Pursuing God

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

─Jesus, Matthew 6:33

 

“Believing, then, is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to ‘behold the Lamb of God,’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.”

─A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

 

‘Seek’ in Matthew 6:33 is the Greek word, zeteo. It means to strive or desire; it also means to seek a thing or to crave.  The sense of the word and its usage in the verse is not a simple seeking for my car keys or wallet.  Not to get all technical, but ‘seek’ is a present-active-imperative which means it can be interpreted to be an ongoing command. In essence, Jesus is saying, “Continually seek after, crave, and desire the kingdom of God and His righteous.” So unlike our car keys, that when we find them our seeking ends, Jesus is saying that seeking God is a life-long pursuit.  After all, the Creator of the Universe has no beginning and no end, so we could never contain God like we can contain our car keys. As we begin to grasp one aspect of God, a myriad of others begin flooding our soul, thus, continuously giving us small doses of the eternal nature of the living God.

 Yet striving after the things of God is itself a key to deepening our relationship with Him. 

But is Matthew 6:33 a prosperity doctrine? Is He saying that as we pursue God we’ll get rich, get the big house, the big car, and the exotic vacations?  I don’t think so. While these things may not be inherently bad, Jesus is looking at the deeper things of life, He’s looking at the spiritual things.

 First of all, Jesus actually states that Solomon, the richest man ever up to that point, wasn’t even as arrayed as the lily of the field. That’s quite a statement. Solomon had everything there was to have, whether moral or immoral. A lily by contrast, is a simple, but beautiful flower. So Solomon vs. the lily could also be stated as mass materialism vs. simplicity.  Jesus is speaking to the need of mankind, not the greed of mankind. What’s more, I think He’s also speaking to spiritual riches, not just material riches. Material riches rot, fade, break, and wind up in landfills or wills. Spiritual riches lead to eternal rewards in Heaven. 

The big question, of course, is how do we pursue God and His Kindgom?  Is there a specific devotional or discipleship plan we should follow? While there are several of these types of plans available, I think the better place to start is to observe the Master Himself. Jesus lived a life of pursuing God, of doing God’s will at all times; therefore, He is the logical example to follow.

One of Jesus’ primary actions was prayer. The Gospels are filled with examples of Jesus seeking solitude early in the morning to pray to His Heavenly Father. In fact, often one of the first things a person thinks about when they think of Jesus is prayer.

Another key aspect of Jesus’ life was His knowledge and grasp of Scripture. He didn’t just know Scripture as a thing to memorize or a box to check on a daily to-do list, He ate, digested, and lived what the Holy Writ taught. He came to the Scripture with no personal agenda. Or as Chris Webb states, He read with “empty hands.”

“To read with empty hands means setting aside our agenda and developing an interior silence…Without this silence, it is much harder for us to hear the living voice of God speaking through that Word” (Chris Webb, The Fire of the Word: Meeting God on Holy Ground, Chapter 6).

So to truly establish a pursuit of God in our lives, we must have a genuine prayer life; not rote prayers, but honest, heart-felt prayers in an attitude of full attention on God and the things of the Spirit. Next, we must become comfortable and familiar with Scripture; intentionally laying aside our agenda and seeking God’s heart and voice through His written Word.

Applying these two keys in our lives will deepen our identity in Christ and strengthen our faith.

My next blog will look at even more keys for deepening our pursuit, and therefore, the presence of God in our lives. 

Jesus, Faith and Action—Installment Two of Jesus and the Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13)

We left with Jesus offering to immediately leave and personally attend to the sick servant Himself. The Centurion, however, states that he feels it won’t be necessary, just the supreme authority of Jesus speaking it into being is enough. Stop and read that last sentence over again…think about the sheer intensity of that one man’s faith in the midst of an unbelieving and pagan culture.  This draws my thinking all the back to Genesis 1:3:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  

The Centurion basically said that if Jesus states, “Let there be healing,” there will be healing. 

He is also revealing that he understands Jewish tradition about entering a Gentile’s home and how that will make them unclean; but the deeper and more profound exhibition of the Centurion is simply his faith.  As we saw earlier, he has accepted Jesus as the Messiah by the fact he addresses Jesus as Lord, not as teacher or rabbi or “hey you.”

But his acceptance is not merely in his head, he believes so intently in Jesus that he risks his reputation to publicly approach Jesus, pleading for the healing of someone he greatly cares for. That’s a deeply abiding faith; a faith that is stronger than status, ideology, or culture.  It’s a faith that will withstand trial and tribulation. It’s a faith that spurs him to action. (For more on faith in action, read the Book of James.)

Even Jesus is astounded by it:  “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith’” (v. 10).  Then He goes on to teach in verses 11 and 12 that God’s salvation will be for all people, not just “the sons of the kingdom (Israel).” This is a significant pre-cursor to the Apostle Paul’s grand proclamation “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).

This record closes with Jesus saying to the Centurion, “’Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that moment” (v. 13). We don’t hear from the Centurion again.

It’s tempting to say, “Well, that was nice of Jesus to help out like that,” and then move on with the rest of our day, as if the record was nothing more than a mere story to tantalize but not to internalize. The same thing happened in Jesus’ day, He performed miracles but the masses were more tantalized by events but did not internalize the message of the Man.

I think part of the message of the Centurion is simply that Jesus is real and wants to work in our lives now. Rather than looking to Him for the next big thing, the next mass-feeding; look to Him for the even greater miracle of overhauling your soul. Let Him and His Words fill your being with awe; open your heart and your thoughts to His work by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit to heal you.

So God hasn’t reached down and healed my neck, I still have a triple fusion held together by surgical adhesive and a large titanium plate and I still have aches and muscle spasms; but does that mean He hasn’t reached into my soul to heal it?   Quite the contrary. Just last night while praying with my bride, I cried out my discouragement with certain recent events in life. I awoke to find the circumstances unchanged, but my sense of joy and zest for life was renewed. That’s healing, my friends. That’s Jesus making His presence effervesce from deep within my soul.

Faith isn’t just a surface-level salve for a minor scrape; it is an-ever bubbling fountain, continually springing up from the depths of a soul saturated in Jesus. This Holy Spirit infused saturation then cleanses the internal parts of man—the heart, the soul, and the mind; this births the transformation of a continual renewal in a person’s life (see Romans 12:1-2). And this continual renewal shapes us to be more like Jesus right now in our everyday life. Isn’t this what our hearts are craving, to be like Jesus on this earth right now?

As we ponder this, the lesson of the Centurion becomes internalized in our soul, it now has relevancy to our lives by prodding us to ask ourselves, “Do we believe?”

So take some time to get quiet with God and ask that question, and see what stirs in your soul.   

Jesus, the Centurion, and Cultural Engagement

I’m watching traffic on River Road flow by while sitting in an overly air conditioned Starbucks.

Would Jesus hang out at Starbucks? A stupid question, I know; but recently I’ve been studying selective Gospel readings (as suggested by Chris Webb in The Fire of the Word) and am being moved at how Jesus approached humanity with dignity, respect, and love.

Take for instance the encounter between Jesus and the Roman Centurion (see Matthew 8:5-13).  Jesus has travelled down a mountain, healed a leper, and is now entering Capernaum, a city on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He’s tired, has grit in His mouth and is thirsty. Before He can find comfort, probably before He can even find shade, the Roman Centurion approaches Him. Now watch this exchange carefully.

“Lord,” says the Roman. “My servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” Worry is etched into every line on the Roman’s sun-baked face while hope pools behind his dark brown eyes.

Jesus locks eyes with the Roman, and laying a hand on his shoulder he says, “I will come and heal him.”  Jesus’ tone is confident and unflustered.

I’m astounded by this exchange. Typically Romans are merely tolerant of Israel’s faith at best. They never seek any sort of guidance or help from the faith of the Jews. In fact, they dismiss their faith as archaic, preferring instead to place their faith in the ingenuity of humanity—mainly via engineering and government (eerily similar to our culture). Israel also has no love-fest for the Romans. To them, the Romans are a hedonistic culture of depravity that needs to be expelled from their land.

So the Roman Centurion has three strikes against him; he’s a Gentile, a Roman, and a high-ranking officer of the Roman army. If anyone exemplifies the Jews’ hatred toward the Roman occupation it would be this Centurion. To the Romans, Jesus has gone from being another self-proclaimed but harmless Holy man to someone who actually performs miracles while amassing a large following.  Therefore, He’s now on their “watch list” for His potential to stir civic unrest.

So back to our scene. Jesus enters the militarily strategic city of Capernaum and is immediately approached by this high-ranking Roman officer. It looks to be the development of a somewhat hostile encounter. The crowd gasps and stops in their tracks as the two men near each other, is this going to be high noon at the OK Corral?

But studying the men’s faces perplexes the crowd. The Roman’s face is pleading and not fierce; his eyebrows are moving toward his scalp rather than pinching down on his eyes. His jaw is loose and not clinched in gritted teeth and a sneer. Jesus’ face is relaxed as His nose bridge begins to wrinkle with concern. His eyes are looking straight into the Roman’s; there is no fear, only concern.

The crowd normally expects the Roman’s first words to be ones of challenge or threat; this time, however, they are stunned as the Roman addresses Jesus as “Lord.” Few Jews had even addressed Jesus as Lord, much less a Roman officer. In this one word the Roman is publicly proclaiming his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But we will see later, that this is just the tip of this man’s faith.

Jesus’ first response is equally surprising; He proclaims that He will go the sick servant immediately. Jesus could have easily and justifiably told this Gentile-Roman-Officer to take a hike. But notice that Jesus cared for the man’s heart and did not judge him or react to him based on his culturally imposed labels.

As I begin to close this first of two installments about this record, I want to leave you with a quick comparison. Our culture has become more polarized than at any other time in my life (I’m 50, so I’ve been around a while). In today’s parlance, the two main characters could be a liberal and a conservative; or gay and straight; or rich and homeless; or a Yankee fan and a Red Sox fan. The point is that both of these men shed their cultural labels and biases toward the other to instead approach each other with respect and dignity.  Jesus Himself modeled this approach to humanity throughout His ministry. He still wants to model this approach to humanity by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit in each of our lives. Are we willing to cooperate with Jesus rather than succumbing to cultural labels and expectations?

The next installment, for the two of you that actually read my blog, will explore the startling conclusion of this amazing record.

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.

Gag Orders and Wisdom

There’s a lot of so-called “hate-speak” out there today.  What’s disturbing to me is not so much the attacks on Christianity, as much as Christians engaging in the same tactics.  Must we stoop to the level of the world when trying to get our point across?  Do we have to criticize a YouTube presentation that extols Christ but condemns religion?  Doesn’t the criticism just support the very basis of the presentation? Wouldn’t it be wiser to just be an example of Christ while accepting that people have been badly hurt in the name of religion?

I realize that our culture is just too darn sensitive. Or stated more honestly, the influencers of our culture—celebrities, media, politicians, and even some religious icons—don’t like messages that contradict their lifestyles. So rather than remaining open to other ideas, they just cast other ideas as offensive or bigoted.  By doing this, of course, they are themselves narrow-minded and bigoted. But since they have greater cultural influence and the attendant social and economic power that comes with that influence, they’re able to gag the other ideas. 

But to counter such gagging, we need to be wiser in our communication.  Rather than extolling hostility, we need to learn how to proclaim our message in a way that doesn’t water down the truth but also doesn’t stoop to the level of name-calling or finger-pointing. Do we really need to condemn entire people-groups to proclaim the love of Jesus? Do you not see the irony in this? 

I am not at all drawn to Facebook or Twitter postings that totally insult my faith or political preferences. Those insults just drive me further away from their message.  Don’t you think they are also driven away from us for the same reasons? If they want me to take them seriously, then they need to engage me with respect and dignity.  We must do the same. Otherwise, we might as well dig in and prepare to win fewer and fewer souls for Christ while we watch our churches die. If we can’t figure out a way to engage winsomely, we will continue to lose this so-called culture war. (It’s actually a spiritual war, see Ephesians 6:10ff.)

A truly counter-cultural engagement would be one that shows respect and dignity toward humanity. Think about it, God made people in His own image. Granted, people are the ones who employ evil and extol sinful lifestyles as normal and acceptable. But the very same people are broken and lost (just like we were, or perhaps still are). We can’t win them to Christ and pull them out of the gates of Hell by belittling them or spewing the same verbal venom on them that they spew on us. 

Let’s see, who was it that said, “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?”  Oh yes, it was Jesus! (See Luke 23:34.) My heart breaks when I see friends bash Jesus and I pray for wisdom on how to reach them. But I know if I just come at them like I think they’re stupid, they’ll just disown me and my message. And even if I “counter-post” on their Facebook a blistering, intellectual retort to their anti-Christian message, I’ve just played right into Satan’s hands. Therefore, I must figure out a different method of reaching them that isn’t the same hate-filled method they use. But I’m too feeble to figure that out on my own, so I must look to the Lord for wisdom on how to properly engage such anti-Christ hatefulness. 

So far I don’t have an answer…do you?            

Danger of Reductionism

 

Satan would love nothing more than for the child of God to reduce the freely given gift of Salvation to nothing more than a trump card played upon death. He works hard to get us to quench the working of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives and to minimize the power and freedom available to us through the accomplished work of Christ on the Cross.  Once successful of this, Satan has rendered the child of God ineffective, useless for the Kingdom of God. Even worse, once a child of God wanders far enough away from God, he may begin exhibiting a lifestyle contrary to biblical ethics, thus dishonoring the very God that saved him from Hell.  This plays right into Satan’s hands.

To combat this God calls us to a life of transformation: 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  (Roman 12:1-2, ESV.)

Eugene Peterson has this to say:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Romans 12:2a, MSG.)

While it’s true that Christianity is being attacked more aggressively in this culture than ever before, may it that not freak us out or cause us to fear expressing the truth of Jesus Christ.  I once heard a speaker say that we try to destroy that which we most fear; I find that quite interesting, as it sure seems that Satan is working harder to destroy Christianity more than anything else in this country.  That alone speaks loudly to the truth of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, as we allow God to transform our lives not only will we thwart Satan’s desires, but we’ll also shine as the light God is calling us to be (see Matthew 5:14).  

Mercy (a poem)

Here I am yet again,
To begin anew…again.

God of patience, God of kindness

Do not rebuke me from Your sight.

For though I stumble, and yes I fall,

By Your grace I'm rescued from my plight.

To me this burden is very heavy,

I cannot carry such a load.

But You won’t leave me because 

You’ve already walked this lonely road.

So it's to You I run, collapsing

exhausted at Your feet.

And laying there in this state,

It’s with Your touch I feel complete.
 
So in Your strength I persevere
Moment-by-moment and day-by-day.
 
And in Your love I will not fear
As I stand again and begin to pray.

Author note: yeah, I know it ain't Yeats, but what can I say, it came from the heart.  What's really interesting, is I wrote this in my Journal on September 24, seven days before I was knocked out and carted off in an ambulance.  I guess it was the beginning of entering into a new season of life for learning how much God's really in control in spite of my own human efforts.