Devotion (Tuesday) – 2 Peter 1:3-11

by | Feb 11, 2014 | 07. Devotion

One of Jesus’ slaves, in this case Peter, is offering others who are sharing in a faith equal to his, a  condensed summary of how to live as Christian. Parts of this passage are very popular; perhaps most familiar is, “he has given us…his precious and wonderful promises.” Oh how we love his promises. Let’s look at just three of them.  In verse 3; “God has bestowed on us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness.” Verse 4; “..that you may become partakers of his divine nature.”  And vs 11; “ You will have, richly laid out before you, an entrance into the kingdom of God’s coming age, the kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus the Messiah.”

In our modern day the gospel has been corrupted with some ideas that need to be addressed if we are to ever radiate much light. One of them is the idea that Peter was a slave, but we are just believers. Peter was called to build the church. We are called to just attend one. Without buildings and programs to attend, this idea would have been nonsensical to Peter’s audience. It should be ludicrous to us as well. I believe Peter’s audience not only shared in a faith that was equal to his but also in a clear understanding that, “We are no longer our own masters. We have been bought with an exceedingly high price. We too are bond-slaves of Jesus Christ.”

I believe that is why we pick and choose the verses that appeal to us the most. It is those among us who remain their own master who omit the guts of this passage, verses 5-10:

So, because of this, you should strain every nerve to supplement your faith with virtue, and your virtue with knowledge, and your knowledge with self control, and your self control with patience, and your patience with piety, and your piety with family affection, and your family affection with love. If you have these things in plentiful supply, you see, you will not be wasting your time, or failing to bear fruit, in relation to your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ  the Messiah. Someone who doesn’t have these things, in fact is so short-sighted as to be actually blind, and has forgotten what it means to be cleansed from earlier sins. So, my dear family, you must make the effort all the more to confirm that God has called you and chosen you. If you do this, you will never trip up. 

As a very young believer, I did trip up one weekend. The sense of betrayal I felt was intense because I had experienced the power of God in my conversion and had enjoyed his presence for many weeks. As I sought his forgiveness, he spoke to me in the clearest, most profoundly intimate way imaginable saying, “In your life you are going to fall many times but if you will reach up to me, I will never fail to rescue you.” As I wept and laughed and rejoiced (as I was driving) something was deeply reinforced between God and myself. It was, “I am his and he is mine.”

The next time I fell and was bogged down in the mire of darkened thoughts such as excuses and rationalizations, I didn’t just wait for God to reach down and lift me up. I had to reach up, as he had instructed me, and this was more than just asking. His rescues always involve the thinking and the choosing associated with faith, knowledge, self control, patience and love.  As his son, this is how I confirmed that he had indeed chosen and called me. In this reaching up my hand, I experienced the promises we looked at. I discovered he really had bestowed sufficient divine power to get up and resume the journey and that he really had richly laid out a kingdom before me to inherit. 

I do not know how God will do this but somehow the roles of Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord must be reconnected for western christianity to ever radiate much light. I do not believe that Christ ever intended there to be a track for the called and super zealous disciples and a seperate one for those who just believe and attend a local church. Peter clearly explains that the divine life of God with us is evidenced by a merger of our faith and our will power that produces a vigorous and intentional lifestyle. He concludes by saying, the presence of this lifestyle is how his called ones assure their hearts of their calling as well as have a rich entrance into the kingdom of God.

Father, let those prophets emerge in the body of Christ with their grace filled words of correction. Let the stock of those who only preach the appealing promises drop. Let our hearts be incised with the scalpel of your word cutting away any delusions we may be entertaining about our faith. May your Word and Spirit prevail in our hearts. Amen

Devotion (Monday) – Colossians 2:1-7

by | Feb 10, 2014 | 07. Devotion

 

                                                The Sufficiency of God’s Mystery

At some level Paul may have 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 their hearts maintain a watchful rest where they are encouraged and grateful. How are they to do this? First of all he wants them to acknowledge that they are a body; that they have 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 more concrete elementary principles of the world, ideas that derive from human tradition that appeal to the natural and un-renewed mind instead of toward Christ Himself – the only thing they really need. Anything added to this simple theology was to Paul a dangerous heresy.  Paul, along with all spiritual fathers was (and is) at war with all the things God’s children attempt to bolt on to their theology hoping to bring heaven down to earth.

What Paul is continually trying to say is that, in Christ, heaven has 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 we need for 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 us 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 that is the hope of glory. 

It seems God has worked overtime in my heart to loosen all the nuts to my bolt-on theologies so that he could detach them and help me to see that He alone is my Life and 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 blessed unbolting process that God has underwritten in my life.  As I have found myself 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 your processes and your 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. Open our hearts to the beauty and simplicity of this mystery. For our joy and your name’s sake. So be it.