Relationships

We’ve been created for relationships.

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3When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—

the moon and the stars you set in place—

4what are mere mortals that you should think about them,

human beings that you should care for them?

5Yet you made them only a little lower than God

and crowned them with glory and honor.

6You gave them charge of everything you made,

putting all things under their authority—

7the flocks and the herds

and all the wild animals,

8the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,

and everything that swims the ocean currents.

Psalm 8:3-8

The Christian worldview maintains that God created people for four kinds of relationships: with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth. In this Psalm of David we see this conviction present. David sets himself in Creation—the stuff of earth— and reflects on himself in relationship to God, with people, and in the Creation. All four relationships are in play in this Psalm.

The tension in the Psalm is unavoidable. David is in awe of God. Yet David feels small. God has show Himself large in the immensity of the night sky, the strength of the wild, the seemingly unrestrained space of the sky and sea. And yet, humans matter to God. And yet, God has given mere mortals glory and honour to have authority in the creation.

I’m blessed to come everyday to a community dedicated to the study of the creation and all that humanity has done with it. I am often delighted by the students and professors whose knowledge of slices of The Creation is only bounded by time and the questions they are asking. They are awesome.

Knowing God, the Creator, drives our faith forward to seek and know Him.  The writer of Hebrews says, “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”Hebrews 11:6

Fight Club–The conflictual nature of belonging to Jesus. Authentic Stewardship, Part 3.

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14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans 12:14-21

The fight.
We are going to talk about it.

To follow Jesus is to land firmly and fully in a conflict. And yes, it is between good and evil. The battlefield that matters most is in your heart, mind and soul. For from inside of you, you will be called on to love with “the love genuine.” The Gospel is doing its work and you are a participant in your sanctification. (See Romans 12:1-3)

Your mettle will be tested by those who contend against the firmness of your stand with Jesus. They may not even know what they are doing! Paul would write to the Ephesian church that this battle is not against flesh and blood, but against  “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) People are really not THE enemy. Yet their compliance with evil and our own compliance with evil must be confronted.

Every command of love-in-motion confronts. 

Paul begins this battle-aware list of commands by echoing the words of Jesus. Every command confronts. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” Please go back and read the passage again with this question in mind “How are we going to engage with people in the highs and lows of life?”

Every command urgently requires us to seek the Spirit of God for the deconstructing and constructing work of the Gospel in our lives. Truly its only our fears and the fears of others that disable and negate the creative impulse to overcome evil by doing good.

Do good. Mobilize the stuff of earth.

Why, you may ask is this part of a discussion on authentic stewardship? Because doing good goes beyond words. Doing good requires the requisition of resources and their thoughtful and generous application to business, to governance, to art and culture, to the judicial system, and to community and city infrastructures. Those intent on doing this for the common good and not just for personal gain will always find the conflict. Christians are Jesus’ stewards. We move forward with personal responsibility towards Him for what has been entrusted to us. We are to steward with the posture of genuine love, not acting, but loving with integrity to Jesus. When we miss the mark, we miss it royally!

Spontaneous Worship!
Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth! He comes to us from the communion of God, and the humble ground of the stable, and the refuge of Egypt, and the shores of Galilee, and the halls of Jerusalem’s justice, and the Cross of the cursed, and the tomb of the dead, in order to reign as Lord of all. Having  ascended to Heaven He has given us His Spirit to establish His temple in our very body and in His Church. Glory to God! Let our love be genuine.

Love can’t be hurried. Authentic Stewardship, Part 2.

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9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Romans 12:9-13

We have a giant plastic box at home. And depending on the occasion we all have reached into it. Its the costume box. We have hats: firemen hats, cowboy hats, pirate hats, clown hats, robin hood hats. We have capes: merry men, zorro, and all kinds of super heroes. We have wings and wands and brooms. We have… Ok you get the picture!

No actors allowed.
At a moment’s notice we can be someone else! When we put on these hats and capes we get to pretend to be someone else with different powers and personas. But this is not how we are to live as followers of Jesus.The Apostle Paul is clear — those who have received the mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ are done with pretending. He writes, “Let love be genuine.”
The phrase here is more like a heading: The Love Sincere. The love without hypocrisy. No play-acting or pretending here! This is how we are to steward the grace of God given us and residing in our bodies and our fellowship.

With that introduction Paul is off to the races. He races through a list of commands illustrating real love in a world of great challenge. In the first five verses of this list of love we see that maturing, genuine love empowered by Jesus gives His people a subtle and pervasive strength. What real love can do, the people of Jesus begin to do.

What love can do; and how Jesus’ disciples are being changed.
Love can differentiate. So, they know the difference between what is evil and what is good. (v. 9)

Love has brotherly affection. So, they maintain boundaries in relationships. (v. 10)

Love honours. So, they can show honour to others without fear of loosing themselves. (v. 10)

Love takes personal responsibility; So, they perennially engage in the disciplines generating enthusiasm for Jesus. (v. 11-12)

Love sees what is needed; So, they enter into the lives of others and allow others into their own. (v. 13)


Make it personal.
In these five verses we are confronted with a dynamic vision of the soul who loves. Jesus shows me the God who loves, and shows me that I am loved. Such knowledge changes everything in my relationships with people and the stuff of earth. Authentic stewardship is love in motion. I know a transformation is required! But it cannot be hurried. There is no mask to put on that will make me love like Jesus. There is only a work to be done from the inside out.

It’s yours to share. Authentic Stewardship, Part 1.

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Four Relationships - Gospel Shaped View

1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.  Psalm 24:1-6

The Stuff of Earth and Conflict
The piercing cries of pain and dismay where the first sign that something was wrong. Then the kids came spilling around the corner into the kitchen. “He won’t share.” “She is grabbing.” “I want a turn.” “It’s mine.”

“It’s yours to share.”

How do you teach children to share or to respect the boundaries of another person without simultaneously crushing their spirit and sense of personal responsibility? My wife and I landed on these words. “It’s yours to share.” This simple phrase opened up the conversation with our children when they ran into the conflict of sharing and wanting. They were empowered to decide with a Gospel-shaped axiom and without our dictatorial intervention. Sometimes it worked!

Authentic stewardship must not ultimately be concerned with rights. The concern for the follower of Jesus is a matter of “to whom does it all belong?”

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness therein.”  Psalm 24:1

It all belongs to God.
Christian stewardship casts the stuff of earth into the realm of responsibility: It all belongs to God; We are stewards. The Cross brings us forward into a redemptive work and enjoyment: The Father above has given all good things; we can enjoy and care for others in the distribution of these gifts. But, when it comes to the stuff of earth our sense of security and status have become snared in the thorns and thistles of identity; It too a Saviour on the Cross with a crown of thorns to bring freedom to our hearts.

A blessing for the generation that seeks the God of Jacob.
Jacob (Genesis 25 -33) was blessed with the stuff of earth, rights, and responsibilities. But his maturity lagged behind his accumulation of power. I believe its important that we smile with knowing amazement at the grace of God when the Scripture references the “God of Jacob.” (Psalm 24:6) Don’t just glide past those words.

Jacob the trickster finally become a mature person moving beyond the anxiety that controlled him and his relationships. He eventually became less motivated by an obsession to secure his life and stuff through manuevering and manipulations. It took a vision of heaven. It took being tricked by a trickster as conniving as him. It took a looming crisis of confrontation with his brother. It took a night of wrestling with God! It took time and struggle! But God, God was graceful toward him.

Discipleship and the Stuff of Earth
Authentic Stewardship has to answer the question of WHO? All this is from God. God has ultimate right and authority for it all. The stuff of earth—air, water, land, resources, wealth, wisdom, knowledge and the technology developed from it—is not mine first. It’s God’s. A Gospel-shaped vision of you and me and the stuff of earth will embrace the discipleship journey of learning to be a faithful steward who honours God and people in the way we handle what has been entrusted to us.

Summary thought: your church’s discipleship culture must engage leaders, parents, and employers in a thoughtful obedience to Jesus that includes both the stewardship of people as image-bearers of the Creator and the stuff of earth as that which is ultimately His.  For a time He has seen fit to gift you: It’s yours… to share.

Refreshing, mind-blowing, heart-lifting service always does this! Authentic Ministry, Part 3

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12When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servantis not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. John 13:12-17

There’s nothing like the frustration and exasperation that fills the soul when you know you are living in a customer service nightmare. I hate it when I know I have become just one more beast in the line-up. The company refuses to meet me.

But you and I can do the same thing to people we actually love. Everyday we are tasked with the regular and mundane events of serving people in our homes, schools, and workplaces. How can that moment become something refreshing? How can those regular moments be turned into something Jesus would call a blessing?

Meet the person. Don’t just fill the need. Meet the person. We are in danger of creating our own dignity stripping hell when we just meet the need. Don’t meet needs. Meet the person.

Foot washing is personal. Feet are sensitive. Jesus has given us an example in which we can take the usual tasks of our day and humbly look up to a person and meet them as a precious treasure. In those moments we are positioning them as fantastic people worthy of Jesus’ very life and our interest.

No matter what you do next, refreshing, mind-blowing, heart-lifting service always begins by meeting the person.