The Healthiest Emotion

Happy New Year!

I love this post-Christmas season, truly.  It is a quiet time, when the earth continues to sleep, resting and rejuvenating in preparation for spring.  Things look dead, but they aren't.  In a few short weeks, the Earth will once again "spring" to life, giving evidence by the beautiful, bright green shoots of vegetation.  For now, though, quiet and rest.

Do you know what I was doing on New Year's Eve?  Well, first I got my nails done.  Sitting on one side of me was a lovely lady my age, with whom I had a conversation about cooking turnip greens. My MIL taught me how to cook them so that they are not bitter.  I'm grateful for that lesson because turnip greens are, hands down, the Hubster's favorite vegetable.  I hope this stranger tried my recipe; she would not regret it.

On the other side was a beautiful younger woman.  We had a conversation about the New Year's Eve parties she was scheduled to attend.  She told me that the first party she was headed to was at her church and then rhapsodized about how much she loves it.  She spoke of the mission trips she has taken and how much the Lord means to her.  How refreshing to interact with a young sister in the Lord, one who so obviously loves Him!  I'm grateful for her and the encouragement God gave me through our "chance meeting".

Zig Ziglar calls gratitude "the healthiest emotion".1  Bob Jones, Sr., said it like this:  "The loveliest flower that blooms in the garden of the heart is the flower of gratitude; and, when gratitude dies on the altar of a man's heart, he is well-nigh gone"2  ("close to hopeless" would be a more modern rendering).  

As I move into 2017 I am grateful for so many things....but not nearly grateful enough.

So, this year, I want to be more grateful, cultivate more gratitude in my garden, because I believe that gratitude grows a believer's faith in God.  

When you can't control the perilous situation.....

When you are (like my precious sister in Christ) getting your bone marrow transplant today....

When you are in tremendous physical pain.....

When your marriage is over and you surely did not want that....

When your children are far, far from God with no apparent hope of return...

When you have lost your job and are consumed by fear for your financial future....

When you are excruciatingly lonely and know one sees.....

        choose to be grateful for God's grace and that He is with you 100% in the middle of it.

Did you know that the Greek word for grace (charis) and the word for gratitude (eucharistian) have the same root?  That is why the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:15 that, as God through us extends His grace to more and more people, our gratitude should be increased accordingly.  As we allow God to use us in ministry, to further His kingdom, His grace should flood our lives!  His grace is the engine that powers our gratitude.

Gratitude is a genuine heart-attitude toward one who has given us a good, often-undeserved gift. It doesn't come naturally to us humans!  (Every parent has learned that by watching the sin nature unfold in his or her own child!)  Gratitude is an emotion that goes hand-in-hand with grace. The Bible says "every good and perfect gift" comes down to us from the Father of Lights, that is, God (James 1:17).  But, what about those "gifts" we don't perceive as "good"?

"It's all good", when you are God's own child (Ephesians 5:20).  He is the perfect Father, who allows nothing to touch us that is not a part of His plan.  Even when life seems to "stink", even when we suffer for His sake, His love never wavers.  The latter part of James 1:17 emphasizes that God, as the Father of Lights, does not waver as a candle flickers.  His light is constant, as is His love for His own.  His grace never fails, is unending.

We can have not only confidence in this...we can choose and receive gratitude in this, a Holy Spirit-driven gratitude that soothes the troubled heart and nourishes our soul.

Sources:

1    https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/z/zigziglar617744.html

2   https://books.google.com/books?id=tzpypGT0ZHEC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=when+gratitude+died+on+the+altar+of+a+man%27s+heart&source=bl&ots=kkrrgFVRLA&sig=DuwtsBoOpxyChiMaezCzWfCIAxU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhjZi_6abRAhVG7IMKHR5EBPwQ6AEITTAL#v=onepage&q=when%20gratitude%20died%20on%20the%20altar%20of%20a%20man's%20heart&f=false

Moving Rhythmically and Easily

Speaking as a parent, I'd say one of the biggest heartbreaks is when your children live in alienation from each other.  When they are small, you expect a fair amount of fracas ... because they are immature; they are children! Each one is behaving selfishly, wanting his or her own way.  A former pastor used to say that anyone who has children has no trouble believing in the concept of "original sin"!

As children grow and mature, they learn how to behave unselfishly within the family; or, at least, they should.  I was thinking of this as I read today's passage, Ephesians 4:1-16.  Look specifically today at verses 13-16 (The Message).

...{Jesus, the One} working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

God is our Father, and I do love the aspect of His character that parents us, His children.  (More than one blog post could be written about that, but I will refrain and restrain myself for now, haha!)  Paul uses this illustration to describe unity within the church of Jesus Christ.

I have noticed a troubling trend in the local churches in my part of the world.  A member gets upset about something and leaves. (Sometimes this is because an "imposter" has caused division and other times not.) Often, there is no attempt by the member to dig deeper and find a solution to the problem, because "the grass looks greener" elsewhere.  By the same token, the attitude within the church being left is lackadaisical and prideful, if you can imagine such a combination.  At first, there is hurt and offense that the brother or sister would consider leaving, and that morphs into a sort of stubborn pride that prevents them from reaching out to say, "Wait a minute...let's try to work this out."  Church members are seen, by and large, as expendable.  And, you have a "church divorce".

Other times, this pridefulness manifests as a critical spirit in the church. (And, if your mind just now went to one of your Christian brothers or sisters, well, then, you'd just better hold up and check your own heart.  As the current commercial says, "Check yo'self, Rodney!")
Listen, brother or sister, your local church was not established by the Lord to give you everything you want or to let you have your preferences all the time!  That is not its purpose!  But, sometimes, unless a dear brother or sister gets his or her way, out the door they go.  (You know I am not talking about confronting legitimate major doctrinal heresies, but about minor preferences.)

Focusing on Christ, our Unifier, is key.  When we begin to focus on ourselves and on our differences and/or on others' faults, we move the focus off of Jesus, don't we?  Humility and discipline (as mentioned in 4:3) take the nearest route out the back door.  We stop exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  We wander off the path of our individual calling, to chase some sort of self-gratifying desire.

This prideful behavior breaks God our Father's heart (Eph. 4:30) because it is an example of "prolonged infancy" - - baby Christian behavior.  Even those who are mature in the faith can exhibit it from time to time - - this includes "yours truly".  The point is that we need to be watchful and wary of it, so that "imposters, wolves in the sheep pen" can be called out ... so that our local bodies of believers can "move rhythmically and easily, efficient and graceful" with each other, as we exercise our spiritual gifts.

Look at today's picture.  Isn't that a beautiful scene?  Young and old, celebrating together, some dancing, some clapping, some singing, some smiling, one with hands raised ... among the many expressing themselves differently, we see unity.

Paul's admonition does not only apply to local groups of Christians, but also to culturally disparate groups of believers around the world.  Each locale has its own peculiar challenges, as well as customs.  Here's one example of a culture juxtaposition:  In many countries, it is accepted practice for a nursing mother to nurse her infant anywhere, under any circumstances.  I once witnessed a nursing mother nurse her baby as the gospel was being presented to her by a group of men.  Many in my country would find that behavior on her part so totally inappropriate that it would cause disunity. In a similar vein, behavior in church services has wildly different standards and appearances around the world.  But, unless something in scripture is being violated ... let's retain our brotherhood and sisterhood ... our robust love for one another, so that the world will see this magnificent brotherly love, and marvel at our Savior.

Paul urged believers well in verses 1-3 (NET):

I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Father, we want to show this lost and broken world Your beautiful Son, Jesus, who created all that is, who became our Savior, who is the Source of everything we are as redeemed souls.  Protect us from wolves, heavenly Father, namely those divisive persons who pretend to be Yours but who are not, who stroke their own pride rather than building up others for the sake of Your kingdom.  Give us discernment and humility, Lord, because it does not "come naturally".  Grow us up in You, Lord Jesus!  Nourish us, so that we will be healthy, robustly healthy, bursting with Your love!  In Jesus' name, amen.

The World's Richest People

Have you ever inherited anything?  I'm not talking about physical, genetic inheritance of X and Y chromosomes, such as having large ears.  I'm talking about tangible, physical possessions.  Have you ever inherited "riches"?

Both of my grandmothers have now passed on to be with Jesus.  They were of different temperaments, but both of them liked pretty jewelry.  From each I inherited a ring, one white gold, the other yellow.  I wear one of them every day, on the fourth finger of my right hand.  To me, those rings are "riches", not because of their material worth, but because of whom and what they represent. They represent the wonderful memories of my grandmothers, a unique "belonging".

I wear two other rings every day:  my wedding rings, on the fourth finger of my left hand, and a Pandora "betrothal ring" (in the sense that Jewish brides of ancient times wore betrothal rings) on the index finger of my right hand.  This last ring signifies that I am betrothed to Jesus Christ.  All of these rings are treasures to me, because of the love they represent.

In Ephesians 1, Paul begins to describe the vast wealth every Christ-follower, every Believer, possesses, not by his or her own virtue, but by virtue of what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have done for us.  As children, heirs, of our triune God, we inherit these riches by faith; and then, we invest our spiritual wealth through our resulting good works.  We are the world's RICHEST people!

Some of the themes in today's passage I wrote about this past January, when we were studying Galatians; among them were Calvinism, Arminianism, election, free will, and adoption as sons.  The posts are linked below, and I'm not going to "plow that ground over".

http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-galatian-oreo.html

http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2016/01/heirs-by-adoption.html

What I am going to do in our study of Ephesians is to borrow heavily from the great Warren Wiersbe1 to look at some of the terms in this passage more deeply and to focus on our great spiritual inheritance.

3Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. 4For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. 5He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will – 6to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. 9He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ – the things in heaven and the things on earth. 11In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.13And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ – you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14 (NET)

Looking at this passage is sort of like "reading Jesus' will".  He wrote a will, died to make it so and now reigns at the right hand of God the Father as our Advocate (attorney), to ensure that the terms of His will are carried out!  What do we inherit from and through Christ, as Believers, His children?

1.  We were chosen to be Christ Jesus' heirs.
Again, I've covered this elsewhere, but I want to mention Wiersbe's distinction between "election" and "predestination".  He describes "election" as God seeking the lost sinner.  This is the first beginning of salvation.  The lost person, left on his or her own, cannot seek God.  So, He initiates the process.  Salvation begins with God alone, which means it is totally of His grace.  Because He chose us before the foundations of the world were laid is a testament to His unfathomable foreknowledge.  In the Bible, "election" is always TO something; there is always a purpose.  In this case, the purpose of our election is for us to then exercise our free will and accept God's salvation through Jesus Christ, which God knew we would do.  He does not make our choices for us, but He always knows what we will choose.
By contrast, Wiersbe characterizes "predestination" as being a word used to refer to those who have already accepted Christ by faith.  You will never see this word used in scripture in connection with a lost person, someone denied the opportunity to choose salvation.  Predestination is also a word that refers to purpose, namely the "investing" of our inheritance by the good works born from saving faith.
Confused yet, Bible Nerds?  :)  Well, I found Wiersbe's explanation of these terms interesting, and I hope you did also.  It is difficult to explain them, but we certainly cannot ignore them.  Remember, we will not have perfect understanding this side of eternity, and maybe not even then!  That's ok.

2.  We were accepted by God and adopted as sons.
These themes have to do with our legal standing in the sight of God, because of Jesus Christ.  He could have just "accepted us", saved us from Hell, and left it at that.  That blessing of regeneration, of new birth, alone would have been much, much more than any of us deserved.  But, He did not leave us as a relative who was "left" only $1.00 in the will.  He did not leave us as a "red-headed step-child" or a "poor relation", as we Southerners are wont to say.  No.  He went on to adopt us.  What does that mean?

We'll explore this more in tomorrow's post.

Father, I bless Your matchless Name and celebrate Your great grace, by which my riches extend far beyond rings, houses, lands or even beyond the more dear earthly blessings such as human love or physical health!  All of these pale in comparison to Your amazing grace and love, by which You chose to extend salvation to mankind, by which You chose me.  Thank you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Amen.  

Source:

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete New Testament in One Volume. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2007, p. 586. Print.

 

When It Bites...

As we begin Ephesians we find Paul in prison in Rome, where he remained for 2 years.  During this time, he wrote the letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians.  He also wrote the letter Philemon then.

We begin and end with verses 1 and 2 today:

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus. ² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Practically the first words out of Paul's mouth were concerning "the will of God".  Here he was, in prison, and he still testifies that he remains an apostle of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, not only is he what he is by the will of God, but he's where he is by that same divine will. God's will is still in operation in his life.

The Roman imprisonment was much more humane than others he had experienced.  Ephesians 6:20 and Acts 28:30 tell us that during this time he was "chained"; but, basically he lived in his own rented villa, under "house arrest".  (As we explore the remaining Pauline epistles we'll see that other imprisonments were much more dire.)

Still, it was imprisonment, and Paul testified that God had willed it that he should be there, for that span of time.

It is easy to embrace God's will when things are running along as we would prefer.  It is easy to "do" His will at those times also.  The true test of our submission and obedience is when His will runs contrary to ours.

Earlier this morning I was reading a fellow blogger's book review of a new book about C.S. Lewis' eventual wife, Joy Davidson Lewis.  (For time's sake, I won't go into the details here, but I'll reference her post in Sources: below.)  One of the startling facts of their relationship, however, is that they were married for only 4 years before her death from cancer, though their friendship had begun years earlier.  "How tragic!", we might exclaim.  Was it cruel of God to give them only 4 years of wedded bliss?

When God's will when it does not line up with ours, we begin to ask all sorts of questions:  "Did I do something wrong?"  "Is this my fault?"  "Why is this happening?" 
You know them because, like me, you've asked them at some point or another.

Notice that Paul did not begin his epistle with a "Woe is me" attitude, though certainly he had rather been charging down the missions trail, starting churches, winning souls.  That was the level of his zeal.  But, it was not God's will for him at that time.  Imprisoned, how could he continue to impact the spread of the gospel?  Answer: he could, by the inspiration of God, write letters to infant churches - - - letters which have endured and which still speak to those who seek the Savior, thousands of years later.

Are you in a place today where God's will is a mystery?  I am.  Today's post comes to you from the public library, because my crashed computer is still with Dr. Jim.  That's a relatively "little thing", a pebble in the shoe.  Perhaps the entire mountainside of boulders seems to be resting on you, crushing your body, soul and spirit.  Are you having trouble discerning God's will or even finding God at all, underneath those crushing rocks?  He is still there, and He is with you.

Don't fret that you cannot see or even hear Him.  Keep praying and keep trusting.  Remain faithful through the time of testing.  Your faith is being exercised, strengthened.  As you respond in obedience and trust, God will do amazing things, which may not be fully known in your lifetime.  We are not given to see the end, but we serve the One who "knows the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:10) .

Even in prison, Paul sends "grace and peace" to the church at Ephesus, and in the middle of your confusion, he sends it to you as well.  Dwell in the grace and peace of Jesus Christ.  Let them roll over your spirit like a mighty wave of the ocean. God has a divine plan, and it (just like He!) is GLORIOUS!  His love is ever with you, His child, and you are privileged because you are being used to accomplish His purposes and bring Him glory! 

Father, I am not promised perfect (or close to perfect) understanding.  What I am promised is the PEACE that surpasses all understanding, that perfect peace Jesus gave. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)  In Jesus' name, may it be ever so! Amen.

Sources:

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/144-pauls-two-year-roman-imprisonment

http://www.matthewmcgee.org/paultime.html

https://michelemorin.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/joy-davidman-lewis-author/


 

The Despair of "Not.Even.One"

Why do you think that so many people have no peace, why they instead slog through life in despair?
The many reasons we could list generally fall into two categories:
1.  Despair is the response to our own shortcomings.
2.  Despair is the response to events we cannot control.

We are going to walk through Romans 3 this morning, a chapter that contains some of the most-often quoted verses for the Bible.
It is here we find despair's antidote.

Paul has just finished lambasting the Jews, destroying their belief in their own superiority.  I can imagine that they are floundering in despair, having had their "supports" kicked right out from under them.  This is reflected in verse 1, where Paul asks the obvious question:

"What's the advantage in being a Jew?"

I want you to imagine someone coming along, coming to your congregation and telling you that some major tenet (or tenets) of your faith are worthless.  That's about how these Jews felt.  It is how all people, with an established "religion", feel when they are slammed in the face with the brilliance of God's true salvation.  It is not found in "religions" or in the keeping of a bunch of rituals.

Rituals, unless grounded in an already settled salvation only serve to distract from the truth.

Paul goes on, then, to tell the Jewish Christians that the number one advantage to being Jewish is that God entrusted to them the writings of the Law and the prophets, writings which served several purposes.
1.  The Old Testament writings revealed to the Jews the nature of God, "who He is", insomuch as they could comprehend.
2.  The Old Testament writings revealed to the Jews the centrality of faith (although a lot of them missed this key teaching), and to expose the human impossibility of perfectly keeping the whole Law.
3.  The Old Testament writings showed the Jews excellent rules for "clean" living.  These kept the Jews a physically strong and healthy people, one of the key factors in their enduring as a people (although scattered) until this day.

Those are just a few, key purposes.  It's little wonder Paul listed the Scriptures as the number 1 advantage being a Jew.

However, when it comes to earning a righteous, holy standing before a holy God - - that is, taking care of our own "sin problem" - - we are all on equal footing.  Busted.  The Jews' involvement with God's revelation did not serve then, nor does it serve now, to make them right with God.  Jew or Gentile, we are all alike under the crushing burden of our sin, all despairing in the same sinking boat, apart from the salvation of Jesus Christ. Without Him - - -

"There is no one righteous, not even one;

There is no one who understands;

There is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

Together they have become worthless;

There is no one who does good,

Not even one" 

Romans 3:10-12

NIV

Here, Paul quotes Psalm 14:1-3 and 53:1-3, catapulting the Old Testament into the New, to hammer home the truth: works-based salvation is totally ineffective in pleasing God.

Fortunately, God did not leave us there, to wallow in our despair.  Are you ready?  Here's hope!
Here's grace!  Hallelujah!  God's perfect grace, to our rescue!

21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

25-26 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.

Romans 3:21-26  The Message

This is the central message of Romans.  This is the heart of "the gospel".  God put His love on the line for us, by giving His Son in sacrificial death, while we were no use whatsoever to Him. Everything else in the letter to the Romans is reiteration of this passage.

The despair of Not.Even.One. is answered by the pure gift of The.One.And.Only!

Our closing prayer today will be from Psalm 86:12-13 (NIV).

12I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;

I will glorify your name forever.

13For great is your love toward me;

you have delivered me from the depths,

from the realm of the dead.

No Longer a Law-Girl?

I'm sure that, as a modern person, I greatly underestimate the potential for spiritual warfare that was present at the Council of Jerusalem, the first scene in Galatians 2, today's text.  This meeting took place nearly 20 years after Jesus' ascension, around 50 A.D. The key players were the Gentile evangelists and the Jewish evangelists, that is, those who evangelized the Gentiles and those whose ministry was to the Jews.  Truly, this meeting could have blown the whole thing wide open.  I am sure that there were many impassioned arguments that went back and forth.  It is a testimony to the reality of the changed life, the power of the Holy Spirit, that these men realized the gospel of Jesus Christ: salvation by faith and by grace.

In a month or so, we will have at my church something called GIC (Global Impact Conference).  It is a missions conference. Missionaries our church supports, from various corners of the US and the world, will be attending. Some of them will look different from our church people.  Some of them will act different. Their methods of evangelization will not all be revealed as the same.  However, the gospel they preach is one, and only one.

I am grateful for Galatians 2.  This chapter shows how prone we are to devolve back to reliance on our own "self-righteousness".  It is our "default setting" as humans.  We love to pursue righteousness that comes from following a set of rules because this appeals to our sinful, human pride. (False) righteousness makes us feel good!  This type of righteousness is glorified in our American culture. We are surrounded by it; so, it's no wonder that, as Christians, we tend to get tainted by it.

When you read Galatians 2, you realize why God did not choose a Moses to do the job of a Paul. Moses, if you recall, was not a persuasive or even a good speaker.  Paul, on the other hand, excelled at persuasive argument; he had been "schooled" in it.  The Holy Spirit used Paul to clearly articulate the methods used to share the gospel with the Gentiles.  By the end of the Council at Jerusalem, the group of "pillars" of Christianity parted ways in brotherhood and with a renewed commitment to share Jesus with the world.

Later on, however, "the rubber met the road".  God put those who evangelized the Jews in a position to see just how dependent they still were on the Law.  When they actually met and fellowshipped with an actual group of Gentile believers, the Jerusalem guys fell back to their position of the Law's power over them.  It was their safety zone.  The Antioch experience was a sanctifying, growth opportunity for them because it opened their eyes in a new way to their justification, the centrality of God's grace and salvation by faith alone.  Sometimes, it takes a change of scenery to reveal our most closely-held prejudices.

Probably the most famous verse of Galatians 2 is verse 20.  Here it is, in context:

19“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20“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. 21“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

Galatians 2:19-21 (NASB)

I also love it from The Message version.  Take a read.

19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

No longer a "Law Man"!

The Law, here, refers to the set of rules and regulations God gave the Israelites hundreds of years earlier.  But, in our lives today, "law" can be any set of religious rules that we glorify above the truth of the gospel.  "Law" can be religious rituals that we do out of habit to make ourselves feel more holy.  Striving to impress God with our goodness "frustrates" His grace (2:21 KJV)

When I was a teenager, one of the Christian fads was to "claim" a "life verse".  It's laughable to me now.  At any rate, the one that resonated with me was Galatians 2:20. (I've always been sort of a 190 proof person ...190 proof whiskey is the highest alcohol content which can exist without the spirit evaporating.  I looked it up!)  The crazy thing that spoke to me this morning, after carefully reading this chapter is that I had made that verse all about sanctification.  Now, sanctification is great, indispensable to the resplendent walk.  But, Galatians 2:20 is first about justification!

Crucifixion typifies a one-time, irreversible act.  "I am crucified with Christ" says that my old, law-loving self has been killed by His justification of my soul.  This is the very source of Christ living in me!  Paul's statement proclaims my eternal justification.  There can be no sanctification unless there is first justification.

"Nevertheless, I live.  Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me."  I live, but I don't reign.  Here comes the sanctification part, you see?  The justification has been settled.  The Law is dead to me.  It is Christ reigning in me Who produces good works, who produces beauty, who works His love through me to the world.

All that sounds so precious.  Then, like the leaders of the Jerusalem church visiting Antioch (2:11-13), I fall down.  I don't know about you, Galatians 2:20 clashes horrifically with my frequent lost battles to sin.  What do we do with that?!  Paul says that we should come back to faith.  Look again.

"...The life I now live in the flesh, I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Every time I mess up, my prayer of confession should be closely followed by, "Lord Jesus, increase my faith in You."  Every time something "unplanned" or "unwanted" occurs, my prayer should be "Lord, increase my faith."  We read elsewhere (Hebrews 11:6), all throughout scripture actually, that it is our faith which pleases Him.  Our faith is our love offering to Him and the only source, the exclusive well-spring of our sanctification.

I wish I could tell you that I do this perfectly, even regularly.  Today's post was spectacularly difficult for me to write; I cannot even express to you...

Whaddya know?  After approximately 32 years, that magnificent verse bursts from the heart of God, to speak to me yet again.

Jesus + ...

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel –7not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell!9As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! 10Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ!  11Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12For I did not receive it or learn it from any human source; instead I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:6-12 (NET)

There are precious gifts that go with living in any human historical time, I think.  I do not envy the early Church their particular challenges.  I'm not talking about martyrdom, though that would be an obvious challenge, to be sure.  I'm referring specifically to that turbulent time when the gospel was being spread initially and error was so prevalent.  It's amazing to think that the only "God's Word' they had came from either the Old Testament or the letters of the New Testament writers.  

Of course, Satan still uses doctrinal error as one of his chief weapons for disrupting the Church.  However, the difference today is that we have the complete, written revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the form of our Bible.  We, in our modern day, have no idea how grateful we should be.

These new churches...they had it rough!  Some smooth-talker would come along and persuade them to accept some form of "Jesus +" - - - Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus good works, Jesus plus ______ (whatever).

The admonitions Paul gives concerning those who pervert the gospel are extremely strong.  (It's difficult to get much more intense than damning someone to hell!)  This is something I try to be very careful to avoid - - no, not hell! Heaven is already settled for me.  I'm referring to twisting and misinterpreting the Scriptures.  It's terribly easy to make a mistake, as the Bible is a very complex book, to put it mildly.  There's plenty of opportunity to draw wrong conclusions and to put something out there that is just plain wrong.  

Case in point:

After yesterday's post a person on Twitter wanted to argue with me about the dating of the book of Galatians.  (I share my posts to Twitter and on Facebook.)  I listened to the rationale put forth respectfully and said I'd look into it more at a later time.  If you go back and read yesterday's post, you'll see that I totally understand that there is a great deal of disagreement on this point.  Frankly, I don't think it is all that crucial that we know "without a shadow of a doubt" when Galatians was written.

You may have wondered now and then who I am and why in the world I am doing this.  Well, I don't do it to win any person's approval or even my own.  Nearly two years ago I felt a calling from God to start this blog. It made no sense at the time, and I didn't want to do it.  I felt it would be just "too much".  Still, the pull of God on my heart was inescapable, if I was going to be obedient to Him.  So, I began.  My pastor said one time that if a call from God is not bigger than you are, then it is not from Him.  That is because He wants all the glory, and He deserves ALL the glory! (Gal. 1:5).

Do I have a degree in Bible?  No.  I did attend a conservative, non-denominational Bible college for four years, graduated with a teaching degree, and have studied the Bible regularly since my teens.  But, that's it. Nor am I a paragon of spiritual virtue.   Rather, I am a redeemed, middle-aged lady, trying my best to follow Jesus. 

What I try to do in this blog is this:
1) share what God is giving me from the Scriptures and at the same time avoid spreading doctrinal error, as Paul warned against in today's passage
2) share honestly about what it means to be "resplendent" on a daily basis.  Some days, I am more resplendent than on other days ... that is, I allow the Holy Spirit of God to fill me some days, more than on others.  HE is the source of all resplendence, as He IS utterly resplendent.  The Word of God is alive, powerful and so sharp that it can pierce you through and through, before you even realize it! I need a lot of that piercing, every day!

So, if you ever, ever catch me "preaching another gospel", please call my hand.  This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ, two passages which perfectly describe it:  

3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NET)

13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13-14 (NET)

Jesus plus ..... nothing!  Grace, all grace!  Hallelujah! 

Good morning, Father.  You are so beyond our human comprehension.  Thank you for your Word and the privilege of worshipping you from it as often as we please.  We may have to lasso our bodies to only eat physical food in moderation, but we can have as much of You and Your Word as we want. What joy!  Please keep us from the evil one, Lord.  Deliver us from evil, especially the evil of perverting the meaning in Your written revelation.  My Lord Jesus is all in all.  To Him be all the glory and honor and praise, forever and ever.  Amen.

My God Who Chases

I remember playing tag as a child.  On summer nights, at community or church gatherings, we children would burst out of the adult conclave and run with the fireflies.  How wonderful it felt to be chased, joyful screams of laughter bursting out of us when caught!

If you ever went to church as a child, you most likely heard the story of "Jonah and the Whale". You may have even worked on a coloring page about it, as this is a mainstay of children's Sunday School. On the face of things, it seems like just one more fantastical tale.  However, I believe it was chosen for inclusion in the Old Testament (Jonah 1:1 - 3:5) for the purpose of teaching us rich lessons.
Here are facts:

1.  Nineveh was a huge, rich, wicked city, the capital of the barbaric Assyrian Empire.  (Think Las Vegas, for example.)
2.  God instructed Jonah to go preach to Nineveh's inhabitants a message of repentance:  "Repent or be destroyed".
3.  Jonah refused to obey God.  Didn't like the message; wanted none of it...
4.  Jonah ran from God in an effort to escape this assignment.
5.  God chased Jonah, using a mighty storm and a huge fish for his purposes.
6.  Jonah (many believe) died in the belly of the whale.  Regardless, he was there for 3 days and 3 nights.
7.  The fish, heartily sick to its stomach, spewed Jonah out onto the seashore, alive.
8.  God re-issued the assignment to Jonah.
9.  Jonah obeyed.
10.  Nineveh repented.

That is not the end of Jonah's story, but we'll stop with the above facts for today's post.
Now, so what?  What does this have to do with Advent, after all?

Jonah was a real man, but he represents so much more!  I find myself resembling him way too much for my own liking.  Have you ever said, "No!" to God?  I have, on many occasions.  Essentially, any time we choose to act out, we are saying, "no" to God.  There are reasons we do this.  I don't need to list them here, because you know them.  Just like me, you've thought them or done them.

Imagine you are able to go back in time to Bethlehem and have the privilege of approaching the stable to kneel at the manger.  Can you picture it?  Can you see yourself?  What are you wearing? Are your clothes spotless?  Is your body clean?  Do you smell good?  At Advent, this is something we do: in our hearts, we approach the Manger, to worship the King.  And, this is good and right.  Many times, though, as we come to worship, we have manure on our shoes, and our pits stink.  There are food droppings on our chest from where we've been careless in our eating.  Our hair is tangled or our beards are nasty. There is crud under our nails.

The latter is a picture of our sin, our personal running from God.  It dirties us up so that, when we approach His presence, we are soiled, stained, ruined, in need of salvation, in desperate need of grace.

Ann Voskamp points out that repentance "is the only way to be ushered into grace."

Repentance means literally "to turn around and go in the opposite direction".  In Jonah's case, it meant to cease from running from God, then turning around and going toward Nineveh.  In our situations, it means to come to a full stop, turn around and move toward the God who chases, seeking His will in our lives.  When we move toward Him, our hands cannot bring our beloved sins with us. No, in our turning, we must lay them down and leave them behind.  Only cleansed, covered by His grace can we truly bow at His feet in worship.

Jonah not only represents us.  He also pre-figures, foreshadows Christ.  We read Jesus' own words in Matthew 12:40 - - 

"For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish (Greek: κήτους ) three days and three nights,

so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights."

It is because of these words of the Lord that many Bible scholars believe that Jonah drowned before being swallowed up by the great fish, and that after being dead for 3 days, God resurrected him.  I will not debate this point; I merely offer it for your consideration.

Whether at Advent or not, we often find ourselves drowning in life's stormy waters.  We cry out, "I can't handle this!"  So true.  We can't.  But God can.  No storm of life can submerge me beyond where His goodness, mercy and grace can resurrect me!

I am so glad that God chased after Jonah.  I am so glad He passionately chases after you and me.  He does so ... not only that we may carry out His perfect plans, but to rescue us, to wash and restore us, to resurrect and bring us out onto dry land.

It's right there in Psalm 23:6 (The Message) - -

Your beauty and love chase after me, every day of my life.

False gods expect us to perform, to measure up.  Our God comes down to us, in the form of a Baby, and He chases and chases and chases us.  The Hebrew word for "chase" in verse 6 is "radaph", which means "to pursue", "to hunt down".  My God, the Lover of My Soul, never gives up on me.  He chases me to repentance, pursues me with His love and grace.

Stop pursuing your image of "a better life".  Recognize that the Author of Abundant Life is pursuing you.  Stop running.  Allow yourself to be caught today.

If you have time, you will be so blessed by watching this adaptation of Francis Thompson's classic poem, "The Hound of Heaven".

Here is a link to the poem:
http://www.bartleby.com/236/239.html

And here is the wonderful video adaptation:
https://vimeo.com/89705938


Additional Sources:

Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. 

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/08/when-you-are-finding-it-hard-to-keep-up-chased-by-grace/

Stoned! Laws and Invitations

Good morning,

Well, there they are, in the original .... At this point, I sort of derailed this morning.  I went on a search to determine if The 10 were written in Hebrew or in Aramaic.  The answers I found were surprising.  I'm sure it's not a burning question, but I'll just remark on it briefly.  The 10 were not written in Hebrew (until the Old Testament was compiled), nor Aramaic (my second guess).  They were most likely written in either Egyptian or in a pre-Hebrew pictorial language called Ktav Ivri. Ok, enough about that!  If you want to research it further or to enlighten me, go ahead, lol!  I reserve the right to be wrong about this!

At any rate, Ann's Advent devotional for Dec. 10th centers around The Law, of which the 10 Commandments was the "cornerstone", if you will pardon the pun.  Jesus referred to Himself as the Chief Cornerstone ("the stone the builders rejected") in Matthew 21:42.  Paul referred to Him by this title in Acts 4:11, and both were quoting Psalm 118:22. 

There is an inescapable part of human nature that longs for God, because we are made in His image. There is also our "sin nature", which causes us to want to rebel against Him and seek our own ways. With rules, some find comfort in them, while others are repulsed by them.  I'm in the former category, and some of my loved ones are most definitely in the latter.  That's not a judgmental statement, just a statement of fact that we are all unique.  Some of us tend toward the former and others toward the latter.  One predisposition is not better than the other.  The pitfall for rule-followers is that we begin to trust in the rules, which leads to legalism and pride over our ability to adhere to a set of commands.  The pitfall for the renegades is that they, too, are puffed up with self-love, loving the ability to choose their own way.

We were and are a messed up, stony-hearted people!  As Elyse M. Fitzpatrick put it:

"I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe, more loved and welcomed than I ever dared hope."

Amen and amen!

It's funny, really.  God gave us 10 laws.  "Just 10 things...just attend to these 10 things!"  We couldn't even do that!  SMH...

What folks miss about the 10 and about the Law as a whole is that God gave them to us out of love for us.  Basically, the Mosaic Law is a set of governing principles which, if we follow them, will allow us to experience life here on earth with a minimum of disease, peril and harm to others.  But, more importantly, all of the last nine flow from the first commandment:  "You shall not worship anything or anyone other than Me.  You shall have no other gods before me."  The first commandment was about relationship, our relationship with the God who loves us, chases us, carries us, changes us.  If that relationship was/is right, all other 9 commandments and particulars of Mosaic law were/are not so burdensome.  

When we make ourselves god and pursue our own paths, we are violating the first commandment. Then, every bit of the rest "goes to pot".  This is the story of mankind, over and over and over.  The story of God's love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that the God who IS love pursues us over and over and over.  Precisely because we were unable to meet His perfect standard of holiness, precisely because we find ourselves dashed and broken against those stone tablets, our loving God kept His own law for us, in the Person of His Son, the Chief Stone.

Jesus is the Stone who breaks the stone tablets into pieces and while fulfilling every iota of that Law, gives us a new one, the Law of Love, a covenant TO love.  It was all about love anyway.  We just didn't see it.

"Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!"

Deut. 5:29

The anguished cry of Perfect Love, longing for His fallen creation.  He calls us still.  His heart ever longs for ours.

Surprisingly, our Lord's first invitation is to rest in Him, to find ourselves completed in Him.  Some of the most beautiful words in the Bible are these:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

Matthew 11:28-29

Hallelujah!  Because He has fulfilled God's "impossible" requirements, our souls can rest in what He has done for us.

Another time He said this:

"Abide in me, and I in you."

John 15:4

This is an invitation to walk through this life in the realm of God.  It is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High 

            Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 91:1

Jesus longs to be our heart's permanent home, our forever residence so He can show us that every longing of the human heart finds its fulfillment in Him.

Jesus's third invitation to us is "follow Him", to be His willing servant in the carrying of the gospel to the whole world.

"Follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people!"  

Mark 1:17

What an amazing life purpose, a mind-blowing opportunity - - to share Jesus's life-giving message of grace with this beaten-down, broken-hearted world!  There is no better life, than eternal life in Him.

Lord Jesus, you call me to be Your very own, and despite my frequent wandering, your love call persists.  You never give up on me, on us.  Your love is everlasting.  Praise be to the One who paid my debt and raised my life up from the dead: Jesus!  In Whose name I pray, amen.  

Sources:

Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. December 10. Print.

http://www.antiquityart.com/the-ten-commandments-in-an-ancient-hebrew-script

http://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/may-2012/the-three-invitations-of-christ/

Ladder

Good morning,

He was on the run, having committed a heinous deception.  He had been driven from his home and pursued by an angry man, as a result.  He was young and fearful, having traveled 40 miles on foot that day, through a desert wilderness.  It was nighttime.  He was cold and exhausted.  

His father was Isaac, the one nearly sacrificed by Abraham, the one to whom God promised that his descendants would be as "the stars of the sky" (Genesis 26:4).  He knew, however, that it was not assured a living relationship with God came with one's parentage or birth order.  He had proven that, through the committing of his dastardly scheme, in which he had received his father's blessing.  No doubt he was questioning the efficacy of that blessing, as well as everything he had ever known. He found himself at the "end of himself".  His name was Jacob.

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder[a] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold,the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it[b] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 28:10-14

Perhaps you have met someone like Jacob who, by the very means of his talents and wily ways, is able to achieve anything his heart desires. Perhaps you are like him.  Jacob had, all his life, trusted in his own abilities. Admittedly, they had taken him far... until this point, where they had taken him to Bethel, a desolate stopping point on his 500-mile trek to his uncle Laban's house, the place his mother had sent him to find refuge.  (Jacob did not suck his scheming ways out of a baby bottle, you understand...)

As he slept the sleep of the dog-tired, bone-tired, dead-tired, with a stone for his pillow, God revealed Himself to him.  Isn't it that, sometimes, we are so busy trying to carry out our own plans during our waking hours it is only during our sleep that God can get our attention?  I'm laughingly thinking about how there've been times I was praying and suddenly find myself worrying about my to-do list...right?  Come on, now, can I get an amen?!

But, look!  It was when Jacob was "at the end of himself" that God came to Him.  God peeled back the veil which separates Heaven from Earth and shifted Jacob's paradigm, big-time.  This was the first time God had appeared to Jacob.  To remove all question, from the top of the ladder God introduced Himself, after which He reaffirmed to Jacob the promises He had made to his forefathers, Abraham and Isaac.

There was never any invitation extended for Jacob to climb that ladder.  If you are familiar with the old spiritual, "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder", you can retire that one.  It is unscriptural. Attempting to "climb a ladder to God" is man's way of salvation.  It is the way of every other religion on earth, apart from Christianity. False religions are sets of steps, like rungs on a ladder, which supposedly will restore one to God by climbing them. You see, the ladder in Jacob's dream is a foreshadowing of Jesus. (He alluded to Jacob's dream, establishing Himself in it, in John 1:51.)  He is the only way to God. Yet, in proclaiming Himself to be the only way, He does not ask us to climb up to Him.

God came down to us, at Christmas.  We rejoice at His coming, because we are all so horribly unable to reach up to God ourselves.  All of our attempts eventually come crashing down.

Jacob probably rejoiced at God's affirmation that he would get the land on which he was sleeping. But, God's promise was for a much, much greater blessing - - the blessing of His Son, whose human lineage would come from Jacob's descendants.  One of the names of Christ is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah - - the same Judah who was one of Jacob's 12 sons.

and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

And, we are.  Hallelujah, we are!

Look up, you weary, you debtors, you abandoned, you broken, you beleaguered, you lost.  See the Christ who descends to you, who condescends to you.  See Him in this Advent season, and claim Him as your own, your glorious salvation.  His coming - - - this is amazing grace.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of what family we are from, regardless of our past, we find true and eternal blessing only in You.  None of any family are excluded from Your blessings, unless they exclude themselves by rejecting Your salvation.  Open our hearts to receive You today, whether by taking that initial step to ask You to be our Savior or to ask You to give us who already know You more of You.  May we not profane Your coming down to us by regarding it as trivial or meaningless. Reveal Yourself to us, not only on this day of Advent, but more and more every day, as we stop to listen for Your voice, as we open our hearts to you.  It is in Your name I pray, Lord Jesus, amen.

Sources:

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/genesis/28.html

 Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. Print.