The Word Made Flesh (Monday)—John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ( John 1:1-5 NAS) 

In the introduction to John’s gospel, we are given a glimpse into the origin of the cosmos and we find, mysteriously, it is ordered around the Word—a fact overlooked by the wise men of this world. Even though all men were the beneficiaries of the Light of Life, John tells us, the darkness did not comprehend the bright Word. Yet, the Word was not deterred. He continued in His plans to make Himself known to those created in His image. So that no man would miss this effort, the Word sent John the Baptist to announce His coming.

 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 1 John 1:6-9 NAS

Even after John fulfilled his duties as the herald of the Word, the intended audience, the Jewish nation, was indifferent. That the Creator of the Cosmos showed up personally and went unrecognized by His chosen people is one of the most tragic events in history.

 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 1 John 1:9-11 NAS

Still yet, the Word was undeterred. He continued in His mission to make Himself known and to the astonishment of the cosmos, He did so as a loving Father:

 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 1 John 1:12-13

That the same Word that breathed the cosmos into existence aspires not only to reveal Himself but also to adopt us amazes me more than anything. That the God of ultimate power and glory would become flesh, like me, in order to finally convey what He is really like and what He is really up to overwhelms my intellect and wins my spirit.

 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 1 John 1:1-14

Father, we pray that the morning star would rise in our hearts, that every obstacle that would keep Truth from embracing us would be demolished. Assault the strongholds of our hearts that make us resist love. Draw us out from behind our defenses and convey Fatherhood to our spirits in ways that mend us emotionally and restore us to a flow of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The Word Made Flesh (Sunday) – Isaiah 53:1-12

Isaiah 53:1-12

Confession; The Easter numbers I quoted in the excerpt were just estimates, not statistics. I’m sure you got the point though. Continuing…..

Isaiah asks, “Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?” He then proceeds to describe “this” situation, a man who was common in appearance, easy to overlook and even look down upon. And, as the bearer of God’s wrath he would be, in his disfigurement, ultimately difficult to look upon. Isaiah asks rightly, “Who will believe that God’s saving power would come like this?”

If we are taken back by this our wonder (and humility) must expand mightily as we discover that we ourselves are the cause of this circumstance. Our heart disfigurement is the origin of Jesus’ travail. We who are all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. We are not just physically lost, we are lost-of- heartalienated-by-nature to God. Our lost-hearts did not comprehend Jesus. We did not grasp that it was the disfigurement of sin within us that brought about Jesus’ suffering. In this respect we have all done our own thing, gone our own way.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for our sins. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin, piling all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him!

Why? So that he would ultimately see life come from it—life, life, and more life. However, to secure life he had to face off with death. Because he will not flinch, God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. Out of his terrible travail of soul, he will see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, God’s righteous servant, will make many righteous. By carrying the burden of their sins, his saving power will come to bear in the new hearts of the lowly. He will have a family of those who are found-in-heart and like-in-nature. Mystery upon mystery! Stunningly, we who were the cause of “this” circumstance are ourselves God’s reward. How scandalous that we, the cause of his nightmare, have always been the object of his dreams!

Truly, “Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?”

Father, Thank you. Thank you that you have born our sin and shame and that we do not have to grovel as the cause of your suffering. Thank you. Thank you for the new life that you have established in our hearts and are manifesting through our lives. May our hearts live in awe and wonder at the glory of this mystery and the majesty of your name. Amen.

Note; Today’s reflections are a byproduct of paraphrasing and rearrangement of Isaiah 53. Grappling with the passage in this manner is just one of the ways I use to take in God’s words with the understanding that his Word is compatible with and intended to nourish my rescued heart and new nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Word Made Flesh (Thursday) – Philippians 2:1-13

Philippians 2:1-13

When Phoebe, in the TV sitcom Friends, was asked if she would like to help on a small community project, she said something quite profound; “I wish I could but I don’t want to.”  So simple, so honest, so sadly wrong. Phoebe is perfectly content with her deadened conscience, totally and innocently untroubled by the needs of those around her. If the Spirit does not ultimately prevail over the world, the flesh and the devil Phoebe’s words may be mankind’s dying words. “I wish I could have honored God’s Christ but I didn’t want to.

There has never been a revolutionary in the league of Jesus of Nazareth. To Phoebe and all mankind Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. There is no other way.” Jesus doesn’t say this to rob us of happiness; he came to give us fulness of joy, something that will outlive this world. He came announcing the Kingdom of God and to facilitate its expansion through our abdication. Jesus is saying, “I have come to give you life and that abundantly and, for you to receive it (and this is the revolutionary part), you must willingly die to your rights to your life.”

While mankind is fully committed to looking out for themselves, Jesus is fully committed to saving them from the folly of this enterprise. He knows where it leads. Individuals and nations together are at war with one another securing what they perceive is required to make life work out the way they want it to. Is this how the story of humankind will end? Those brave enough to look at the trends admit this is more than plausible. Its not “if“, its “when“.  Yet, Resurrection Life HImself continues to call from our crossroads, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. All those who will come to me I will give eternal life.”

Paul is the ultimate kingdom emissary.  He understands what Jesus has said. His life and teaching demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom. To the Phoebe within every man Paul says,

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus

I have come to the present idea that the Christians we read about in the New Testament said “Yes” to a different gospel than the one that has been presented to modern western man which seems to allow for us to invite Jesus into our hearts so that we can avoid hell and gain heaven but as to actually following Jesus, our collective and well documented response is…

I wish I could but I don’t want to.”

I believe the abdication of our personal thrones was in the air the early Christians breathed. It was an assumption embedded in the kingdom-gospel which they responded to. Believers came into the kingdom with the fundamental idea that their lives were no longer their own. Their lives and all disciples of Jesus since have lived with this fundamental premise that they were bought with a price and that their lives were no longer their own. That we too might have fulness of joy and that the kingdom would grow, Jesus, the ultimate revolutionary, continues to make claims upon our personal kingdom agendas. This exchange, His Life for our own, is the ebb and flow of true discipleship.

Every disciple is brought to this place of surrender and abandonment. Initially and throughout the disciple’s life he is intentionally brought to this crossroads where his Lord shows him where he is clinging to or is entangled with this world. He then poses to him the ongoing and humanly impossible pathway. Paul said it like this…..

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

Through Jesus’ disciples, the Word is progressively enfleshed. I believe this harrowing process of dying to ourselves and finding Christ expressing himself through us is what prompts Paul to say….

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 

I believe it was Paul’s expectations that Jesus’ resurrection life would progressively become expressed among saints so that ultimately……

                 every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Father, as you intended and Paul taught, may we progressively loose the battles we fight to sustain our own kingdoms. All for your glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

 

The Word Made Flesh (Wednesday) – Philippians 2:1-13

Philippians 2:1-13

To people like himself who joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man yet find a different law in the members of their bodies, waging war against the law of their minds and making them prisoners of the law of sin which is in their members Paul says,

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

To people like himself who have the principle of evil present in them , wretched men that they are, he says,

….do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant….

It is no wonder (I am being facetious) then, to a people who on the one hand, are serving the law of God with their with minds, but on the other, with their flesh the law of sin, he would need to say…..

 …..work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ). (Amplified)

I have not studied the greek but it seems the Amplified translation certainly amped up verse 12 from the the New American Standard translation which simply says..

…..work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

By setting Romans 7 along side Philippians 2 it would seem that Paul is a deeply conflicted man who has constructed a spiritual tight wire that we are to cautiously navigate with temerity and self doubt. I get push back from some on this but I don’t believe Paul spent his life on a wire of introspective worry, fretting that he may fail and offend God. My reading the New Testament does not leave me with an impression of Paul as a shy or hesitant person.  I don’t believe the full story of his life at all portrays God as one that Paul or anyone else could easily offend. Listen….

I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.     Acts 24:16,

But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. 1 Corinthians 4:4

No, I believe the broad sweep of Paul’s life conveys something entirely different about God. At the end of Romans 7 Paul asks and then settles this question for himself.

Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I believe Paul and all who come to know the Father receive a revelation of his heart. They all learn that Father’s love is not easily offended; it’s patient. It’s not harsh; it’s kind. It’s not touchy; it bears all things, endures all things. It does not take into account wrongs suffered. This enduring love equips saints to say with Paul….

                       Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace

And with Jude….

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy

At some point in our lives as saints, we hopefully reach a crisis where we throw up our hands and say with Paul, “The Christian life is impossible!” Ironically, when we do reach this place we may think we are washed up when in fact the opposite is true; we have actually been positioned to begin living out of His life instead of our own.

For us to have this Philippians 2 – servant attitude that was in Christ we must discover that we are in fact in Christ. This discovery usually requires some humbling and some emptying out of ourselves. Until this happens we typically remain deluded regarding our natural human strength and its contribution to life in Christ. Only Jesus can pull this off.  I have come to believe this is precisely what He is endeavoring to do. He aspires that His Word be made flesh through us for the joy of our own hearts and ….

…..so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Father, Help us to see in Christ the basis for our confident declarations of ourselves as new creations and temples of your Holy Spirit. Remind us that greater is He who is in us than our opposition who is in the world. Lead us in triumph for Your name sake. Thank You that as we work out our salvation with awe and wonder we discover that it is Your good pleasure that we find pleasure in You. Oh Lord, help us to believe the truth about ourselves no matter how wonderful it is. Amen.

 

The Word Made Flesh (Tuesday) – Colossians 2:9-15

Colossians 2:9-15

I love to tell the story of unseen things above / of Jesus and his glory / of Jesus and his love. / I love to tell the story / because I know ’tis true / it satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.”

I promise we will get to our topic, The Word Made Flesh if you will bare with me for a few paragraphs.

You know there are a lot of gospels that are preached around the world. There always have been. The bulk of the new testament letters were written to defend the true gospel from the false ones of that age. This caused me to ask, “Which gospel story was Katherine Hankey referring to her in her song?” I did some research. Most of what we can glean about her is through the community of which she belonged.  She was a member of the Clapham Sect.

This was a group of Christian, influential like-minded believers living near Clapham Common in London at the beginning of the 19th century. They are described as “a network of friends and families with William Wilberforce as their center of gravity. They were powerfully bound together by their love for each other, by their spiritual values which overflowed into their vision of social activism. (Among many other things, they are credited as the primary force that over-threw slavery in England.) Many of their meetings were held in their houses. In their own day the group used no particular name, but they were lampooned by outsiders as “the saints.” In modern parlance they were a missional community.

So, I concluded that the gospel story that Mrs. Hankey loved to tell was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. As you can derive from their fruits, her’s was more than the accept-Jesus-and-avoid-hell gospel (which is predominate in the western Christian demographic). Her gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, was the story that is rooted in our passage today that transforms hearts, communities and cultures (I believe in that order).

For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions….He made you alive together with Him.

The true gospel, the gospel of the kingdom always yields transformational fruit; it always begins as revelation in the heart of man – the temple of God on earth. Where no transformation has taken place, it is necessary to ask which gospel was embraced. Here is my point; Where the kingdom gospel story takes root the Word continues to become flesh, there is actually an ongoing  story to be told, the life of Christ is manifested in communities.

To find that place of intimacy and transformation, so many of us professing believers in the west are going to conferences, praying like mad, reading books, studying the scriptures more intently, just trying to gain that next essential piece of truth or experience that will put us over the top – enabling us to finally arrive spiritually. Others of us are laboring in the fields of performance Christianity where our activity and service rarely produce a sprig of new life but our works are salve to our uneasy consciences and a sacrifice that (we quietly calculate) must surely be pleasing to God.  Sadly, many of us have also just given up, having exhausted ourselves on these religious hamster wheels. Listen to one sentence from the Message’s version of our passage;

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve…..you’re already in—insiders….

Until our hearts are firmly rooted in the reality that, as those born of the Spirit, we are already insiders, we will be working and our working, whether it is expressed in reading, fasting, praying, serving or attending will undermine not facilitate the intimacy our hearts were created to know in Christ. Much of this Middle with Mystery blog is my story as one who was delivered from a spirit of fretful-seeking. It’s passion and sobriety looked great in religious circles but it was not transformational. It was mostly just insecure religious flesh. I believe it reflected poorly on my Father in heaven.

Katherine Hanky is now among the great cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on. Looking back on her story, I think she could have as easily penned these words…

In Christ I am the story of the mysterious kingdom of God / of Jesus and his glory / of Jesus and his love. / In Christ, I am the story / because I know ’tis true /  Christ has satisfied my longing as no one else can do.”

My prayer is that the earth will once again see the birth of communities of friends and families with their own unique transformational DNA that equip them to infect their networks with the kingdom of God – the original gospel lived out by Jesus and His disciples. I pray that we believers may somehow find the kindred spirits we were called to live among.  I pray that spiritual fathers will arise and become the centers of gravity for these communities; that their homes would become safe houses and magnets for those the Father is drawing to Himself. Even if they do not have a corporate label, even if they are mocked as nothing more than “saints”, I pray that these cells would multiply, connect and become known for their powerful bonds of love for each other. So be it.

Father, Breathe on the cellular structure of Your Church transforming her chaos and clay into the resplendent Body You have envisioned and destined to one day take dominion over this planet. May the dreams of old men merge with the visions of the young to inspire redemptive activities in our hearts, in our communities and in our culture. May Your Word continue to be made flesh. Tell your story through us. Amen.

 

 

 

The Word Made Flesh (Monday) – John 1:1-14

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…

In the introduction of John’s gospel, we are given a glimpse into the origin of the cosmos and we find, mysteriously, it is ordered around the Word – a fact overlooked by the wise men of this world such as Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking. Even though all men were the beneficiaries of the Light of Life, John tells us, the darkness did not comprehend the bright Word. Yet, The Word is not deterred. He continued in His plans to make Himself known to those created in His image. So that no man would miss this effort, The Word sent John the Baptist to announce His coming.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Even after John fulfills his prophetic duties as the herald of The Word, the intended audience, the Jewish nation, was indifferent. That the Creator of the Cosmos personally shows up and goes unrecognized (and is ultimately brutalized) by His chosen people has to be the most tragic event in human history.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

Still yet, The Word is undeterred. He continued in His mission to make Himself known….. and to the astonishment of the cosmos, He does so as a loving Father….

 … ..But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

That the same Word that breathed the cosmos into existence aspires to not only reveal Himself but adopt us is the single-most amazing thing to me I have ever encountered. That the God of ultimate power and glory would become flesh, like me, in order to finally convey what He is really like and what He is really up to overwhelms my intellect yet utterly wins my spirit.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Father, we pray that the morning star would arise in our hearts; that every obstacle that would keep Truth from embracing us entirely would be demolished.  Assault the strongholds of our hearts where we have learned to resist love. Draw us out from behind our defenses and convey Fatherhood to our spirits in ways that mend us emotionally and restore us to a flow of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.