by RobertCummins | Feb 16, 2015 | 07. Devotion
Colossians 2:1-7
The Sufficiency of God’s Mystery
At some level Paul had experienced the peace that surpasses all comprehension but when it came to his family in Christ, he struggled. Matters effecting 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 can combat the threat he has identified among them.
Paul is very keen that his spiritual charges maintain a watchful rest, sustaining both encouragement and gratitude. How are they to do this? First of all he wants them to acknowledge that they are a body, one that has been intentionally knit 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 as the core of our theology, we have a full assurance of understanding. He knew that the discipline of keeping this mystery at the core of our belief system is the source of our stability. The thing that troubled Paul was that the sheep are not content with a mystery. They tend to gravitate toward the principles of the world that appear more concrete, ideas that derive from human tradition that appeal to the natural and un-renewed mind instead of toward Christ Himself. Anything added to this simple theology 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 which he has done with the Holy Spirit. When the battle is hot and we feel that we need reserve power from heaven, The Counselor says…
……the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 1 Jn 4:4 …….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 The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple Col 1:27 …….. 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. Col 2:6-7
Spiritual fathers, those who take responsibility for the potential and processes underway 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.
It seems God has worked overtime in my heart to loosen the nuts to my bolt-on theologies so that he could detach them and help me to see that He alone is my Life. He knows in that 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 have to do with my account of the unbolting process that God has underwritten in my life. As I have found myself more recently gratefully standing with my bolt-ons lying on either side of me, it seemed appropriate to name this blog in the middlewithmystery.com.
Father, life seems as though its is a process. Help us to understand these ways in 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 16, 2014 | 07. Devotion
If you were to try and identify just one, what would you say the main difference is between the old and the new testament? I believe this passage has steered me to my answer and a few supplemental thoughts as well. I hope you will read on and that you will not pick up any stones as you read. (more…)
by RobertCummins | Feb 15, 2014 | 07. Devotion
“Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given….” Did Paul speak this just to Timothy? Or was it ultimately intended for others, perhaps even ordinary people like you and I? (I invite you to check out 2 Timothy 2:2 as you consider your answer.) (more…)
by RobertCummins | Feb 14, 2014 | 07. Devotion
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. 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.
I believe George Barna has struck a nerve. If you do not know him He is a researcher with his finger on the pulse of western christianity. Through the many polls the Barna Group conducts it seems one core discovery is that in the west there is a great disparity between christian confession and christian practice. In other words many profess to be christian but a vast number of these confessors do not pray much or take the scriptures too seriously. If you are a shepherd and you bring this subject up, you will probably discover that the nerve that Barna is striking is quite raw and super-sensitive to touch.
What if you are the shepherd of a flock (the Pastor) and you happen to be aware of this statistic not from Barna’s research but from your own personal observation? How do you proceed? Your institutional–CEO/Pastor-job requires you to keep the church machinery running which involves numbers and dollars. Your kingdom–shepherd-calling is stirring a great concern in you for 50% of the virgins whose lamps are low on oil. In other words; the things your call demands you to say can put you at cross-purposes with your job.
To serve the at-risk demographic you must share the only message that you know which involves addressing the disparity between christian confession and practice which makes 1/2 (5 out of 10 virgins) very uncomfortable. Your attender-givers who, with their presence and resources, account in large part for the success of the institution do not like it that you allege there is some problem in their lives. How does this play out?
I am not a part of an assembly with a building, budget and pastor so I do not know the answer to my question but I could put myself in their shoes and speculate that this could be quite a challenge. How do I represent the extremely difficult words of Christ that I presume are spoken out of love and concern for the at-risk virgins who are a part of my flock as well as the kingdom equation referred to in this parable? How do I speak the word of God when, in its sharpness, it is touching raw nerves and making the sheep jittery? I suppose I am asking, “How does Pastor simultaneously wear a kingdom hat and an institutional hat?
Currently, wearing no hat at all, with as much concern for for the virgins running out of oil as I am for those who do not even own their own lamps, I can only say with Jesus, Be on the alert! We do not know when the doorway into the kingdom banquet will be closed. Go yourself. Do not depend on another; not the pastor or the elder or the author. Go quickly and get your own oil! It is ultimately up to us, not the CEO/Pastor to fill up our lamps. Go. Acquire at all cost the oil of His Life.
I am deeply concerned that it is those of us attending churches depending on Pastor and his institution’s weekly or bi-weekly oil that Barna’s research and Jesus’ parable have identified as at great risk. While most church’s are focused on the lost outside their institution, I am wondering if God is not as concerned about his lost ones inside the church.
I just don’t understand how one would wear both of these hats without doing disservice to one or the other. How do you serve a radical kingdom and an institution that would prefer this particular nerve just be left alone?
Father, I am grateful my questions are no deterrent to you, that you are going to build your kingdom. I just want to ask you to hear my prayer for those of us who are entangled in this world and religion whose lamps are fading. Teach us to come to you personally and buy oil from you without money. Ween us from the spiritual welfare culture where we have grown dependent on others for our oil. Awaken our hearts to the immediacy of your presence in our lives; in your Word and in your Spirit. Let our personal relationships with you truly become personal. Reverse the findings of the pollster’s research. Let the interviews soon reveal the trends of an awakening Bride to the Groom’s Kingdom invitation into intimacy. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Feb 13, 2014 | 07. Devotion
I awakened this morning with one of the many thoughts competing for my attention being a question, “What does the conversation sound like between us and the Lord?” Truly, “what is that thing (or those things) that we are intentionally giving breath to and shaping into words and speaking privately to this One who is at our door continually?” Is there a private place? A time set aside for this conversation? Are there words actually being spoken? And if so, what is the reply?
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by RobertCummins | Feb 12, 2014 | 07. Devotion
The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 19:9 New English Translation
Every other translation I checked said that it was the heart, not the mind that was so deceitful. But even those translations go on in verse 10 to say that the Lord searches the mind and tries the heart. I believe it is safe to say that our hearts and minds are deeply connected and deeply infected. Looking at this passage (and all scripture for that matter) we see God’s problem with us. We have an incurable (at least at the time of this statement) habit of trusting in our own human strength and that of others. To God, this constitutes turning away from him. This condition is accompanied by a great curse.
Trusting in the flesh leaves us in a fog. Even the good things we have been given go unappreciated. Those trusting in their flesh are like plants with no root system. Isn’t this the essence of the heart that Jeremiah finds so incomprehensible, its propensity to leave God out of the equation? But there is hope;
My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me. They will be like a tree planted near a stream whose roots spread out toward the water. It has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought. It does not stop bearing fruit.
When the Lord searches the mind and tests the heart its not because he doesn’t know whats there. He takes us through this process so we will hopefully see and take responsibility for our misplaced trust, those places where we are trusting in our flesh or man in general.
The scriptures tell us that a young man rejoices in his strength. I recall that. I may be holding on to shreds of it still. But, this I know; there is far less cause for rejoicing at 61 than there was at 31. It was not only my physical strength I rejoiced in as a younger man. It was also my wits I used to think things through and my natural abilities I relied upon to get things done. The flesh is self-reliant. It has that I-can-do-it-myself quality about it (especially in religion). It is independent and proud while at the same time being terribly insecure, always trying to establish its identity, asserting its importance and vying for territory it can call its own. In the life of the devout we may often guard this sacred ground as our calling, our gifting or especially our vision.
It is my experience in following Christ that his searching and testing methods have involved allowing the moths and the rust to have their way with my fleshly agendas however hallowed I may think of them. The process has seemed utterly cruel to me but over three decades I have seen his wisdom in it. Had I not been in school with Christ through the years, my delusions would have been perpetuated about my own strength and I would have missed the prize which is God himself. He wanted to spare me from competing for the trophy with me standing on top so that I could gain Christ alone and learn to be content in Him regardless of my vision.
The process looks like Jacob and God wrestling where he lets us exhaust ourselves so that after the final round we leave with our flesh and human strength disabled (hopefully crucified with Him) as a memorial to the test. As these heart and mind-tests of discipleship play out we see others as those who do not appreciate our vision, who misunderstand us and our gifts. It will feel as though God is out to get us. He is but in a way that we don’t understand quite yet.
Father, your ways are, in certain seasons, painfully higher than our ways. Grant us perseverence to endure the tests that we might gain the prize. Purge the deceit from our hearts that we may be at peace and rest in you and within ourselves. Produce in us hearts and minds that are secure in their identities, free from the strife of our flesh; hearts that are satisfied in you alone. Help us to watch over our hearts with all diligence that the living water can overflow. Amen.
I deal with each person according to how he has behaved.I give them what they deserve based on what they have done. 11 The person who gathers wealth by unjust means is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them.Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.” Jeremiah Appeals to the Lord for Vindication 12 Then I said, “Lord, from the very beginning you have been seated on your glorious throne on high. You are the place where we can find refuge. 13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you will be consigned to the nether world. For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. 14 Lord, grant me relief from my suffering so that I may have some relief. Rescue me from those who persecute me so that I may be rescued.
