by RobertCummins | Feb 13, 2017 | 06. Shaped By The Word
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1
To be blessed, according to the Amplified translation is to be fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God. However, this Psalm 1 blessing is a conditional one, dependent on who we associate with and our orientation to the law of the Lord.
How is a born again Christian, living out of a new covenant and a new life in Christ supposed to relate to conditional promises from the Old Testament? Let’s be honest: we cannot help but be attracted because of the richness of the promises, but do we really want blessing as our motive and obedience as our means? Do we really want to enter into a relationship with God that is dependent on us delivering the goods? What if one only meditated in the day and not the night or happened to keep company with the unregenerate? I believe I know the answer to these questions, but I tell you the truth, I believe every child of God is going to have to work the answers out for themselves.
I have friends who relate passionately to the Old Testament because of their attraction to prosperity. They are devout and seemingly beyond my appeal that there is a better way. Because I bought into it as a younger believer, I am sensitive to quid pro quo religion, where, if I do this or do that, I will position myself to receive God’s blessing.
It may sound arrogant, but I am a blessed man, before I ever pick up my Bible, because I have a new life in Christ. I am a child of God before I even read or quote the scriptures. By trusting in Christ, I was grafted into him—the Vine. The fruit I bear is directly related to this reality, not my adherence to the law of the Lord or my proclamation of it. The laws of the Lord originated out the Lord’s own being and you and I now live in that being and he lives in us. In Christ, we have the ultimate blessing. In him we are heir to everything he is and has. In Christ, we truly have an unfathomably rich inheritance. It is a huge step backwards to try and receive promises by virtue of our initiatives, compliance, or recitations.
If I just trashed your doctrine, you’re welcome. If I did, you are probably also thinking that Rob does not hold the scriptures or obedience in high regard. I promise I do, but I don’t think about them as a means to anything. My love of the scriptures and any inclination I have to live in harmony with them is a byproduct of the eternal life that is in me, which is compatible with the scriptures. I love his word because his word first loved me. When I obey his word, it is because his word already lives in me and beckons me, for the good of my heart, to agree and comply.
I am very familiar with the schools of Christian thought that have us confessing and declaring his word so that particular outcomes will be produced. I gave this theology a thorough test drive and found it incompatible with the new life that was in me. The very practicing of it placed God in a box that was much too small. Is God, our good, good Father, withholding his blessing until we incant his words as if they were some magical or mechanical trigger to release a blessing? If we proclaim his word, it should be because our soul exults in those words, not because we want something from God we cannot have otherwise. In him we have it all. He, the person of God, is our all in all.
God is a better parent than us. Did we withhold our children’s provision until they ask us with just the right words? The childlike, trusting heart I believe God wants to produce in us is one that simply trusts that he knows our needs and delights in meeting them. I think he likes us to ask, but, oh, the things we do beyond the childlike asking.
I am saying this as one who is feeling pretty desperate for some relief. Pain showed up on my doorstep 17 years ago in the region of my lower back and never left. It has just kept moving in on me a little at a time to the point where I’m not sure how to tolerate it any longer. That will sound like a pretty shabby confession to part of my faith family, but not to my Father. At this writing, he did not just recoil at my negative confession. I can’t explain why pain has been woven into my story but I am unwilling to credit my lack of faith or positive confession with its presence. If pain continued to encroach on my earthly comfort, would it diminish his goodness? Discredit his affection for me? Reflect poorly on his fatherhood? I echo a sentiment with Paul: “I speak as if insane” (from 2 Corinthians 11:23).
Until we are set free from these earthly bodies, which are so prone to decay and degeneration, what response does God want from us? What is he looking for in our hearts? All I know is that even sons sometime ask their Father why he has forsaken them only to discover that resurrection life is just around the corner.
Father, I pray that you would heal my body, specifically the degenerated, arthritic components of my spine. Please mend the nerves and the inflamed tissues that surround these areas. You are the healer of every facet of my being. And by the way, thank you for every minute of the previous 17 years. While I would not trade them for anything, please note that I am currently negotiable. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 15, 2016 | 06. Shaped By The Word
At some level Paul had experienced the peace that surpasses all comprehension. When it came to his family in Christ, though, he struggled. Matters affecting their spiritual health weighed on him heavily. Paul was aware of Satan’s schemes to use so-called Christians to delude tender young hearts with persuasive arguments. This passage is what a spiritual father has to say to his children so that they could combat the threat.
Paul is keen that his spiritual charges maintain a watchful rest, sustaining both encouragement and gratitude. How are they to do this? First, they must acknowledge that they are a body, one that is intentionally knitted together by love. There is a good deal of protection in the body of Christ in and of itself. The next thing Paul wants to get across, though, is so simple that most miss it. It is simply a true knowledge of God’s mystery—Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Paul knew that with Jesus alone at the core of our being and at the center of our theology, we have a full assurance of understanding. He knew that the discipline of honoring this mystery is the source of our stability. The thing that troubled Paul was that the sheep were not content with a mystery. They tended to gravitate toward the principles of the world rather than toward Christ himself; they leaned towards ideas that appeared more concrete, ideas derived from human tradition that appealed to the natural and un-renewed mind. Anything added to the simple theology of Christ was, to Paul, a danger. Spiritual fathers suffer when they see us attempting to accessorize the mystery.
What Paul is continually trying to say is that, in Christ, heaven has already come down to earth. Jesus said it was expedient that He leave but that he would send us The Helper. In the Holy Spirit, he has done this. When the battle is hot and we feel we need reserve power from heaven, The Counselor says:
The Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 1 John 4:4 MSG
His divine power has granted to you everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3 NAS
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. Colossians 1:27 MSG
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:6-7 NAS
Spiritual fathers (those who take responsibility for the potential in the people around them) labor as did Paul, even struggle to: “admonish and teach every man with all wisdom so that he can present them to God complete in Christ—the mystery in us which is the hope of glory.” from Colossians 1:28 and 28 NASB
It seems God has worked overtime in my heart to loosen the nuts to my bolt-on theologies to help me to see that He alone is my Life. He knows that in simple and mysterious truth is hidden the abundance of all and more than I will ever need. What you will frequently find in my posts has to do with my account of the unbolting process that God has underwritten in my life. As I have recently found myself gratefully standing with my bolts lying on either side of me, it seemed appropriate to name this blog in the middlewithmystery.com.
Father, life seems a process. Help us to understand the ways of our hearts so that we may all find ourselves utterly content with You alone, our Rock, our Fortress, our Savior, our Advocate, our Intercessor, our Peace, our Joy, our Strength, our Origin, our Destiny, our Glory, our Wisdom, our Way, our Truth, our Victory, our Sufficiency, our All-In-All, our very Life. Truly Lord our cup is running over if only we could see it. Open our hearts to the beauty and simplicity of this mystery. For our joy and your name’s sake. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Feb 15, 2016 | 06. Shaped By The Word
At some level Paul had experienced the peace that surpasses all comprehension. When it came to his family in Christ, though, he struggled. Matters affecting their spiritual health weighed on him heavily. Paul was aware of Satan’s schemes to use so-called Christians to delude tender young hearts with persuasive arguments. This passage is what a spiritual father has to say to his children so that they could combat the threat.
Paul is keen that his spiritual charges maintain a watchful rest, sustaining both encouragement and gratitude. How are they to do this? First, they must acknowledge that they are a body, one that is intentionally knitted together by love. There is a good deal of protection in the body of Christ in and of itself. The next thing Paul wants to get across, though, is so simple that most miss it. It is simply a true knowledge of God’s mystery—Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Paul knew that with Jesus alone at the core of our being and at the center of our theology, we have a full assurance of understanding. He knew that the discipline of honoring this mystery is the source of our stability. The thing that troubled Paul was that the sheep were not content with a mystery. They tended to gravitate toward the principles of the world rather than toward Christ himself; they leaned towards ideas that appeared more concrete, ideas derived from human tradition that appealed to the natural and un-renewed mind. Anything added to the simple theology of Christ was, to Paul, a danger. Spiritual fathers suffer when they see us attempting to accessorize the mystery.
What Paul is continually trying to say is that, in Christ, heaven has already come down to earth. Jesus said it was expedient that He leave but that he would send us The Helper. In the Holy Spirit, he has done this. When the battle is hot and we feel we need reserve power from heaven, The Counselor says:
The Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 1 John 4:4 MSG
His divine power has granted to you everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3 NAS
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. Colossians 1:27 MSG
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:6-7 NAS
Spiritual fathers (those who take responsibility for the potential in the people around them) labor as did Paul, even struggle to: “admonish and teach every man with all wisdom so that he can present them to God complete in Christ—the mystery in us which is the hope of glory.” (from Colossians 1:28 and 28 NASB
It seems God has worked overtime in my heart to loosen the nuts to my bolt-on theologies to help me to see that He alone is my Life. He knows that in simple and mysterious truth is hidden the abundance of all and more than I will ever need. What you will frequently find in my posts has to do with my account of the unbolting process that God has underwritten in my life. As I have recently found myself gratefully standing with my bolts lying on either side of me, it seemed appropriate to name this blog in the middlewithmystery.com.
Father, life seems a process. Help us to understand the ways of our hearts so that we may all find ourselves utterly content with You alone, our Rock, our Fortress, our Savior, our Advocate, our Intercessor, our Peace, our Joy, our Strength, our Origin, our Destiny, our Glory, our Wisdom, our Way, our Truth, our Victory, our Sufficiency, our All-In-All, our very Life. Truly Lord our cup is running over if only we could see it. Open our hearts to the beauty and simplicity of this mystery. For our joy and your name’s sake. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Feb 14, 2016 | 06. Shaped By The Word
Shaped By The Word —Proverbs 3:1-6
My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
For length of days and years of life,
And peace they will add to you.
Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
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. (NASB)
There are certainly things in man’s heart that cause him to zigzag in his course. Yet we are in the presence of a verse that promises God can make them straight. Very good. But when traveling, the first order of business is to determine one’s destination. If we were to take this passage alone, we might conclude our destination is a long and peaceful life, one in which we end up finding favor with both God and man. But this is not the whole council of scripture. Solomon had not yet met Jesus and Paul, who added to Scripture’s more complete council:
Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. Luke 17:33
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. Acts 20:24
It puts a terrible strain on the whole council of scripture to interpret the New Testament through the lens of the Old. The Old Testament, as an inferior covenant, must be interpreted through the New. An eye unaided by New Testament lenses will read our passage and conclude with glee: “It is as I had hoped; life is all about me! All I have to do is live in compliance—retaining and honoring his commandments.” If this is our course we have zigged.
As a new Christian in 1976, I was the prodigal, “Born To Be Wild” child, firing all of my guns at once and exploding into space. (If you were born between 1950 and 1960, you are likely hearing Steppenwolf’s raucous and awesome melody in your brain. It was the hymn of my generation.) In my zeal I aimed my guns at God and pulled the trigger. At high velocity I hit a cross roads right away. Do I do ministry or business? I chose ministry because I wanted to serve God and that was the road for zealots like me (or so I concluded).
Something very interesting happened next. Two people from the house group I was attached to came to me privately and asked me to pray about my choice and reconsider. They simply said, “We have individually had a check in our spirits about your decision.” While I pondered a “get thee behind me (along with with thy checks) reply,” I decided to follow their council. I ended up withdrawing my enrollment papers to Bible school and have been on the construction trades and business path ever since.
It was only years later that I understood the council of these two people. In those years that followed my first crossroads, I met people who had graduated from this same Bible school. There was a common theme to their ministries: they knew how to get God’s stuff. If you did this and said that, God’s health, wealth, and blessing would be yours. I was stunned. Their revelation had exceeded that of both Jesus and Paul. While they zigged, I zagged. And Jesus said to both of us:
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.
My zag led me on a different course. I took the road I believed Jesus described as discipleship—a path available even to the likes of a tradesman/businessman like me. To those on this track (and all tracks for that matter), he says:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Luke 9:23-25 ESV
Only the Lord knows where and how frequently I have strayed (or am straying) off this path, but I maintain steadfastly that the only authentic windfall for a disciple is Jesus Christ himself. His stuff may come and go (I’ve seen it), but he never leaves nor forsakes us. If we are holding out for a material or financial windfall, let me blunt, our hearts are not on a straight path; we have not chosen the most important thing. Our hearts were created for one thing. When that one thing is not in place, we have lost sight altogether of our destination.
If we shoot for the world, we will miss God. If we aim at God, he adds precisely what we need in the way of material. Solomon’s wisdom in today’s passage of scripture is valid, but it is amplified eternally by Jesus’ spin. He’s very straightforward:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
Father, thank you that you are our life and that our years, however many, will be swallowed by eternity. Thank you that you are our peace. Thank you that even if this world hates us, we have kingdom favor. Thank you that as we walk in your Spirit, we are not dependent solely on our own understanding. Thank you that as we live with You as the One with whom we have to do, our paths are straight. May our every word and deed be flavored in kindness and truth. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 13, 2016 | 06. Shaped By The Word
Shaped by the Word —Proverbs 4:20-27
When I hear the directive to watch over my heart with all diligence, I immediately think of Jesus as the Lord over the whys of what I do. It is in our hearts where our whys form and direct our lives. Why we think what we think shapes what we choose to do, and what we choose to do determines the courses of our lives. The reasons of our hearts are the springs we’re commanded to steward. In a kingdom in which the primary law is love—for beings that will stand before God—these whys are enormous. David, the psalmist-king knew this:
O Lord, you examine me and know. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives (i.e. my whys).
I think the author of Hebrews knew this as well when he said, “No creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account (NET).” The NASB translates this same phrase as “with Him whom we have to do,” immediately before which comes:
The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We enter this world bent on getting from it what we want when we want it. When we’re not doing that (which is practically never), we’re protecting ourselves from getting hurt. This is problematic. We cannot love well with such whys operating as the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Someone may be thinking: “Wait a minute, now. I play the piano at my church,” or, “I am an elder,” or, “I am a this or I am a that.” When we give an account of our lives to God one day, are these the things we really want to tell Him? I don’t think so.
For this reason, God tells us the whys of our hearts are crucial: everything, all of life, depends on what flows from this spring. The Word and the Spirit ask, “Why do you play the piano at your church? What motivates you to be an usher? A Sunday school teacher or a missionary?”
Our motives are varied, but here are some probable ones: there’s no one else to do it; I like doing it; I have been doing it so long, it’s just my habit now; it’s my duty; it’s my gift; I have been called to this ministry. These motives may be authentic and valid. Or, they may simply be what we tell ourselves, like froth on the crest of waves. God (who prefers compassion above sacrifice) plunges deep and discovers even the most profound springs of our desires and actions.
What if our good deeds are inauthentic? What if they gratify only our selfish desires? What if our deeds flow from springs contaminated by our wounded hearts?
An incredible number of people are burning out in their God-serving—going through the motions, flowing from bitter springs. Is it because our selfish and wounded hearts are incapable of going the distance? Is it the Lord mercifully intervening? I’m willing to bet—on both questions—yes. The Word exposes the hurtful ways of our hearts (born of flesh), which harm us now and will cost us later.
If you feel threatened or offended by this post, count it all joy. Consider the possibility that your flesh is reacting to the sword of the Spirit that is coming threateningly close to your heart, or that your Lord has identified something you have mistakenly claimed as your own. Consider that this disruption might be the beginnings of a work of grace within your heart. Wounded hearts are notorious for being insecure and defensive. Insecure, fleshly hearts are ingenious at carving out territory, claiming turn and titles for themselves: I am over the Sound Booth; that was my idea; I am Pastor. Again, “I am this and I am that.” If we found our identity and self worth on a title or an activity, our springs are deeply bitter and our actions are harmful. God has something so much higher—a promised land of abundant life. If we will let Him work in the deeper places of our hearts, He can take us there. It is what we were created for. This is God’s why, and it must become ours as well. It is our inheritance and our destiny.
While we defend our turf and keep a safe distances from others and God (guarding our wounded hearts), we inevitably traffic in religion—harmful compensation to hearts not settled in Christ. When we stand before Him, Jesus wants us all to be able to say, “Lord, You alone were my satisfaction, my sufficiency, the source of my joy and my strength. The only reason I am here is because You first loved me. Because of Your relentless pursuit of me, my love has been growing. Your presence in my heart has allowed me to serve you more and more out of love. Thank You Thank You for delivering me from the tyranny of the unseen whys of my heart and the subtle hell of religion into which it led.
Father, make religion an enemy You place beneath Your feet. Continue to pursue and slay every last remnant of this foe, even where he has so cleverly hidden himself in the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Set us free into Your very own liberty and joy. For our heart-pleasure and Your name’s sake. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Feb 12, 2016 | 06. Shaped By The Word
Shaped By The Word – 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASB)
I thought I thoroughly understood this verse in 1976. It was clear to me then that it meant each verse was designed to impart a specific truth I needed in order to live a godly life. I believed if I would study and memorize and obey those individual verses, I would become a progressively better Christian. That is the point of living… Isn’t it?
I think I have fuller appreciation of these verses today. I don’t think what I believed was false; I just believe those early convictions were incomplete. “All scripture is inspired by God” means that the whole biblical narrative—not just individual verses—is inspired. You might be asking yourself if there is really any big difference between studying the verses and the larger comprehensive story. I believe there is.
Taking in the narrative connects the reader to the times and circumstances and the other personalities with all their varied motives in a way verse-study can’t. I believe its possible that some of our spiritual anemia may be a by-product of our missing the narrative, particularly the gospel narratives.
The bulk of western Christians look at Jesus in the Gospels and rightly see that He is God incarnate—the Lamb who came as a sacrifice. The efficacy of the atonement achieved by the unblemished Lamb was our salvation, which we have mostly thought of as an upgraded life after death in which suffering will cease and all our tears will be wiped away. Again, a truth. But a very truncated one.
Modern western Christianity often skips from the virgin birth to the cross. Consequently our sub-abundant existence turns out to be little more than an effort to manage our sinful natures (with a sprinkling of good works) until the day we’re called home. If this was the point, why did God inspire four writers to leave narratives of Jesus’ miracle-laden life, telling about His everyday, walk-around adventure? Was that just for the sake of proving He was the Son of God? Was Jesus’ life story important chiefly because the founder of a religion must have historical details?
I believe if we can slow our pace down and wrench our attention away from our myriad distractions, we will find our hearts have the capacity to refocus—on the story with Jesus as the Son of Man, who did the Father’s will as a human being like you and me. Those big chunks of the gospel between Bethlehem and Calvary were breathed into the story for our benefit not only to reveal Jesus’ divinity, but also to highlight His life as our example. Jesus wasn’t a divine historical anomaly. He was our reference point for the abundant life He promised.
We are not going to facilitate a spiritual revolution through our cognitive mastery of the Bible. We can only recognize and involve ourselves in what God is doing and has always been doing, something the narrative of the Bible as a whole reveals. His original intention was to create a species of beings in His image, who would live in a loving, eternal community. While the bulk of the Bible story chronicles the breakdown of this plan, the new and latter part (the New Testament) captures the beginning of God’s restoration process, the process that is underway, beckoning for us to come along.
Jesus came announcing the kingdom of God, telling us it had come in Him. He implied that it was then and is therefore now; and that, astonishingly, it was (and is) in us who believe. While getting saved and going to heaven is good news, the kingdom truly is the ultimate mind-bending, wonderfully great news. He never told us to get saved, go to church, and hang on until you die. He said:
“As I am in the world so are you. Look at My life and go do as I did. Reread the narrative children. Live out the story I am breathing into Your life. It was good that I went away not just so I could prepare an eternal residence for you but that you, as My residence on earth, could go and do greater works than I did.”
We get saved and often leave Jesus behind, moving on to Paul who seemed to be the primary spokesman of the New Covenant with God. Most evangelicals consider Paul’s precise doctrinal discourses to be the prime cuts of gospel meat, yielding their nourishment to those with the best study skills. I wonder: if Paul were living today, would he be throwing up his hands, writing letters of correction to us? And I wonder if Jesus wouldn’t say: “You have studied my word but I have this against you; You have not yet discovered how to live out of My life—a daily life of walking in My Spirit.”
I so appreciate my friends who have encouraged me to see the gospel in the context of God’s kingdom and not the other way around, to see my life in the context of the larger biblical narrative, where God’s original intentions will not be thwarted, where all things are being restored to Christ, through Christ in us. This has larger implications for us than some holding pattern until we die or the rapture comes.
Again, Paul might say, It’s no problem for me to remind us…
Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another— showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.” MSG
Father, thank you for your word. Help us to fall deeply in love with this indispensable God-breathed story into which we have so mercifully been included. Continue to awaken our hearts to the whole council of scripture that paints us into an increasingly beautiful pallet of color and grandeur. So be it, Lord.
