Vine and Branches - III

I have been trying to conceive of a picture where my relationship with God is based on relationship, rather than a to-do list. Religion is a to-do list: read your bible, go through your prayer points, attend church, give your tithe, and, maybe, share the gospel. (I hope anyone reading this realizes that all those things listed above are good things. Indeed, there are things we should do. As I have written previously, it is probably motivation and other heart qualities that are affected most, not the actions.)

So, if a relationship is not a to-do list, then what is it?

As I poked at, last post, one element is a mutual concern for each others' heart. If we are concerned for each others' heart, we seek to:

• Understand.
• Discover ways to build the heart. 
• Avoid things that damage the heart. 
• Avoid things that block the connection between the two hearts.

Maybe, the most definition of “mutual concern for each others' heart” is “love.”

Vine and Branches - II

NOTE: I changed the title because I am not really talking about the heart anymore (although the heart is involed), I am trying to describe what living with God by relationship, as opposed to religion, is like.

The mantra that essentially all Christians proclaim is that our allegiance to Jesus is not a religion, it is a relationship. Yet, many live like it is religion.

When many people approach their lifestyle, it is often with the thought of what's right or what's wrong. If I do what's right, I glorify God, declare my stance to the world, and bear fruit. I will grow and mature. If I do wrong, it dishonors God and sends the wrong message to the world. Sin contaminates the individual's soul. Obedience brings health.

I notice there are times that when I fail, I don't want my wife to know about it. I want to hide what I have done wrong from her. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, there will be a mess to clean up. Cleaning up the mess leads to a large disruption in our relationship. And I value the relationship enough that I don't want any sort of disruption.

Two, often my failure will cause pain and disappointment. In part, I don't want her to be disappointed. In part, the pain and disappointment leads to a large disruption in our relationship. And I value the relationship enough that I don't want any sort of disruption.

How often do we consider our choices from that perspective? Will this choice add\detract from my relationship with the Father? Do I ever consider the pain and disappointment my Father feels when I fail? Especially when I choose to fail?

Sin always steals something. And when we choose wrongly, one thing it always steals is our connection to the Father. At the time of the choice, we evidently value the sin more than the connection.

Maybe our moment by moment connection is so flimsy, that we are not aware of any difference it makes in our lives?

Maybe our "check off the to-do list" style is more a religion -- instead of a relationship -- that we care to admit?

NOTE: Just to make sure there is no confusion ... Part of walking in relationship is concern (almost, protecting) the other person's heart. Another part is open-hearted communication. My example was about the first. It is not a very good example of the second. Indeed, it could be looked at as not being honest. Which in a way it is not. Still, is it good to tell everyone every bad thing you ever did? Selective communication may be kinder in the long run. Not lying, just choosing not to talk.

But the primary focus is guarding the heart of the one you are in relationship with.

Vine and Branches

There is a metaphor Jesus used to describe what the relationship that God’s family should have with him. He is like a vine; we are like branches.

The branches are connected to the vine. It is through the root, to the vine and into the branches that nutrients flow. It is the connection that gives life and health to the branches. It is the connection that produces fruit.

I have been using the term “heart-focus” to attempt to describe a person’s response to Jesus that activates this connection. And I have been trying to grasp what this means. Is it the same as mental focus? It is easy to see we are connected when we worship, pray or meditate. But what about watching TV, or driving to work? Do we live in a state of connect\disconnect? I don’t think so. Or at least, I don’t think that’s what God intended.

Mike Bickle has part of the answer, at least, in what he calls “behold and become”.

“Behold” refers to what a person “sees” about God – what he knows, understands and believes. “Becomes” refers to hold a person’s life develops. And beholding develops into becoming.

If we see God is primarily concerned about right living, about following the rules and doing the right thing, we are going to be involved in constantly checking our behavior, making sure we are doing the right thing, the “Christian” thing. We are going to be obsessed with failure … because if God is focused on us doing right, how will he feel when we do wrong?

And we have slipped, unnoticed, back into living by the law. The law does define right and wrong. It does define God’s right and wrong. But Scripture also says nobody can keep the law. God gave the law to push us to find a savior. To push us to grace.

(If we can’t keep the law before we gave allegiance to Jesus, why do we think we can keep the law after giving allegiance to Jesus.?)

If we see God is primarily concerned about having a relationship …

And I get stuck right here. I find that I am not sure what should go on in my heart and head. I have been focused on how I should live, what I should do to please God, and not what life looks like living in relationship with God.

In many ways, what activities a person is involved in probably do not change. Motivations and attitudes probably do change. And I could really believe that fruit would change.

Forgiveness and the Heart

Jesus told a story about a king who ordered a general audit of all his finances. They found that one of the servants had stolen\wasted billions. They were about to haul him off, when he threw himself on his face, and begged for mercy. And the king forgave him.

(Imagine someone stealing $5000 from you. Imagine it was someone you trusted. Now, because he asks you, you forgive him. You give up your rights to that $5000!)

Now the servant went off and found another servant, who owed him a much, much smaller sum. And when the second servant begged for forgiveness, the first servant refused and had the second servant thrown into prison.

The king heard about this, and he summoned the first servant. Since, the king forgave the first servant, he should have forgiven his fellow-servant. And the king imprisoned the servant and gave him over to torture.

Jesus finishes with a warning. Unless we forgive from our hearts, we will receive similar torment.

Most people who read this story interpret Jesus' warning as a statement about a person's eternal destiny. I have recently read a story, where there writer interprets Jesus' story differently.

(NOTE: I am writing here primarily to think through his rationale about this passage.)

The writer shares his story. He tells about his father, who was harsh, condemning and belittling. There was no physical abuse, but he grew with no sense of love, closeness or approval from his father. Eventually, as we all would probably, he closed his heart to his father.

He describes the effects of a closed heart, which we won't go into, but weren't good.

Then, he goes through a process of discovery about his father. He learned about his upbringing, the low opinion his family had, and his experience during WWII. He realized his father had no love to give him, because his father had never been loved!

It was recognizing his father's barrenness of life, to see with his father's eyes, that enabled him to forgive his father from the heart. And forgiveness released the hold his pain had on his heart.

When we live in unforgiveness, we have our hearts focused on the ones who offend us. We are, in reality, connected to the ones who sinned against us, and those sins. We were designed to be connected to our heavenly Father. If our heart is focused on our Father, we are filled with grace, love and healing. Unforgiveness blocks and disrupts the flow. So, we are cut off from our source of love, joy and peace.

The torment we will experience is not the torment of hell, but the torment of separation from the Father. We will live a barren existence, just like that man's father. We know the answer. We need to work our way through to the answer: see their hearts, forgive, renew a heart focus and connection to the Father, and receive his love.

The Heart - V

God loves people. As people turn to God, they focus their hearts toward him. God focuses his heart back to people, and he fills their hearts with love, grace and healing.

As our hearts are changed, our lives are changed. We have new values, new priorities, new goals, and new patterns. There is an overflow into the lives of people around.

But there are barriers. Our flesh is naturally antagonistic because of the original man and woman's choice to sin. (A deliberate move of heart focus.) The enemy knows of this linkage between heart focus and grace. His desire to bring misery to everyone will motivate him to disrupt our heart focus any way he can. Barriers can also be built from within.

Our heart is built by all the ideas we ever had, all the words we ever heard or spoke, and all the experiences we have ever gone through. Experiences can cause us to make promises to ourselves. For example, many people grow up with cruel, abusive fathers. Because of wrong treatment by their fathers, they conclude that "father-ness" is bad. They conclude that if a person connects to "father-ness" in anyway, bad things will happen. So, they make a promise to themselves to have nothing to do with "father-ness" in any form ... including their infitiely loving, heavenly Father. This promise becomes a barrier to their heart focus. Which, in turn, blocks the flow of love and grace to them. Which stops the healing of their hearts, and the fruit that results.

There are, of course, numerous barriers. And, because of God's goals and purposes for our lives, he spends significant time and energy trying to get us to see and address these barriers. And other forces work to cover our eyes, and to strengthen these barriers.

The Heart - IV

Someone referred me to a passage of Scripture recently, that speaks to the heart and heart focus. The passage says those who live by the flesh focus their hearts on the things of the flesh, and those who live by the Spirit focus their hearts on the things of the Spirit. The flesh brings death, and the Spirit brings life.

Normally, when I had considered this passage in the past, I thought that someone focused his heart on the flesh in order to gratify it. But what about focusing our hearts on the flesh so we can tame it?

That is what a lot of us do. Focus our hearts on avoiding sin, resisting temptation, presenting a positive image of God, and living victoriously. But are we still focusing our hearts on the flesh? Is this what “walking in our own strength” really means?

If our hearts are focused on “doing stuff”, then we are not abiding. Our hearts are not focused on Jesus, the Father and the Spirit. We are not drawing on his grace, we are drawing on our strength. And our strength is based on the flesh, a person’s nature that is not controlled by Christ, or, or one person defines it, “the techniques we use to try and meet our needs, independent of Jesus Christ.”

Focusing our hearts on “doing stuff” – whether it is being victorious, living in abundance, or being fruitful – we will never succeed in the long run. We may succeed in the short term, but we will eventually fail. Then, we may find ourselves in the yo-yo existence of: fail, repent, resolve to try harder, succeed for a while, and fail again.

We are never going to be 100% perfect in this life. But Jesus died, and sent his Spirit into our hearts to create us new – to re-program our spiritual DNA – so we live new. The re-programming is already done. The goal now is to practice what God has put into existence.

The Heart - III

There are two principles at work in the world. One is the principle of the law. Scripture says God gave the law, but it wasn't intended that we should live by it. We cannot live by the law. We are not able to keep it.

God created the world perfect. But sin entered and contaminated the world; it broke our hearts. When we were born, our hearts existed in a condition that was against God. Our hearts were filled by sinful desires. And the law actually encouraged those desire. So, we sinned.

If we live with the focus to obey God's law, we will fail. This is why God insituted the second principle.

The second is the principle of the Spirit. We give allegiance to Jesus, and God sends his Spirit into our hearts. The Spirit begins to create our hearts anew. The Spirit makes our motivations and want-to's brand new.

Living by want-to has a greater and different power than living by have-to. Which is why God works in our hearts, changing our want-to's.

The Heart - II

We always act from the abundance of our hearts. If we respond to any situation with anger, it is what fills our hearts. If we respond with lust, it is what fills our hearts.

We can through all sorts of behavior modification, and it won't do any good, because in times of stress, we will revert to the overflow of our hearts.

I don't think it affects our eternal standing with God. Our standing is based on God's promise. We give him our allegiance, and he gives us sonship and citizenship. When he admits us into his family, he chooses to renovate our heart and rebuild his image in us. But the prime focus is not our attitudes and behavior. It is our hearts.

Restored Father\Son Relationship

God seeks to re-connect to us as his child. The primary reason for that is because God loves us. His original design for the world was for there to be one giant family for himself. Sin broke people, and their ability to be that family. Now, God seeks to restore that relationship. He seeks to be the Father to us the he intended to be. 

When God created the world, he intended, he designed people to be like Jesus. (Part of me says we would not have produced the works of power like he did. If the world was like God designed, there would be no reason for healings.) Each person would have Jesus' character. 

(One way to think about this, heaven is the fulfillment of God's original design. Heaven is what the world would have been like, if there had been no sin.) 

So, God is now in the process of redemption and restoration. He seeks to imprint us again with the character of Jesus. 

When we think about this process of transformation, there are a lot of tools that come to mind: his Word, his Spirit, other people, his discipline and grace. There are some tools we don't think about. When we choose to give our allegiance to Jesus, he gives us his Spirit, and his Spirit gives us a special ability. Whenever we practice this ability, there is a transforming effect, because the Spirit flows through us. Just like flowing water has a cleansing effect, the flowing Spirit has a cleansing effect. 

One tool of transformation that gets very little thought is the restoration of the father-son relationship. Like Jesus' story of the son who turns his back on his family, but realizes he made a mistake, and returns to his family. When he gets home, his father welcomes him. The son was restored back to who he was, and who he was intended to be. He ws put back where he was originally designed to be. 

The father-son relationship is a tool of transformation, because it speaks to and molds the heart. It is our hearts that have first importance. It is the core that produces all thoughts, all words, and all deeds. It is there that God does his deepest works. It is there he speaks the greats truths. It is there he is trying to communicate his love and acceptance. 

Many people work long and hard to earn God's love and acceptance. They try to earn his love before they are saved. Scripture says loud and clear, people cannot earn the grace that leads to salvation. Many finally hear that message. But then they try to glorify his name, and impact the world for him. And, then, they fail. 

I think people spend way too much time worrying about their sin. Does God want people to sin? Goodness no. Does God want obedience? Oh, yes. Does God want righteousness to reign in people's hearts? Oh, double-yes. 

Does God want people to flagellate themselves for days when they fail? Does God want re-dedication after re-dedication? 

It was God's grace that saved us when we were helpless, enemies of God. What makes us think that we don't need God's grace to totally disassemble and reassemble our spiritual DNA? Can any of us reach into our hearts and change our motivations and our want-to's?

Only God is stronger than our hearts. He can reach into our hearts. He can alter our DNA. 

I am beginning to think that God's message to us, intended to bring about our transformation is not "Your life needs to glorify me. You need to live in a way that portrays me in a positive manner. You need to get you act together." I think the message might be "You are my child. I love you. I accept you. And I want what's best for you."

Salt - IV

In the last post, we talked about a certain group of people, regarding their "saltiness."

If "salt" is a metaphor of what attracts people to Jesus, part of that "salt" is Jesus' love. And one of the traits of love is not focusing on faults and failures.

There is an aspect of confronting failure, but the motivation the confronter should have is healing. Removing a blockage between the Father and his children. Removing an impedance towards redemption and restoration. Toward living out God's original design.

I can look at these people and find many practices that many people outside of God's family find offensive. But I can't see the heart\motivation of these people. Because of the definitions of success, efficiency and effectiveness that many people have, some of these may honestly and genuinely believe that their goals and tactics are God's best.

There are some practices that I am offended by. There are some just consider un-wise and ineffective. But, unlike the Father, I don't know hearts. And I am to walk in love like Jesus. That's my salt.

There is a strong tension between being loving and being discerning, between acting with grace and acting with wisdom. And God wants us to act with all of these. And it would be a lot easier if the world weren't broke.

Salt - III

I tend to look at salt as a metaphor for the attractive qualities of Jesus and his family. The things that make people want to be with Jesus. The things that make people to chose Jesus as their first allegiance and follow him.

Several of us got together for a birthday celebration this past week. As always, conversations spanned a large spectrum of subjects: sports, politics, family, etc.

A few of us got talking about different "things" involving people who chose to follow Jesus, but have gone onto build big "things" for Jesus. Big churches. Big organizations. Big budgets. Big programs.

Often, when people describe what is bad about Christianity, people like this are mentioned. They are:

• Judgmental.
• Intolerant.
• Only interested in money.
• Only interested in themselves. 

If it is "salt" that makes us want to be with Jesus, many would consider that these people seem to have lost theirs. They do seem to like large crowds. But the crowds are not like Jesus' crowds. The rejects of society are not sitting in the front row. Moreover, Jesus did not seem to need crowds.

So, have these lost their "salt", because they chose to not follow Jesus? Or have they lost their "salt", because of contaminants? Maybe ideas about success\failure, what is valuable, what is important that are not Jesus' ideas about these things have gotten planted (to do a quick switch in metaphors) and the fruit is an urgent need to maintain their status, and not an urgent need to be truly "salt."

Salt - II

So, what is "saltiness" or "flavor"? The word for "loses its flavor" in the original language means "to become foolish." If you are like me, your first reation to that is "huh?" Is Jesus saying tht losing flavor is becoming foolish, or going through a process of making wrong decisions? Or, in other words, being salty is growing in wisdom, or going through a process of making wise decisions?

Maybe.

Growing in wisdom is learning how to make right decisions. One might say that decisions that are profitable, minimize failure, and enhance relationships are wise.

Decisions are the buildings blocks of charactor. Old decisions provide the basis for new decisions. They are drawn from our values and priorities. Successful decisions confirm those values and priorities. Thus, making it more likely that we will make similar decisions in similar circumstances in the future. Unsuccessful decisions send us back to the drwing board.

Scripture throws one huge wrinkle into the mix. It takes into consideration a fundamental decision that becomes the bedrock for all other decisions. What do you do with God?

Scripture says that the most important, most fundamental decision is to choose allegiance with the Creator of All. When that decision is made, a group of values and priorities are introduced into the person's life, and in a progressive fashion, introduced into his contexts and environments.

And, as the person lives in agreement and congruence with these values and priorities, he impacts the enivronment and the people in the environment.

Saltiness is the effect of living a life that is based on its relationship with God, living in agreement with God's original design for people, and its redemptive, restorative impact. Such a life loses its "saltiness" when the person does not take this first relationship into account, or makes decisions without the influences of this relationship.

Salt

There is a passage of Scripture where Jesus compares his disciples to salt. Salt was very valuable in the middle east in Jesus' day. It was used both as a condiment ans as a preservative. But Jesus says specifically in the pasage that if salt loses its taste\flavor, it is worthless. It only makes sense to toss it out.

As I understand chemistry, this is virtually impossible. Salt (NaCl) is a very stable compound. It cannot really lose its saltiness. But Jesus definitely said it would lose its taste.

Salt was "harvested" from a few sources. It was dug out of mines. It was processed from water containing salt. In both cases, it was possible to gather contaminents\impurites with the salt. So, it was possible to get something that looked like salt, but would not taste like salt. Also, because salt (NaCl) is very water soluable, and the impurities were less water soluable,  we could lose the salt if it was exposed to water.

People could go through their lives and have the "saltiness" washed out of their lives, or the "non-saltiness" added to their lives to the point where it overwhelms the "saltiness."

The Heart

The Bible says that people live from their hearts. What fills a person's heart automatically flows out into his life.

Jesus called the results that flowed out of a person's heart "fruit." Water and nutrients flow into an apple tree, and apples grow as a natural result of the "input." If the input is pure and good, then the apples are firm, sweet and healthy. If the "input" is bad, then the apples are rotten.

People are the same way. Pour into their hearts the right words and the right ideas, then goodness flows from them. Pour into their hearts bad words and bad ideas, then bad things flow from their lives.

People are a little different than apple trees. If a toxin is poured into the ground water, trees will absorb the toxin along with the water. People can examine words and ideas. People can reflect on rightness and wrongness. People can construct a conceptual framework and decide how ideas fit or don't fit into the framework.

The most important part of this framework is the nature of God. God created the world to be distinct from him, but also to be a reflection of his character. What we understand of God impacts our values, our view of truth, our view of good and evil, and what we consider our purpose in the world.

The second most important part of this framework is the nature of men, particularly yourself. This understanding defines human worth, human potential, success and failure. (And it defines our personal worth, potential, success and failure.)

Because Jesus says love is the first command, I believe this is the most important thing to reflect on, to understand, and to practice. If God, through Jesus, says love is the most important, than it is the most important for God too. It is what he practices first. He already understands it.

It was God's love that motivated him to send Jesus. It was Jesus' love that motivated him to go to the cross. It was God's love shown in forgiveness, justification and redemption that motivated us to give Jesus our allegiance. And now that we have given him our allegiance, we have to claw, fight and scratch our way through life to maintain our relationship and to continue in God's love??

We were God's enemies and helpless to save ourselves. Now, that we are saved, we are totally able to reach down into our spiritual DNA and manipulate the "molecules" so that we become perfect??

That's what many people believe and, therefore, that's how they live. They began by grace; they finish by human discipline and diligence.

If you are a true follower of Jesus, you have many resources to enable and empower you to live like a true follower of Jesus. There is: God's word, God's Spirit, God's promises and grace. And there is a process of redemption and restoration going on. The Spirit does reach into our spiritual DNA and correct how the "molecules" are connected, and how they reproduce. But this process won't be complete when we reach the end of this life. We will continue to fail. We will fail in the same areas again and again. Sometimes, we will even deliberately choose sin.

Does God get grumpy, lose patience and give up on us? If we have made a genuine choice to give him our allegiance, does he ever decide we are not worth it, and give us back to Satan?

If he is the God of infinite love, then he is the God of infinite patience and infinite perseverance. And, as he is totally present with everyone, he can give his total attention to each person.

It is people who give up. There are many reason why. Some reasons people give are:

• They feel helpless to meet God's expectations. 
• They feel God has given up on them.
• They feel their circumstances:
• are too tough.
• show God's lack of concern.
• interfere with their relationship.

In my view, in all of these reasons, there is a basic flaw in how they understand God, understand people (including themselves) and understand how God designed the world, but how it currently is, due to sin.

Love and Unity

There was a brief story I read, where a the writer describes a conservation with a woman. The woman and her family had decided to leave the church they were attending, because they did not feel they agreed with the vision the church had.

The writer recognized that shared vision was important. But he used to story to illustrate something he thought was more important: love and unity.

First, we do need to recognize that in God's kingdom, love is #1. To love God is the first command. First in importance. First in priority. First in practice. Loving people is the second command. Moreover, Jesus gives the two an equivalency. Jesus said, if we serve someone, motivated by love, then we serve him, motivated by love.

Then, love is a primary way that members of his family demonstrate that they follow him. And unity is a primary way that members of his family demonstrate love.

I don't think people realize how serious Jesus took unity. Scripture records one of Jesus' prayers. In it, he prays that, not only will his family be united, but that they will be united with the same intensity, the love, the same completeness as the Father, the Son and the Spirit. And if they are united, it demonstrates the truth, that God sent Jesus into the world.

What if there is no unity? Does it demonstrate that God did not send Jesus? I know of one person, who says God gives the unsaved permission, based on this portion of Scripture, to say that the Father did not send the Son.

Unity takes on a much, much bigger meaning, when seen in this context.

God's Heart - IIb

Paul begins by explaining God’s plan for the restoration of his kingdom. It will be a kingdom built out of all peoples, created into one new people, founded on his values nad priorities. Each person will choose his allegiance to the Father as king. Each person’s heart will be transformed, which will flow into the words and deeds, which will flow into a transformation of society and culture.

As I said before, he explains further how when he considers this plan, he is motivated to pray. (And we discussed the prayer somewhat.) Then, because of the size, scope and nature of this plan, he starts explaining what sort of lives – every day words and deeds; habits and practices – people need to have to bring this kingdom to actuality.

So, what does he say?

• Produce a powerful campaign to communicate the gospel across the world? Mail, radio, TV, internet, door-to-door? 
• Build large institutions to impact society in every segment? Media, education, government, and entertainment? Hospitals, universities, and churches? Mobilize lots of people? Economies of scale? 
• Develop goals and objectives for five, ten and twenty years? Marketing? Research? Packaging?

These seem like things that the world would do, and does do, to move society and culture to fit the mold it has. What did Paul say?

Paul said … focus on relationships. Focus on maintaining love and peace with each other. Be Jesus to one another. Love one another. And he goes on to try and illustrate what that might look like for men, women, children, married, parents, workers and management.

There is a revolution coming, but it coming on the basis of relationship – relationship with God and relationship with people.

God's Heart - IIa

We recently considered a couple of Paul’s prayers. I would like to return to one of these prayers. Paul said, that when he considered what he knew of God’s plans and purposes, it moved him to pray. It was so big, and so dependent on people, and so different that what people expected.

So, he prayed for people’s hearts to be strengthened. People will need to make decisions that involve things that are foreign to them, that take them out of their comfort zone. We now that; we talk about that; do that is another thing altogether.

He prayed that Christ makes his home in our hearts. It is in our hearts that Jesus changes our spiritual DNA. He changes our motivations, our values, and our priorities. It is important in this process that Jesus live there, not just come for a visit each week.

He prayed that we establish root in God’s love. There are many people who try to follow God from some sort of duty, some sort of “ought to.” Duty/obligation/ought will only take people so far. Look how far Jesus’ love took him.

And he prayed that we will understand the immensity of God’s love. There is no unit of love, but we all have a sense of degrees of love. So, we need to realize how sold out God is for us. Too many of God’s family do not realize the extent that God is willing to go for them, so they are unwilling to step out for him.

And he prays we would experience that love. It is one thing to feel the “warm fuzzies” of God’s love. I am not going to argue against them. I am going to remind us that we are people. And when we are faced with the cold, hard facts of life, the “warm fuzzies” quickly vanish. However, God is real and personal; he has given, is giving and will give hot factual evidence of his love. We have all experienced those facts. Sometimes from God’s hand personally. Sometimes through his body, who are also his family. We need to hang onto these.

One story, we like to tell happened shortly after we were married. Like all newlyweds, we had little money, and I wasn't working. It was a lot like today. Jobs were scarce. And in the midst of these money problems, we were anti-burgled. When you get burgled, someone sneaks into your house, and steals your stuff. When you are anti-burgled, someone sneaks into your house and leaves you stuff. In our case, it was about $200 worth of groceries. That's a lot of groceries nowadays. Back 30 years ago, it was more than a lot of groceries. And we continue to be grateful that God took time to let someone know about our need, and how they could fill it, many years later.

And he prayed for us to become complete. God transforms us, heals us, feeds us and strengthens us, so we are mature. Mature does not mean there is no more room for growth. It does mean we have made progress in thinking, speaking and acting like Jesus. Our motives, values and priorities are more like Jesus. And so, we are in a better position to be an asset, while God completes his plan.

Grace and Obedience

Why does it seem sometimes that we hear God speak to us all the time about all sorts of amazing things, and, at other times, the heavens seem to be as silent as a tomb?

Or, asking a similar question, why does it seem sometimes that obeying, glorifying and loving God is so easy and so joyous (we bear so much fruit that it pops the tires on the truck ... provided you are one of those people who put their fruit on a truck, rather than, for example, a rail car) and, at other times, it seems like the only thing you can do is give into temptation, fail, sin and spend lots of time in self-flagellation? Followed by the speculation of why. Sin? Out of sync? Not following the right formula of spiritual discipline? Followed by the solutions, which usually involve resolutions to pray more, read more, obey more and sin less. In other words, we are going to "try harder."

"Try harder" is not a bad thing. Often, discipline, diligence, perseverance and patience are what is needed for success. (Much better than simply quitting.) But is it always the case? Sometmes, we need to work smarter, not harder.

Often, people become motivated to seek a right relationship with God. They say, "I need to stop doing bad things. I need to start doing good things. Then, God will be pleased with me, and I will have peace with him." If you are a follower of Jesus, you call that foolish. We already know that no one can do enough to ransom his soul. Jesus died to provide forgiveness, justification, redemption, and a new life of abundance. To receive those things, we need to trust God and accept his gift. But to live the new life, we need to try harder.

We are undergoing a process of transformation. The process begins in our hearts. God works to change our motivations, values and perspectives. Some of us can barely change our eating habits. How do we even begin to get at our motivations?

We have been talking recently about focusing our hearts on God, God focusing his heart on us, and starting a flow of grace into our hearts, which transforms our spiritual DNA. We are saved by grace. Maybe we grow by grace.

This may make it sound like I think obedience is not important. I do think the heart is first. One, because we can sin or obey God in our hearts without doing or saying anything. Two, it is our words and actions that reveal what is in our hearts. Three, they are our entry point into the world. They are the way we bring the God, who is in our hearts, to the world to demonstrate his love and character.

New Life

Often people see themselves as bad. And they are bad. They did follow Satan. They were God's enemies.

But God sent Jesus.

God's family celebrate Jesus' coming. They celebrate Jesus' death and the right standing with God that it brought us. It is right for us to celebrate this. It is right to celebrate God's mercy. It is right to celebrate God's love. It is right to celebrate God's justice being satisfied at the cross.

But Jesus did more than just die. He rose.

Scripture says that when Jesus died, we died with him. We were buried with him. And we rose with him.

Obviously, we don't have nail holes in our hands. We weren't wrapped in burial clothes. We weren't laid in a tomb. And on the third day, we didn't help roll away the stone. But there are some places in Scripture where the writer seems to be saying that we were. Metaphorical? Metaphysical?

Is the writer trying to point out that there is a reality beyond a judicial pronouncement?

It is one thing to be arrested, go to trial, be pronounced guilty ... but your sentence has already been served, and not by you. It is another to be merged with another person, and to receive all the good he receives.

This judicial pronouncement that our punishment has been, not forgotten, no excused, but satisfied explains why we are free, citizens of God's kingdom, and members of God's family. But it does not explain changes in attitudes, values, goals, practices and pursuits. It doesn't explain changes in motivation.

It is almost like there has been a DNA transplant. Now, as the cell with the new DNA begins to multiply, a new person is being creted, step by step, cell by cell.

The Body of Christ - IVa

I want to take another look at exercise. If exercise is necessary to the health of a body, is the current day church getting enough?

I previously defined exercise as practicing the spiritual disciplines and practicing the special function God gives to each of his children individually. We could also include basic obedience to God's commands and involvement in God's mission.

The spiritual disciplines can be regarded as exercise that involves God and a single person. Although some practices can be done as a group, most are considered a private, solitary activity. Practicing the special function or missional activity must necessarily involve other people. Both could involve partners or "objects" of service. And Scripture indicates that his children should be involved in all avenues of exercise. 

Since, the focus of most current day churches is participation in the weekly meeting, and the meetings are structured for a few to get lots of exercise and most to get little, one could conclude that the current day church is not getting enough exercise and its spiritual muscles are flabby. (Worship is a part of spiritual discipline. Churches do, and need to, practice it. And I do not want to seem to be denigrating it in any way. But if it is the only exercise one gets, it is like only doing dead-lifts. A person is not doing any work to build up the arms or the core, not to mention cardio.)

In current day churches, the primary focus of the weekly meeting is a lecture on a Biblical topic. It was not until the 8th century that such lectures became a regular part of the meeting. During the historical era when scholars believe the gospel of Jesus had greatest effect, God's family did not follow this practice. Now, some would be offended if a church did not follow this practice. In many places, the success\failure of a church is judged by the success\failure of this practice. One of the special abilities God gives is teaching. So, I doubt a spiritual lecture per se is wrong. But if a spiritual lecture is the only teaching being done, is there enough exercise? All teaching is not the same. There are different subjects. There are different contexts. Some believe there is a different grace given to coincide with each subject and context. (Special grace given to teach two-year olds?) So, I am still asking if current day churches provide sufficient exercise. And we are considering just one special ability God gives. There are others. Nor have we considered missional activity.

Is it one of the functions of church leadership to discern the best fit for a particular person and ability? Or is the area too complex and the nuances too subtle for anyone except God to understand? So, each child needs to be ready and alert for God's direction? Or to initiate seeking God's direction? The body of Christ, the family of God, is a living, breathing, growing thing. It consists of many parts, each with its own function. There is no part that does not have a function. There is no part that just sits. Scripture says the Holy Spirit places each part. The Holy Spirit places each part into its individual context. So, it is strategic, and necessary, within its web or relationships and within its context of life.