are we going to be known by our love? (John 12:1-11)

The plant grows in the Himalayas.
How did Mary get spikenard, a whole Roman pound of it…12 oz.?
It cost a year’s wages. They had to climb up 12,000 feet somewhere near China, to harvest the obscure plant, squeeze the bejabbers out of it to make a perfume. People seemed to want it. It even made the Temple’s altar – a heavy ointment with a fragrant earthy smell, stored in alabaster. Mary had it. Mary broke the bottle. For goodness sakes, Mary put it on Jesus’ FEET!!!!  In seconds of crazy love, she poured it out and washed His feet in it and let her hair be the towel.
One year’s wages, a precious herb, an embarrassing act. Jesus was “on the lam” at this point. The Pharisees were plotting to kill Him. Choose somebody to adore who makes sense, not the man of sorrows, acquainted with suffering…He was despised and rejected and we esteemed Him not. Mary of Bethany, did you know?
Mother Teresa once said, “Jesus is among the poor in distressing disguise.” If that is so, are we to pour our nard on them and stop worrying about how it looks and what it costs…and are we safe?

They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love…

Japan and God

I read an article entitled “Japan’s Earthquake and the Will of God,” by a former colleague.  The article was well-written and thoughtful and strategically placed in the Huffington Post’s religion section meant to reach many readers, some of whom would have little use for God or His will.  But, I came away from it troubled that the whole nature of God was not presented.

Below is a link to the article and an opening quote from it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hamilton/was-japans-earthquake-the_b_837324.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=578959,b=facebook

“On Monday, Tokyo’s governor, Shintaro Ishihara, was quoted as saying, “I think (the disaster in Japan) is tembatsu.” Tembatsu is a Japanese term that means “divine punishment.” His remarks are reminiscent of the 2005 comments of the then New Orleans’ mayor Ray Nagin, following Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of his city. At the time he noted, “Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane.”  Both governor Ishihara and Mayor Nagin saw the disaster as punishment for human sin.”

The article’s content basically was a defense of God’s good name (as if He needs it) – pointing out that natural disasters are a by-product of nature’s forces and an inevitable reality in this world; and that other calamities are a result of our actions or others’ actions.  But, the article left the sense that we have a deistic God – uninvolved in events, except if they’re good, and only then in the sense that we are inspired to act in His name by helping our neighbors.  “That is how God is present” was the concept offered.

Though the death of Christ on the cross was mentioned as the way God has dealt with the problem of sin in the world – sin which causes individual or large-scale disasters – Jesus’ words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” were mentioned as a sign that God is always merciful.  Therefore, nothing that harms us ever has anything to do with God’s attitude or actions.

I agree that the cross is an incredible sign of God’s love.  Though we, as a race, deserve the penalty of death for all we have done that offends God’s holiness, He took the fall for us, took the penalty, and absorbed our sin while also conquering death through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.  But, if God is always merciful, why the cross?  Why not just say, “Heck, it’s ok.  I forgive you all.”  The cross is a rather dramatic venue for a God who is purportedly “never angry with us” according to the article.  With a death that agonizing borne by the “Holy One of God,” we have to conclude that sin is exquisitely offensive to One who is perfectly holy.  And yet He is Love itself (1 John 4:16).  He had to hold those two dimensions of His personality in tension on the cross.  Perfect love poured out for us by substituting Himself as the Offender, and perfect justice served by death as the payment for all our offenses.

I have no idea why the disasters occurred in Japan other than the natural circumstances of an earthquake, followed by a tsunami, and then the fearful disruption of the reactors – a chain of events.  The weather is cold.  People are homeless, hungry, grieving, frightened.  There is death and injury and trapped ones perhaps still in the rubble.  God’s involvement is, of course, not for me to comment on, nor would I.  What matters now – the only thing that matters – is to RELIEVE  human suffering.  And yes, God is in that.

Jesus was once asked the “Why?” question in the face of some tragic events of His day.  Luke 13:1-5 tells us, “Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?  I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.  Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?  I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

I think we answer too quickly and too easily if we brush over all that is said in the Bible about the wrath of God against sin – and we encourage people to be complacent.  “God is benevolent.  Just relax.  He loves you no matter what.”  Yes, He does, but there is still His perfect holiness, the just side of His nature which must not be forgotten, along with His mercy, His loving-kindness which endures forever. What does one do with passages like these?  Exodus 32:10-12, Numbers 11:1, Jeremiah 21:3-7, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues on Egypt, the exile of the Jews.  We can use the language of “God allows these things” or “God removed His hand of blessing,”  but even that is expressive of God “doing something” in response to human wickedness.  This is not just an Old Testament issue either.  Similar events can be pointed out in the New Testament.  How do you handle the sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira who lied to God?  (Acts 5:1-11) These stories do not count?  And there are certainly passages on God’s wrath at the end of time – Romans 2:5, 8; 5:9; Col. 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:10.  We cannot minimize this side of God, that He hates our sin and He will deal with it.

I am with those who want to sing at the top of my lungs, “Oh how He loves you and me!”  I firmly believe that and the trail of blessings in my life is miles long.  But, I want to be sure I revere God – love the intimacy He has given me in Christ – but remember His awesome majesty and His justice and OBEY Him too! And I fear for all the people that disdain and blow off God.  The comments on the Huffington Post to the article above demonstrate that mindset.  Psalm 10:11 speaks of the heart of so many people today, “God has forgotten,” they say.  “He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”  They think God does not exist, or, He doesn’t mind and He’s just a mild-mannered, dismissible grandpa type.

Every revival has begun when people have started to see themselves as they really are and as they appear to God.  When they get gripped by conviction and humility and begin to pray, the Spirit of God begins to pour Himself out on the land.  How dry and languishing we are when God’s presence has receded from us.  And teaching that there is no such thing as anger or punishment in this life aids that indifference.  Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” which launched a powerful reaction in his church and the surrounding community of New England.  We remember it as the First Great Awakening of the 1700s.  He preached the awful consequences of sin, but the tender remedy of God, His Son’s sacrifice.  The cost of giving us His own righteousness was STEEP for God.  We need to understand that – how bad sin is and how good grace is.  A God without anger towards  sin is a God we can walk right past towards the idols of our making.

there is none like you

Warren Wiersbe says: ” True faith is always tested.“  The Bible says, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked.”  Ps. 11:5  Why?  Well, what makes you swifter?  Sitting or running?  Of course, the harder, more difficult thing – the running.  Testing = the way to gain strength.

Wiersbe, again, “Of course, God did not want Isaac’s life; He wanted Abraham’s heart.  Isaac was dear to Abraham, and God wanted to be sure that Isaac was not an idol, something more important than God, standing between God and Abraham. It was possible that Abraham was trusting Isaac to fulfill the promises and not trusting God.”

God wanted Abraham’s heart, his love.  And God loved Abraham so much, He wanted Abraham to KNOW that he had given God His heart!  How often we feel shame if we’re compromising on that point, our loyalty to God.  God wanted Abraham to be sure of Him and sure of himself.  So God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…” Genesis 22:2

How could God ask this thing of Abraham?

God had tested Abraham already by asking him to leave everything – home and family – behind in Ur.  And God had tested Abraham  by challenging him to believe God would give him a son through whom all the nations would be blessed – yet causing the appointed time for this child’s birth to come 25 years after the promise was given.  That surely took patience and trust.  But this?  Taking that much longed-for  son and sacrificing him like a lamb or a goat on an altar?  It was way over the top.

And yet Abraham responded not with incredulity, despair, or doubt.  He took his boy and all the implements for a good sacrifice, two other men, and off he went to find the mountain God had indicated.  He left in perfect trust.  This was a mature Abraham.  There had been more than one side trip into half belief in prior times, Pharaoh, Abimilech, and Hagar were all people with whom Abraham had compromised himself and his faith.

But now, he went with steadfast earnestness.

They got to the mountain and he told the companions to wait.  “We will worship and then we will come back to you,” he called, perhaps waving,  and journeying on.  “Where is the lamb, Father?” Isaac queried.  “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, son.” Gen. 22:8

I was so touched to read these words and catch in a fresh way Abraham’s unrelenting faith, “We’ll go worship and WE’LL be back.”  Not, “I’ll return shortly.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 says: “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.  Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’   Abraham reasoned that if Isacc died, God was able to bring him back again.  And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

God tests so that we come to utterly depend  on Him who is Love.  And when we do get to this place on the high mountain of the pilgrimage of our lives, we’ll have arrived at a blessed place where no storm or fury of life can rock or shake us.  Let all hell come against us.  We’ll be able to stand every time with Job and say, “I know my Redeemer lives.”

Praise God for the storms.  As Warren Wiersbe also wrote, “Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.”  With all your life and breath, only trust Him.

more on the Father’s heart for us

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be the kind of person that is totally devoted to God.  It makes me sad.”

One of the Bible students woefully shared this thought.

“What is it that God really wants from us? Striving?” I asked.

“Our love!” the same woman said.  “Bingo, A+, yes, you’ve got it!” I said. ” Love and trust.  Of course, obedience, but that’s an outflow of the love and devotion we focus on Him.  Don’t mourn,” I said.

And then I told them a story of a time I “got it” a little better – what God really wants from us.

My son grew up with a bunch of boys who are still his circle of friends.  One of them, I’ll call Joe, lost his way in high school and began to experiment with alcohol and marijuana.  It got to the point that he was even smoking the marijuana at home.  His parents asked him to go – they would not take the risk of the potential legal problems that might come their way.

Joe got a job, rented an apartment, not yet out of his teen years.

The other boys, including our son, went off to college.  Most all of them continued to do alright.  One was dismissed from college for poor grades, but most did fairly well.  On a break, they all came home and ended up at Joe’s.  Quickly, they fell into heart talk.

“You guys are so lucky,” Joe said.  “Do you even realize that?  You’re in college.  Your parents are helping you.  You are so lucky.  You need to really think about that, be grateful…”  That was the bottom line of his lecture.

The reason I know is much later that night, past the hour when we asked him to come home, our son came in.  He came up to my side of the bed, woke me and sat down.  He took my hand and said, “Mom, I just want you to know how grateful I am for everything you and dad have done for me.” He told me about the boys’ talk that night, and then he said, “I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done that might not have been right or obedient.”

My heart was overflowing with love for him.  “Hush, child,” was my thought.  “I don’t remember a thing.”

“You are fine.  It’s alright.  Don’t worry.  I love you so much too.  Everything is ok.  I don’t even remember any mistakes.  I love you.”

That was my heart for my man-child, sitting on the edge of my bed, so open and earnest.  What a precious moment of vulnerability and connection – I could have stayed poised in that connection forever.  So tender towards him I felt.

It struck me some time later – is that not the heart of the Father for us?  We have a moment of genuine humble love where we step close, we confess error or allow our need to be seen, and we offer our love, and God pours out a heart that never stopped accepting, desiring, and treasuring us.  A heart that keeps no account of our wrongs – who puts our sins behind His back. (Isaiah 38:17)

God is like this.

“How great is the love of the Father for us, that we would be called children of God, and that is what we are…Beloved, NOW we are children of God.”  1 John 3:1-2

the Father’s heart for us

“And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’  And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’

Then Abraham believed the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  Genesis 15:5-6 (NASB)

“If Abraham’s good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about.  But that was not God’s way.  For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith…’

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping- believing that he would become the father of many nations.  For God had said, “That’s how many descendants you will have!’  And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead – and so was Sarah’s womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise.  In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this, he brought glory to God.  He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever He promises.”  Romans 4:1-3, 18-21

I was so overwhelmed as I meditated on this story again last week, it made me weep.  Who can get their mind around the love of God, its height, depth, breadth and width?

An old man, as good as dead.  His wife, as dried up, aged, and barren as he, and yet…and yet…

Abraham figured out that God’s word is absolutely trustworthy.  God said Abraham would still have a child.  It wasn’t over:

“The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, seven times over!!!!!”  Psalm 12:6 If He’s said it, by golly, He will do it!  God’s Word is as solid as rock and we can stand on it.

But it’s more than that, isn’t it?  When you begin to see the heart of the Father in scripture – the relentless, jealous love He has for His precious children.  I remember hearing a celebrity sniff and say that “jealous” was an unbecoming word and it was a turn off for her.  She simply did not understand that what is conveyed by that word in scripture is passion – a bond that is fiercer and stronger than life.

Anyone who’s ever loved a child of their own knows what is intended in that phrase, “a jealous love.”    You would go to hell and back for your kid.  Now multiply that by infinity and purity and holiness and you have a God who just won’t let go of us.  “My people are determined to desert Me.  They call Me the Most High, but they don’t truly honor Me.  Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?  How can I let you go?”   Hosea 11:7-8 How indifferent and self-governed we are.  We ignore and break God’s heart with unceasing regularity.  Yet, God STILL wants US back.   He wants us.  You have the father of the prodigal (Luke 15) who when that prodigal takes one tiny step homeward, the father takes 500.  I have seen God’s generosity and overwhelming river of love so many times and yet I know I “ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”  Wait until a year from now or 10 when my own heart has grown larger towards Him.  I can only imagine.

Abraham wanted one little boy – and God gave him more descendants than the stars in the sky.  Christians, Jews, and Muslims all have regard for Abraham.  God did “make his name famous,” as He promised.  (Genesis 12:2)  And out of Abraham’s line (Matthew 1:1-16) came the Messiah, Savior of the world  (see also Gal. 3:16).  Was Abraham blessed to be a blessing?  You’d better believe it.

God also blessed Abraham with land – not a small piece of real estate for his tent and camels, but “all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River. (Gen. 15:18)

Can we not see this?  Can we not see the Father’s heart and be ravished with love for Him and His purposes above all else?  We give an inch.  He gives 10,000 miles.  Who is a God like You?

The love of God is overwhelming.  We offer faith – and even that is a gift from Him – and He pours out, pours out love upon us.  The greatest example ever, the Cross.  How true the song, and I’ve put it in this blog before, but it says the thing so well:

“The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.  It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hill.

The guilty pair bowed down with care,  God gave His Son to win.

His erring child, He reconciled, and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made,

were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade,

to write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.  Hallelujah.

The love of God how rich and pure how measureless and strong.  It shall forevermore endure, the saints’ and angels’ song.

Jesus came to reveal the Father’s heart.  (John 14:6)  He said that anyone who doesn’t love Him will not obey Him.  (John 14:24)  Once we get just a real inkling of the God revealed in Jesus by the Spirit and form even a hint of a relationship with Him,  see the sweetness of His love for us, the glory of His holiness and desire to make us holy, we cannot help but try to please Him – not out of fear, but out of passionate love.  Search for Him.

no fear

This scene was created by an artist friend.  She labelled it “wilderness backdrop” and it was made for worship slides.

We could use it often!  Life is a long, hard journey through the wilderness of this world where much could make us complain and fear like the Israelites or turn back to our “Egypts” – those worldly places that are full of compromise, evil, even suffering that fades from our minds as we think of going there rather than following the Lord.  We must choose faith and not fear, placing our feet firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, rather than taking the easy way out and remaining “partners” with worldliness.

So, this morning, a prayer from Mother Teresa’s devotional book, A Simple Path:

“Deliver me, O Jesus,

• From the desire of being loved,
• From the desire of being extolled,
• From the desire of being honored,
• From the desire of being praised,
• From the desire of being preferred,
• From the desire of being consulted,
• From the desire of being approved,
• From the desire of being popular,
• From the fear of being humiliated,
• From the fear of being despised,
• From the fear of suffering rebukes,
• From the fear of being calumniated,
• From the fear of being forgotten,
• From the fear of being wronged,
• From the fear of being ridiculed,
• From the fear of being suspected.”

I would add, “let me be totally divorced from the need to make others like me and include me.  Let me seek the approval of God alone, while remaining a peacemaker and a benevolent friend to all I meet.  If I seek to please God alone…if I rely on Him alone for deliverance, He will lift me up in due season and connect me with those in whom He is working for the same Kingdom ends and yes, much love will be discovered in this.

Amen

fasting thoughts

“I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:12

Now on the 18th day of a Daniel fast, I must say the smell of coffee is becoming increasingly enticing!  Of all the things I have not eaten, staying with this fruit and vegetable fare with no snacking – coffee is what I miss most.  Water is well, just so tasteless, yet essential.  I miss the warmth of the coffee in the morning.  But soon, the fast will end.  What has it gained for me?

I had some initial purposes in beginning the fast.  Chief among them was a desire for fresh vigor and blooming for our church – directions and guidance for the days ahead, power to do it.  Also, there are some healings for various people that I have had in mind.  We are praying for the spirit of addiction to be overcome in many people, but there is physical and emotional healing for several for which I have prayed.  And salvations.  I/we have been praying for many who are lost and do not know Christ in a personal and salvific way.

Yet, though these have been some of my thoughts as I have prayed and fasted, the Lord breaks in as always, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways…for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

What I have found in this 21 day fast is, once again, the gracious, overwhelming abundance of God’s love – His help supplied before I asked for it.  Healing in areas that I didn’t see, but He saw.  It has been amazing.  There’s too much to share here, but let me just tell a little:

The Lord took my eyes off of negative events from the past and reframed the past, reminding me of so much fruit that I had forgotten, lifting my heart up with a “And I am well pleased – you are the apple of my eye.”  I think that is something so needed by many of us.  We drag mistakes and disappointments along for too long.  We minimize the goodness of what we have done in God’s name thinking that that is somehow humility and pleasing to Him.  Would we want our own children to drag about with “hangdog faces” in our presence?  I don’t think we would require or enjoy that.  We love to see our kids with their heads up, bubbling with life and joy.  How is it we don’t realize God is so much more than any human parent desiring that for His children?

This fast has made me further aware of the depth of strength that I have in God.  “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13  Those are not just pretty words to decorate a doily.  They are the truth.  Fasting has energized me and focused my attention again to the Word in further depth and to listening and watching for God.

The Lord has given me a download of joy, a spirit of joy through this fast.  I was not expecting that.  I had an incredible encounter with a joy-filled bus driver.  It’s funny how certain people impart gifts from the Lord without there being any formal declaration of “receive this gift.”  By encountering the good cheer of this man, something in me switched back on – a cheery hopefulness and peace.

It seems God has been truly wanting to hold me, bless me, love me – that is what He saw as my need.  Ministry progress is for down the road.  His project in this fast was to comfort my needy heart.  And perhaps…isn’t that often the point of a fast, that intimacy with the Lord returns, expands, deepens.

Jentezen Franklin has written an interesting line – “When fasting is a lifestyle, poverty will not be.” (p. 90 of the Fasting Journal by Jentezen Franklin)  He referred to the poor, famine-oppressed people hearing the prophet Joel’s call to fast and pray with a return to the Lord.  God’s promise for what would follow was threshing floors full of wheat and oil vats overflowing (Joel 2:15-19).  I believe this also to be true – that fasting and prayer enable the storehouses of heaven to open for us.

A final thought – one morning at church, during this fast – a child offered me a jelly bean.  In fact, she offered two.  My heart instantly warmed to her sweet generosity.  Not easy to give up candy!  I took her gift and didn’t think of it until later.  Oh my!  I ate candy.  Sweets and desserts were part of my vow of abstinence during the fast.  I felt so badly.  Upset with myself that I ate without even thinking.  Was I that fragile in my commitment?

Some counsel to break the fast and start over if you do what I did.  I did not do that.  I simply apologized to God and have continued in my fasting.  But I promised to have another fast as God directs in the near future and keep it perfectly.  What God said to me in this incident, though, was how helpful the fast was in understanding the nature of sin and righteousness.  When you are growing more holy, sin stands out like a “sore thumb” and really stings.  If you’re life is cluttered with sin, you neither see it nor feel it.  Like jelly beans during a fast, sin in an increasingly pure life hurts all the more because you are sensitive to it.  “Grow ever more sensitive – don’t allow anything that separates you from Me or pure, abundant love for neighbors to settle in.”

Thank you, God, for the call to fast.  It’s not easy at first, but as the days go by, how wonderful this spiritual discipline is.  It is almost sad to stop!

wise men

Matthew 2:2 states that the wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem and inquired at Herod’s court, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

The wise men were searching for Jesus.  They had become immersed in the prophecies of the Jews, even more than the Jewish wise men who were lolling about Jerusalem courting Herod’s favor.  These Jewish religious leaders knew, upon prodding, that the prophets (Micah, in this case) had predicted the birthplace of the Messiah to be Bethlehem (Matt. 2:5-6 contains Micah’s quote), but they scarcely seemed interested.

Herod, on the other hand, was extremely interested, although not for the purposes of worship.

I am intrigued by these wise men who came with gold, frankincense, and myrrh from far, far away.  What dedication!  Some won’t DRIVE 15 minutes to get to a church and a pastor they describe as beloved, but will go weeks without supporting the body with whom God has connected them.  These men came from far away, over months, risking danger (highway robbers, disease, death) and ridicule, and they came at great expense.

I spoke of this to the church last Sunday.  The wise men were seeking, sacrificing, and listening for God warned them (and Joseph)  in a dream of Herod’s evil purposes. (Matthew 2:12-13)  “Go home by another way…Herod is seeking to kill the Child.”  God would still warn and direct us if we would allow our hearts and spirits to become as passionate and purposeful as these wise men.  If we would lay aside much as they did for the sake of coming into the presence of the King.

With that introduction, I invited the church to join me in a corporate season of prayer and fasting.  We can fast in a variety of ways – some of us for the full 21 days; others, new to this, can skip even one meal.  We can give up all foods or as in the Daniel fast, eat fruits, vegetables and drink water.

The key thing is to do it on purpose for a purpose, the primary purpose being magnified intimacy with God.  More of the Lord!  Would that not be sweet, to more greatly feel His presence and hear His voice?  So, one of the things to do during a fast is to pray more and minister to God.  That simply means sing, worship, pray, spend time in the Word, work very hard at letting God bring forth sweetness and suppress negativity and our tendencies to criticize.

I want to pray for even greater direction from the Lord, fresh anointing, fresh insights, sharper understanding of God’s vision for me/us and where to go next.

There are many who need to find Jesus.  A fast is a time to pray for salvations…and for healings.  May we meet God in a very special way in the the first 21 days of 2011.

– Amazing Grace Community Church, www.agcchurch.com

the gift

In 2 Corinthians 9:15, Paul writes, “Thank God for His indescribable gift!” He is speaking of Jesus, of course.

Jesus is the indescribable gift, a gift “too wonderful for words.” (that’s how the NLT translates it) He is the gift that makes everything else seem like garbage – something else Paul said – in Philippians 3:8. In fact, Paul said that he, Paul, had thrown everything else away – considered it worthless and done everything so that he could gain Christ and be one with Him instead.

In a season of x-boxes and designer clothes and whatever else we think we must have from our American Christmas wish lists, do we know the Truth – that the only thing worth having, the one thing that is necessary for life and joy is to know Jesus and to hold to Him securely?

You know potential gifts frequently come with descriptions to reel us in that we might give them or want to get them – marketing, it’s called! Isn’t that how we get pulled into stores – something is exceedingly delicious or will make us the most beautiful and sexy or give us some edge over everyone else – marketing pulls us in for that “must have it” item.

So the question tonight is, how did the apostle John market Jesus in John’s gospel? What did he say were the qualities of this Gift that would make us, like Paul, want Jesus more than all our stuff, all our popularity, over all the demands/ambitions of our busy lives?

John said two things about Jesus in chapter 1:13-14 – 1) He became human and made his home among us; and 2) He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. (NLT)

1) He became human and and made His home among us. (v. 14)

Pastor Lee Eclov has spoken in detail about exactly what was involved for Jesus to become human and dwell among us in a message he prepared from Philippians 2:5-11 called “Down Lower, Up Higher.” He wrote, “It is that infinitely long and steep staircase from God’s throne to the hell of the cross that stands behind the story we celebrate this Christmas. That is the rest of the story hiding behind Bethlehem’s star. But, of course, it is not the end of the story.” Jesus, who was and is and always will be God, worthy of all our worship, loyalty, and adoration, was enthroned from Forever. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It could not be any clearer than that. The Word, another name for Jesus, is declared to be God. He “existed…with God. God created everything through Him…the Word gave life to everything that was created.” (John 1:1-3)

Can we hear the high position of Jesus in the Godhead, in heaven? And He left that. He chose to leave for our sakes.

He first chose to be a servant, which meant he became human, a poor human. He fixed His mind on absolute obedience which led to death on a cross. Condemned, crucified, cursed. Think of it. Jesus came down to the ordinariness of many of us, the poverty of more. He experienced the rejection and fickleness of human affection. He became guilty, condemned, imprisoned, paraded, humiliated, death rowed, executed, dead. You think He doesn’t know how bad it can get to live on this earth?  Oh, He knows. He knows. He took on our flesh.

My father passed away seven days ago. I have been a pastor for nearly 20 years. Always the “doctor,” and not the “patient.” My father’s difficult end put me on the other side of things. I became the weeping one in the dim hospice room. I was the one whispering prayers, holding his hand when he could no longer tell that I was there. How freshly my awareness has become focused on what it means to mourn and to “keep watch.” I stepped down into the role of a bereaved loved one, but I have had my sensitivity revitalized for the sake of others. It occurs to me that Jesus, though all-knowing God, did something that was similar to this. He took on flesh; he got right down into our business, in part, to be able to say to us, “I know what you’re going through.  I know how this feels.”  He understands our need.  He knows what you’re going through.

2) He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. (v. 14)

It is the sad truth of human life that people will abandon you even when you’ve done nothing wrong – something else just looks better to them than you do. But if, on the other hand, you’ve made a mistake – oh my – often you are abandoned for sure! Even, sad to say, sometimes by good church folk with whom there should be second chances, third, and fourth, even, but, at times, there are not.

The Lord loves us, however, with an everlasting faithfulness.  That is the second truth about this Gift, Jesus.  “Great is His faithfulness, and new are His mercies every day,” the scripture says. (Lamentations 3:22)  “Even my father and mother may abandon me, but the Lord will hold me close.”  (Psalm 27:10)

I was struck the other morning while reading the prophet Hosea about something God says to Hosea about the people. Hosea was trying to call wayward people back to God again – forever, they seemed to be turning away, rebelling against Him.   God says to Hosea, “The Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love their raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1) Though the people were constantly trying to invent their own spirituality and get pleasure from material things, God’s love remained constant.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying God does not mind our sin – that He has some form of weak, wishy-washy love for us that just overlooks everything. The truth is there are two paths – one that leads to life eternal and God connection. The other leads to eternal death and God-separation. But WE put ourselves on those paths by how we respond to the Gift.

Listen to how John wrote about that. “Jesus came to the world He created but the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own people but even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave them the right to be children of God.” Those who receive the Gift are reborn.

God is always offering Himself through Christ. Some see and become eager and say yes. Many say no. They are blind and caught up in other things and miss the love being held out.

I remembered this morning a well-worn preaching story.  A young man was rebellious and difficult, but his parents loved him and kept trying to reach for him.  At his graduation, he petulantly demanded a new car – like all the other kids, he said.  What his father wanted was to see his son be different.  At the graduation, the father handed his son a Bible in a box.  The son blew up.  “I don’t want that!” he sneered.  And soon he was gone from home.  His father died after a number of years and the son came home briefly.  Among his father’s things, he saw the Bible, still in its box.  He opened it and thumbed through it, finding an envelope stuck in the pages.  When he opened it, there was a check dated from the time of his graduation and the memo line said, “For a new car.”  Love and generosity had always been there.  He couldn’t see it.

The point of the little story is that, like the father,  it isn’t God who turns away from us or fails to understand and reach for us, but it is us who will not receive Him or trust Him.  He knows what we yearn for.  He knows what we need.  He is full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  Grab hold of it.  He wants to give it to you.

What shall we take away tonight and use in our own lives?

There is a last line in that v. 14 – “We have seen His Glory.”  I’ve pondered that a lot – what does it mean?  The word for glory, “doxa,” can mean magnificence, splendor, majesty, beauty, etc.  I think what it means is that we have seen those things in Jesus – but what do they come from?  Not power and pushing others aside – the way majesty comes in the world.  No, His glory was about becoming nothing and giving Himself away for you and for me.  So tonight, remember:

1) The most important thing we’ll ever do is receive the free gift of forgiveness and love that is in Jesus. It is for you.  Take it into your heart for the first time or do it all over again. But, don’t let a minute go by without making a decision about your faith in Christ.

And then with Jesus’ help:

2) Humble yourself for the sake of others. As He made His home with us, make your home in places that many others don’t want to be – in the nursing home with lonely, elderly folks; with the prisoner trying to fit back in to unforgiving communities; at the animal shelter loving the abused, abandoned animal; on the mission field among the poorest of the poor. Where does He invite us to join Him? Often in some place where there’ll be no applause, no fanfare, no publicity.  Oh, but there will be joy.   And God will reward you in due season for trusting Him.

3) Love others with unfailing love like Jesus while you have the time. Love your family, your church, co-workers, friends. Love the strugglers and the stragglers.  Be present for them. Show up. Stay loyal. Love.

You won’t lose your identity if you go low and give love.  Jesus is the evidence that God didn’t.

reflections on a crucifix

Reflections on a Crucifix

“Your attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing….”

Philippians 2:5-7a (NIV)

A crucifix hangs above the altar table in a modernistic Catholic sanctuary near to us.  One cannot look at it closely for it is hung high above the very large, circular  altar platform and is surrounded by a spacious, open chancel area in this church in the round.  The crucifix looks as if it is made of grey marble and the form of Jesus is more a suggestion than a realistic portrayal.  His agonized body leans forward, arms outstretched.  Legs are only suggested by a downward sweep of the carving.  Because the figure is so stylishly rather than realistically portrayed, there is no cloth covering a portion of the torso as in so many other depictions of Jesus’ agonizing death on the cross.  This Jesus is utterly naked.

The extent of that nakedness struck me with fresh impact as I gazed at the hanging figure a few years ago.  I thought, “He left everything for us!”  The King of Heaven, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, emptied himself completely.  He did not grasp “Equality with God.”  The One “through whom all things were made,” who was there “in the beginning,” the Word who “was with God and who was God”, (John 1:1-3) left heaven’s privileges and came into the world, not to one of its thrones, but to one of its sparest stables.

Jesus lived as a peasant.  His mother and father came to the Temple on the eighth day for his circumcision, according to the Law, not with a lamb as people of greater means would do, but with the poor family’s offering of “a pair of doves or two pigeons.” (Luke 2:24)  Jesus, himself, would later characterize his itinerant ministry as one of hardship.  “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)

But the giving up did not end with simply being a poor and humble man who ministered tirelessly to the “sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)  Ultimately, he gave up friends, admiration, dignity, fellowship, religious acceptance, safety, freedom from pain, clothing, food, drink…his life.  At the end, Jesus was stripped of every single thing and as portrayed in the figure over the altar, he became utterly naked for us.  As one of my friends once said, while I went through a period of self-pity, “You know, no one was more abandoned than our Lord.”

Yes, He would cry out on the cross as He became sin for us, momentarily losing his identity as the Son of God in the planned process of atonement, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1)  As the “embodiment of sin,” He could have no connection with a holy God.  Jesus was utterly alone in that moment.

I have thought, reflecting on this crucifix, “His love is beyond comprehension.”

“O how He loves you and me.  O how He loves you and me.

He gave His life.  What more could He give?

O how He loves you.  O How He loves me.  O how He loves you and me.

Jesus to Calvary did go:  His love for sinners to show.

What He did there brought hope from despair.

O how He loves you.  O how He loves me.  O how He loves you and me.”

“O Lord, can you awaken this same heart in me?

Can you make me the kind of follower who’s willing to give up anything and everything, go anywhere, be as simple and as naked and as stripped down as you in order that what I give up might bring “hope from despair” for someone else?  Can I let go of the need to please and promote me and rather, burn with your heart for the needs of others and live for them?  Can you help me to have the utter trust in God the Father that whatever I give up, whatever I offer, whatever I let go of, I’ll not regret it because I will be a part of something bigger and more wonderful than myself – the Kingdom of God – where the lame walk and the blind see and the prisoners go free?  Cleanse me of all selfishness, all unrighteousness, all stinginess, I pray as I think about the crucifix.  Help me to take up my cross daily.

And when I am empty, fill me with your love and grace, precious Jesus.”