Peter, Paradigm Shifting, and Inclusiveness

In chapter 10 of the Book of Acts, we see Cornelius, a Gentile and Roman officer; experience a visitation from God by way of a vision. In the vision, he is encouraged to call upon the Apostle Peter to come to his house and teach him and his family all that Peter has learned from Jesus (vv. 1-8, 33). Meanwhile, Peter is having a different kind of vision from the Lord. His vision includes a large sheet and many different types of animals typically thought of as unclean to practicing Jews. However, the Lord tells Peter that what He, God, has cleansed, is not to be considered unclean.

As this drama unfolds, Peter is standing front and center in the home of Cornelius and his family teaching them about salvation in Jesus Christ. To Peter’s astonishment, they all accept the free gift of salvation by believing on the name of Jesus Christ. The reason Peter knew this was because “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word” (v. 44, ESV). God then and there confirmed to Peter that He was, is, and always will be the God all, not just the God of Israel.

However, as we read in Chapter 11, the leadership of the young and emerging churched birthed in Christ were not convinced; and when Peter appeared to them, they grilled him on how could such a thing as Gentiles being baptized be ordained of God. Peter gave an eloquent defense, concluding with the following:

“If therefore God gave them  the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

When they heard these things they became silent; and glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” (Peter to the apostles and brethren in Jerusalem and their response, Acts 11:17-18, NKJV).

Silence and the work of the Spirit

I picture significant soul-searching and prayer going on in the phrase, “they became silent.” What Peter spoke to these men was a seismic paradigm shift; even though they had already witnessed Jesus reaching out to the Gentiles while in His earthly ministry, they still held to their old notions of exclusivity. These men had significant leadership responsibility in the emerging church and they wanted to do their best; but upon hearing Peter’s account they had to stop and deeply consider the serious implications of his words.

I imagine they were thinking something like this, “Could it really be true that those we’ve called ‘dogs’ are now part of the family?”  To agree with Peter meant inviting…them…into the very heart of life with God. But in that gap of silence it appears that the Lord filled these men with many words of confirmation, so much so, this record closes with cheerful expression of glorifying God (11:18).

My View vs. God's View
This record leads me to ask, “How does this apply to my Twenty First Century life?” It reminds me of the many times I have said to myself and to others, “Boy, if he’d just believe he’d be a great Christian.” Such a phrase has usually been applied to someone who is, frankly, like me; talk about exclusivity! Thankfully I have recognized this trait and have made strides of change. Besides, who am I to judge what a “great Christian” is or is not; no one except the Lord foresaw Paul and his conversion and subsequent impact for the Kingdom. Clearly this record shows that holding to notions of heritage or similarity as determiners of who will or won’t be in God’s family is absurd and ungodly. The early leaders of the church quickly recognized this and, as this record indicates, glorified God for His grace and mercy being extended beyond their original expectations. They had courage to respond positively to God, so we must as well.

Knowing and Freedom

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

̶ Jesus, John 8:32

 

Much has been written about the above phrase from Jesus.  There’s a lot of study and thought to be done regarding that phrase, including exploring the verse previous to it. In that verse Jesus speaks to abiding in His Word, which in itself has significant ramifications for our spiritual journey. But the other night in my Men’s group, we focused primarily on verse 32, digging out some nuggets of gold none of us had thought of before.

 

The discussion started with the simple question: Why is it some people seem to be freer than others? 

 

It couldn’t be because God is playing favorites, because He is no respecter of persons (see Romans 2:11 and 3:21-26). So somehow the difference in freedom must be on the individual level, either in our understanding of what freedom really is or in our ability to grasp the depth of freedom we have in Christ.

 

A key to answering this question resides in the word ‘know’. The Greek word gnwsesqe is a derivative of ginwskw which, according to Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, means “to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand, or to understand completely” (p. 346).  The actual Greek word in the text is what’s called a future middle indicative verb in the second person. All this technical stuff basically means that it is a command and can be translated “you will know.” It also connotes that this “knowing” is not instantaneous but is instead a process, or a continual growth in our journey of understanding.

 

Significance of a Word

Maybe I’m just a techno-weirdo-wonk, but I find this hugely illuminating and encouraging. Just what is knowledge? Does one just all of the sudden know something? You might know the final score of the game, but do you know the intricacies of what led up to that final score? No you don’t until you take time to dive into the detailed minutia of what resulted in that score. The more you understand the minutia the more you grasp the depth of that final score.

 

So it is with grasping the depth of the freedom we have in Jesus. Yes it is true that the final score of placing our faith in Jesus is an eternal destiny in Heaven rather than Hell, but there’s so much more to that final score. And I think that Jesus using the specific Greek work in verse 32 shows that He is telling us that knowing the deeper truths behind the final score will deepen our sense of freedom in Him. It will also deepen our identity in Him.

 

What is your picture of Jesus?

Often the image we have of Jesus is some radiant dude floating a foot above the ground zooming here and there healing people. So many paintings depict Jesus with some halo-thing encircling His head and people bowing to Him. In other words, we often see Jesus as nothing more than a dashboard icon with no feelings or connection with humanity.

 

But look at the picture from The Passion of the Christ. Yes, it is gruesome, but stop and think that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and came to sacrifice His life for our salvation. This is a staggering realization and is difficult for our finite minds to grasp, but this is exactly what that one word—know—is encouraging us to do: Intentionally take in this knowledge, turn this truth over and over in our minds, meditate on it; and the more we ponder and meditate on this truth, the more we will grasp the significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us. And the deeper our grasp of this the more complete will be our freedom and our identity in Christ.   

 

Even for a moment, let’s try to wrap our minds around the truth that the God with no beginning and no end came to earth in the flesh starting as a baby and living life among us, His creation. He didn’t come in clouds of glory, smoke or explosions, He came as a vulnerable infant born in humble fashion. He lived among us, healed us, and was ridiculed and eventually executed by us.

 

Freedom Awaits

Now think of all the times in our own lives where we have hurt or otherwise disregarded this God and His sacrifice for us and yet He continues holding onto us (John 10:27-30). Perhaps with this exercise we’ll begin our journey into the knowing even more deeply the significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us. As we do this our sense of freedom will grow while we further grasp that our identity and destiny are secured in Christ and we will no longer be enslaved by the chains of culture or how the world tries to define us. In other words, we will live even more freely in Christ.

Dream Journey Haiku

Dream Comes

Bask in the Presence,
             shadow of Your wings inspire;
                        lofty thoughts of mind.


                Dream Dust

  Clouds surround my soul
       as I sweep the broken shards.
               Shattered dreams and dust.


     



Dream Renewal

           Rising up again,
     prayers soaring above the clouds
refresh me anew!

  

Jesus and Doubt

I have often heard that doubt and faith cannot coexist in the same person.  Or if you call yourself a follower of Christ but still have doubts, then you’re really not a legitimate follower. I don’t agree with this.  While I know it takes faith to trust in Christ, I also know that we can grow in our faith and this growth is a journey that will take a lifetime. And how did Jesus handle doubt? Did He just reject people that didn’t have 100% faith? Absolutely not, just look at this record from Mark 9:14-27:

And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.  Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.  And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?" 

Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not." 

He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me."  Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. 

So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?"

And he said, "From childhood.  And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." 

Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" 

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!"  Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

Doubt and Jesus

This is a very interesting scene. Here’s a father getting frustrated with the disciples who are equally frustrated with the father. The source of their frustration is the lack of deliverance for the stricken child.  Jesus intervenes and gets the scoop of what’s happening.  He asks questions to find out the details and to discern the man’s story while assessing the condition of his heart. It then gets even tenser when the man says to Jesus, of all people, “If you can do anything…”

Jesus counters in the most interesting way, rather than becoming indignant at the man for doubting Him, He instead responds by saying, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Notice that Jesus doesn't lecture the father that he should believe with every ounce of fiber in his body. I think Jesus is instead saying to him that even an inkling of faith is a start.

Mustard anyone?

It reminds me of how Jesus speaks of faith like a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). A mustard seed is tiny but it eventually explodes into a bush that even birds find shelter and rest in (see also Matthew 13:31-32). Faith, then, starts small and if nurtured properly will mature into something quite large.

We see this in operation in the father in our story. He responds to Jesus by saying, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” A very honest response from a very desperate father, one part of him trusts in Jesus, but another part in the depths of his soul still doubts. Have you ever been there? I sure have, and in some areas of my life I’m still there. Jesus recognizes this as the frailty of humanity and rather than rebuking the father for his honesty or ongoing lack of faith, He heals the father’s son instead. A stern religious person or cult leader would demand 100% faith, which, of course, would be impossible, which means the father would have to either lie to the Lord or walk away completely defeated. Thankfully, Jesus is real and understands our great dilemma: we have faith but also, at the same time, we fight doubt and even hopelessness.

Jesus is our loving God in action, meeting us where we’re at, as if lifting our sagging and trembling chin to look us loving in the eyes while whispering, “I understand, it’s okay, I’m with you now. Let’s walk together.” He takes time to understand the narrative of our lives and doesn't rush in with rash judgments about our background, lifestyle, or lack of faith.

Bridge of Faith

As we've seen in this record, faith is a starting point, not an ending point. Faith is something that starts small and over time, sometimes a lot of time, grows. Faith is the bridge from being destined to hell to suddenly being destined for Heaven. And it starts simply:

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

─Acts 16:31

So our faith is a bridge to salvation, but like any bridge, once you cross it, you have a vast terrain to travel on the other side of it. This vast terrain is moving deeper into the Kingdom of Christ. With each step deeper into this new land, our faith will be challenged, just like father in this record; but also with each step Jesus will be with us helping to mature and refine our faith as long as we don’t give up. And this journey will take the rest of our lives, so some of our doubts may linger on for years; and, frankly, that’s okay, Jesus is not in a hurry, so why are we?

So let’s stop beating ourselves and others up for having doubts. Instead, let’s acknowledge that doubts are real and that Jesus can step into the center of these doubts if we just invite Him into the narrative of our lives. 

Rivers of Living Water

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

̶ Jesus, John 7:37

“It sounds so simple. H20 - two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. This substance also known as water, is one of the most essential elements to health.”

̶ From the Importance of Water, Freedrinkingwater.com/water-education

  

Water, water everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.

̶ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Without water we would die. In fact, while we can fast from food for long periods of time, death will overtake us in a matter of a few days if we have no water.  Two-thirds of our body weight is water and our brain is 95% water and our blood is 82%. Even mild dehydration will cause us to feel achy and our thinking will become fuzzy or cloudy.

And yet Jesus says that those believing in Him will have rivers of living water flowing out of their hearts. What does this mean? Even before this passage He was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well on the same topic:

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living waters.”

─Jesus, John 4:10

Obviously Jesus is speaking metaphorically; He is not literally saying that all of the sudden an Amazonian river is going to burst out of a person’s heart for ever more, drenching everything in that person’s path. And yet, that is exactly what He’s saying.

How do I mean? Let’s continue further in the first Scripture reference.

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

̶ John 7:39

Free-flowing

The Bible clearly explains that Jesus is not talking of literal water, but is instead saying that the Holy Spirit in a person’s life will flow like a river.  When was the last time you visited a riverside? My youngest son and I did just that a few weeks ago by sitting on bench only ten feet from the banks of the Willamette River. The river just flowed. Birds floated on the top and rocks sank into its depths. It moved obstacles of tree debris and flowed around obstacles of bridge support pillars. But it just kept moving at its own pace and in its own strength. I couldn’t rush it, or stop it, or any way control it—it just flowed where it willed. It flowed with great grace and beauty, and equally great strength.

Is this what Jesus was referring to in regard to the living waters of the Holy Spirit’s flow in our lives?

Life and Water

Other aspects of water include life, for without water, we would die, plants would die, animals would die; in fact, all the life on the planet would die, including oceans drying up and mountains lying bare of snow.  No water would turn the earth into nothing but a large, whirling rock.

Could this also be what Jesus was referring to? Without the Holy Spirit our lives would be equally barren? Or thinking on a more global basis, without the Holy Spirit’s presence on earth, the barrenness of mankind would be its undoing. This is explored in the Book of Revelation—but that’s another blog. 

The Refreshing

Water also gives a refreshing and a thirst-quenching satisfaction. Ever water a wilting plant?  What happens? The plant perks up. What about drinking some water after a long bout of heated exertion, whether working in the yard in 90 degree August heat or running a 10K? The water refreshes a parched palette like nothing else can.

Is this what Jesus is referring to? I think Jesus is referring to all of these aspects. In the working of the Holy Spirit there’s beauty and power; there’s flee-flowing ease and the bringing down of barriers; there’s a lushness and zest for life; there’s satisfaction and refreshing. Jesus, our multifaceted Savior, is rendering a simple metaphor to explain the fathomless depth of the gift of Holy Spirit. But notice that He doesn’t explain the Holy Spirit as a tyrant or despot, but sometimes, due our failure to yield to the Holy Spirit, others perceive the Holy Spirit as just that because they see our failures. When we let our Self get in the way of the Holy Spirit and do things in our own power, we usually wind up being a poor witness.

Walking by the Spirit

But a heart fully yielded to the Holy Spirit will indeed resemble living waters and not tyranny.  This person will be a refreshing to other people, a salve to hurting souls, and will lead people to the harbor of deliverance, salvation in Jesus Christ. 

"One thing is needed..."

…said Jesus in Luke 10:42. Yes, I know, another familiar record; but are you really that familiar with it? Am I? By virtue of observing our culture, I think deep down none of us are really familiar with that record. We are willingly surrounded by noise, whether it’s TV, texting, social media, or plain old scattered thinking—it’s the white noise of our souls.  We always have it with us like theme music in the background of our lives.  Only this theme music isn’t heroic or inspiring; instead, it’s distracting and even debilitating. Let me explain.

 

Martha invited Jesus into her home that she shared with her sister Mary. The two sisters had very different reactions to Jesus; Mary sat at His feet and heard His word while Martha was distracted with being a fastidious hostess.

 

Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

 

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

 

While I realize this is a record of an actual event that occurred in the past, I remain convinced that all of Jesus’ teachings have applicability to any age or era.  This record is no different.   The risk in this record is like the over-arching risk of all history, we read it but don’t learn from it; therefore, it is more apt to be repeated rather than actually influencing a change in behavior.  Our charge is to instead internalize Jesus’ words and then apply the lessons Jesus is teaching.

 

What’s the Lesson

Here the lesson is really an illustration of a battle between doing vs. being; or noise vs. silence. In one corner we have doing, fussing around out of a sense of obligation. In the other corner, we have being with Jesus out of the sense of love and desire to learn.  Or for football fans, one sideline has noise, always needing to be seen doing something, because stillness to them means laziness. They are hard to coach because they don’t sit still long enough to listen and learn from the Master. Perhaps they are afraid to be still and listen for fear of hearing something they don’t want to hear or being forced to face a deeply entrenched fear. Sometimes, we keep ourselves busy as a strategy of avoidance: avoiding confronting the pain.

 

On the other side of the field is silence. While they do have times where they’re busy, they also know when it is time to be quiet, to sit at the feet of the Master and soak in His presence. They’re easy to coach because they’re always ready to listen and learn. To listen requires that they quiet their mind, that they sit still and know that God is God and will bathe them in His presence via the indwelling Holy Spirit.  They are unafraid of the silence and are willing to face with courage the truth the Master imparts to them.

 

Now back to Luke 10. Mary is silent. How do I know? Because she is sitting at Jesus’ feet. In the Bible days, this was a sign of great respect and was also the posture of the student soaking in the wisdom of the teacher.  What’s more, she “heard His word”; it is very hard to hear another person if your mouth is running or your mind is wandering far from the subject at hand.  Therefore, Mary is silent.

 

Practical Application

Our application of Mary’s example is to take time and just be with Jesus in prayer. How do we do this? Well, unfortunately, Americanized Christianity has an awful tendency of filling our prayer time with laundry lists of requests and things we want God to do. Our internal voice is continually chuntering on about inane stuff, so much so, that our internal noise completely drowns out anything God might be trying to say to us. We’ve lost what the ancients called contemplative prayer by sitting quietly; meaning we still our mind of all incoming distractions, and simply focus on what God may or may not be saying to us via His Holy Spirit. This is difficult to do, just try it!

 

A good beginning point is to focus on our breath going in and out. As we focus on our breathing, then the other distractions of the day will melt into vapor and we can then start listening to the “still small voice” within the depths of our soul. We need to be careful, however, not to confuse the nudging of the Holy Spirit with our own internal voice.

 

Why is this important? Well, since we can no longer physically sit at the feet of Jesus, we need to employ the next best method, and following Mary’s example, that would be sitting quietly and listening to the internal nudging of the Holy Spirit.

 

We can also employ this discipline by reading Scripture and letting it soak into the deep fibers of our soul. Rather than treating our reading as nothing more than a check box on a to-do list, why not instead read with the intention of letting God speak to us via the truths we are reading.

 

It Takes Discipline

Granted, these sound like trite techniques, and they can indeed become that. But to really begin grasping the deeper things of God, these can instead become disciplines; disciplines of silence, contemplation and Scripture reading. As we practice such disciplines with serious intention we will draw more deeply from the endless waters of God.
  

The Great Calm

 

A word of comfort to us, that, be the storm of trouble ever so loud, ever so strong, Jesus Christ can lay it with a word’s speaking.

─Matthew Henry

 

It’d been a busy day, but now, finally, they were leaving the multitude behind and sailing off in a small cadre of boats. They were heading to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to hopefully get a little quiet time with their Master and perhaps some sound sleep. But not even half way into their journey “a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so it was already filling.” Jesus was, of all things, asleep on a pillow in the stern of the boat. 

 

This may be a familiar record to some; it’s from The Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4, verses 35-41 (it’s also found in Matthew and Luke). Apparently, even today, it is not unusual for the Sea of Galilee to all of the sudden have storms sweep over its surface due to its somewhat funky geography, it is 700 feet below sea level and is surrounded by mountains that reach as high as 4,000 feet above sea level.  When warm air from the lake rises to meet the cold air from the mountains it can sometimes produce sudden windstorms.  Here is just such an occasion. The disciples, in our vernacular, are freaking out, while Jesus, however, is unmoved and blissfully sleeping. 

 

Look Again

Being too familiar with this record risks becoming jaded to it or blind to the reality of the situation. I’ve had the opportunity to white-water raft several times in my life. We go with a seasoned guide and always wear our life jackets. Still, there are times when hitting the rapids just right blasts a white wall of water right into my face and body. At the same time I am, of course, being soaked by cold water, being jostled by the turbulent river and smacking into my fellow raft mates as we all struggle to stay in the raft. And sometimes I fall out; that can be especially frightening. 

 

Through it all, the experience is exhilarating but at some points, terror does overtake the exhilaration, especially as the wall of water interrupts my ability to breathe or blinds my sight. The disciples in the boat were experiencing the same terror, but theirs wasn’t the kind of terror that would quickly dwindle as the rapid fell to their rear; their terror was a continual onslaught of strong winds and waves beating into their boat and into their faces. If a wall of water smacked into one of their faces as he was trying to breathe, he could very well begin choking. If the water hit his eyes hard enough he could be rendered momentarily blind, just long enough to flip over the edge of the boat into the raging sea, most likely to a watery grave.  This was no summertime raft trip down the Deschutes or Rogue rivers. This was literally life and death.

 

No wonder they were so fearful; I would be as well, and most likely so would you.

 

Finally they awoke Jesus.

 

Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the winds ceased and there was a great calm (v. 39, emphasis added).

 

Mega

There’s more to the record, but you’ll just have to read it for yourself. As many times as I’ve read this record, I’ve never stopped to ponder the words: great calm.  The word “great” comes from the Greek where we get our word mega. Mega, obviously means “great”, but a thesaurus will provide such synonyms as “mammoth”, “jumbo”, or “super”. The word “calm” comes from an unfamiliar Greek word that can also mean “tranquility” or “stillness”.

 

Putting ourselves back into the shoes of the disciples, we will undoubtedly notice the deafening cacophony of howling winds and roiling seas; and quite possibly the screams of terrified men. We’ll also feel the biting spray blowing like tiny darts flung off the tops of curling waves while our clothes whip against our bodies in slapping stings, leaving angry welts.

 

Piercing through this din is the voice of Jesus; somehow I don’t think his voice was high and squeaky with fear, but was deep and resonating—authority emanating from every fiber of His being. Suddenly what was chaotic cacophony is instantly super tranquil. All that is heard is the heaving chests of breathless men.   

 

The juxtaposition astounds my imagination: chaos to calm, rage to tranquility, terror to peace, all in an instant, and all at the voice of Jesus.   

 

And as an exclamation point to this record, as soon as the boat finally makes land, they are immediately accosted by a violent man that is hopelessly tormented and untamable (see vv. 5:1-5). But when he encounters Jesus, his storms are equally calmed and he finishes the evening “sitting and clothed and in his right mind” (v. 15).

 

You see the similarities? The man went from raging insanity to being in his right mind; the storm went from chaos to calm. What is it that Jesus can do in the depths of our souls? It reminds of the lyrics from a song I can’t recall the name of that I think is from MercyMe; the line is something like this:

 

He calmed the raging sea/He can calm the rage in me.

 

Invitation is Yours

There’s no great formula for entering into this calm, or more aptly put, for having this calm enter into us. We simply invite Jesus into our heart as Savior and Lord. If you’ve already done that, then lift your burden, your rage, up to the Him in prayer. It need be no more difficult than crying out in sincerity, “Jesus, I’m scared because _________________, please help me!” Or “I’m so angry and hurt because__________________, please calm this anger!” He may touch you with an unmistakable warmth or with chills, but He will touch you and lead you “beside the still waters” (Psalm 23:2).

 

Again, if He calmed the power of nature’s fury and the power of demonic fury (the man suffering from insanity), then He can certainly calm the storms in our souls as well.

Let...

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

─Philippians 2:5

Only 12 words in that verse, but they pack quite a wallop.  The Apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians and encouraging them to think of others more highly than themselves and also about the humility of Christ. He is eloquently explaining that while Jesus was in fact God in the flesh, He laid all this aside so as to secure our freedom from sin and death. But smack in the middle of these two major concepts is that 12-word verse. From what I can figure out from the Greek, a literal translation of this verse could also read:

For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The key word in this verse is froneisqw (phroneistho). It is where we get the words “let this mind be”. The Greek word, hence, the phrase, is in the imperative mood which means it’s a command. This is important to know because, “[T]here is no more forceful way in the Greek language to tell someone to do something than a simple imperative” (William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, Zondervan, 2003, p.310).  Another key component to this is it's third person, singular; which means it could also be rendered something like:  “Let him think for himself the same things Christ thought.” (Greek fans can double-check this by looking at the Imperative Paradigm on p.313 of the above referenced book.)

What's the Point

While all this may seem rather thick and clunky, there is a very important point here. Followers of Christ are to intentionally think the things of Christ. The simple three-letter word, let, indicates that we, the ones doing the “letting” are to purposely direct our thinking toward the things of Christ (see also Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:2). We need to give ourselves permission to think like Christ.

The logical question is how do we know what He thought?  The logical answer is, of course, Scripture.  The Gospels obviously chronicle the life of Christ while on earth. But other areas of Scripture shed a great deal of light on the mind of Christ as well.

For instance, how many Old Testament passages does Christ quote?  A lot, He was very familiar and comfortable with the Old Testament and pondered its depth on many occasions. And right here in the text we’re exploring now are great insights into the mind of Christ. Let’s look at verses 6-9:

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.

Humility and obedience are prominent themes in these verses. Another prominent feature in the life of Christ was prayer. He spent hours communing with the Father. In fact, He intentionally set His schedule to have time with just He and the Father. You’ll discover this as you become more aware of the many times that Jesus arose early or steeled away from a crowd to seek His Father.

It is Attainable

So while the mind of Christ may seem so elusive, it really isn’t. While we’d be foolish to think we can unravel all the mysteries of the universe, we are equally foolish if we think it is impossible to live according to Philippians 2:5. We also need to remember that we have a helper, a counselor, in this journey of being a Christ follower:

“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into the all truth.”

─Jesus, John 16:13

This promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost after Christ’s ascension (see Acts 2:1-4). Now, because of this outpouring of Holy Spirit upon those who place their faith in Christ, we can pray for the wisdom we need to live the life of a genuine Christ-follower:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach.

─James 1:5

A Starting Point

The easiest place to start for “letting”, or allowing, the mind of Christ to come into our thinking is to first become more familiar with and comfortable with…Jesus.  Begin recognizing that Jesus is more approachable than your best friend, for He can become your best friend. He is more compassionate than any world charity, and more loving than the most loving parent. So run into His arms, sit on His lap, and get to know the Heart that can change yours. You’ll find this wonderful Heart in the Gospels.

Endurance and the Waves

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering…

─Galatians 5:22a (NKJV)

Have you ever had waves of trials slamming into you seemingly simultaneously? Sometimes it’s like waves are hitting me from all four sides and from the top and bottom all at the same time. I cry out to the Lord for relief but they don’t cease, they just keep slamming into the shores of my soul.

This is counterintuitive to me. Let me explain in a formula:

The more trials + the longer they last = heightened weakening, enhancing the potential for failure. Bad.

The solution, humanly speaking at least, would be:

Reducing the number of trials + shortening their length of time = greater strength, enhancing the potential for lengthened success. Good.

But have you noticed; God doesn’t behave the way WE would. He doesn’t comply with our limited-view expectations. We see time in hours, days, weeks, etc. He sees time immemorial. Therefore, God’s equation would seem to be something like this:

Be strong in the Lord through trials (Ephesians 6:10ff, 1 Peter 1:3-12) + obedience (1 John 5:1-3) = deliverance (eventually, Deuteronomy 8:1-10).  Faith.

Without God, our ability to endure multiple trials is seriously compromised if not completely paralyzed. The world just does not have solutions that sink into the soul without first corrupting the soul. However, God provides the antidote to this worldly pollution; the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is why the Galatians verse above is so important to grasp.  Fruit is something that grows outwardly based upon what is already inside. An apple tree produces apples, not oranges. Why? Well, because it has apple characteristics (genes) all the way to its core (pardon the pun). So if we are saturated to our core in the Holy Spirit, then we’ll produce Spirit-sparked fruit. One of these fruit is longsuffering.

Longsuffering is from a Greek word that is also translated as ‘patience’ or, more aptly to my point of view, ‘endurance’.  Endurance, according to the Encarta Dictionary, means “the ability or power to bear prolonged exertion, pain or hardship.” That sounds an awful lot like longsuffering to me. 

Thus, back to my equation example. If trials were simple and/or short in duration, then our ability to endure through them would be just that—our own ability. But as trials mount to the point of fainting, God, by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit infuses us with the ability to persevere, to endure. And if we’re not careful, we may even have joy through the endurance because joy is another Spirit-sparked fruit. 

When the trials finally cease, whether in days, weeks or even years, there will be no doubt that it was God that brought us through the trials. Hmm, reminds me of a couple of other Scriptures:

And He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

─2 Corinthians 12:9

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

─James 1:2-3

And, finally, as we endure through the trials, we need to realize that we’re not alone:

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

─Jesus, Matthew 28:20

So hang in there, a better day is coming.

Totally Surrendered or Resignation

                                   “I surrender all…”

The above line is from a popular contemporary Christian worship song.  Every time I hear that line or even sing it, I think to myself, “Really?”

Have I surrendered it all? Has the writer of that song surrendered it all?  If so, then why aren’t there lyrics teaching us how to surrender it all? 

I’ve blogged about surrender before, but I’m still not satisfied with my understanding, or lack thereof, about being totally surrendered to God. I’m also unsure what the difference is between being totally surrendered to God and just plain old resignation, giving up or caving in. 

How does total surrender avoid becoming fatalism? For instance, is the phrase “It must be God’s will” really code for saying, “I can’t do anything about it, so I give up.” Or perhaps we think that “it’s predestined this happens, so I’m helpless. Now where’s that remote.” 

How do we tell the difference between circumstances that truly are unchangeable, where God’s grace is sufficient for us; versus understanding that God is calling us to do something in the circumstances to change them? Am I really destined to have health conditions all my life, or is God expecting me to do something to mitigate the health conditions? Are the hungry destined to be hungry so I might as well drive by the guy with the sign asking for food?  Or is this cowardice and avoidance of the human condition when I could easily hand him a granola bar and an apple? 

In other words, when does total surrender also involve taking action, taking personal responsibility? 

I return to the health condition example. While medical interventions are necessary and helpful at times; I can take daily responsibility over my own behavior that will produce greater and more positive results immediately. I can easily choose to eat healthy and get regular exercise. Or, I could shrug my shoulders, mope that I have health conditions, and slowly morph into Jabba the Hut. 

Surrender then seems to be a combination of accepting the health conditions while equally accepting that God expects and enables me to not let the conditions control my life and overrun my soul. So to in other areas of life, such as sharing our faith, helping to feed the hungry, or helping friends or family in need. But sadly I sense that many people view total surrender as equating to total inaction.  I’m inert, therefore I’m totally surrendered.  Somehow, I think not. Jesus was totally surrendered, and He was also a man of action—lot’s of action. 

He [Jesus] was moved with compassion for them, and he healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:14-16)

This record astounds me, especially since it goes on to say that the disciples were beside themselves about how they were going to feed ten to fifteen thousand people (the text says 5,000 men, the men likely had wives, children and/or others with them; so the number could easily have been up to 15,000!). Jesus didn’t panic, though. A little boy brought Him what was basically a sack lunch with five loaves and two fish. Jesus took these ingredients, thanked His Father for the sustenance and then commenced feeding an impossible amount of people in an impossible way.

Jesus, totally surrendered to His Father, was obviously a man of action. Just in this record alone, we see Him take action by healing the sick and feeding thousands of people. And inserted between these two events was His command to His disciples: “You give them something to eat.”

So as I struggle to figure out what being totally surrendered means, I can be assured that it isn’t fatalism or nihilistic disregard for life.  But it does have high doses of prayer, compassion, and action.   

Obedience--Pursuing God, Part 2

Obedience.  Oh, how we seem to hate this word. For some reason, we have fallen into the trap of thinking that obedience somehow means we lose our identity; that we somehow become less of an individual, and thereby lose our significance.  Hogwash!

 

Consider this:

 

‘Yet He (Jesus) learned obedience by the things which He suffered’ (Hebrews 5:8, NKJV).

‘He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8).

 

Jesus, the great I AM, embraced obedience to a degree you and I never will. So if the Savior of all mankind was obedient, then we ought to follow His example and rid our thinking of all the nonsense that obedience is bad. And while last week we explored two key elements in pursuing God—prayer and Scripture—this is the third key to pursuing God—obedience. 

 

‘Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God and keep 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).

Interestingly, the above reference calls us to obedience while also stating that being obedient is not burdensome. In other words, God’s commandments are not heavy or weighty. This truth is much to the contrary of what the enemy wants us to think.  So much of faithless religion is based solely on works; the more we work then the more favor we have with God. Yet here God is saying that His commandments are not burdensome; man’s commandments may be, but God’s commandments are not. 

But is this true? Let’s look at a couple of examples.

 

Let’s begin with Jesus Himself by looking at the Mark 12, where a scribe poses a question to Jesus:

 

“Which is the first commandment of all?”

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

Hmm. I can just imagine this exchange. The Scribe, probably in some sort of robe, wanted to trap Jesus by asking Him a question that seemed impossible to answer (see also Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28). But Jesus, leveling His gaze in a way that looked right through the man, had no hesitation in His answer. Not only that, Jesus gave two commandments back at the man, not just one (you can’t put Jesus in a box).  He didn’t throw out a bunch of rules and regulations; instead, he spoke of love.

 

The Apostle Paul spoke to this as well by way of an admonition.

 

“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the conning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Again, the exercise of obedience from 1 John 5 as further defined in Ephesians is speaking the truth; but it isn’t speaking it hatefully or as a verbal weapon. Instead, truth is to be spoken in love.

 

So a third key in pursuing God is obedience. Obedience to God is not burdensome because it is to be bathed in and motivated by love.  So as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our souls by intentionally pursuing God in prayer and Scripture with the desire to be obedient, He will empower us to also love with the love by which He first loved us (see Galatians 5:22 and 1 John 4:19).