by RobertCummins | Jun 29, 2015 | 26. Grasping
Grasping – Mark 5:24-34
And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”
I love how Jesus interacted with people! God Incarnate – the same God who was on record saying he grew weary dealing with the obstinate hearts of his chosen people, who punished their sin dramatically when needed. Fast forward; same god, same people, except this time he came into the world looking them in the eye, clarifying his heart toward them, revealing just what he was really like.
It is surprising that God is so approachable; he takes mankind off guard. He is so humble! So open-handed! He didn’t come emphasizing this woman’s sin or tracing down the cause of her illness. He simply healed her. With no money left, she was at the end of the road. It was going to be Jesus or nothing else. This, again surprisingly, is not a bad place to be.
While the end of the road can be an advantageous place it is also the last place most of us want to be. In fact, we work overtime don’t we, to avoid being taken to that place where its Jesus or nothing? I believe this is what Jesus was getting at when he said we must sell all in order to follow him. Our resources, which are our hedge against last resorts, if not relinquished to God, pave a broad highway leading away from this most advantageous place where our Lord would meet us.
Taking up our crosses to follow him is the narrow way which scripture tells us few find. This less traveled pathway is paved with abandonment. Relinquishing our right-of-self-determination is our part in allowing Jesus his rightful place as our Lord. Knowing Jesus as our Lord is something vastly greater than just being saved from our sins. The travelers on this road are called disciples or apprentices. As they journey down this trail holding no heart-title to earthly goods, they learn to live, so to speak, at-the-end-of-the-road, where Christ becomes and remains, of necessity, their very Life.
Disciples make the surprising discovery that Jesus is so much more than just a savior. They find in Christ alone that exceeding and abundant dimension to life which He promised. They find rivers of living water flowing out of them. He Himself teaches them that He is not just the forgiver of their sins. He is Father and Friend, Healer and Deliverer, Sustainer and Rewarder, King and Co-heir, Creator and Brother. He is Life and Breath and that in Him we live and move and have our being. We personally discover that we are hidden in Him and are the object of his most intimate thoughts and care, now and forevermore.
While I haven’t been bleeding internally like the woman in our story, this is the 13th consecutive year I have dealt with chronic back problems. Unlike the distressed woman of our story, I have some money left; I’m just not sure what the point of spending it would be on doctors who each say, “Mr. Cummins. You are slowly decaying, albeit at a slightly faster rate than your piers.” What they actually say is that I have degenerative disc disease.
In spite of having to report some physical degeneration I also have a report of regeneration. My inner man is being renewed daily in the presence of physical deterioration. As I consider the alchemy of all-things-working-together-for-good, I give thanks because in its own way, back pain has provided a kind of an end-of -the-road experience, where I have met the Lord in a way that may have only been accomplished along this path.
I did determine early in my journey with Christ that I would do my best to not squander sorrow and rough experiences. Whatever the day brings me (if I will only see it) can be an opportunity to trust him. I have come to believe that It is only along this trail (where suffering and trials exist) that we can ever learn to relate to Him by faith. Recall, our faith brings God pleasure. Faith both delivers and sustains. Whether we are delivered from trials or sustained through them God is glorified and pleased as we trust in him.
To you oh Lord, who call the dead to come forth and the lame to walk and the deaf to hear; to you Lord, who reward those who trust you in their pain; to you, who deliver your children from and through both attacks and decay into a rest that transcends this world and establishes a victory that will be celebrated now and forevermore. Yes Lord, to you be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jun 29, 2014 | 26. Grasping
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.
Isn’t this like saying,
If the sun rises in the east, please become united in why and how you are living. In love pursue common objectives. It will do my heart good. (my paraphrase)
Perhaps anticipating the question, “What exactly this would look like?”, Paul says….
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……Your model in this life style is Jesus Christ; therefore;
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, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In Paul’s age where there was a stock of multiple deities and the reference point of great kings was Alexander and Augustus (who themselves were not opposed to being considered divine), Jesus, a Jew who died on a cross, was an unlikely model of a divine KIng, yet……
For this (very) reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 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.
NT Wright points out that Jesus did not cease being like God, the divine ruler, as he subjected himself to the humiliation of the cross. Rather, he was just demonstrating what He was actually like in the core of his being as he willingly laid his life down for others. God’s nature is love and love is sacrificial.
In the cult comedy Friends, the character Phoebe is asked if she would like to help her closest friends on a project. She responds, “Gee, I wish I could but I don’t want to.” Upon hearing this unapologetic, honest, un-sacrificial response the room goes silent while the line gets a big laugh. I wonder why. Could it be because Phoebe revealed everyone’s heart as she dared say what they were thinking but were simply too mannered or guilty to say? It might be funny but it is also sad. I think even more accurately, it is sad because it is deemed funny. I got an education when I originally committed the faux pas of expressing this sentiment a decade ago.
I learned as I made comments such as this about lines and ideas from Friends or other contemporary comedic offerings that humor is sacred. To examine the premise of a joke violates the unspoken but culturally adopted commandment that says,”Thou shalt not challenge the basis for what I deem funny.” If I caught the drift of the thinking behind this law it went like this; I laughed…. Laughing makes me feel good…. I feel good which is the point of life. I’m viewed as puritanical because I ask, REALLY!? I know I’m on a soapbox but I will dismount after one more paragraph.
Where the contents of movies is even more crass than Phoebe’s, I have made challenges on the basis that the content is not true or lovely or worthy of praise. Before turning away in silence, they said, “I don’t care. That was funny!” I had invaded their holy of holies with the inspired word and was told quite clearly (without a word ever having been spoken), “What I think is funny is sacred to me so back away.” If the informal contract of friendship was to stay in force, I would now have to comply to this newly added condition. But Paul just presses on and 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. 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.
My point? Phoebe’s light had gone out and so has ours when, free of any fear and trembling, we fail to have in us that sacrificial attitude that was in Christ. We may pine for the inspiration that would prevent us from saying (or thinking), “Gee I wish I could help, but I don’t want to.” But we need to understand that, as his apprentices, we must obey often before being gripped by any inspiration. There is a good reason for this.
If we are not walking with him as his apprentice, we will still be walking in the flesh where we do not know how to love yet and we only know truth in propositional ways (as opposed to experiential ways). If we have not walked through this intimidating barrier of not wanting to when we are commended to we have yet to discover that with Christ in us we do in fact have the motivation within to do all things and that this (at least in part) is the basis for the hope of glory.
So, whether we are in the mood to not, the command remains..
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.
So when we come to that place where Phoebe was (presented with an opportunity to help), we may respond (in thought), “Gee, I don’t really want to, and then (in word) reply, “And I am happy to lend a hand.”
Regarding the unity this passage is focussing on; Where our agendas are laid aside for others we will discover that we have moved toward unity without anyone having wrestled down the opposition and arm twisted someone into agreement. Love will bring about unity on the things that really matter (which is the needs of others) while our doctrinal debates look ludicrous to the world around us and do not cause us to glow to very brightly.
Father, Help us to rethink the role of these people you have placed all around us who sovereignly touch us and whom we are sovereignly touched by. Help us to see that it is in their needs that we fulfill our calling as lights in this darkened world. Deliver us from our excuses of not being called or not being inspired where we are really just saying, “I wish I wanted to but I really don’t want to.” Animate the life of your Son within our hearts to respond afresh in our perspective and choices to the ways you have currently set us up. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jun 28, 2014 | 26. Grasping
On NPR’s Morning Addition today, a law professor (perhaps a judge) was advocating, of all things, humility. To him humility meant that one should consider that he or she is totally wrong in the way they are looking at something. Humility is what I think God was after as well when, through Isaiah, he said to us….
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
For unregenerate man, either attempting to prove, or believing that he has proved that he can make it on his own in his own strength, is their anything more unatural and bothersome than considering that he may be totally wrong? Probably not since pride is in the makeup of his father (the devil) and pride instinctively presumes it has a monopoly on understanding. This is strong language I know but family trees and the spiritual identities inherited through them are fundamental to all mankind.
All men have an ancient family tree. We are all either rooted into the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (TG&E) or we are rooted into the Tree of Life (TL). The fruits of those trees are either lies that bind (TG&E) or the Truth who liberates (TL). As those who have been conditioned from birth in our thinking in a world that has been ruled by the Prince of Darkness, we have no clue as to just how saturated we are with the independent proud nature of the father of lies. (Christians included)
This is why humility is so precious and so rare. It begins with the premise that it was born in bondage and has lived in and been conditioned by ideas that came from the wrong tree (TG&E), therfore presuming it’s presumptions at best need altered and not infrequently need scrapped. Humility lives in dependency on the Word of God who was and is the right tree (TL).
An example would be the presumption the world has about money. The collective wisdom of this world says, “Nothing happens without money.” The bible, written by the One whose thoughts and ways are contrary to our own says, “No”. Instead the Lord Of All says….
“Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Apparently money is not the coin of the realm when it comes to God’s kingdom. This verse is speaking to all who, in their pride, are totally wrong and who desperately need humility, which does have value in God’s realm.
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
So where do we go to buy this bread that is so affordable? Recall what Jesus referred to Himself as?
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (John 6:35)
Through Isaiah God says…
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
Oh that new believers would embrace the kingdom value of humility and the Word of God to which it will always lead. For those who have been regenerated (born anew from the Spirit) and who regularly partake of the Bread of Life, the Word of God, an experience takes place that is evidence of Isaiah’s claim…
For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
Father, It is apparent in your words that abundant Life has been given to us and that you would continually direct our hearts to Him who is our Life. Please show us where we are attempting to live and get by on that which is not Bread. Help us to see where we are kicking against the goad, reaping time after time that which we have sown in our own earthly wisdom and strength. Grant us the humility to admit that those places where there is no joy, where the thorn and nettle continue to grow, that we may be totally wrong in how we are thinking. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jun 27, 2014 | 26. Grasping
Paul is definitely grasping in this passage. The question is, “Is Paul grasping in his own personal experience or is he portraying the grasping within an anticipated argument that will likely come from those to whom he is speaking (those who understood the law)?” As a completed Jew is Paul trying to become all things to all men (in his reasoning) and relate transformational grace to incomplete Jews, those who are yet to fully walk in newness of life? After all, as a Jew, now complete in Christ, he knows precisely what the challenges are of embracing a new covenant with its scandalous gift-provisions.
The NAS translates vs 14 as, “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” The Message paraphrases this verse as; “I can anticipate the response that is coming: ‘I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not (spiritual). Isn’t this also your experience?’ Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison.”
To some it might seem I’m splitting theological hairs. I don’t think so since the given interpretation of this verse creates a pretty large divide. To many in the Body of Christ, Paul’s grasping is a perfect representation of their experience as Christians, therefore confirming a theology that could lead subtly to a victimhood mentality.
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. (NAS)
What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.(MSG)
What if Paul is simply portraying an anticipated, unredeemed Jewish track of logic for the sake of highlighting the liberty he has come to know as a new creation?
Earlier in this chapter Paul is stating a fact; “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” I could see Paul’s apparent grasping, defeatist, bearing-fruit-for-death perspective arising from this old position of enslavement. Yet, while this was true, it is no longer true.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
This is why Paul can now say that we have been freed from the Law of sin and death which naturally produces bad fruit such as the twisted logic he portrays as naturally coming from the mind of the flesh, which, armed with religious ideas is void of any transformational experience. Does the following sound like the Paul we know from the balance of his teachings as one who has been raised to newness of resurrection life. Listen to the spirit of the following words from the Message….
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope.
REALLY!?
Paul knew the Jews concurred with the Law of God even in their inner man. He himself described this as serving the law of God in his mind. He also knew as well as anyone that just knowing truth does not in itself produce liberty.
As I read Romans 6-8 and the rest of Paul’s writings, Romans 7:14-24 does not fit at all well. How can we reconcile Paul’s lamentable condition here with a fuller council of truth which includes the following verses?
Romans 6 as a whole. Sadly, this chapter is most famous as the place where we find 6:23 a verse that too frequently highlights salvation in the hereafter-life-only sense when the entire balance of the chapter relates to the spiritual underpinnings of salvation in its fuller transformational dimension. It is entirely positive and hopeful in its forecast of man’s liberty and totally out of sink with Paul’s dumpster dive into personal depravity.
In this address to Jews Paul says that he knows that there is nothing good that dwells in him and that the principle of evil and sin are within him . REALLY!? How then, with a straight face, could he tell the Corinthians that they were new creations in whom the old things have been replaced by new ones? How did he say that it was Christ in them that was the hope of glory? Surely Christ is a good something making his nothing good comment nonsensical!
Paul says he is of the flesh while the law is spiritual. This is Paul’s final view of himself? REALLY!? In the very next chapter Paul says…
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
No. I believe Paul’s message is that we are not doomed to inner futility rather we are redeemed and given hearts that not only concur with the law of God in the inner man but, in Christ, have the consummation of the law within us and therefore the capacity to comply with it. This reality manifests in a life altogether contrasting to Paul’s comments in Romans 7:14-24. From experience and interpretation I believe that Paul’s overarching message is freedom from the grasping cycle of futility and failure described in todays passage.
For those of us in Christ it is true that…
We have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Many who believe Paul lived his entire life with duplicitous motives and a roller coaster spirituality will be alarmed for my spiritual welfare since pride (such as my mine) will precede a fall. To be honest I fell much more frequently when I believed my heart was a Jeremiah 17:9-level, incurably sick heart that was, for the most part, beyond hope. While I perceived that the deepest truth about me was my depraved heart my life consisted of one doomed sin-management project after another. I reasoned like this; How could I expect more if Paul himself so frequently stumbled? How could I succeed if the principle of evil ruled from within? Now this, I will testify, leads to futility.
I fear this is the root to a theology that projects from its own experience that at best we can expect mediocrity for the Church – mostly setbacks for God’s kingdom with any gains going to the kingdom of darkness. This leads ultimately to a divinely organized retreat and regroup -theology centered around a Rapture. It reasons; We best get evacuated out of here so we can get new bodies and finally overcome sin because we certainly can’t do it with hearts that are prisoners of the law of sin ruling in our members.
It all boils down to our identities. Who do we perceive ourselves to be at the deepest levels of who we are. When we look down into the foundation do we see flawed and fallen beings dominated by their flesh, doomed to a loosing battle with sin? Or, do we see those who
have been called and equipped to reign in life through Christ; who have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters which cry out Abba! Father! If we have not yet had this foundational revelation of God as our Papa, it should truly become the priority of our existence.
I really don’t believe that Paul lived his life grasping for something more. I believe Christ was his sufficiency and that he was utterly contended with Jesus as his inheritance. I don’t believe that after meeting Jesus Christ as he had that Paul thought something had gone wrong deep within him. I don;t believe Paul vacillated in doing good or being indecisive. I don’t believe Paul was bullied around by sin reigning from within him or that he lived feeling he was at the end of his rope. This gentile believes Paul, being in awe at the heights and the depths of God’s love was trying to cast down an imagination that, from his own Jewish countrymen, would attempt to exalt itself above the true knowledge of God.
Father, help us to see where we have not yet come to rest in the complete provision of your Son as our identity. Persevere with us until we see ourselves in Christ and see Him in us. May our hearts comprehend that you have given us new hearts that have been called, destined and redeemed for glorious outcomes in both this life and the next. Help us to see that what we have thought of as the next life has already begun in your kingdom which even now indwells us in Christ.
by RobertCummins | Jun 26, 2014 | 26. Grasping
It has come to my attention that at least in some cases I have unintentionally derailed what I had hoped would be the big windfall of midlewithmystery.com; a life-building and kingdom-growing conversation between us stimulated by my postings.
My discovery came when a friend told me that he would really like to talk to me about what I wrote but he didn’t want to share his thoughts with everyone in cyberspace. Uh oh. I forgot a reply would appear in the public domain. I am a bit slow in the digital-reasoning department. So…..If you would ever like to comment or ask a question and not do it publicly, address it to me at cummins011353@me.com. Sorry if I have stifled a conversation. That, sadly, is precisely what I had hoped not to do. In regards to the renovation of our hearts, it’s quiet enough already! Now, to the Word of God….
Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
We can only wonder what this offended, would-be heir thought when Jesus said,
“Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
What do you suppose he thought when Jesus then attempted to rescue his heart (and ours) by saying,
“Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
If he was a typical run-of-the-mill Adamic-natured guy (like us) he probably thought, “Greedy! I just want my fair share! If there is ONE thing that I AM NOT, it’s greedy! This guy is definitely a false prophet.”
Perhaps even the people around this exchange thought, “What’s greedy about wanting a little justice?” When reading Jesus’ words we must keep in mind that he came to set men free. The deliverer dimension of being Savior required that he expose in fallen man those things that their hearts were in denial of and therefore enslaved to. Jesus knew that the god of this world had been doing a masterful job in assisting men in rationalizing everything they do. Jesus came to strip the blinders off our eyes and get us to see (and own) our denial and our absurd rebellion so that we might understand that we are, in actuality, in desperate need of Him.
The crowd (and us) like to think of greed as that I-want-it-all attitude and we would be right yet only in part. This man’s heart was not in bondage to that form of greed. The form of greed this man was enslaved to was that much-easier-to-justify form that can apply to a farthing as well as a fortune. This is that entitlement-form that comes from victimhood and our self-fashioned conditions of justice.
Why the offended heir is grasping is that he (and all those sympathetic to his cause) are using this world and its temporal value system as its point of reference (a toxic and fatal idea). If we think Jesus is being harsh it is because we ourselves are not navigating by true north. We have forgotten that this is the same Lord who said a man was guilty of adultery if his imagination and will collaborated in wanting his neighbor’s wife and was guilty of murder when he was angry. We may think he has set the bar far to high for mere man to ever clear. (Please note; As new creations, we are no longer mere men.)
Their is yet more to the problem of greed that we remain blinded to. It is that in our grasping for a bit more (for whatever pretense), it is evidence that we are not trusting God. We are not at rest with God as our ultimate provider. We are working instead with the stress-producing, material-and-time-bound notion that God is absent from the equation of our provision. We must also recall that without faith it is impossible to please him. To help this crowd (and us) to better understand our bondage, Jesus offers a parable……
“The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself (rationalizing), saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The subject in this story is apparently dealing with a fortune-sized estate instead of the farthing-sized one but its all the same. The deluded soul in this parable was hoarding and hedging. He was making storage provisions for his anticipated windfalls which would insure his long-term comforts. For a man like myself (a boomer) who is nearing the age our culture has deemed retirement-age, these are relevant words. It would seem with this parable Jesus has his guns aimed at my demographic’s head. But again, the Truth does not discriminate. It’s universally true of us, that unless we relate to Jesus as Lord and his words as authoritative we will inevitably rationalize (reason falsely), forcing Jesus to expose our precarious position. He says our fatal error is that we have reasoned thus…..
“Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”
This barn-builder might take pride among men for what appears to be good estate planning but not before God to whom wealth-preservation does not mean the same thing. This Lord says…..
‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
Our unwillingness to see all forms of sin (even what we perceive as modest) as being just as deadly as another is why the perceived need for Jesus as Savior (and especially Lord) is modest to non-existent. Who really needs rescued when, in our minds (so adept at rationalizing), we are only moderately guilty or innocent all together. Where this mentality is present, we like to bring in Jesus as a consultant on an as-needed basis. Where the Christian soul thinks good estate planning is its ultimate hedge against the unknown, it is enslaved along with everyone else in the world. I believe Jesus would implore the children of light…..
Do not store up treasure for yourselves on earth. Instead focus on other’s needs. Be a wise and generous steward of all that has been entrusted to you. Do not be deceived; wealth can make itself wings. Trust in me as your true source and guard your hearts against all the subtle forms of sin that your culture and its god has told you are harmless. Abide in me and let my words abide in you even as they are by design sharper than any two-edged sword. My word is capable of sorting out and distinguishing all forms of sin and enabling you to reformat your hearts according to my reality. I will not deny that my knife hurts. While being stripped of lies will be painful, please remember that it is my kindness (even in your discomfort) that will be leading you to repentance and the abundantly liberated life I have purchased and promised you. Think of your estate planning from this eternal perspective and you will have addressed your actual and truest long-term needs. In this way you can be rich toward me.
Father, teach us to watch over our hearts with all diligence. Holy Spirit help us to see every way in which we have rationalized our heart’s entanglements with this world. Deliver us from every lie that has us bound to the temporal. Teach us to number our days as those without number so that we may ultimately present to you wise hearts that have already been swept clean of hidden agendas and secret sins. And Father, please teach us that it is Jesus Himself who is our windfall. In Him our cups truly are running over. To you alone Lord be glory and honor and dominion in our hearts and all realms forevermore. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jun 25, 2014 | 26. Grasping
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
We read these words and ask, “Where is the Comforter when you need him?” (That was supposed to be funny.) So, returning now to godly sobriety…. What I believe really happens when we read Jesus’ hard words can be something more like this…..
We scramble about in our hearts (where treasures are either treasured or abandoned) seeking some shade from such an intensely bright word as this. There in the center of our hearts (where life either begins or ceases -Prove 4:23) there is an inner conversation between us and the Holy Spirit. When this conversation reflects up into our minds it is in the form of questions such as; Can I have wealth and not serve it? …. or ….. What would actually constitute slavery to mammon? …. Am I a slave to materialism?
If things are still too bright for us here we will push the questions away from the center and (seeking a bit more cover) we may ask (perhaps with an attitude); Well, why does Jesus have to use words like hate my earthly family and despise wealth anyway? If the remaining light is still too bright the question gets shoved all the way to the periphery of our hearts where shade is usually abundant. Here statements are forming with our questions; I was born into this culture…. I didn’t choose affluence; its is not my fault. Wealth, after all, is God’s sign of blessing on America and me.
Perhaps you are picking up on the progression in heart from light into the shadows. Ultimately, if one stays on this broad thoroughfare a destruction of conscience will occur where there is no light at all. The bible calls this a hardening of the heart and God allows it. If one continues, the inner (somewhat troubling) conversation with the Holy Spirit will cease altogether and one will be troubled no more. We will live without questions and we will be bothered by those who ask them. What has happened here, biblically speaking?
The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
So, just how great is our darkness?
In the west, the most affluent culture per capita that has ever existed; in a religious context where it is believed that one can be saved without having to be Christ’s apprentice (i.e.following the hard teachings such as today’s), an analogy by Dallas Willard from Divine Conspiracy seems appropriate. It begins in Chapter 1, called; Entering The Eternal Kind of Life Now ……
Life in the Dark
Recently a pilot was practicing high speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent – and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.
Her darkness was indeed great and bore ultimate consequence for her. I would propose that many of us are unknowingly flying upside. I believe if we are asking questions like “Can I have wealth and not serve it?” and “Why does Jesus have to be so harsh?” we are just flipping switches on a control panel that has (or is) shorting out and is no longer feeding back to us accurate indications of our true orientation.
Our darkness is very great because we are infected in mass. Not wanting to be troubled by deeper heart level questions about our true motives we have accumulated for ourselves voices who have agreed to steer clear of that arena. Often using the same words and phrases that Jesus used they have redefined normal spirituality while excluding the heart. How does this happen?
We form unspoken contracts with these voices that are far more binding than any articulated or printed ones ever could be. Their power rests in the fact that collectively these unspoken agreements form a culture which is taboo to challenge. (Especially religious ones). Our agreements consist of covenants such as, “If you will steer clear of (or better yet, just give lip service to these heart-level discipleship issues) we will continue to support your institution and its programs.” These kinds of agreements that redefine the gospel by excluding authentic discipleship (the watching over one’s heart with all diligence) compose a contemporary religious culture that is saturated with knowledge and tradition yet void of New Testament abundant Life.
I will suggest that if this seems harsh it is only because we have exchanged our contemporary experience and ideas for those of the New Testament which was intended to be a plumb line for the ever expanding kingdom Jesus has established and is continuing to build.
Back to our flight. If we want to know if we are flying upside down or right side up, we must ask ourselves if Jesus is the navigational gyroscope orienting our hearts toward reality? If we have not yet given our lives to him unconditionally, the gyro is not spinning rightly. If we are not maintaining this conversation with his Holy Spirit that assumes that all Jesus’ words apply to our hearts (as Lord), we are likely inverted in our orientation.
We may think the trajectory of our lives is a steep ascent while in reality an eternally consequential crash may be imminent. The only way for any of us to get the gyro spinning rightly and to repair damaged wiring in our navigation system is to live out of the center of our beings where we have given him permission to live and reign and say and do whatever he deems best for us. This requires that we keep this dialogue with the Holy Spirit, regarding wealth, alive . This is what it means to live with Jesus as our Lord.
It is with Him whom we have to do. It is Him before Whom we will ultimately stand to give account of our lives. Here we shall finally discover which kingdom we have loved and which one we have despised. It will be clear who was Lord in our lives; Jesus Christ or ourselves. All men’s secrets will then be revealed. If we have loved this world; if we have pushed this Lordship / two-masters issue away from our hearts our darkness is great. Just how great it is will be exposed on that Great Day. So, rather than flee the light our disComforter would shed on this conversation, His apprentices know that ….
Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
They pray…..
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
This is how His apprentices live with Jesus’ command to…..
….not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Father teach us to intentionally identify and repent of every lie that has become a part of the bad wiring in our hearts. Come Helper and grant us the grace to be humble enough to allow our incomplete and inaccurate definitions of your words to be refashioned with their rightful kingdom meanings. Help reestablish your kingdom in our hearts as the beachhead for a fuller gospel in a culture contentedly flying upside down. Amen.
I am considering the formation of a small group (or groups) to read and discuss either Renovation of the Heart or Divine Conspiracy. I would like to know if you would have an interest in this. I don’t know about you but I want my heart renovated by having the right treasures stored in it. Let me know.
