by RobertCummins | Feb 29, 2016 | 09. God's Voice
Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!” But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it. The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” John 3:13-14 MSG
I find it surprising that God Almighty, in his power and might, does not look down upon men and assert his authority to accomplish righteousness. In the way he engages us he appears more like a brother than a monarch. Jesus wants John to baptize him. John thinks this is a bad idea and Jesus gives him the space to say so! That God would position himself eye to eye with us in such a way that we could oppose him takes me by surprise.
God suffered with Israel throughout the centuries, endeavoring to establish righteousness in the earth through them, so I am also surprised by God’s continuing patience. He doesn’t twist John’s arm. He just explains that you need to do this my way so that you can do your part in ultimately putting all things right.
John the Baptist and his fellow Jews knew that God had once destroyed the earth with water due to unrighteousness. They knew that he had instructed their forefathers to utterly destroy unrighteous people groups. They knew he caused the earth to open up and swallow rebellious factions of their own people. If God was going to send His Spirit as his agent to earth in the form of an animal, what species do you think these Jews would anticipate, and what would they anticipate hearing from that creature’s voice? Given their backdrop, I would guess these weary religious people might anticipate the animal to be a Lion prepared to voice his strong displeasure with a loud and terrifying roar. At Christ’s baptism we are surprised as the Spirit comes as a dove, a gentle messenger of peace. This was consistent with the angelic visitation in Luke 2:
Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people…This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel…saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. Luke 2″10-14 NAS
While it seemed to be setting the stage for a God with centuries of pent up wrath, the Old Testament does nothing of the sort. Instead it delivers a God who comes to us as a servant, inviting us into his kingdom. This surprise was so great the chosen of God totally missed it.
Since I was once one of them, I believe there are many of us Christians who also see God as worn slick with our unrighteousness. We anticipate (some eagerly I think) God’s judgment. I wonder (because of my own experience) how much of this orientation toward judgment comes from hearts that are strangers (as mine was) to any affectionate in God’s voice.
This blog is frequently the story of how I have come to hear God’s voice differently. As a zealous disciple who, even on his best day, secretly felt that he was a disappointment to God, I was plagued with an image of myself that simply was incompatible with the one God had of me. After a challenging season where I was forced to take a deeper look into my heart, I experienced a fairly radical transformation at the heart level. One of the great upsides has been a surprising sense of God’s pleasure—his pleasure in me—and a renewed capacity to hear his approving voice.
It may seem very arrogant for some to hear me say this, but I am very sure that God feels about me the same way he does about Jesus. If he were introducing me, I feel certain I know what he would say, “This is my son Rob, chosen and marked by my love, a true delight to me.”
I can testify that living life wrapped up in his pleasure has truly been good news and a great joy to my soul. I now see that thing which I had called the fear of God, which drove me to work out my salvation in the wrong kind of fear and trembling, only produced dead religious works which were not the kind of sacrifice he was looking for.
From scripture and experience I have come to expect the Holy Spirit in ways that I would not expect. I am grateful that I am not rejected when, like John, I may initially protest because the tone or content of his voice is contrary to my understanding and expectations. He simply perseveres, never leaving nor forsaking me. To my surprise, he is greater than my ignorance and even my obstinance.
Father, continue to be your surprising self among your people. Take us off guard with your love and patience. Shock us with your initiatives. Succeed wildly in your end runs around our puny ideas. Overtake our earthly perspectives with your eternal wisdom and vindicate your truth now and forevermore. Allow the skies to open up above us and permit us to see you, not as we have perceived you, but as you actually are. Put things right by way of your love. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Mar 8, 2015 | 09. God's Voice
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me – to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
How many of us I wonder would (or have) opted out of the opportunity to be conduits for the perfected power of Christ in the earth because suffering and weakness were the unaaceptable traveling companions. Let’s be honest. The idea of suffering for a child of God just does not preach well. When was the last time you heard a speaker identify the sufferings of Job or Paul as unavoidable features of the victorious Christian Life? When they dare to be so biblically honest, the church attenders recoil….
“Messengers from Satan? No, no, no! We are covenant people therefore we are to be a blessed not a cursed people. Insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties? No Sir. Our lips will not confess these. We are called to be the head and not the tail! Get thee behind me thou confessor of negative outcomes!”
Were Job and Paul anomalies, exceptions that we can just sweep under the rug? Or, do their stories reveal truths (perhaps badly needed ones) that western christianity, in our prosperity and independence simply cannot swallow? Does a kingdom that requires one to take up his cross daily dovetail neatly with a national mindset that lauds the individual’s right to pursue personal happiness? Or, is the Spirit of Jesus Christ at cross-purposes with the spirit of the age that is so deeply rooted in our national psyche? Is it possible, as the prophets slept, that the father of lies has subtly westernized the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the American Dream?
I recently read Bonhoffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. It is a superb account of the rise to prominence of Adolph Hitler, a megalomaniac, and Dietrich Bonhoffer, a saint. It is not only fascinating history, it is has a sobering subplot involving the church. Germany was the birth place of the protestant reformation. The church and germany were tied at the hip. If ever there was a “Christian” nation, Germany was it, yet where was the church as the Nazis harassed, persecuted and ultimatley destroyed the weak, the undesirable and the non-Aryan citizens of their own country? The church as a whole was silent with the exception of a a very few voices crying in the wilderness, Dietrich Bonhoffer being one.
The religious gatekeepers of Germany were some of the world’s most elite theologians. They recognized Bonhoffer as brilliant but also as one having drifted from their pack. He had begun to think of the Christian life as this all-or-nothing experiential affair with Jesus and pointing to the very hard teachings of Jesus as the foundational underpinnings of that relationship. As time passed, his commitment to his national German religion faded in light of his ever deepening personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Sound familiar…”The things of earth (especially religion) grow strangely dim” I wonder if the german attenders of church and the members of the state Lutheran church were singing Turn Our Eyes Upon Jesus millions were marched into labor and death camps.
In his capacity as prophet, Bonhoffer dug even deeper. With his (now classic) The Cost of Discipleship , he introduced the phrase cheap grace. He also coined another phrase that drew fire – religionless christianity. He had found the bad roots of the great German religious tree that was felled without a sound by the ingenious Nazi propaganda machine. But it was too late. Bonhoffer was executed by Hitler, who took his own life three weeks later as the war ended in Europe. But like all true prophets, his voice has continued to reverberate in the spiritual realm where our hearts operate. May those present age prophets arise, those who will steward these vibrations and sustain these notes.
The sobering aspect of this story involves the larger spiritual warfare over Germany. What lies had the dark principalities and powers sown into that nation that would allow them to be taken in by a madman? Where our American DNA is composed of independence and the personal right to pursue liberty and happiness, the Germans were driven by a wounded and offended national pride. Their national self-image was that of a noble and good people, capable of much self sacrifice for their nation (of which Lutheranism was inseparable). This was the piper’s song. Using these national themes, Hitler duped the church into thinking he was one of them. By the time they discovered the masquarade it was too late, they had surrendered their freedoms to the wrong master and the wrong kingdom.
A few questions. If Bonhoffer could have published the Cost of Discipleship earlier, would the church have embraced it and this gospel he was preaching where grace did not have costs associated with it rather implications; where following Jesus would require that one grapple first hand with Jesus’ harder words such as hating one’s mother and father and selling all? What would it have taken for the German church to have resisted the ancient foe who sought to work them woe? Why did they not see the right man on their side, that man of God’s own choosing? How did a world of devils undo Germany? Sadly, Luther’s hymn gives the answer as well… Germany, in her own (theological and national) strength did not confide in the right man and therefore her striving was her loosing.
So, what is the difference between the church of mid-20th century Germany and the 21st Century church of America? Is it our superior theological foundation and religious resumé that has kept our judgement at bay? Or, is it just that we have not been backed into a national economic corner yet as Germany had been, where it becomes too late to exercise our powers to choose righteousness? I am inclined to think its the latter. This is why….
Paul had grown content with his very un-blessed (at least by our standards) looking life, satisfied that, in light of the prize, relatively speaking, there was literally no cost to following Jesus, only a current joy and peace with infinite union with God waiting to swallow up the momentary painful consequences of grace without which faith goes underdeveloped.
Many of us who think of ourselves as Christian are still busy fine tuning our rights to comfort and blessing. Paying the price of surrendering title to his national Jewish identity and his reputation, forfeiting his right to pursue independence and personal happiness, none of these things would even register as a cost to Paul in light of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. This was Paul. What about us? We really need to decide for ourselves if Paul was an anomaly or an example.
Father, may we in the west expose the principalities and powers who, with cruel hate, manipulate the masses and even the church with customized deceit. Where mortal ills prevail and a flood of evil threatens may grace prevail all the more. May we recall that you have willed that your truth will triumph through us. Helps us to let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. Help us to always remember that Jesus, it is you, Lord from age to age the same, and that you shall win the battle. May our hearts faithfully note that Satan’s doom is sure and that one little word shall fell him.
Help us to cede title to you of these mortal lives we so overvalue so that we too like Paul might be messengers of revelation, we– who are becoming that one little word which shall fell him.
Help us to become those who can say, “Your grace is sufficient for us” so that we might be those who demonstrate that Satan was never your equal. Help us to recover the Spirit and the gifts which are ours and vindicate you as our Mighty Fortress and a bulwark never failing; that your truth abides still and that your kingdom is forever. Amen
Megalomania is a psychopathological disorder characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. “Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs.
by RobertCummins | Mar 7, 2015 | 09. God's Voice
1 Samuel 3:1-21
This passage tells the story of Samuel as a young boy who was serving Eli in the Temple. The Lord called to him four times, “Samuel, Samuel.” When Eli helped him realize it was God, not him, who had been calling his name, God spoke to young Samuel that the house of Levi was about to fall. This was one heavy starter-word for the boy-prophet. At the time of this word, Samuel’s maturity was described like this;
This all happened before Samuel knew God for himself. It was before the revelation of God had been given to him personally.
Eli, in spite of his paternal errors, was not void of wisdom. In fact he gave Samuel the council that positioned him to hear God’s voice personally. He instructed Samuel, if God speaks his name again to respond, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.” This little story was the beginning of big things for Samuel and the nation of Israel. Of Samuel it was said;
Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.
As I read the scriptures, it is clear, God is sovereign. Yet, I also see him involving men along the way in the execution of his plans. In both the old and the new testaments, the prophet was one who God regularly involved in the administration of his affairs. Yet sadly, much of the body of Christ today has written this gift off as an artifact from an ancient dispensation. As one who has lived for three and half decades along side this gift, this amazes and saddens me.
I believe the New Testament is a living and active reference point for life in the Spirit not just an historical account of the unique things God did to inaugurate the Christian religion. Admittedly, prophetic types can come off odd at times, particularly the religious ones who seem to hear more judgement in God’s voice than mercy. However, there are so many legitimate prophetic voices. Regrettably they and the gift of prophet suffer a credibly loss because grace-deprived prophetic voices still get much air play. Bad public relations from the Prophetic Department, dispensational thinking and an Old Testament Heart led a sweet godly sola scriptura women I know say, “The bible instructs that the erring prophet must be stoned!” I believe she was prepared to pick up a stone should the need present itself. Yikes!
Where grace has not yet converted servants into sons and daughters, those wielding their gifts tend to use them as bludgeons. Big sticks have failed to graduate anyone from a bond slaves to friend-and-son status. For these, even though born again, love has not yet fully converted their hearts. Whether its the grace-deprived preacher or the prophet, for then it will remain man’s impossibly wicked heart and the judgment he deserves which serves as the central theme of their messages.
To discern the spirit behind the prophetic voice, ask yourself, “Is this person speaking down at me from some platform of superiority?” “Is this word tainted with frustration?” “Is the speaker attempting to guilt me into God’s service?” “Does his words feel like a whip or a cattle prod from behind?” If the answer to these questions are yes, you should strongly consider that this is an immature messenger of God who still perceives God as primarily angry with us as opposed to delighted.
The prophetic gift was bequeethed to the body of Christ to be an encouragement in our battle and provide wisdom in our mission. Mature and effectual prophets know that God is affectionately and patiently disposed toward mankind and especially his children. The credible prophet approaches everyone with the assumption that God has something alive and encouraging to impart. The mature prophetic gift assumes that God is in a good mood, that he hasn’t lost control of the cosmos. In other words – fallen man, in his depravity, is not going to succeed in shipwrecking the will go God). The mature prophet lives and speaks out of the assumption that for every situation (individual or corporate) there is always a redemptive opportunity embedded in the circumstances, however bleak they may appear to the natural eye.
Perhaps, most importantly, healthy prophets live and breathe the air of the new covenant. Their constructive prophetic words flows out of the assumption that the deepest truth about God’s children is not their fallen nature; rather its their new nature. This absolutely changes everything!
Sin is an issue but it is not a natural and inevitable outcome for a born-again person! Even if the sin is habitual, that does not prove that the christian’s heart is primarilly depraved. As likely as not, it is likely deprived, bereft of the gracious words that can restore it to it’s kingdom identity as a new creation, a beloved child and friend of God’s.
More than likely, the defeated heart is just a conditioned heart – a heart trained to think of itself as one sentenced to fighting a loosing battle with the identity of a depraved, pitiful old sinner, lucky to be saved by grace, (“praise the Lord”), to make it to heaven some day. (sarcasm intended) The mind of the religiously-conditioned plays out like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The tape running in the head says, “I am just a sinner, so in a sense, what could be more natural for me, than to sin. Thank God, Christ will forgive me. Come soon Lord Jesus and rescue me from my guilt and this hopeless battle!” Having fought the battle with my identity rooted in fallenness and with my identity rooted, more deeply yet, in Christ, I highly recommend the latter!
There have been prophetic words that have dramatically effected my life. None of them came from 100% purely refined prophets. (There is no such thing.) However imperfect, the prophetic voices I have come to trust all operate with the foundational assumption that God still speaks and that he likes to speak to us.
I believe that the prophetic gift is alive and well and just like the gift of teaching, preaching, or evangelist it is always being refined. We need the encouragement of the prophet. Those with a flow of prophecy live with the same instructions Eli imparted to Samuel, restated as the perpetual request of their hearts “Speak, Lord, for I am listening.”
Perhaps, if we who have limited God to the bible only for revelation would approach him in humility, he would allow us to recover this precious gift for more of the body of Christ. Perhaps as it finds its way into the sola scriptura camps, it might operate with greater responsibility and effectiveness in that context where the scriptures are held in high regard.
Father, I cannot help but grieve that there are divisions in the body of Christ over things as fundamental as the gifts of your Spirit. Grant us repentance for rejecting things that we can’t understand and therefore cannot control. Grant us humility to recognize the vast and mysterious space of your great heart that cannot be accessed through books, only by your Spirit and the revelation He grants. Awaken us to our capacity as agents of personal encouragement and revelation. Just as you inspired the written word, help us to see ourselves as those upon whom and through whom you might breathe your revelation. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Mar 6, 2015 | 09. God's Voice
1 Kings 19:1-13
To My Precious Grandchildren (Gracyn, Hallie, Sullivan and Hudson)
One day you will be old enough to read what Crank Pop (see yesterday’s MwM post) wrote to you on February 27, 2014. In the event that you ever wonder what made my grandpa (or great grandpa) tick, I will give you a hint by explaining why I write.
When I am writing I am learning. Forcing myself to grasp something well enough to express it in words takes me through a process of thought and consideration that helps me take some ownership of the concepts (which is essential if I am to live them out). I think of writing as meditation with a crutch. It may even be more appropriate to just call my ramblings rumination in print. I would encourage you to experiment with writing to see what it might yield, I will share how I typically go about it most mornings.
As I think about this process, I realize that I am always reading scripture on two levels and that the activity on those levels is underway concurrently. I will start by describing what I percieve to be going on at the level of my mind. I will typically read a passage through several times often in different translations. At the outset I am just trying to get the story straight. Years of doing inductive bible study engrained the habit of asking lots of questions such as; Who’s is speaking? Who are they speaking to? What are these people’s circumstances? What is the relationship of the speaker to his audience? What has prompted this communication? These questions always produce more questions – new trails to follow. Because there are typically so many, the trick becomes choosing the right ones.
Even though the process feels a bit mechanical at first, it quickly changes as things, at a deeper level, kick in. At this level, which I will call my spirit, things are more personal than academic. In this space, between the Lord and myself there is an understanding (more keenly on his side than mine no doubt) that my heart belongs to him and because of this he has permission in advance to question, reprove, teach, encourage and train me with his Truth.
When I think about scripture, I don’t think of it as just being truthful. I think that narrow way of thinking about it allows it to be co-opted by the-powers-that-be (the world, the flesh & the devil) to use in their classic right-versus-wrong ploy. They probably don’t sleep but if they did the demons probably wake up and plan their first meal. Perhaps Wormwood asks the team, “Among our assignments today, how can we best divide men from God and from each other?” With a proud smirk, some hungry specter weighs in, “I make a proposal we use Our Father Below’s proven right versus wrong ploy.” The demons all bow in mock reverence and say, “Amen brother”. They know exactly where they will be dining for lunch – the local church – a place that has provided (in their defense of doctrinal purity) a steady diet of proud and wounded rigid wineskins for centuries.
Later that day around the table, dining contentedly on the decaying remnants of religious flesh, Slimejob comments, “You know, I don’t know that I have tasted anything quite so exquisite since Caiaphas. I just love the almost-crunchy texture.”
Dear Grandkiddos, this why your Crank Pop has called his blog In The Middle With Mystery. Having formerly lived as one in-the-middle (the bullseye in fact)-with-certainty, I became more comfortable of thinking of myself as being in the middle with Christ – the Mystery of the Ages from whom I have traced my linage, have found my identity and am pursuing my destiny, which is very simply union with Him.
While it sounds profoundly noble, Mystery , the Person – the first born of a new race of men, puts doctrinal purity in an entirely different light. It is not that I have completely devalued the defense of doctrinal purity as a valid undertaking, it is just that in itself “doctrinal purity” has never changed a single life. It has only set the table for a demonic-religious feeding frenzy where we (the doctrinally pure) are the main course. No, the idea of Truth as a mere systematic theology, a collection of principles by which we must live is a sad parody of Life in Christ. An organized collection of beliefs is a way-to-rigid and static understanding of Truth. When we awake in the morning we must instead think of the Truth as both present and alive, a Person to whom we are now related.
So, the scriptures for me are inspired by way of their nature (their DNA) which is Truth. However, since I am a descendent of Adam and have lived in a world hostile to God, my thinking is not completely accurate or true. Where I am still believing half-truths (and even blatant lies) I am not yet free. At this personal level, between my spirit and God’s, there is a process of liberation underway. He came to set captives (like you and I) free, and it is Jesus, the Truth who is our Way and my Life (our core DNA). All this to say, the mechanical first steps I take are just an introduction into the spirit-to spirit communion with God we were created for. With these thoughts serving as the backdrop, even the academic part takes on more meaning because I know from experience how frequently this digging process uncovers Life, the priceless treasure which we already possess.
This will help put the kibosh (a term I like for destroying a lie) on the idea of a quiet time with God as some quid pro quo arrangement where we are obligated to ingest massive dosages of little “t” BIble truth in order to produce a meaningful relationship with God. While this idea, on the surface, initially looks and smells right, and is broadly marketed in many a religious franchises as the way to God, it is in fact a toxic half -truth which when divorced from the greater and more mysterious realities we are caught up in, will not lead you to Jesus, Our Way, Our Truth, our Life.
As those who, even now, are living and moving and having our being in God, operating with the assumption that God knows where we are, that He is good and that He is intentional, I just assume He is speaking to me always through His (in-print and in-sprit) Word. Somehow I discover as I read (with my heart and my head), that word of scripture relates to me because it and I (with my new heart) share the same DNA. So, as things are whirring on two levels, I am also asking, “What do I have in common with the people in the narrative I am interacting with?”
There may be a great fork in the road for some at this point. The pure academic might shun that question, thus choosing the path where revelation hinges upon refined understanding of the original languages. They may require much deeper understanding of the historical context before they dare think that the scriptures might personally yield them any holy treasure. This is typically not the path I take because…
Christ’s disciples were not scholars. In fact, if you look for scholars and trained seminarians in the early church, you will hurt your eyes. Jesus himself was a common man. He spoke a common man’s dialect. It feels quite awkward to say this, but Jesus was not an educated man (in the formal sense). Yet, even from his honest and boyish heart came questions and insights that held even the scholarly priests spellbound. All this to say, I operate with the assumption that Truth has not been reserved for academics. It was always intended to be accessible to common men who were inclined to obey it, to discover its Author, not just committed to study it to death. It was always about the spirit, not the letter.
When I think about the inspiration of scripture, a historically accurate book filled with truthful moral principles is not what first comes to my mind. While these things are certainly true, I think of scripture being inspired in the dynamic sense of a catalyst – something that sets my spirit in motion and propels it along a pathway of discovery. It is not just information to log away in my data storage which I may accesses on an as-needed-basis in order to live a moral, profitable or functional life. No, by virtue of its spirit-nature it awakens and stirs the spirit Life (and nature) that is already in us.
Within the well-settled Christian camps there seems to be a great divide. One camp leans hard on formal academics. The thought for these folks having anything other than a seminary grad feeding the flock their weekly or bi-weekly ration would be practically unthinkable. Other camps, often filled with travelers less inclined to read, think or study, will read the bible but would not feel they have in any way been locked out of the inner sanctuary of Truth for want of academics. These believers may be inclined to trust the inner promptings of the Spirit without much attention to the bible. Their are errors-a-plenty in this direction as well. Been there done that kiddos.
I have wondered if when Jesus said that he was seeking those who would worship him in spirit and in truth if he did not mean that he was looking for those who recognize how God had made them with both a soul and a spirit, beings designed to listen to God’s voice with these two vital dimensions within them working in concert, where both the cognitive and intuitive are in play, where the objective and subjective are in balance. I have wondered if this idea was ever realized on a broader scale if it would not bring much healing in the Body of Christ where rigid, religious black and white thinking has wounded and isolated so many.
If our circumstances find us, like Elijah, collapsed beneath the broom brush, intimidated and without motivation to proceed, perhaps God would say to us, “Get up and eat.” and then even, “Get up and eat some more.” Perhaps we have expected to hear God in some dramatic way. He certainly has been known to speak in that tone! That being true, let’s not rule out the possibility, that, in his faithfulness, he has been speaking to us all along from his place of residence within. I am encouraging my community of spiritual friends to experiment with reading and writing as one means (a means) of hearing God’s voice. Perhaps we will hear it in the same tone Elijah finally heard it – in a subtle whisper. Maybe the answer to us when we are in the doldrums (aka; depression) is simply, “Rise and feed yourself.” I am proposing for some, perhaps even you, that your pen (as it has with me) will become your fork.
Love,
Crank Pop
Father, May we learn to feed ourselves and live by all the words that have proceeded and shall proceed from your mouth. Help us to personally make your words our words, your thought our thoughts. May the living word of God pierce our hearts. May it subdue and conquer the traditions of men that we have exalted in our hearts above your words. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Mar 4, 2015 | 09. God's Voice
This was written in February 25th of 2014 and updated today; March 4th 2015. The main point of editing today was the conversion of MwM from an “I“- reference to a “we”-reference. This was due to my discovery of a community that I had not seen in existence in 2014. Not that it wasn’t there, I just had not seen it yet.
Exodus 3:1-15
Yesterday, my fourth grandchild was born reminding me of one of the reasons I began writing. I simply wanted to let my children’s children and their children know who I was. Arrogant? Presumptuous? Whatever the motive, it felt primal. Even though I knew my grandparents, (and even one set of great grandparents), I really didn’t know them, at least not as I would have liked. I have found myself wishing that I knew how my family thought – to have been able to read some of their letters and listen in on more of their conversations. I would have truly loved to know their dreams and their prayers. I would have liked to know what had broken their hearts and what had helped them to heal (or, as was the case in my family, prevented them from healing). These are the types of things that reveal who a person really is. My interviews have yielded some of the where’s and the what’s but I really wanted to know more of the why’s behind things, you might say “the rest of the story” or the “back” story.
So…Dear Grandson (more specifically “HUDson”), today’s words are for you and our progeny.
A year ago, I think I was being recruited to write an adult teaching curriculum for a local church. Today, in retrospect I’m not really sure what that was. To this date I am still thinking, “Really?!” I am not sure if the recruiter knew how unqualified I was (by their tribe’s standards of “teacher” to be a teacher of their teachers. The users of this curriculum would have likely been more biblically literate than I. Just because a person has been generating hundreds of words a day of devotional thoughts and story does not necessarily qualify them as a teacher (in the sense that they might think of one.). I might in fact be a crank. I have folks near and dear to me who are concerned I am headed for full-blown crank status with my so-called walk with Jesus outside the confines or organized Christianity. Ouch. I’m telling you, that’ll make an owie for sure!
Most teachers are very dedicated to supporting their assertions of truth with bible passages. I think of this as propositional truth. Propositional truth is the stuff of which convictions are made. Convictions regarding propositional truths can and frequently are proclaimed without a trace of love for others. This type of proclaiming is all about being right. Even though it is done with ardent zeal, without real time stories of resurrection life as its byproduct, this type of proclaiming is not much more than whistling in the dark and yet it is the hallowed centerpiece of the shrinking community we know of as western evangelical Christianity. The academically refined proclamation of propositional truth can be nothing more than a fear-based noise which is wholly discordant with Father’s heart. I speak as the former chief of whistlers.
Here in the MwM community, while honoring the scripture, we believe we are called to also make assertions of truth with our lives. This is what story means to us -the living-outcome of being personally discipled by Jesus – the reporting of Christ’s resurrected spirit doing his inside-out transformational work in us – the living stones with which he is building. The evidence that authentic discipleship (i.e. walking with Jesus) is actually happening is that His Word, which first appears to most of us as proposition is becoming actual life through faith.
Based on the absence of it in the models of proclamation I have sampled, the idea of our stories as valid vehicles of proclamation is apparently taught in seminaries as heretical practice #1. FYI: Seminaries are the place where institutional leaders are trained to learn and defend the propositional tenants of our faith. They come out of seminary with some degree of mastery of propositional truth. Typically with zeal they launch into their mission to train up other faithful men in doing the same as they (if that is even possible with mere laymen). I often think what might Jesus have accomplished if only we would have had seminaries. (some sarcasm intended.)
Jesus’ understanding of discipleship was (and is) radically discordant with our traditions and practices. First of all he left. Then he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell us. The reality of His indwelling Spirit making us new creations in Christ, the process of living life in him, through him and with him, being remade into his image, these are the engines of resurrection life stories. This is living-truth. It trumps the proclaiming of propositional-doctrinal truth. Living-Truth – the Word made flesh in us is the back story the world and creation has longed (and is longing) to see -the stories which evidence the claims of propositional truths. Many people are worn slick of hearing. They want to see! Imagine that! And we wonder why our churches are shrinking?
I know my light is not infallible or exhaustive, but it is mine and it is bright enough to bring a smile to my heart where there was once a frown. In MwM, we are just giving an account of the living hope that is in us by virtue, I believe, of the initiatives of the great I AM, the main character in our passage today and whom I believe is the main character in the story of my life and yours as well.
There are sovereign fingerprints all over our stories which we can discover with just a bit of help. They are especially evident in Moses’ story. He was born to a slave women, spared from death and rescued by royalty. He jumps the gun on his destiny, killing an Egyptian, becomes a fugitive and a sojourner and is miraculously intercepted by God, hearing the commissioning voice of the great I AM. The stories of some (Why? I can only speculate.) take on some dramatic twists and turns. Mine was no exception. The enemies days will be numbered when the children learn how to do show-and-tell (in that order). aka; doing Life.
Moses and my pedigree were very different. Where he was the child of a slave, I was born into a prominent family. Our departures from our native land had some similarities though. He fled his homeland because he had destroyed an Egyptian in a fight. I fled mine because I felt I had destroyed my reputation with a shameful life. (I didn’t know it at the time but I was also deeply wounded and was towering inferno-angry with everything and everybody in my little town.) However, like Moses, I eventually had a revelation of God as a sojourner in a land of strangers. I don’t know how far Median was from Egypt but Tulsa, where my bush blazed, is a just a 2 hour drive east of my home town. But man was it ever full of strangers!
In his encounter Moses was commissioned to liberate his Egyptian relatives from their slavery to Pharaoh. In my encounter I was commissioned, as I perceive all of Christ’s followers were, to liberate captives from their bondage to sin and lead them by word and example into the promised land of kingdom life. I have at least one more thing in common with Moses. I too jumped the gun on my destiny.
While I was powerfully converted to Christ, a bona fide prodigal son, I very quickly learned a christian lifestyle of elder brother–doing and complying and comparing. The doing became my identity. I became the great I-DO. My identity became entangled and dependent on this doing. Some of this was driven by a deep desire to salvage my reputation, especially in the eyes of my father. The combination of an insecure identity and an unlimited opportunity of great commission-service is a perfect formula for creating an elder brother (aka; a religious spirit) who can dutifully execute his discipleship do-list. The condition of my orphaned heart and the opportunity of religious service made for a perfect storm for religious bondage. Amazingly God was in the midst of this maelstrom! I learned that old stiff religious wineskins cannot hold new wine and they cannot fulfill their kingdom destiny of entering the promised kingdom or leading others there.
To my new precious grandson (and all your kin), I mostly want to tell you that you too have a story to experience and it is no less important than Moses’ story was because it is God who is at work writing it. Moses had his mission and you will have yours. It may be high visibility like his or it may simply be working in virtual anonymity within your chosen vocation, side by side as a lifeline to others who have not yet gained their freedom.
Moses had his burning bush and so shall you. There are no two of them alike. You were created in the image of God so the unique tinder for that holy flame resides within you. At just the right time and place, I AM will personally blow on his image in you and it will burst into a flame of some form of awareness. At that point take your shoes off and acknowledge that I AM, out of love, is calling your name.
Learn to be still. Learn to make space. Learn to think and pray and laugh and sing, knowing that you are enclosed by the underlying and overarching goodness of God. You too shall be an agent of freedom. May you, like your Teacher, succeed in leading many into their destines and their promised lands. I look forward to watching as the chapters are added to your story. Special reminder; the Author of Life is brilliant and has a knack for surprising changes within a story. Note; Calling Jesus Lord is giving advance permission to the author to make those changes in your story as he sees fit. Seize your adventure! May the Lord bless you and keep you Hud. (and Sully, Gracyn and Hallie. OMG you guys were cute!) Love always and forever!
Your Crank-Pop (boy does that ever looks funny in print!)
Father, I pray for my children and grandchildren and all those whose names are written in your book of Life. Would you breathe on our inner flames, further igniting our faith. While we know we have all we need in Christ, we also know there is much more. We have tasted and seen that you are good and we unapologetically and boldly proclaiming our eagernness to meet you in even greater power an intimacy. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Mar 2, 2015 | 09. God's Voice
Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!” But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it. The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” MSG
I find it surprising that God Almighty, in his power and might, does not look down upon men and assert his authority to accomplish righteousness. In the way he engages us he appears more like a brother than a monarch. Jesus wants John to baptize him. John thinks this is a bad idea and Jesus gives him the space to say so! That God would position himself eye to eye with us in such a way that we could oppose him takes me by surprise.
God has suffered with Israel throughout the centuries, endeavoring to establish righteousness in the earth through them so I am also surprised by God’s continuing patience. He doesn’t twist John’s arm. He just explains that you need to do this my way so that you can do your part in ultimately putting all things right.
John the baptist and his fellow Jews knew that God had once destroyed the earth with water due to unrighteousness. They knew that he had instructed their forefathers to utterly destroy unrighteous people groups. They knew he caused the earth to open up and swallow rebellious factions of their own people. If God was going to send His Spirit as his agent to earth, what animal do you think these Jews would anticipate him to come as and what would you guess they would anticipate hearing from that creature’s voice? Given their backdrop, I would guess these weary religious people might anticipate the animal to be a Lion prepared to voice his strong displeasure with a loud and terrifying roar. At his baptism we are surprised again as the Spirit comes as a dove, a gentle messenger of peace. This was consistent with the angelic visitation in Luke 2;
Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people….This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel …..saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.
While it seemed to be setting the stage for a God with centuries of pent up wrath, the old testament does nothing of the sort. Instead it delivers a God who comes to us as a servant, inviting us into his kingdom. This surprise was so great the chosen of God totally missed it.
Since I was once one of them, I believe there are many of us Christians who also see God as worn slick with our unrighteousness. We anticipate (some eagerly I think) God’s judgement. I wonder (because of my own experience) how much of this orientaton toward judgement comes from hearts, as mine was, that are strangers to any affectionate content or tone in God’s voice.
This blog is frequently the story of how I have come to hear God’s voice differently. As a zealous disciple who, even on his best day, secretly felt that he was a disappointment to God, I was plagued with an image of myself that simply was incompatible with the one God had of me. After a challenging season where I was forced to take a deeper look into my heart, I experienced a fairly radical transformation at the heart level. One of the great upsides has been the surprising sense of God’s pleasure in me and a renewed capacity to hear his approving voice.
It may seem very arrogant for some to hear me say this but I am very sure that God feels about me the same way he does about Jesus. If he were introducing me I feel certain I know what he would say,
“This is my son Rob, chosen and marked by my love, a true delight to me.”
I can testify that living life wrapped up in his pleasure has truly been good news and a great joy to my soul. I now see that thing which I had called the fear of God which drove me to work out my salvation in the wrong kind of fear and trembling, only produced dead religious works which were not the kind of sacrifice he was looking for.
From scripture and experience I have come to expect the Holy Spirit to come in ways that I would not expect. I am grateful that I am not rejected when, like John, I may initially protest because the tone or content of his voice is contrary to my understanding and expectations. He simply perseveres, never leaving nor forsaking me. To my surprise, he is greater than my ignorance and even my obstinate nature.
Father, continue to be your surprising self among your people. Take us off guard with your love and patience. Shock us with your initiatives. Succeed wildly in your end runs around our puny ideas. Overtake our earthly perspectives with your eternal wisdom and vindicate your truth now and forever more. Allow the skies to open up above us and permit us to see you not as we have perceived you but as you actually are. Put things right by way of your love. Amen.
