to subject any existing subculture to any challenging questions. Neither of us have the time or can stand the strain.
In an age of moral decline, in a time when church numbers are plummeting, questions seem as holy to me as declarations. For the record; I appreciate the prophetic spirit proclaiming that God is doing a new thing. Given the nature of resurrection life, within an ever expanding kingdom, this is a sure thing.
Father, this is your world. This is your church, your kingdom. Have your way. May your Spirit prevail. May your name be honored now and forevermore. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Dec 17, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – Jeremiah 6:16
Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.
What are these ancient and good paths where our souls will find rest? We can learn much from Jeremiah if we have ears to hear. The response of those Jews destined for annihilation or captivity was tragic. Even though a watchman with eagle vision was preaching, they said …
We will not listen. We will not walk in it.
The following is a list of what they would not listen to or walk in. Would the United States fair any better in God’s assessment? Let’s look at Israel’s specific errors and consider our own nation.
1. The word of the Lord had become a reproach to them; they had no delight in it.
2. Everyone was greedy for gain, (profit had become their god).
3. Leaders at all levels, especially religious ones, were guilty of false dealing.
4. Leaders peddled a shallow peace when in fact there was none.
5. They were not ashamed of their abominations. They had lost the capacity to even blush.
6. As a well keeps its waters fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
This is how God feels about Israel …
Traditional sacrifices of worship became a stench to God. The day declines, for the shadows of the evening lengthen! There is only oppression. I am full of the wrath; I am weary with holding it in.
This is what God is going to do …
Pour this wrath out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together; for both husband and wife shall be taken, the aged and the very old. Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, from the least of them even to the greatest of them. I am going to lay stumbling blocks before the people.
God’s council …
Flee for safety. Blow a trumpet. Raise a signal; for evil looks down and a great destruction awaits. Even God’s beautiful city and its temple were not spared. Be warned or I shall be alienated from you, and make you a desolation, a land not inhabited. Put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Yet, to a people he is about to severely punish, he also says …
Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.
The idea that God punished Israel does not shock us; they apparently deserved it, yet the idea of God punishing America is abhorrent. We might be bad, but surely not that bad! However, as I read God’s list, I was not comforted by the comparison to America. For those called to be in the world but not of it, I don’t believe flight is an option but sounding an alarm makes some sense. Mourning for our nation would also be good council. And, praying daily that we would individually and collectively have ears to hear would be extremely wise. Jesus’ council was quite straight forward …
Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:13
Father, please intervene in the affairs of our nation. In the multiplication of political words, we have no hope. We see the shadows darkening when our nation protects evil with its own laws. By your great mercies Oh Lord, show us the ancient paths where the good way is. Help us to learn how to walk that path, that we might not only find rest for our own souls, but the righteousness, peace and joy of your kingdom for this nation. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Dec 16, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – Nehemiah 8:1-10
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 fulness of God, so I grieve with those 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 fulness 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 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.” (Philippians 2:10 and 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 Ezra’s 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 | Dec 14, 2015 | 54. Direction
Direction – John 15:9-17
Please take the time to consider Jesus’ precious words. That’s much more important than my rehash.
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. 2 Peter 1:12 MSG
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 main line 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 heals. To religious leaders, he was practically an anti-Jehova. 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 their 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 has come 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.
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 sink with the traditional tape running in our minds, upsetting our traditional 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.
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 | Dec 11, 2015 | 53. Calling
Calling – Luke 5:27-32
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 heals … 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 suites me better than Levi, which means – not surprisingly, ‘to take’. Going for the laugh, another tax man 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 …
“For whatever reason, it was quite easy to walk away from the booth that day but it was another thing altogether to process what it meant to follow him. What about my vocation? What will Pilate say? What about my home? My family?”
As his guests are picking 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 is building. “Myself 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 inviting 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 is addressing 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 is 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 have 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 with you whom we have to do and it is not burdensome. May you kingdom government have increasing rule over the dominion of our hearts. Amen.
