The Storm Is Coming

Luke 13:2-3(ESV)
² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Coming to this passage in my daily study at the time of the tragedy of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, is indicative and suggestive.  The debate has resurfaced in America, “How can a just God permit such undeserved disasters?”  These Galileans who were killed in the Temple and the people of Jerusalem who died suddenly, painfully, and dramatically raised the same implied accusation – “God's not fair.  They didn’t deserve to die like this!”

Jesus’ answer was very direct, “Unless you repent, you will all like likewise perish.”  Within the lifetime of many of those people listening to Jesus, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.  I do not predict a similar national disaster, but we should echo Christ’s warning.  In our day, the church and its leaders should with one voice answer with the same message, “Repent!”  Instead, we have churches and church men stammering with some form of apologetics trying to defend Jesus Christ as a loving God.  Jesus is love personified, but at this time and in this context, the message of the church should not be one of defending the faith in an apology, but the message must be, “Repent or you will all perish in the same way.”  Indeed, we all will die, and the only remedy for sin is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ answer to disaster and tragedy was not a defense of God’s goodness or fairness, but a stern reminder of God’s righteousness, judgment, and sovereignty.   If this message is branded by the media and society as harsh, it is so branded by those who most need to hear and heed it.  In truth, the message of repentance is the only merciful message to give in times of disaster.

Coram deo

Responsibility of the Servant

"The Stairs of St. Barnabas"

At this place/stage of my life, I find myself able to do only two things well - I teach the Bible to a group of old men and I make paintings.  Of the two, only one, the first one, has any eternal value.  So I hear my Lord say, “Blessed is that servant whom the Master finds so doing (feeding His household) when He comes” (Luke 12:43).

In spite of everything else, my priority and my true responsibility is to be providing the Word to the portion of the Household assigned to me.  That portion may be more broad than I imagine, and my work as an artist may be another means by which I discharge my primary duty.

As Barnabas aided the work of others, may my labors make the work of others easier and more pleasant.

Biblical Illiteracy

 

I am doing something that is new for me - I want to point you to another blog.  This statement encapsulates the problems I see in evangelical churches across America, including my own.

Please follow this link to Leading from the Sandbox.

Thanks for reading.

How to Talk to the Father

Luke 11:2
So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

When I study passages like this, I often fall into the habit of looking and the individual phrases and words, parsing them, and analyzing the elemental truths to be found there, but as Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the words and phrases are so interdependent that the individual and specific meaning of each phrase is incomplete without the others.  I’m saying that to the point that to say “Our Father” is incomplete without also saying “Hallowed by Your name.”  Before we can adequately address God as Father, we must understand His holiness.

Though this is commonly called “the Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus meant for this prayer to be the model for my own prayers.  When I pray, this is how I should pray and basically, what I should pray for.

Prayer is addressed “Father” or “Our Father” or more specifically, “My Father.”  Though as Paul states, by the Spirit we may cry out “Abba, Father,” this is not what Christ used as the address in this prayer.  Perhaps there is more on that for later….

The important point for me today is the second phrase which is translated “Hallowed by Your name.”  The word “hallowed” is  ἁγιάζω hagiazō – which is the verb form of ἅγιος hagios – “holy.”  As a verb, the word means “to sanctify or to make holy.”  The verb is an aorist imperative with the subject, “you,” understood.  The prayer is addressed to God the Father with the first request for Him to make His name holy.  If God is to make His name holy, where and how will that prayer be answered?  Some possibilities…

-          In the world? – not likely
-          In the church? – still a bit of a stretch
-          In my own life and heart? – Absolutely!

Now, that brings me to an issue – what does it mean to be holy?  There are a number of words in the New Testament that describe various aspects of holiness, but the word hagiaz, is special.  I have a working definition drawn from Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. 

To be holy is to be:

·         More and higher than just sacred, outwardly associated with God
·         More than just worthy and honorable
·         More than just pure, free from defilement

To be holy is more comprehensive than other terms that describe our character and our relationship and service to God.  Holiness is characteristically godlikeness.

To address God as our Father without a deep, unswerving commitment to personal holiness borders on blasphemy.

Coram deo

The "Greatness" Answer

Luke 9:47-48
⁴⁷ And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, ⁴⁸ and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great.”

The central problem presented in these verses is that the competitive desire for comparative greatness seems to be ingrained in the human psyche and may even be biological.  Competition seems to be an inescapable part of the human experience.  Even in the presence of their Master, the disciples debated among themselves who should be the greatest.  In Jesus’ response, He did not condemn them directly for their desire or debate, but he showed them that true greatness – μέγας; megas – was not in superior assignment, position, or accomplishments, but was having and living in a closer likeness of heart to Jesus Christ, their Lord.

Jesus demonstrated this with a child whom he placed beside Him saying that “whoever shall receive a child in My name will receive Me and thereby receive the My Father.”  Interestingly, the word Jesus used for receive is δέχομαι; dechomai – “to take with the hand, therefore to take into one’s own possession.”  I see this as what we would say in today’s idiom “to open one’s heart” or “to take to one’s heart.”  In other words, to receive a child in Jesus’ name was to take that child who could do nothing for the disciple and in whom no particular credit or esteem might lie – to take this “nothing” to one’s heart because these children are the ones to whom Jesus had opened His heart.

Following that discussion, Luke includes another illustration of greatness, what we might call “group greatness.”  The situation came about because John saw someone casting out demons in Jesus name, but because he was not of the “disciple group,” John took exception to this man’s use of Jesus name and basically told the man to stop.  Herein lies one of the most serious problems in churches today, the attitude of exclusivity of ministry.  What had happened among the disciples was what happens so often in churches.  The disciples believed that they and they alone had the right to work in Jesus name – after all they were the ones who had paid the price to spend so much time with Him and had learned so much, or so they thought.  In the same way our attitudes degenerate to the place where we believe that what our group, church, or denomination does and the way we do it is not only the best way to serve Christ, it is the only way to serve Christ.  Anyone or any community of believers that is not part of our “group” is not only less a servant of Christ, they are actually unworthy of service to Him, and they might even be evil.

Lord, I do not or should not seek for greatness for myself in Thy service; I ask only that I will show Thy heart and open my hands and heart to all whom You would draw to Yourself.  May I also gladly and humbly serve alongside all those who serve Thee.

Coram deo

The Value of Being Lost

Luke 9:24
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

These verses contain a great wealth of truth and richness, but I feel compelled to focus on only one verse today.  Verse 24 states simply that the economy and reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is completely opposite from human expectations and understanding.  In seeking to save one’s life, one loses it, but losing one’s life for Christ sake saves it.

Central to this statement is the word translated “life.”  It is the Greek word – ψυχή psychē – literally breath; thus one’s life, soul.  The word encompasses that which is the essence of one’s person and being.  This word is used predominately in the Gospels and used by Jesus to describe that part of man which exists beyond physical death, thus one’s soul.

In the economy of the Kingdom, only those things done by the King or for Him will last.  All self-effort and personal works done in one’s own strength or for one’s own sake will fail and vanish.  Why is this so hard to see?  I struggle with this daily looking at what I do , what I can do, and what I ought to do as if the doing on my own has some merit or value, when the truth is that I must cast these “doings” into His hands, let Him direct my will, and in obedience to His will, I must spend myself.  That is losing my soul for His sake, and in that loss, He keeps me.

The difficulty lies not in my understanding of the truth of what Jesus said, but in the residual, nagging belief that in my own effort and intelligence, there lies some goodness that makes my ideas of what is best and right equal if not superior to what Jesus has planned for me.  I know this is the oldest lie of the devil, but it still finds a home in my self-will and sinful nature.  Know this, Paul commanded me to daily make myself the sacrifice and burn up that self-will as an offering to Him who alone is True and Good and Worthy.

Coram deo

Where Is Your Faith?

"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galileee" -
Rembrandt van Rijn

Luke 8:25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

This incident of Jesus and His disciples in the storm is simple in its setting and details, but it is filled with importance.  The disciples were with Jesus in a boat crossing the Galilee at His instruction, and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat.  A wind storm came up and the waves began to fill the boat with water.  The disciples realized that the situation was critical, awakened Jesus and said, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus got up, rebuked the waves and the wind, and said, “Where is your faith?”

 I need to keep in mind the people involved in this event.  In the boat were at least four professional fishermen who had lived and made their livelihood on this body of water.  Most of the other disciples were from that region and would be familiar with the lake and its potential dangers.  These were not men to panic in adversity, nor would they be unskilled in handling a boat in rough weather.  When the Scripture states that they said they were in jeopardy, these men knew what they were talking about and had accurately evaluated the situation.  When they awakened Jesus and said, “We are perishing,” they fully expected the boat to sink.  This was not just an emotional response, but they gave a warning based on what seemed like a hopeless situation.

I believe that the sternness of Jesus’ rebuke for the disciples was not based on their expectation of disaster, but it was His response to the fact that when the disciples said, “we are perishing (sinking),” they included Jesus in the “we.”  The disciples might be excused because, this occurred before the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ walking on the water.  However, they had seen Jesus turn water to wine (John 2) and raise the dead (Luke 7), but the disciples had not yet come to accept that Jesus was the Christ, God come in flesh, regardless of all that Jesus had said and done.  Still they should have known that Jesus was the Anointed One and had power to manage every situation for the glory of God.

To the disciples warning of impending disaster, Jesus replied simply, “Where is your faith?”  I have to stop here in the narrative, because I see too many parallels to the weak faith of the church and among Christians today.  These disciples assessed their situation from their own efforts and experience and found it hopeless.  The spiritual problem was that they saw Jesus as only another victim of their hopelessness.  Now let’s pull this kind of situation forward in time to the 21^st Century.  We work hard to handle the situations and difficulties of life, we know our limitations and failures, and we may even accept responsibility for the problems we are in.  We do all we can to fix the situation with self-help studies and church programs and meeting and rebranding and deeper relationships and committees and transparency and whatever the current church fad may be.  The trouble is that we see Jesus as just another victim of our circumstances not the Creator of all things and Master of the “unchangeable.”  Too many of us have not internalize the “theology” we claim nor do we trust the Lord we say we serve.  Our 21^st Century church with all its programs contains no more faith than that old, leaky boat on the 1^st Century Galilee.  We do not have enough faith to see God eternal having a direct hand in our situation, and we do not trust Him for the outcome.

Coram deo