by RobertCummins | Jul 4, 2016 | 27. Letting Go
We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
Newness of life! Paul clearly anticipated a believer’s victory over sin because of what Jesus had accomplished. He taught that since we have been crucified with Christ, we have been liberated from sin as our old master. Neither sin nor death has any further authority over us. In our inner most beings we have been liberated from their tyrannical reign. In light of these truths, has it been your experience that sin no longer reigns in your life? For many of us the answer will be, “No, sin still seems to reign.” Why is this? Let’s explore this question and another related one.
Since coming to believe in Christ nearly four decades ago, I have kept an ongoing question before the Lord. It has been, “What is Your part Lord? And what is mine?” I’ve never heard the Lord say, “Robert,” (that is my legal name), “This is My list and here is yours.” His answers to my question have come slowly through an ongoing process of living continually in His presence in the light of His Word. If that sounded super-spiritual let me comfort you: it has also been messy! The fact is we can never escape His presence, even if we were to go to the remotest part of the sea. As to hearing God’s voice, this dynamic has been a moment-by-moment, day-in-day-out affair of living with Him. This experience has been far more intimate than hearing an occasional string of words, which He is more likely to speak if I pray adequately or get real, real quiet.
As I read Colossians 3 this morning, I could not help but see Paul’s consistency in the way he addressed these questions. His comments dovetail perfectly with Romans 6 where he put it like this: “Keep doing the calculation. Recall as often as necessary the irreversible fact that Christ is our new master. Now that we have been included into Christ’s very own death and His resurrection, our ties to sin’s regime have been permanently severed. Once for all men, once for all time, to all those who trust in Christ.” (My paraphrase).
So…. what is our part? In Romans 6 Paul says, since you are now serving a new Master, having become slaves to righteousness, “present the members of your body to God as those alive from the dead as instruments of righteousness from God.”
If he were standing here among us, what would Paul have to say? Would he see us doing our part? I believe he might think we had misunderstood some things about grace, which have led us to an unhealthy passivity. I think he might wonder where our zeal and intentionality were in the doing of our part. He might wonder where are all the testimonies of those who have been liberated were. He might be so bold as to say, In case you missed it, here is your part…
Persevere in the calculation. Realize continually that the members of your earthly bodies are actually dead to sin; set your mind and keep thinking on the things above. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. And while you are doing the math and regularly calculating that it is no longer you who live but Christ lives in you and that Christ is now your life, live like this… Put aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.Put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the word of Christ rule in your hearts. Be thankful. Admonish one another. In summary, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. (my paraphrase of Colossians 3:1-17)
Note; I do not paraphrase to improve upon the scriptures. The condensing of ideas required by paraphrasing helps renew my mind. It rescues the scriptures from remaining just words upon a page – somebody else’s revelation.
Back to our original question—why then does sin still have stroke in our lives? Is it because we are just like Paul and have found that the principle of evil is present in us, making us slaves once again to sin? When we stumble and sin (and we all do), what calculations do our minds perform? If we do depravity-math (see Friday’s MwM post, Grasping–Romans 7:14-25), can’t we excuse ourselves from any victorious life he seemed to have been proclaiming and anticipating in Romans 6?
Let’s just fast forward to that moment when we have stumbled and have sinned. Shall we do depravity-math? I’m of the flesh + I’m sold into bondage to sin + Sure enough, I practice the very things I hate + It’s not really me doing it + It’s sin indwelling and reigning over me + There is nothing good in me + I practice evil + Again, I remind myself, I’m not the one doing it = What a wretched man I am!
Does this really sound like Paul to you? Can you reconcile this reasoning with Romans 6 and the balance of Paul’s victorious New Testament instruction and commentary?
Oh how familiar this math is to me! For much of my Christian life, when I would sin, this was my calculation: I have proved it yet once again + Yes, its true (with much self loathing): I am nothing but a wretch + My heart is utterly depraved + In fact, my heart is exactly as Jeremiah has said, more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9 is my old life verse. I’m not kidding.)
Are you tracking with me? What I am trying to say is that I used to do the calculation with the wrong variables and come up, naturally, with the wrong answer. If we sin, the bad math provides a path of least resistance. Here is that fumbling calculation: I am hamstrung (just like Paul supposedly was) by sin + I am saved by grace (aren’t I?) + So, I will get to heaven someday (hopefully) + But until then, my besetting sins are going to be a problem because I am, by nature, a sinner = That’s just who I am (my identity). The problem with depravity-math is that it produces a colossal identity crisis that insures a roller coaster-religious experience.
Are we just sinners as many of our hymns, teachers, and consciences have testified? Is depravity our root identity? Is the deepest truth about us that we are just sinners saved by grace? Or, should we plug in the apparently lost variable that we are now saints, those whom Christ has ransomed out of that old identity in hopes that we too, like Himself, will shine brightly, giving credence to the gospel’s claims of liberty. Here is a very pointed question: other than a hope of heaven, what is the Good News to us, if sin is still ruling in our members?
Oh the religious hamster wheel we spin when we do depravity-math! There can be nothing more exhausting than attempting to live a life pleasing to God as a sinner. With this lie about our identity operating at the foundation of our being we are left cranking out our works, our compliance, our strategies of sin management, and our religious traditions as inadequate salves to soothe a conscience that is never really free of its guilt and shame. How could it be? I’m just a sinner after all (maximum sarcasm intended).
I have battled sin as a sinner and I have battled it as a saint. There is no comparison in outcomes. As a sinner, I was defeated before I began. No matter how well I thought I had strapped on my armor, I was still exposed to a myriad of fiery guilt-producing missiles. It turns out my breast plate of God’s righteousness was not in place while I thought of myself fundamentally as just a sinner. Is this terribly surprising since depravity-math had produced my identity as a servant-slave (only), whom God tolerates, instead of a son, whose company he cherishes?
Even as a saint, I have been knocked down hard. But with my identity in tact as a son, I don’t just lie there concluding a TKO is normal. As familiar as it might feel (for a moment), sin is unnatural to God’s children. So, when I do sin, I no longer view it as my fate or as a confirmation of my fallen identity. Instead, I do a higher math. I calculate that sin is alien to my new nature. I hope you can see how doing the math with the essential variable of ourselves as new creations can, as Christ intended, lead us to our victorious destiny.
Oh how different Romans 6:23 looks in light of our new identities and In light of a true kingdom gospel!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
From the old just-a-sinner identity, eternal life is that life we get only after our physical bodies have expired. From that limited and defeatist position, the great hope of the Christian is the rapture, where our futile attempts at righteousness are no more because we are getting new bodies free of their native connection to sin. From God’s kingdom-paradigm, where Christ is reclaiming the domain of men’s hearts, Christ’s Life is now our life. We have eternal life now! It is unfortunate that we have equated death with that occasion when our bodies finally expire because, in reality, those whom Christ has made right with God are not going to taste death. Remember: sin and death no longer have any claim upon us!
Even now, we can experience and proclaim that we are living out of His Life, which is now our Life (capital “L” intended). He is the free gift of God, who is even now our eternal life. This is the good news of the kingdom of God! This is the full gospel. It is so, so much more than dying and going to heaven. We truly need to crunch the numbers afresh. Here is the problem: How much eternal life do I actually have? Answer: your years yet to live + infinity.
In another place Paul stated it like this:
We’re free of it (that old constricting paradigm)! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18 The Message)
It turns out that our part, our responsibility and opportunity, grows where eternal life is a now–life as opposed to an after-death-life. We are now kingdom citizens who are in partnership with the reigning King who will bring about His unending kingdom, one heart at a time. I believe Paul’s writings will make much more sense to us as we look at them through this lens.
I sincerely pray this morning’s math lesson was helpful.
So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
Father, help us to let go of the ideas which exalt themselves in our hearts, eroding away our new creation-identities. Deliver us from every false religious salve we apply to our consciences where they labor under guilt and condemnation. Persevere with us until we truly are resting in the security of our new identities as your beloved children and friends. Fill your Church with fresh stories of liberation that come from higher math. Thank You that you have done Your part and have empowered us, in Christ, do do ours. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jul 12, 2015 | 27. Letting Go
Letting Go – Genesis 22:1-19
It has always intrigued me how Jesus is revealed to the human heart and how that revelation shapes one’s authority (or influence). Having experience with both following and leading, I often think about the nature of authority; Where does it comes from? How does it develop? Today’s passage will help answer these questions. We will focus today’s MwM exploration on legitimate authority and launch from this inspired sentence…..
Take now your son…and offer him as a burnt offering.
The scripture do not record any reaction by Abraham other than his prompt obedience. There just had to be a “You-Can’t-Be-Serious!!” moment in there somewhere, “Slay Isaac?! But God, he is the miraculous fulfillment of your promise to Sarah and I. And, need I remind you, he is the means to the fulfillment of your promise to make nations from my seed. Isaac has brought laughter into our lives replacing the sorrow of Sarah’s barrenness.” It is recorded that Abraham is God’s friend. Has it ever bothered you how God treats His friends? How about His children, each of whom He scourges?
Words like scourging and discipline sound so Old Testament. But it is the New Testament writer of Hebrews who goes so far as to call us illegitimate if we are without them. Here is a question for those who lead (those who are attempting to exercise authority);
What have you said to date by way of your words and your life which have helped clarify just how discipline works itself out? Or, has grace removed the need for discipline?
I believe legitimate leaders are those whose lives and teachings help clarify these more challenging aspects of following Christ. By teaching on pet themes (which often exclude correction), we fail to equip would-be disciples with this essential part of the vision which should be forming in their hearts. Without this understanding of God’s ways, how will the would-be disciple react when the path becomes steep with some discipline from the Lord or narrow with some challenging circumstance?
If I attended a conventional church I would make an appeal to Pastor, “Please do not just share from the latest book you have read (or whatever source of inspiration you depend upon) and expect us to prosper as his disciples. True disciples will balk at this voice. Unless it is lived-truth it remains a potentially-lifeless proposition. Second hand truths do not fan cold embers into fires nor can they sustain the fires which already glow within hungry hearts.
Speak to us instead from your legitimizing experience with God. Those seasons where the Word, through trial and testing, has become flesh in you. Model for us what life with Him and each other is to look like. There are many who are looking and longing for those who can speak to them and live along side them with the authority which only come from life-experience, shaped by God’s Word and His Spirit.
In his becoming a friend to God, Abraham had to let go of the thing that was most precious to him on this earth. Contrary to ever fiber of his being, he had to relinquish his rights to God’s promise and entrust that promise back to Yahweh to do with as He pleased. For Abraham and for the author of Hebrews, it boiled down to this;
It is with God with Whom we have to do.
Those who enjoy friendship status with the Father have been weened (often through discipline or pruning) from their earthly ambitions. Having let go of their ego-driven agendas they have become equipped with that legitimate authority which is found only in broken men and women, saints whose false foundations have been demolished, disciples who are progressively resting in Christ alone as their life and are now living for His larger kingdom-agenda.
Father, please raise up authentic spiritual fathers whose lives and words will honor the whole counsel of scripture and help us to understand Your loving-heart so that we may process life as You intend us to, so that we might grow up as legitimate children, accurately representing who You are to the world around us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jul 11, 2015 | 27. Letting Go
Letting Go – 1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
The scriptures teach us that we are temporarily located in a body which is located temporarily in a temporary world, so, its not too surprising we are powerfully conditioned by all this temporariness. This is a real problem since, being created in His (eternal) image, we are anything but temporary. The apostle John, an intimate friend to Jesus, knew it was in man to give his affections either to the temporary or the eternal. His Master had taught Him that men are either going to love one or the other, and that…
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.
Religion recognizes worldliness and it addresses it by way of prescription and proscription. “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not” are the spirit of all religious creeds. Consequently their understanding of the fear of God is centered around what may happen to them if they run afoul of their creeds. Contrastingly, those who are resting in Christ’s righteousness are in this world but they recognize the futility of religion in dealing with it. They are unfettered by this spirit. Instead they are focused on a promise…..
And this is the promise which He Himself made to us; eternal life. (check out 1 Cor 6:12 and 10:23)
So how are we to live out our lives as eternal spirits in a temporal world, one that is passing away before our very eyes? All of scripture speaks to this in one way or another but John gives us a leg up with 1 John 2:29….
Little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
The scripture tells us that Satan has some authority in this temporary world which he wields through deception. By leveraging the temporal, as if it were all there was, the prince of this (temporary) age, reigns over a network of ideas which are designed to distract us from the eternal. But….
The anointing (gift of the Spirit) which you received from Him abides in you…. His anointing teaches you about all (these) things”. (1 Jn 2:27)
And …in verse 17, John tells us…..
if we will do the will of God we will abide forever.
We will succeed in “not loving the world” best by not turning this apostolic command into religious pre and pro-hibitions. We will succeed best in loving God by simply abiding in His promises and abiding in intimate fellowship with Him.
As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 Jn 2:24)
Father, may we hear and respond to the anointing of Your Holy Spirit within us, Who is helping us renew our minds where we have been conditioned and conformed to the temporal. Holy Spirit, please teach us to reinvest our affections in You. When Jesus appears once again may our abiding have been highly visible. Amen.
Letting Go – 1 John 2:15-17
by RobertCummins | Jul 10, 2015 | 27. Letting Go
Letting Go – Philippians 3:1-14
Hopefully you can pause and read Philippians 3:1-14, a description of a transformed heart.
In this passage we see the words; losses, gains and counting. Why is an apostle using CPA-language? In Luke 14:25-35, Jesus tells us we must all do some critical math in calculating the cost of following Him. In today’s scriptures, the Spirit gives us a peak into Paul’s heart. We get to see how he processed Jesus’ commands and how the accounting within Paul’s heart worked itself out.
Why did the Spirit include in scripture such a transparent view of Paul? Was it to display his heart as an exception, a bar set so high it could only be cleared with apostolic muscle? I don’t think so; I believe Paul’s heart is intended as a reference point for all Christ’s followers. The apostle’s story, like our own, is intended to be a catalyst to others as we work out our salvation (aka; living our life).
Paul’s pre-Christ balance sheet was loaded with what he had thought of as stout assets; he was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee blameless regrading Law-based righteousness and he was a zealous persecutor of the Church. Yet, by the time he wrote this letter, Paul’s balance sheet had flipped! Whatever he had experienced since those days as a Pharisee had completely undermined the value of his former assets. His pre-Christ life had become, in his counting, worth less than nothing. It was as though he had experienced a joyful sort of bankruptcy, suffering the loss of all things. The passage reveals that Paul could not have been more pleased with the results; gaining his windfall – Jesus Christ.
With Christ Himself as his only remaining asset, Paul has become a bench mark for transformation, capable of assisting us in the calculations we each must make. What happened in Paul’s experience that transformed him from proud pharisee into the humble chief of sinners? What events and processes took place which left Jesus as Paul’s sole asset? Just how did God bring about this transformation?
If we are making claims on the name of Jesus, the calculation Jesus instructs us to make must eventually include question like these; In what ways has my own heart been transformed? Am I becoming less and less while He is becoming more an more? When the books are finally opened, will Jesus appear as my sole asset? As my Lord, have I given Him the combination to my heart?
Note; If we believe God held Paul’s heart, in its apostolic-ness, to higher standards than he does our own, please read verses 15-21. Also note the consequence for those who had replaced the cross with their own preferences.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Father, on that day when you ask us to give an accounting of ourselves, may our books be in order – where our righteousness is that which comes from you alone on the basis of faith, and that like Paul, You alone are our treasure. May we encounter You in our circumstances and may we see Your strong loving heart’s efforts to transform us and to reveal Christ to us and though us. May Your eyes soon see Your Bride pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jul 9, 2015 | 27. Letting Go
Letting Go – Romans 12:1-3
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Romans 12:1-3 NAS
Paul, as one of the natural Jewish branches, is writing to the unnatural Gentile branches who, by a mysterious and extravagant gesture of kindness and grace, God has grafted into Jesus, the deep and rich root of the olive tree. This was a big deal to Paul.
Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! …For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.
Anyone who goes from chief detractor to chief advocate with suffering as their anticipated reward wins my attention. It is doubtful to me his words are mere hyperbole; I believe he has stretched language to its limits in an effort to describe even the shallower reaches of Jesus Christ who has become his all-consuming passion. He is urging us to listen as he explains how this can happen for us as well. Paul carries the burden of a man consumed; by the strength of Christ in him, he proclaims Jesus with all deliberation.
When people in Paul’s era heard the word sacrifice, their minds recalled images of sacrificed animals whose blood was offered to appease some supposed god. Paul throws the Romans a major league curve ball when he tells them they are now the sacrifice. He tells them, in their living, they would become sacrifices, fulfilling their calling as worshipers. No longer was the primary act of worship going to be limited to the attending of ceremonies or observance of rituals. Worship’s primary expression, from this point going forward, was going to be the living of life.
Take your everyday ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life, and place it before God as an offering. (MSG)
Paul goes on to reveal a major roadblock to this transformation which God desires. Our hindrance are the false ideas we hold about Him, ourselves and the world. This collection of beliefs represents our reality. That is why change is so difficult. “Our reality” is our foundation. It is what has become familiar and therefore sacred. From here we have learned to make life work-out to some acceptable degree. Threaten these core ideas with new ones and we tremble and retreat, lest our whole superstructure be shaken and topple.
This is another reason Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended with Me”. Jesus words and the words of His apostles run counter to the philosophies of this world which have infected us without us even knowing it. This is the strategy of this world’s prince who oversees a vast network of well coordinated lies. This is the kingdom of darkness out of which God is calling the children of Light.
But how am I going to abandon the foundational values which I have come to terms with and operate by? It is by the renewal of the mind (aka; repentance) -and- by that measure of faith which God has allotted to each man. In God’s unsearchable wisdom, in His unfathomable ways, He has given us faith to embrace the values of God’s kingdom which may first appear to us as unnatural and even threatening.
Father, may we not forget there is still an original place in Your heart for the natural branches, that we gentiles have a season of grace to respond to You. As the beneficiaries and heirs of such extravagant grace, may our daily, walk-around lives bring about your good and acceptable will. May our new lives in You radiate so brightly as to be an attraction to the Jews and a validation of Jesus’ rightful status as Messiah. And ….may we not so quickly run from the ideas which may both threaten and save us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jul 8, 2015 | 27. Letting Go
Letting Go – Mark 8:31-38
Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him because he was plainly stating that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.
How does this scene grab you? Previously, I have read this and thought, “Peter, what in the name of all that is holy, were you thinking?! This was the Son of God and you had the hutzpah to take him to task?! Who did you think he was?! And, who did you think you were?!” That reaction is now mostly historical. The exclamation points of my responses are fewer today and I carry around fewer judgmental stones to throw.
One of my good friends is faithful to pass on adages especially ones with wry humor as their basis. Here is one which dovetails nicely with Peter’s experience with Jesus;
If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.
I suppose we will have to amend this now to read;
If you want to hear God’s rebuke, give him your opinion.
That’s not as funny is it? Buried inside my older attitude was this question, “Lord, why did you associate Peter’s shot at candor as Satanic?” I believe Jesus anticipated this question and answered it when he followed that tough get-behind-me-Satan comment by…..
summoning the crowd with His disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Another adage (with humorous intent):
Don’t believe everything you think.
Although it didn’t come about in a flesh-face-to-face encounter, I believe I have had similar experiences with Jesus, where circumstances, scripture, wise and truthful brothers and sisters weighed in, confirming that my thinking was askew. Quite honestly, I found zero humor in these occasions. In fact, discovering I am wrong, slams the needle on my worst-nightmare scale. “I’m wrong? You mean to tell me I have been expending my life’s energies based on lies! This just cannot be!” This is a major crossroads where we are going to say either, “Unacceptable” or “Please remove any hurtful way from my heart.”
I believe what Jesus is saying to Peter (and to all who call him Lord) is….
My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts.
Isn’t Jesus saying to us that if anyone wishes to call him Lord, he must deny his rights to be right? That by having rigid inflexible positions we use to preserve our lives as we have learned to live them? It is no wonder my experience with God lacked humor. When we find the ideas we are living out of are false its the equivalent to a powerful earthquake to our souls .
How counter-intuitive that following Jesus means we must let go of our convictions as the solid rock on which we stand so that Jesus can have that rightful place. Even when I write, I am frequently compelled to add, “I may still be clueless on this, but …..then, (add my 2 cents worth).” Reporting on my explorations and experience as a sojourner is the primary intention of MwM. I don’t want to pontificate with certainty on matters. However….
Neither am I writing from a total vacuum. Most of what I am sharing is born of the last earthquake – that previous ocassion where I was believing everything I was thinking. My expectation is that following Jesus as Lord will include numerous episodes of this nature, each one providing for repentance ( i.e. the changing my mind) and transformation (i.e. the changing of my character). I believe following Jesus is to live within a mobile classroom where all that touches us is intended to educate and to transform. He is using circumstances (external and internal), people around us, His Word and His Spirit to lead us deeper into the Truth which liberates us and endows us with joy.
I don’t believe Jesus just came to save our souls from an eternity of hell. I believe (and I might be wrong :-), he came and died to save us, through his life, from the collections of ideas we hold so firmly, thinking they, in themselves, are what sustains our lives. I believe Jesus invites us to take up our cross, that place where our human explanations die. Only at the cross will he himself becomes the replacement for the convictions we are using to make life work. He knows we will forfeit abundant life if we succeed in living out of a collection of ideas as opposed to his own resurrection life.
I believe Jesus was harsh with Peter and that he permits harsh things to touch us at times because he knows the ways we are thinking are destructive to us and counter-productive to his kingdom. He wants us to let go that we may live. If we die by letting go we live in Him; If we try and live by holding on, tragically, we forfeit life.
Father, when all is said and done, we are left with you, our sufficiency and our abundance. Thank you that class is always in session, that you remain our patient counselor and teacher even when we think we have it down pat. Help us to let go of and die to all the idols we have placed our trust in. Amen.
