by RobertCummins | Jan 23, 2017 | 56. Home
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. (Revelation 21:5-7)
Overcoming is a recurring theme in Revelation. Who comes to mind when you think of overcoming? How does one go about overcoming? What is it specifically we are to overcome? When I served as an elder in a local church, these questions and a hundred more, haunted me. As one entrusted with the spiritual health of others, finding the answers to these questions seemed important. However, I eventually discovered the limited relevance of question-askers inside the local church.
Admittedly, some questions have a dark side, masking unbelief and evading truth, questions such as: “Who is my neighbor?” or “How shall I know that these things shall be?” But there are also honest questions, which come from thirsty souls. Some are on a heart-quest for reality and truth, which requires them to peer beneath things. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Chuck Swindoll’s encouragement to those challenging the sacrosanct and the status quo in Insight for Today. (Use his search tool and look up; “The Problem With Progress,” Parts 1 & 2.) You will appreciate this if you are one inclined to turn over stones.
Our local church was shrinking along with most churches in America. Why? “Why” is a pry bar word, and I suspect the absence of those anticipated harvests with their 30-60-90 fold returns may be related to our aversion to it. Jesus is the most captivating personality in the universe, yet church in its traditional form is repelling people. What if leaders were to get out the pry bar and look beneath the definitions, the traditions, the doctrines, and the experiences and see if Jesus somehow got left out?
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. (Revelation 21:3)
We are now the tabernacle of God. Christ is in us. Christ is now our very life. This is the greatest mystery of all. This was the big stone the prophets were trying to pry up in the Old Testament: Christ in us—the hope of glory. Living with Christ as Lord in our hearts inevitably plays out as an intimate relationship between God and man. When Jesus eventually trumps religion, a bright light, previously unseen, will shine from the Church. In Christ, we hold this bright day in trust.
Because I have seen God pry things up in my own life, unearthing the spring, I project he could do this on a larger scale. After all, I’m made of the same stuff as my brothers and sisters in Christ. Perhaps I am in error, but I am assuming that it his intention that the well within each of us be unearthed. I write to assist other thirsty hearts. I pray my story would encourage others to make sure Jesus is not being lost in the serious business of a religious life. I’m evidence it can happen. We will know when the well is open and running because, flowing from our innermost beings will be a river of life that washes our consciences clean of guilt and shame. This is overcoming. This life of freedom flows from “the spring of the water of life,” which is Jesus, “without cost,” affirming our identities as His daughters and Sons.
Father, let us not fail to see that it is in you and you alone that all things become new. Even if your prying exposes us where we are false, strengthen us to persevere, knowing the sorrow of discipline is but for a moment. May our hearts be liberated from any old things preventing the Spring of Life from overflowing our vessels. May our hearts see they are the created objects of your affection and that you will conclude the matters which you have begun. Make all things new Lord, especially us! Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 3, 2016 | 56. Home
Made In His Image – Colossians 1:15-23
Colossians 1:15-23 NAS
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach – if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister (and coach).
When the ball is hiked in a football game, the viewer’s eyes are trained on the quarterback. The ultimate compliment to a QB and a play caller is when the defense is fooled. While everyone is focused on one area, yardage is being gained on another part of the field, and by someone unexpected. Many of us may be fooled as well as we think of God’s work in the earth today. The unit God has on the field is His Church and …
when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together
Unfortunately those watching the western division of The Saints versus the Demons do not see the Church gaining any ground. It would seem the Church only knows a few plays and the opponent knows them all, stopping most of them for a loss. How can this be? Is there a problem with the offensive coordinator? Is there a problem with the play? The theology of some even lead them to believe that God has ordained this quarter to be a loss. For the record, I don’t see any coach, especially ours, ordaining a loss, and there is certainly no problem with The Play or its Caller. Read our passage again, this time with your heart. (Note: You cannot speed-read and heart-listen at the same time.)
Everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment…He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross. Colossians 1:15-20 MSG
George Barna has compiled some of the game stats for Team-Church in his book Revolution. The numbers strongly suggest the western church is stuck at the line of scrimmage, deep in their own territory. However Barna’s eye has not been fooled. He is also following the ball on a play that is gaining some yardage. It is being executed by an unexpected player on a part of the field not many are watching … Look at the sideline – something is going on there, behind the coaches.
Most of us do not see this play simply because our eye has been trained to think of “church” as a place or an event. Our conditioning has trained us to see Pastor as Coach and QB. While our eye may be following the institutional church, the ball is actually being carried by the Church, a vast and growing squad of aching souls who are standing up, getting off the pew and declaring, “I am not just a benchwarmer!”
From the Owner’s perspective, the ball has never really been dropped. The players, as they have always been, are scattered strategically on the field. Barna has taken note that many believers are not only getting up off the bench, they are finding their way into smaller groups where they can discover how God has equipped them and how they can make their essential contribution to The Play.
Along with Coach Paul, MwM aspires to encourage all men and women to discover their essential gifts and insert themselves into the line up of friends and family where only love can advance the ball and reverse the momentum of this battle.
Father, May we see the contest with your eyes. May we find our way into the skirmish where our God-given skill sets can be used to devestate the enemy. Thank You for Life. We look forward to the day when you truly run up the score. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Jan 1, 2016 | 56. Home
Home – 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
As I consider Paul’s words I feel a tension and I know why. He is talking about life after death and I want him to talk about life before death. More accurately, I want him to talk about Life while living. Our passage seems to say we really don’t start living until the worms start eating. I don’t believe this is what Paul is saying. This will be a good place to employ our Bible Study 101 skills and ask; “Who is speaking and why?” A complete reading of 1st and 2nd Corinthians reveals Corinth not only had theological problems. They also had morality problems.
Lies from pagan culture still had traction in the young church. Between bad theology and bad morality, there wasn’t much left to distinguish the Corinthian saints from the Corinthian pagans. This was deeply troubling to Paul – their spiritual father. His plan was to wade right into the middle of it …
determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
Fully committed to winning them, the great apostle starts with a question …
Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? (1 Cor 15:12 MSG)
They were letting people say there was no such thing as a resurrection because various lies remained operative within their community. As Paul preached nothing but Christ and Him crucified, he was facing off with the principalities of Corinthian culture who had reigned unchallenged for hundreds of years.
Paul was no stranger to these demons. At Mars Hill most of the philosophers mocked him when he spoke of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Due to their philosophical strongholds it was inconceivable to them a person’s earthly body could come back to life after it had died. The Epicurean philosophers were materialists, believing there was no existence beyond death. The Stoic philosophers taught at death the soul was merged with Deity, precluding the need of a body. The Platonist philosophers taught the soul was immortal, but they denied the idea of a bodily resurrection.
The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis, which literally means “to stand up again.” Resurrection means that a person will “stand up again” after he dies – that he will come back to life in a new body. This was the sword Paul drew. Sound doctrine was his primary weapon in combating the doctrines of demons. While he was correcting the specific errors of the Corinthians he did not see the need to share the things about the resurrection which he had shared with the Romans.
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
While he did not teach this to the Corinthians directly in our passage, he had certainly implied it when he told them they were new creatures in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) In God’s kingdom which has come and is coming, Life is not just reserved as a post trumpet blast, when-the-dead-shall-rise experience. We have been raised up already. Christ is now our Life!
While it will not be the ultimate expression of resurrection life, Paul is keen that Jesus’ life be manifest in the lives of believers while still in their mortal bodies. He envisions the inner man standing up and expressing something eternal while still residing in the temporal. This happens as God is permitted to become the King of our hearts. As God succeeds as Lord in our inner most being, his kingdom expands.
Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
If Paul were preaching his straightforward, Christ and Him crucified – message to the western evangelical church, he would get push back from another set of principalities who hold that the real, substantive resurrection life begins only after we die. Due to this philosophical stronghold it is inconceivable to many Christians that Jesus will make much of a stand in his Church, “How much resurrection life is realistic, restricted as it is by fallen human nature?” Overlooking the new nature, in Christ, this church-based stronghold breads passivity and a tread-water-until-then outlook. Where this doctrine persists, the troops remain in the barracks awaiting Reveille, praying they will not be left behind.
Right now, in Christ, we are raised from dead (in our spirits) and we will be raised from the dead (in our bodies) at our appointed time. Resurrection life is planted, like a seed, in our hearts. By God’s grace it takes root. That seed is Christ himself. There is no life other than his. This must be why Paul is so determined to preach exclusively about the resurrection. This message is the one that sets the stage for the believer to personally discover that Jesus Christ is literally all they have and all they need. He is, himself, our sufficiency. For our good and the Kingdom’s, he intends to become our all-in-all.
Father, thank you that in Christ our toil is not in vain. Manifest your resurrection life within us. Give this unbelieving world something fresh to chew on. Let them see newness of life in your family. Transform us, as you have always intended, not just in that ultimate twinkling of an eye, rather, over time, as we walk with you in the Spirit. Let this world see the perishable putting on some imperishable, and mortality putting on some immortality. Let them puzzle as they see our liberty in the Spirit, asking themselves, “Where is the sting of death in these people?” Take your stand Lord. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Jan 1, 2016 | 56. Home
Home – Revelation 21:9-27
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
How are we to respond to this? An angel, armed to the hilt, has invited John to see the Bride but then shows him a 1500 mile³ structure. Its scale is overwhelming! The construction is jaw dropping! The universe must have been mined to acquire the building materials! But … how is this, the “Bride“? Weren’t we hoping to see a composite of persons (perhaps with a glimpse of ourselves included)? How is Revelation 21 supposed to motivate us? What should be our take away?
Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
The phrase “was like” tells us John is using his limited and fragile vocabulary to depict something for which he has no words. Clearly, he has been swept up into the mystery. Symbolism is the best he can do. Unfortunately, mystery often leaves the western mind a little nonplussed and perhaps even offended.
In the west, how deeply we love a concrete principle that fits neatly into our belief structure! Oh how desirable we believe another post-tensioning truth will be to our foundation! Yet John does not offer us a single stick of moralistic rebar. The logical religious mind may ask, “Then what is the point here?” Our pining for principles reveals our discomfort with mystery and I suspect, with God.
We think about God as if he lives up two or three flights of stairs from us when in reality the particulars of his realm are light years beyond our comprehension in every conceivable direction. Our minds, as it turns out, at least for now, are merciful buffers between us and God. We could not endure his glory for a moment. John’s words have been spoken that we may grapple with them. They are to have an instructive impact upon us. As we wrestle with God’s glory in this passage we find we are graciously pinned in the first round. Our loss then becomes our gain – and our glory.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 ISV
God saying, “My ways are higher than your ways” will no doubt be the understatement of all eternity. So much about God is a glorious mystery held in trust for his Bride. By merciful design we do not have exhaustive knowledge. Knowing all mysteries would undermine the need for faith – the only way we may please him while in these earthly bodies. Until that day (when we will know as we have been known) we have sufficient truth to live in. Even now, we have Jesus, the Light of the world – the exact representation of the Father, to illumine our path. We also have the Holy Spirit in us to teach and to guide.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
Sometimes God’s word is spoken to simply drive us to our knees that, from there, we may discover we live and move and have our being in Christ. We can then rest our exhausted heads upon his lap and hear him say …
Peace my child. Be still and know that I am God.
Father, even if we were to understand all mysteries, Jesus, not our knowledge would be our foundation. Oh Lord, that you might convey to us your sufficiency and your presence independent of our substantial data base about you. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Dec 31, 2015 | 56. Home
Home – Luke 23:32-43
When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
In approaching our passage, I find myself praying, “Lord, please do not let me just read this and move on to my toast and orange juice. This content cannot remain just an idea or a historical fact to me. My hope and the hope of all men hinge upon this scene. Open my heart. Breathe into me its inspiration, its instruction, its rebuke.”
My mind, as it often does, connects with other passages of scripture or, more often than not, with an experience from scripture, which I have to look up. I am thinking of Paul, who was absent from both the Colossians and the Corinthians, yet claimed to be there with them, in spirit. Had Paul’s understanding about time and space been altered, in Christ? In asking this, I feel as innocent as a child with his imagination intact. Can I error here? Since it has been written …
Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.
I am rejecting the idea that Paul has time-travel powers that I don’t. I am rejecting the idea that in the spirit means something like: in a particular attitude. I believe Paul was with the believers in those two cities in an actual, yet mysterious way. He knew the Body of Christ was an eternal living thing with many parts. What is time to eternity anyway? I believe Paul’s revelations had loosened the bonds of materialistic logic on his reasoning. He had grasped the spiritual nature of his being and ours. This is why, I am free to ask, “Where am I in this Crucifixion scene?”
Am I the criminal on the left or the one on the right? Am I the soldier with the hammer and pin? The one casting lots? Am I an onlooker, come for the show? Did I yell, “Crucify him?” I am recalling the teaching of scripture; men are either in Adam or in Christ. I can claim my innocence based upon my absence but, in Adam, I was possessed by every evil motive playing out at Golgotha. So, I acknowledge,
“Lord, I would like to think that, with Peter, I would have been prepared to die with you, but I know better. I am made of the same stuff as him. I denied you too. I was also the thief, in pain, insanely hurling abuse at you, “Are you not God? Will you not do something!” (In my own whitewashed way, I have done this even recently.) I was also there casting lots – hoping to gain a little something out of this Christianity thing. I was also there looking on, at a safe distance so as not be confused as one of your disciples. And, in my heart I have both mocked you and sneered at you. I, as much as any human monster, need Jesus.”
The mystery gets deeper …
I was also the thief on the cross, whose insanity was overtaken by grace, enabling him to acknowledge divine justice, to see Jesus’ righteousness and his divinity. I was there, hearing myself take ownership of my sin and, having no one else who can save me, asking;
Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!
Jesus, heard my cry and not only promised to remember me in Paradise, but he folded me into himself – the redemptive Mystery of the ages. He transferred me into the kingdom of his beloved Son. He gave me the right to become his child. He grafted me into the Vine, who is Jesus, and promised me that nothing will ever, ever, ever, separate me from his love. Death (in its truest spiritual sense) has been abolished. When did he do this? He did it before time. He’s doing it now and will be doing it forevermore. Truly, “It is finished!”
How can it be that such wonderful providence has overtaken me? I have been caught up (with you) into the Middle of a blessed Mystery.
Amen.
by RobertCummins | Dec 30, 2015 | 56. Home
Home – Zephaniah 3:14-20
The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
The New Covenant is a better covenant. It has been enacted on better promises. (Heb 8:6) This verse reminds me why the glory of the new exceeds that of the old. Its the promise of a new heart …
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Ezekiel 11:19
Here is how God fulfilled it…
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20
Christ in us changes everything or, at least it should. We could modify our old testament promise in light of the new …
The Lord your God is in you, a victorious warrior. He exults within you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice within you with shouts of joy. (My paraphrase)
However, because we inflate the value our feelings, we think, “OK. Christ is in me – the Bible tells me so, but I’m not feeling it. So we try and hear his voice in the clamor of our fickle emotions and busy lives. I can testify, this road has many unnecessary ups and downs and some very un-scenic turnouts.
Perhaps we have not known his presence within simply because we were not taught that we could or we were not taught how. Perhaps the full import of having a new heart has not been realized because we have not learned to be quiet long enough to encounter him. Perhaps the place of our tryst frightens us because of its unfamiliar stillness and quiet. Yet, we are told, that is where we shall come to know him …
Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10
Perhaps if we made peace with the quiet, we would experience the promise …
Indeed, I will give you renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.
The Blue Book has served thousands of Christians by inviting them to slow down and discover their God who lives within them. Those who learn this discipline ultimately find it was Christ himself they longed for and that he resides within them. The process of coming to know our God is an experiential mystery, a blessed one, which awaits all persevering saints. Our simple calling is to …
Watch over our hearts with all diligence for from them flow all the issues of our lives.
May God succeed in his ambushes and may we succeed in our perserverance. Amen.
