live like Jesus

spiritual dynamics: awakened to reality

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Cooler temperatures are creeping in and I’ve noticed that my house is cooler too.  Yes, our house needs a window and insulation update!  But before we get that done I’m going to need more jackets, sweaters, and blankets.  These are the dynamics required for staying warm and healthy in my house. 

There are signs available too that we need to attend to the spiritual dynamics of our life.  God has not left you dull, insensitive, and or unaware of the spiritual dependence required in your life.  The Christian that lives according to the Spirit of God will attend to the spiritual well-being of their life in Christ Jesus.  A person who declares that Jesus is Lord cannot afford to continue to live as if they are ignorant or unaware of the spiritual ebb and flow happening around them and in them.  God has rescued you from the fate of the proverbial “frog in the kettle!”  Paul describes this fate as one that is part of our past, our life before Jesus inhabited our lives via the Holy Spirit:

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”  Ephesians 4:17-19  NIV

Instead the Holy Spirit has be give to us and our spirit that was dead to God is now alive to God.  Paul prays with confidence regarding this change saying, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you… (Ephesians 1:18)  And then Paul writes of this new reality in Ephesians 2:4-5: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…”   The person who has been made alive to God through Jesus must now cooperate with the Holy Spirit by taking proactive action for living.  Paul writes:

“You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.  Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  Ephesians 4:20-24  NIV

The spiritual dynamics of life in the Spirit require me to recognize the reality of the natural or old self and respond by putting it off and putting on the new.  This is not just management of my attitudes or behaviours.  This is the conscious entrance into the new self created in Christ.  God has made this exchange possible and God has empowered us to participate.

when lattices fail and leaders fall

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Perhaps it was a hot day in Israel when Ahaziah leaned back on his upper room lattice and fell to the ground injuring himself. (2 Kings 1)  Ahaziah must have been stricken with dread as he was picked up by the servants and laid out on a couch.  He couldn’t wait, fear of the future took over, he had to know what the future held for him.  Would this fall be the death of him?

What he did next reveals the true condition of his heart and the devotion of his life.  Ahaziah sent messengers to consult with Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if he would recover from this injury.  However, on this day, what may have been the usual practice of Ahaziah was interrupted.  “The angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?  Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on.  You will certainly die!”

Now Elijah’s message from God set up a series of confrontations with Ahaziah’s military leaders. 102 were consumed by fire from heaven.  The third leader pleaded for the lives of his men and himself.  Ahaziah never repented and died on his bed.

When the walls you have built to provide security and protection fail, who are you going to call on first?  What patterns of devotion and worship have you established in your life?  Is your security in Jesus Christ or in your own health, ability, savings, or savy?  Are you dependent on false gods, sinful habits, shallow people for assurance of your own well-being each day?  What will the crisis reveal about the integrity of your heart? 

The writer of Hebrews calls on us to enter into the presence of Jesus Christ and pursue his holiness in our lives.  Pressure whether it is economic or in the realm of our physical health will come.  Choices remain to be made in a crisis.  However it is the pattern of our hearts devotion that is most likely to prevail when times are tough.  Stick close to Jesus even when times are good; stick close to Jesus even when times are tough.

Hebrews 10:19-39

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”   31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while,

“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”  

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
NIV

sit, walk, stand–with Jesus

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I like to walk fast.  Sure I enjoy the journey, but I like to get there too.  Its part of my problem in leading and life.  Let’s get into the battle and get something done.  But I’ve been reminded over and over that I am at risk both in the walk and the fight if I have not also sat with Jesus.

A few years ago my youngest would interrupt a walk with the plea…”Sit down Daddy.  Let’s see what we can see.  Sit down with me Daddy.”  And I had to make a choice.  I could keep walking without him, or I could sit down with him.  For you see, he had already found a log, or a bench at the beach, and he had sat down.

One of my favourite commentaries on the book of Ephesians is Watchman Nee’s little book, Sit, Walk, Stand.  In the book, part commentary and part testimony of God’s activity in China, he outlines Ephesians according to these three verbs:  sit, walk, stand.  These three verbs have been regular reminders from Ephesians of how I am to live with Jesus Christ.

Sit
“–it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him int he heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  Ephesians 2:5-7  NIV

Unless I make it my habit to be still and to sit with Jesus in communion and prayer I will live poorly.  Unless I sit with Him at His throne of grace or at His banquet table and receive His lavish gifts of forgiveness, grace, truth, healing, right perspective, I will live like a wealthy pauper, ignorant of the riches and status I have inherited as His child.

Walk
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness, and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Ephesians 4:1-3 NKJV

Unless I have sat with Jesus I will definitely have trouble in the command to “walk this way.”  Walking requires that I enter from solitude into the fellowship of the saints.  It requires that I keep in step with the Spirit by engaging people in a manner consistent with the truth and love I have received from Jesus.  Walking means I don’t walk alone but that I walk with the company of the committed; it means that I share life with a collection of people who share the same calling from Jesus to be His–that would be the church.  Surprise.  If you have spent much time with the church you quickly realize that those modifiers in verses 2-3 are extremely important–humilty, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another–if love and truth are going to inhabit the community and our relationships in church, marriage, home, or work.  Our life with the church becomes the training ground for a new way of living in relationship with all of society. 

Stand
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”  Ephesians 6:11-13

Welcome to the resistance movement that Jesus started.  We are to stand together in the ground that he takes back from the darkness and the devil.  We are to infiltrate every domain of our cities with the truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation that accompanies the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Unless you and I sit with Jesus, and walk with Jesus together, it is unlikely that we will stand our ground when the day of evil comes.  There will be little readiness unless we have become familiar with each part of this armor that God has given us.  There will be little familiarity with the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.”  And there will be little alertness for engaging in the battle through intercession.  Standing requires the fortification that comes through sitting and walking with Jesus.  Without these disciplines of sitting and walking I believe we will be easily persuaded to not stand with Jesus.  Instead we will give up the pursuit of justice for those who are being devoured by injustice; we will give up trying to communicate the Gospel to those who have no stomach yet for Jesus; we will be pushed back into our circles of comfort and familiarity, whispering empty platitudes to each other, and hoping that someone will rescue us from our momentary discomforts.

Ugh!  Oh please Lord, not me, not us.  Let me sit, walk, and stand with you.  And grant to each of us a community that also sits, walks, and stands with you.

Oswald Chambers on Temptation

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A few people have asked for the Oswald Chamber’s quote on temptation that I used in the sermon yesterday.  It is contained in a devotional that I have used for over 20 years, My Utmost for His Highest.  This particular quote is marked September 18th, His Temptation and Ours.  I have included Oswald Chambers in my list of “dead” mentors.  These men and women have influenced me with their writings and their life stories.  One of the best biographies of Oswald Chambers that I have read is, Oswald Chambers: Abadoned by God, The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest.  “September” in the devotional has been one of my favorate months as well. 

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is that mentioned by St. James—”Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”  But by regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, viz., the kind of temptations Our Lord faced.  The temptations of Jesus do not appeal to us, they have no home at all in our human nature.  Our Lord’s temptations and ours move in different spheres until we are born again and become His brethren.  The temptations of Jesus are not those of a man, but the temptations of God as Man.  By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth.  Satan does not tempt us to do wrong things; he tempts us in order to make us lose what God has put into us by regeneration, viz., the possibility of being of value to God.  He does not come on the line of tempting us to sin, but on the line of shifting the point of view, and only Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.            –Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

if i were you, i’d be…

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“If I were you, I’d be somebody else.”  This bit of wisdom was profoundly stated by my 5 and a half year old in a song he was spontaneously creating.  This “calebism” sets me to laughing just about every time I have repeated it.  For him it was an innocent literal observation.  For those of us listening with an adult ear, it was a statement loaded with both the truth and a possible critique.  Tonight at dinner I repeated it in a conversation and he said, “Hey why did you steal that from me?”  We all laughed and I assured him I have given him credit for it.

Laughing aside, the matter of letting the true me emerge is huge.    A few months ago I really enjoyed how the movie Akeelah and the Bee addressed the conflict we face internally and externally in fully enjoying and releasing what we do well.  But don’t be confused, its not just an issue of what we are going to produce.  Great lasting product in our relationships and life grows from strengths in our character.  A poem quoted and adapted in the film illustrates the fear that must be conquered by other aspects of our character and the general longing that exists among us.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
 – by Marianne Williamson

 A Christian world-view compels me to believe that the true me can only be ultimately and most profoundly created, uncovered, and sustained in an on-going dynamic life with Jesus Christ.  For example, many phrases in the book of Colossians lead me to seek my true identity in Christ. 

  • “He has rescued us and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  1:13-14
  • “All things were created by him and for him.”  Col 1:15-16
  • “He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”  Col 1:22
  • “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Col 1:27
  • “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.’ Col 2:6-7
  • “You have been given fullness in Christ.”  Col 2:9
  • “God made you alive with Christ.” Col 2:13
  • “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Col 3:3
  • “You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”  Col 3:10
  • “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  Col 3:17

 A common misunderstanding in the matter of being who God would have us be in Christ is built around our dismay or perhaps even disdain of some aspect of who we are in the realms of our physical, emotional, mental, social, or cultural sense of personhood.  I don’t believe most of us are simply critical of others.  WE are critical of ourselves.  WE wish that we were somebody else.  I meet people regularly who seem to be “uncomfortable in their own skin.”  Well, I’m like that sometimes and in some settings.  And what I’ve discovered is that I have some unreconciled matter with me and God.  Perhaps I’ve not yet seen His redemptive power at work; perhaps I have some longing or expectation that is unfilled and so lay blame or find fault with myself or the many sources that have shaped me over the years. 

I am learning to use that “dis-ease” as a moment of discover and adventure into God’s grace and Jesus’ redemptive and recreative work.  I am most able to forget about myself when I sense in every situation that I am rightly enjoying and participating in the Kingdom of Jesus right here and now.  Then I’m able to abandon the wish that I was somebody else for genuine acceptance that I am the Father’s deeply loved child simply by the virtue of God Himself expressed through Jesus.  It is no wonder then that Jesus says to grown men and women, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Luke 18:2-4)  Jesus lived like this all the time.  His dependency on the Father was not his weakness but his strength.  HIs ability to hear the Father’s affirmation, “This is my Son, whom I love” set the course for his life and ministry.  That is the love and truth Jesus invites us to live in.