God’s Voice (Sunday) – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

by RobertCummins | Mar 2, 2014 | 09. God's Voice

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.

There are few believers I know who would not welcome the idea of being strong and being a conduit for the perfected power of Christ in the earth. Unfortunately, there are probably fewer yet who would accept suffering and weakness, as Paul did, as conditions for that power. 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 Job or Paul as examples of Christian living? If we were so fortunate this voice in the wilderness, many would protest……

“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. We will not confess this. We are called to be the head and not the tail! Get thee behind me!”

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 just finished reading 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 birthing 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 were they as the Nazis harassed, persecuted and ultimatley destroyed the weak, the undesirable and the non-Aryan citizens of their own country? They were 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 drifting from their pack. He had begun to think of the Christian life as this all or nothing affair and teaching on the very hard sayings of Jesus. As time passed, his commitment to his national German religion faded in light of his ever deepening personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

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. 

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). These were the lyrics to 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 had a cost associated with it; where following him would require one to hate his mother and father and sell 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 20the century Germany and the church in America today? Is it our superior theological foundation and religious resume 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….

While Paul has grown content with his very un-blessed looking life, satisfied that, in light of the prize, there is really no cost, relatively speaking of following Jesus, most of us 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. 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.

God’s Voice (Saturday) – 1 Samuel 3:1-21

by RobertCummins | Mar 1, 2014 | 09. God's Voice

This passage tells the story of Samuel as young boy who, at the time, 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 a heavy word for a young boy. 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 error, was not void of wisdom. In fact he imparted the council to Samuel that positioned Samuel to hear God’s for himself. 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 does seem that God is sovereign and gets done what he intends to get done. Yet, I also see God involving men along the way as he goes about his business. 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 a static historical account of the unique things God did to inaugurate the Christian religion. While the prophetic types can be spooky, particularly the religious ones whose ability to hear God’s Voice is impaired for want of grace, there are so many legitimate prophetic voices that suffer from the abuse of a few.  (If you do not think there is distance between the camps, I actually heard a sweet godly sola scriptura women say, “The bible instructs that the erring prophet must be stoned!” Yikes!)

Where grace has not yet converted servants into sons (and daughters), those wielding their gifts tend to use them as bludgeons. Those wielding their big sticks have failed to graduate from bond slaves to friends. For these, even though born again, love has not yet fully converted their hearts. Whether its the grace-deprived preacher or the prophet, it will remain man’s impossibly wicked heart and the judgment he deserves, that serves as the central theme of their messages.

To discern the spirit behind the gift, ask yourself,  “Is this person speaking down at me from a 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 an immature messenger of God who still perceives God as primarily angry with his children 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. Effective 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 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 not a natural expression or outcome of a born-again person! Even if the sin is habitual, that does not prove that the christian’s heart is primarilly depraved. More likely, it is simply deprived! Deprived of  gracious words that can restore people to their kingdom identities as new creations, beloved children and friends.

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 (biblical?) identity of a depraved, pitiful old sinner, lucky to be saved by grace and qualified, “praise the Lord”, to make it to heaven some day. Speaking of prophecy. The mind of the religiously-conditioned plays out like a self-fulfilling prophecy; “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 this hopeless battle!” Having fought the battle with my identity rooted in fallenness and with my identity rooted, more deeply yet, in my new nature, 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 types I know operate out out of the assumption that God is speaking 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 or preaching, 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 there where the scriptures are a strong and needed underpinning.

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.

God’s Voice (Friday) – Isaiah 6:1-13

by RobertCummins | Feb 28, 2014 | 09. God's Voice

Dear Friends and Family,

As always, my words will make so much more sense if you can read the daily passage. What I write is nearly always provoked by the daily passage. I try and write in what I perceive as the spirit of the author’s intentions.

We each have a story to tell and whether we see it yet or not, its an important one! It is God’s desire that we recognize his authorship in our narrative. It his desire that we understand how he goes about writing upon our hearts so that we are not robbed of the glorious pleasure of this adventure.  Our understanding is also important so that the publication of our stories is not unnecessarily postponed. (After all, their are potential readers all around us!) (more…)

God’s Voice (Thursday) – 1 Kings 19:1-13

by RobertCummins | Feb 27, 2014 | 09. God's Voice

To My Precious Grandchildren (Gracyn, Hallie, Sullivan and Hudson)

One day you will be old enough to read what your Pop wrote to you on February 27, 2014. In the event that you ever wonder what made my 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 would call my spirit, things are more personal than academic. Between the Lord and myself, on this plane, there is an understanding (more keenly on his side than mine I suspect) 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. That is way to static. I think of it as being alive – as Truth itself is alive in spirit. In other words, the scriptures are inspired by way of their nature which is Truth.  However, since I am a descendent of Adam and have lived in a world hostile to God, my thinking is not all 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 me) free, and it is Jesus, the Truth who is my Way and my Life.  All this to say, the mechanical first steps I take are just an introduction into the spirit to spirit communion with God that I was 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 has uncovered priceless treasure.  

With the assumption that God knows where I am; that He is good and that He is intentional, I assume that He is speaking to me always through his word. Somehow, 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 this narrative?”

There may be a great fork in the road at this point. The pure academic might shun that question, choosing the path that requires deeper understanding of the original language. They may require much deeper understanding of the historical context before they dare think that the scriptures might 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 strain 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 to study it to death. It was always about the spirit, not the letter.

When I think of the bible and it being inspired, a historically accurate book filled with truthful moral principles is not what first comes to my mind. While these things may be 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 that I may access in order to live a moral or profitable life.  By virtue of its spirit nature it awakens and stirs the spirit Life (and nature) that is already in me. 

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 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.  

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 you have expected to encounter God in a dramatic and obvious show of power. He certainly has been known to do that! But don’t rule out the possibility, that in his faithfulness, he has been present and has been speaking to you all along from his place of residence within you. I would encourage you to experiment with reading and writing as one means of hearing God’s voice.  Perhaps we will hear God’s voice in the same tone Elijah finally heard it –  in a subtle whisper.  Maybe the answer to us frequently when we are in the doldrums is simply, “Rise and feed yourself.” I am proposing for some, perhaps you, that your pen (as it has with me) will become your fork.

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. 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.

God’s Voice (Wednesday) – Exodus 3:1-15

by RobertCummins | Feb 26, 2014 | 09. God's Voice

Yesterday, my fourth grandchild was born reminding me of one of the reasons I began writing. One of my motives was to simply let my children’s children and their children know who I was. 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. These are the things that reveal who a person really is. My inquiries have yielded some of the where’s and the what’s but I wanted to know more of the why’s. So…Dear Grandson, today’s words are for you and yours……

I am currently being recruited to write an adult teaching curriculum for a local church. I am not sure if they know how totally unqualified I am. The users of this curriculum are likely more biblically literate than I am. Just because a person generates a 1000 words or so a day of devotional thoughts does not necessarily qualify them as a teacher. Most teachers are very dedicated to supporting their assertions of truth with study while I am mostly supporting my assertions of truth with my life. (For all I know that idea a seminary-established heresy!)  I know my light is not infallible but it is bright enough to bring a smile to my heart where there was once a frown. I am just giving an account of the living hope that is in me by virtue, I believe, of the initiatives of the great I AM, the main character in our passage today and I pray the main character in the story of my life.

There are sovereign fingerprints all over our stories if we will just look for them. 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 take on some dramatic twists and turns. Mine was no exception.

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 because he had destroyed and Egyptian in a fight. I fled because I felt I had destroyed my reputation with a shameful life.  However, like Moses, I 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 chock 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 are, 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 a bit on my destiny.

While I was powerfully converted to Christ as 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 who has dutifully executed his discipleship do-list. The condition of my orphaned heart and the opportunity of religious service made for the perfect religious storm in my soul. 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 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 your chosen vocation, side by side 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 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 awareness. At that point take your shoes off and acknowledge that I AM, out of love, has called your name. 

Learn to be still. Learn to take time. 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 changes as he sees fit. Seize your adventure!

Your Pop (boy does that ever looks funny in print!)

Father, I pray for my new grandson 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 proclaim our eagernness to meet you in even greater power an intimacy. Amen.

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”4When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 

The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. 8So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 9Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them 

The Mission of Moses

10Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” 12And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

God’s Voice (Monday) – Matthew 3:13-17

by RobertCummins | Feb 25, 2014 | 09. God's Voice