Living the Dark

There's nothing more scary than darkness.  I ditched my night light ages ago, but even now there are few things that give me the heebie-jeebies more than a pitch-black room, a vast unnavigable unknown that just begs for someone to throw the switch.  You can never have confidence in the darkness.  I am reminded of that harrowing scene in "Silence of the Lambs" where Clarice Starling is caught in a perfectly dark basement with a serial killer hunting her.  The camera shoots from the perspective of the killer's green-hued night vision goggles and stalks the heroine as, frightened to her wit's end, she gropes the walls searching for light, guidance, direction, anything to get her out of the hell of the unknown while death lurks only inches away.

Any religious system outside of Jesus Christ is darkness, plain and simple.  This is an offensive statement.  Any system, be it Buddhist, atheist, animist, Taoist, Islamist, or anything-ist that is outside of Christ is summed up in this word "DO."  There is some list of things you must "do"  to be happy, healthy, wise, enlightened, or whatever gets you to the end-goal.  Here's another offensive statement: we all live in a religious system.  Even the irreligious have their own religion!

We are also all born into spiritual darkness, inheriting a disease called Sin from our forebears which touches every part of our lives.  I remember the dark.  I lived there for 16 years.  Christians use the term "lost" to describe those living in darkness, and it was an apt description for me.  I often felt like I was living in a fog, not knowing why I was doing anything I was doing.  Why work hard at school?  The promise of college, money, and a better life were far-off abstractions.  Why go to church?  My parents dragged me there every week, and I hated it.  What's the point of living at all?  I didn't feel like there was more to life than the daily drudgery of school, home, church, family, blah blah blah.

All of us lived in the darkness and have tried with futility to find a way out.  Do you remember it?  If you don't, know that it is a horrible place to be.  The Land of "Do" is harsh, unforgiving, lonely, and quite hopeless.  Who do you know who lives in the dark?  How can we everyday be a little light to them, while not succumbing to the darkness ourselves?

Max Power

Of the like five Simpsons episodes I've ever seen, I remember the one where Homer Simpson changes his name to "Max Power".  It was about wanting to change your identity, to become so much cooler than who you are.  Homer believed that walking around with a moniker that bled awesomeness would make him more confident and successful than the bland name he'd been given at birth.

Recently, I've gotten more in touch with a great podcast from Antioch Community Church that is rekindling my desire for "Max Power" in my life. More specifically, Pastor Jimmy Seibert is reminding me that as a follower of Christ, the greatest power on Earth is available to us every single day, the power of the Holy Spirit.  Some get carried away with the Spirit and become obsessed with the idea of miraculous spiritual power, focusing on it to the exclusion of other major areas of discipleship.  Others ignore the idea of the miraculous activity of the Holy Spirit altogether.  Usually, the latter is in favor of saying that the Holy Spirit's activity ended when the Bible was canonized, as if publishing the Word of God was the final act of the Spirit of God.

I have been reminded this week that the Word and the Spirit work together in awesome and sometimes surprising ways.  First, it is important recognize the supreme authority of God's Word in all matters of faith and practice.  It is the plumb line of truth and falsehood, of godliness and heresy.  It is the source of spiritual truth, wherein God has invested the full potential of His grace, love, mercy, and truth.  It is the truth that sets us free, the light for our path, and the sword which pierces every part of us.  If any experience we attribute to God or His Spirit does not line up with His Word, it may be discarded as absolute rubbish.

Second, we need to know that God's Spirit is still very much active today.  I know this through theological understanding and practical experience.  I have seen miracles which no scientist or doctor can explain.  I have known men who have risen from the dead, seen injuries heal instantly, and have even seen food multiply.  In the past I have told unbelieving friends that "if God doesn't exist, then I must be absolutely insane" because I cannot explain these things without Him.  Anyway, I know the Spirit is active, and that He is not restricted only to direct quotations of Scripture.  The Spirit's voice speaks to us today, in pictures, emotions, words, dreams, opportunities...in all these He draws us closer to Himself.

If we want to experience "Max Power" in our walk with God, we must be attuned both to His Word and His Spirit.  I saw a picture of this earlier in the week.  I'm disassembling a brick grill in my backyard right now, brick by brick.  It sometimes is necessary to pry a brick loose from its moorings in the grill.  When I pry, I use direct force but I also use leverage.  You see, I don't have a great deal of brute strength (I'm working on it, OK?), but I can use the power of leverage to do what strength alone can't accomplish.  I can apply direct force to the brick, but my leverage can magnify that force exponentially.

Here's how I see it.  When it comes to life change needed to set us free to fully and completely worship God, the Word of God supplies the direct force, and the Spirit of God supplies leverage.  God's power is vested into His Word and the Spirit directs us to apply His Word at just the right time, right place, and right person to work His maximum power.  I think that's why we can read the same Scripture passage ten times and walk away with ten different things...the Spirit speaks what we need to hear each time.  He also speaks to us when someone else needs to hear His Word, too, allowing us to minister in His eternal power and not just out of our own temporal wisdom and experience.

Are you looking for "max power" in your life, just like Homer was?  I think we need to be in the Word of God, taking it deep into our hearts through regular reading, study, and memorization.  Then we need to listen to the Spirit of God give us a target and apply His force accordingly.  We won't always get it right, but I believe by practicing hearing the Word and delivering it to ourselves and others, His power will be at maximum in us.

Dealing with the Dumps

The other day, I was in "the dumps".  You know what I mean, that time when you are feeling down, but you're not crying-in-your-Wheaties depressed...just flat, emotionless, numb-to-the-world-but-still-functional kind of funk.  Things just weren't right.  And I wasn't sure how to fix it.  Now, I've been working (not very hard) on losing weight, so I'm still a little addicted to food.  When I drove past some red, poultry-styled scrollwork and my 3 year-old squealed "Chicken Flay!", I was very tempted to blow twenty bucks on some fried goods which would undoubtedly temporarily reduce my blues but less-temporarily inflate my waistline.  I passed it up, and as I munched on a good old peanut butter and honey sandwich I wondered if there was a better way to deal with a case of the dumps.

As I read in my time with God today, Moses had a similar issue and handled it poorly.  In Numbers 20:1-13, Moses and Aaron are handling a bevy of complaints from the some-odd 2 million Israelite nomads they are leading through the desert.  The people are screaming and whining that their food isn't good enough and there isn't enough water.  God then miraculously makes a way for Moses to bring forth water from a rock near a place called Meribah by simply speaking to the rock...how cool is that?  But Moses doesn't give God credit and just hits the rock.  God still made water flow from the rock in a crazy-awesome show of his power and love but Moses and Aaron are punished for not following instructions.

I'm sure Moses was having a pretty cruddy day. I'm sure he was tired.  I'm sure he was frustrated.  Plus, his sister just died so he was grieving.  Moses was in the dumps, in a big way.  But when God gave him a way out of his dumpy situation, he decided not to pay attention.  Striking the rock was done in an act of upset frustration: "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?!"  I'm sure this gushing rock rewarded Moses with a few "oohs" and "aahs", but it put distance between him and the One who could've fixed the whole thing, and not only did he regret it for the rest of his life, this Meribah Mess was highlighted for generations as a famous failure of faith.

When the dumps descend, it's tempting to go for the easy fix, especially the one you do on your own.  Like an addict who thinks they can just "white knuckle" it instead of hitting up the AA group, we think that the situation we worked ourselves into we can work ourselves out of.  We forget that we need a Savior, and not just to go to heaven when we die.  We need a Savior when the budget is covered in red ink.  We need a Savior when our spouse isn't giving us the love/respect/time we think we deserve.  We need a Savior when we're burned by church.  We need a Savior when the car won't start, when the A/C goes out, when the promotion doesn't come, and when the diagnosis does.  We need a Savior, every day.

The dumps are an opportunity to return to the One who created happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction.  Run to Him, listen to Him, and follow instructions.  It's the longest lasting dumps defense I know.

The Cure for Heart-Sickness

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." - Proverbs 13:12

I am often amazed by people who say "I'm thirsty!" and reach for a Coke. They seek to satisfy thirst with a drink that will only make them more thirsty! Our hearts get sick when things don't turn out the way we think they should. Our hearts get sick when our hearts are set upon circumstances working out as we hope they do. But many of us try to alleviate that sickness through exercising greater self-control.

What if our desires shifted? What if instead of wishing for greater control over our lives and the ability to mold and shape out families, careers, churches in our preferred image we looked to God as the source of our hope? Happy circumstances are sometimes absent, but God never is. If our hope is in Him, our heats never have to be sick. If you don't like your job, take it to God and see what He is teaching you...do not leave until you have learned everything He had to teach you there. If your paycheck doesn't have enough zeroes for your taste, seek enjoyment and contentment in God to help you live simply so that God's passions rather than dollar signs would guide your career decisions. If your family is in chaos rally around the cross and seek together the hope that is available day in and day out. 

He will never leave not forsake us, and He is always there to provide relief for our heart-sickness, if we will stop drinking Coke and come to the living water to slake our thirst.

Zzzzzzzz

OK, I've been offline like crazy in these blog posts.  I am committing to putting something up every week this year.  That's 52 posts, people, and I'm already like a week behind!  I hope that whatever is written here will inspire, entertain, and generally lighten those who read it...praying for good inspiration this year!  Anyway, thanks to anyone who takes a gander here, and if you like what you see, I promise you'll see more of it in 2013.  Peace and Amen!

Dealing with Opposition

"Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." - 2 Timothy 4:14-18

Whenever you're doing something right, there will be opposition. Count on it. Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble, Paul said that anyone who wants to live a godly life in Jesus will be persecuted, and the explicit promise of suffering for living a gospel life is in all books of the New Testament except for one (1 Timothy...but 2 Timothy makes up for it by mentioning suffering in every chapter!).

1. We will encounter opposition. But how do we deal with it? Paul gives a great example here:
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1. He calls out the opposition leader by name, but leaves all the others out of it. This is not to spite the man, but to warn everyone else that he's trouble. He's not trying to hurt the individual, but rather protect the community.
2. He forgives: "May it not be held against them." Like Jesus on the cross and Stephen under the stones, he prays for his enemies' forgiveness. Who have you been conflicting with? Try praying that prayer.
3. He relies upon God for restoration and rescue.
4. He stays committed to the mission. He didn't let conflict drift his focus. No matter what, the Gentiles were going to hear the gospel from his lips!

If you're living for Christ, you will be opposed today. It would be naive to expect that your company, your gym, your family, and even your church will always rejoice when you take bold steps for Christ. So live for the gospel. And when you are opposed, take Paul's example to heart. Peace and Amen.

We Don't Understand Grace

"After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." - Acts 15:7-11

Most Christians don't understand grace; I know I don't understand grace most of the time. It's easy to condemn these Pharisaic Christians in Acts 15, but in their defense, they had never heard of grace. Jesus taught it to the disciples, but these guys had never picked up that teaching.

Grace means that the gift of salvation comes from Christ alone. You mustn't be circumcised to be saved, you mustn't be circumcised to remain saved. Paul says in three different places that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. Do you know how HUGE that is? To the Jews, circumcision was everything! They would have said, "my great-grandfather was persecuted/killed/stoned/imprisoned for his circumcision...how dare you say it means nothing!"

But there is a new tradition emerging. Circumcision was the old covenant; Jesus is the new covenant. Loyalty to Christ is the symbol of inclusion in the people of God; He alone is the mark of a believer. That's easy for most of us Gentiles to swallow, since we've never been taught to fiercely defend circumcision. But you could say this about any spiritual practice. "Neither reading the Bible nor not reading the Bible means anything." "Neither going to church nor not going to church means anything." "Neither praying nor not praying means anything." Does that rile you up a little? What does count, then? What must we do to be accepted by God?

That's where grace comes in. Believe in Jesus. Follow Him. Religion is spelled D-O; God's way is spelled D-O-N-E. It's not about you, or what you do. It's about what Christ has done. Paul is clear in those three passages about what that looks like. He says in all three that circumcision/uncircumcision is meaningless, but:

· "Keeping God’s commands is what counts." (1 Cor 7:19)

· "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal 5:6)

· "what counts is the new creation." (Gal 6:15)

We must stop focusing on the little actions we think make God love us, and instead focus on the fact that we are already loved and say to the Lord, “I will do whatever it takes to follow Jesus today.” For some that means praying for an hour straight. For others it’s memorizing the Bible. For others it’s joining a church. For most of us, it’s all of the above and more. Don’t pretend to be someone else’s Holy Spirit. Listen to the Spirit and follow Jesus.

Lord, may we live in Your Grace today, not using it as an excuse for sin, but reveling in it as we grow closer to You day by day. Amen!