He is Risen—But Are We?

The breathless excitement of Easter, or what some call Resurrection Day, quickly fades as the busyness of life re-asserts its presence in our lives. Come Monday we again face traffic, overdue reports, childcare, taxes, and the general malaise of the mundane, day-to-day grind. As the open tomb lingers on the outskirts of our consciousness, it’s that first cup of coffee that dominates our first thoughts. 

Our minds become dulled by daily repetition and lulled by comfort.  The reality of the resurrection and its supreme significance is fogged over by Facebook, cable TV, and instant messaging.  Suddenly, we find ourselves lacking joy, emptied of purpose and distant from God. Little did we recognize the ever-so-stealthy schemes of the enemy, luring us into a trap of convenience and predictability.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  God never intended it to be this way.  

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” said Jesus (John 10:10b). Jesus is teaching us that life in Him is meant to be filled with vitality, excitement, and purpose.  One of my study Bibles states that Jesus calls us “to a rich, full, joyful life, one overflowing with meaningful activities under the personal favor and blessing of God and in continual fellowship with his people” (ESV Study Bible).  This sounds anything but mundane and raises one looming question:

How do we live this way every day? What is the connector between us and God?

Jesus, after teaching about not worrying over everyday things, then said:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Greek word for ‘seek’ means to ‘strive after’ or ‘pursue’; thus, we are to strive after the kingdom of God before we strive for anything else.

But how?  I suggest two things: 1) prayer. Pray upon awakening in the morning, even if it’s just to get up to go to the bathroom—pray to your Heavenly Father. Then set a time to intentionally sit quietly and seek the Lord in prayer; for me first thing in the morning works best and it seems to model what Jesus did on a daily basis, but each Christ-follower must find which time of the day is best for their clarity of mind with minimal distractions.

2) Is reading the Scripture. I don’t mean to just read it to satisfy a devotional plan or to place a check mark in a to-do box, but really read the Scripture. Ask God to speak to you through the words you are reading, because they are living and active (see Hebrews 4:12).

Another key to learning to live the life that Jesus has called us to is obedience:

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:1-3).

Our culture is rife with rebellion and rampant individualism, obedience is no longer a highly touted character trait; but God looks very favorably on obedience.  What’s more, obedience to God is not burdensome. That may shock you if you’ve been raised in works-oriented families or churches—where your worth is based on what you do rather than who you are—but really reading Scripture will reveal a loving Father, not a lording task master.

Take for instance the following:

“And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, ‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’

“Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these: (Mark 12:28-31).

What is Jesus calling us to do? Love.  Now before you go thinking that Jesus was all mamby-pamby, this is the same man that came into the temple where merchants and purchasers were transacting business. There were a lot of people, perhaps hundreds. Even so, this multitude was defiling the temple of God and Jesus cleansed the temple by driving them all out of the temple and yelling after them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:13). That is certainly no wimp in my book. So, in regard to love, it is clear that at times love has teeth in it and is therefore not always hand-holding, Kumbaya mushy stuff but is instead, a realistic tapestry of human emotion and compassion rolled into action.

So one vital principle to keeping the essence of Easter alive is understanding and living the truth that we are to seek God first and foremost above anything else. This principle entails prayer, Scripture reading, and obedience.

Personal Prayer

“Lord, may my joy be full,

may my peace be deep,

may my love be real,

and may I walk in the personal power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.”

I pray this every day, regardless of my circumstances.  My current trials seem trivial when compared to the many other tragedies in the world today; but still, my family and I are enduring a couple of challenging trials.  But even so, I still pray the above prayer. And there are pertinent Scriptural references for each item:

·         Joy:  1 John 1:4 and Galatians 5:22.

·         Peace:  Philippians 4:7 and Galatians 5:22

·         Love:  1 John 4:7 & 11 and Galatians 5:22

·         Indwelling Holy Spirit:  Ephesians 6:10.

Granted, there are several other pertinent references, but I want to give a brief list for now.

I think some may consider praying the same prayer daily, or even at various times throughout the day, to be nothing but rote recitation or vain babbling. That may be so for some folks but not for me because this particular prayer reminds me that God is always with me regardless of how I feel or what my circumstances are.  What’s more, it also reminds me that only by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit will I actually realize and then exude genuine joy, peace, and love. Without the Holy Spirit working in my life, these items will be merely surface-level veneers to be ripped away when the storms of trials assail my soul.

But when I really seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He is always there to comfort me. Another good point to remember is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is available to all who believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (see Romans 10:9 for more on how to be saved).

What prayers are meaningful to you?  Feel free to post them via the comments portion of this post, perhaps your prayer will be the one that touches someone else’s soul!

True Love, Haiku and a Coach

An enduring love
        besting tests of tempest time;
                                       blooms anew daily.

This is a poem dedicated to my dear wife who not only loves me but also puts up with me.  I like writing and reading haiku because if done right, the verses are not only short (typically 5-7-5), but they make a point without a bunch of belaboring reading. Haiku is also fun because you want it to end with a little bit of a twist or with something to trigger a little more thinking.  This haiku is attempting to play two thoughts against each other, "enduring love" and "anew daily."  In other words, I'm trying to say that genuine love endures through the long haul because it is intentionally renewed as brand new every day. 

In between the "enduring" and "anew daily" is the line about "tempest" or storms.  Any relationship, especially marriage, will be hit with storms of many types and varieties, and only the strength of will between the two lovers will determine if they will make it through the storms together or not.  Each person in the relationship must be determined that nothing will break their love for their mate, and if each person has the same commitment to each other and to their marriage, then the storms will come and go but the marriage will endure. 

As a special note for husbands, since we men like to use tools, here's a tool to really help us in our marriages: 

"And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church, He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God's word" (Ephesians 5:25-26, NLT). 

So how did Christ love the church?  Read the Gospels and find out.  Here's a suggestion though, especially if you're familiar with sports, look at Jesus as a coach to husbands and you'll begin viewing the Gospels in a whole different light!  Jesus was definitely a man's man and the epitome of endurance, faithfulness, and love. 

I realize all of this commentary is a bit much to draw out of one haiku, but inside the poet is a deeper motive, and that is to help marriages endure while also drawing people to Christ.  So hopefully these many words will draw your gaze upward and your heart toward the one you love.

Peace, Prayer and Community

“Don’t worry over anything whatever; whenever you pray tell God every detail of your needs in thankful prayer, and the peace of God, which surpasses human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, Phillips).

Could peace and identity be key ingredients for genuine community?  Could prayer be a prime catalyst for ushering in peace and identity?  Comments from my last post got me thinking about these things (thanks to you who commented). 

Christ-followers will have the best impact on culture if the Christian community itself offers something different.  But do we offer something different?  The more personal question is do I offer something different?  Too often the answer is, no, I don’t.

This realization hit home early this morning as I grimaced in pain due to the tension I’m carrying in my neck and shoulders.  Tension coming from child behavioral issues, job ambiguity, and taxes (oh my, taxes are a grind!).  All these thoughts began coalescing into a cacophony of concern causing me to reach for the Ibuprofen (and a cup of coffee).  But another result of the tension was being snappy with my wife and five year old son (whose birthday is today, by the way).  So is being snappy with my wife and family offering the culture anything different?  Is being snappy, also called “grumpy,” drawing people to what’s inside me?  Of course not, I’m being just like everyone else—worried and joyless.  If all my other Christian friends are the same way, then we have a community of nothing different than anyone else; we have a community that no one really wants to be a part of, even me.

So what is the antidote to this worried joylessness?  The simple answer is prayer, but there’s more to it.  Another rendering of Philippians 4:6-7 is: 

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT).

The word “peace” is hard to define, but it includes the sense of quietness and rest.  God is inviting us to allow Him to quiet our minds so that we can truly be at rest.  We can’t truly rest when we’re worried about stuff we have little to no control of. 

The phrase “live in Christ Jesus” implies we are to deeply identify with Christ Jesus Himself.  This is not a mere acknowledgement of Christ, but a deepened understanding of what He has done for us and what being indwelt by the Holy Spirit means to our lives. 

All of this is catalyzed, or initiated, by prayer.  God is inviting us to enter into this rest and deepened identity, but notice that He doesn’t barge in or force it on us; instead, He lovingly invites us in if we choose to accept His invitation.  Granted, along with prayer we also need to read and understand His Word, but perhaps establishing genuine community begins with each individual bowing in prayer.  In doing this, we then experience that quietness and rest in our own souls which will emanate to others we have contact with; and this will be attractive to the larger community.

So pray on, dear friend, pray on!

Dreams and Dreamers

I’m a dreamer.  As such, I face disappointments because the dreams never quite come true.  Maybe I’d do well to remember a quote from C.S. Lewis, “Once a dream has become a fact I suppose it loses something.  This isn’t affection:  we long and long for a thing and when it comes it turns out to be just a pleasant incident very much like others.”  This is a sober thought because it reminds me to question if my dreams are my god of if God is my dream.  By this I mean am I dreaming the vision God has for my life or am I merely indulging in distracting daydreams?  And what does it mean when the dreams don’t quite come true?

Perhaps Moses is a good example to draw from.  Whether he’s categorized as a dreamer or not, he still had powerful visions from God that drove his overall motives.  These motives fueled his thoughts and dreams of fulfilling God’s vision and therefore, I think, he was a dreamer. 

But an interesting thing in reading Exodus is I sense that things never quite turned out the way Moses was thinking they would.  Pharaoh didn’t just load the Hebrews up with a bunch of stuff and then let them go; he instead made things quite difficult for Moses and the Hebrews. He’d make promises then break them.  He’d repent then almost immediately change his mind.  And when he did let the Hebrews go, he again changed his mind and pursued after them.

The Israelite stint in the desert wasn’t exactly as Moses had pictured it either.  He and the Israelite nation wandered in a hostile wilderness for a very long time, eating stuff like manna and then an over-abundance of quail and also getting water from a rock.  On top of that and amid other difficulties, Moses didn’t even get to enter into the Promised Land, Joshua had that privilege.  Even so, Moses never gave up; he clung to his God-ordained dreams of Israelite freedom. 

The disciples also seemed to be dreamers, otherwise, why would they have remained committed all their lives to a vision that ended up in martyrdom?  They could see the positive impacts of genuine Christian faith.  They also saw and experienced the suffering that came with it, but the vision, the dream of success, overpowered their fear.  They could see beyond tomorrow and next week to a horizon that stretches for generations.

I can’t help but think that not only was their dreaming God-inspired, but their ability to have a hope that overcame the fear was Holy Spirit empowered as well.  “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).  

But like Moses, their dreams didn’t play out as I think they originally thought they would.  They were thinking that Jesus was going to overthrow the Roman government and establish an Israelite rule right there in Jerusalem.  Obviously, the revolution Jesus instigated was a revolution of the heart, not of the government. 

Maybe my dreams aren’t turning out exactly as I had planned either; in fact, they’re not in most every category.  But I still have a strong pull these dreams are purposed and are fuel for ongoing hope and action.  But the temptation is to give up on them and succumb to failure.  To counter this, I look to these biblical examples, wipe my tears away and pray; and then keep moving.  “Do what you can do, and pray for what you cannot do” (St. Augustine). 

So what’s the take-away here?  I believe having dreams is good, provided the dreams themselves don’t become our God.  As we continually and honestly share our dreams with God via prayer, and listen and apply His direction, then I say, “Dream on!”  And to quote C.S. Lewis again, “For broken dreams the cure is, dream again and deeper.”