Powerball Dreams, Fireman Ed and Forgiveness Flowing From Love

 

 

A few years ago I was in Asia in a restaurant that served western style food. A wealthy local family entered and were seated. They were very westernized Asians. They all wore all name brand expensive western clothing. They had several children with them and also a poorly dressed young woman, the family slave. She watched them eat and waited on the kid’s every whim. When they had finished eating, she was allowed to finish their unwanted scraps. At 15, she was their slave. She had no rights. She had no right to express her indignation. She had no recourse but to do exactly what she was told, exactly when she was told to do it. In a nation like America where many are focused today on small white Power Ball lottery tickets that will award someone $500,000,000 (pre-tax) and how we would spend that if we won, it is hard to relate to the notion of one human owning another.        Peter reminds those who were slaves in the natural who belonged to Christ that they were to, by voluntary submission to Christ, also submit to their masters, whether good or evil. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.(1 Peter 2:18 NKJV)

  

  There is almost nothing as likely to bring me charging from a submissive state of mind than when I suffer an injustice and the accompanying feeling of humiliation at the hands of another person. I feel the need to voice my opinion and fight back. Slaves do not enjoy that right. Peter lived in a world where often nearly half the people he saw were slaves. I might more easily agree with this verse if he had written — If your master treats you well, respond well. His instruction for Christian response to harsh unjust treatment was to voluntarily carry the burden that is unfairly being heaped upon you. Fireman Ed, the New York Jets most famous super fan, resigned his fanship this week because the indignation of supporting a losing team was more than he could bear. Really? We live in a country with very high class injustice.  
 

   Peter’s words make me consider my own reaction when I suffer harsh unjust treatment. In the very next verse he says — For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
 

    The issue of my reaction to harsh treatment and suffering because of conscience toward God lands fundamentally in my faith. Do I trust God to care for my rights and my honor or do I let my hurt feelings reign and determine that I must fix the problem myself? God will always treat me more than fairly. My salvation testifies to the Grace of God in this regard. Christ’s revenge on me for my sin was expressed not like I would have expressed it, but instead with forgiveness flowing from love. Is it possible for me to follow Him to a place where I can respond to injustice with forgiveness flowing from love? What if I react instead of with revenge or even quiet separation, but with forgiveness flowing from love? What if the greater the harsh injustice, I meet it with greater forgiveness flowing from love?
 

   Jesus often leads me to places where I cannot take another step until I surrender to suffering for His name’s sake and trust Him to lead me through it. When I submit, the issue is settled and I have peace (even if my tormentor is still flailing away). People may call that losing, but it is in fact a mighty spiritual victory. It exalts Christ. I cannot lift the name of Jesus by refusing to suffer injustice like He did. There can be victory in submission to suffering that the world will never understand. I need to revisit these thoughts daily, submit, pick up my cross and follow Him.

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. Can be quoted in whole of in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordwrokswednesday.blogspot.com

Running from the call of God

    Many people refuse to be used by God because they think of themselves as "not ready." But in a sense, we are never ready or worthy. If we were, the sufficiency would be in ourselves, not from God. (Guzik)

And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2Cor 3:4-6 NKJV)

 

   Some days I only have enough faith to believe God has saved me, but an insufficient faith to follow through on even the smallest things He asks of me. On worse days I seem to find my footsteps walking anywhere but in His will. According to Strong's, the most common word in the New Testament translated as faith is pistis, - belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same. And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

 

   When the Holy Spirit calls me to any task I often think of my insufficiency to complete it. I used to try to tamp down that feeling. I tried to think positive, I tried to have a better attitude. Platitudic wisdom will never solve the problem of my human frailty. I will live in a perpetual state of "not quite ready" simply because I am human living in a world broken by sin. As Guzik said, If we ever felt completely ready, the sufficiency would be of ourselves and not God.

   God's will as expressed through His Word never asks me to take instruction from Him and then walk forward without Him, but our sufficiency is from God. So the proper response to a divine call or divine instruction or leading is not "I can't do it, Lord" but rather "I can't do it without You, Lord".

   Do you trust His Word? Then trust this -- who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. Sufficiency that comes from God can't end up insufficient. Christ, who is formed in us, makes us sufficient to accomplish whatever He asks of us. How is this sufficiency transferred to us? ....not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

    The next time Jesus lays a challenging call on you life, forget the notion of self reliance. Rely on Him and relax into submission to His will. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (preaching to myself here). Peace will overtake anxiety and Holy Spirit will empower the mission. Stop ignoring Him. Pray it out. Trust Him to be what you aren't. Step into His calling. Find the peace that comes when your footsteps are aligned with His.

  

Being Comfortable, Comforted, and Comforting

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3 KNJV)
 

 What brings comfort to someone experiencing a time of great distress? A Google search led to these top five suggestions:

 

 1- Make contact.

 

 2- Listen to the story.

 

 3- Be there emotionally.

 

 4- Help make decisions.

 

 5- Rally support.  

 

   All five are sound advice. While these are secular suggestions, they align perfectly with scripture both as to how God has comforted us and how He uses us to bring comfort to others. Let's take a look at these suggestions through the lens of scripture.

 

 1- Make contact. Jesus says, And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever....  (John 14:16) Once we have received the comfort of God as the Holy Spirit makes contact with us and begins witnessing comfort to our spirit we should find ourselves compelled to make contact with others in distress. The peace of Christ seeks distribution through those who have received it. To possess God's peace, we must give it away. 

 

2- Listen to the story.  The psalmist wrote - Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4:1 KNJV) Our God is an attentive God, always listening for the cries of our hearts. One of the great transformations incurred by growing faith is the development of a desire to listen, especially to those suffering through a time of need. The relief we find by the expression of prayer encourages our understanding of the simple comfort that is found in cathartic expression to a willing listener.

 

3- Be there emotionally.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8 KNJV)
Empathy cannot be faked. If you show up, then listen but actually could care less about the problems of others, your hypocrisy will be effortlessly detected. Empathy is loving kindness  expressed without language. The confidence we find in the continuous flow of love we enjoy from the Lord exhorts us to loving others. Empathy expressed in a time of distress is love released by heaven, through our hearts, to another.  

 

4- Help make decisions.  Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. While the Twelve were scattered and broken immediately after the Crucifixion, Joseph stepped in and made decisions about important practical matters of recovery of the Lord's body and its burial. Practical assistance is practical ministry to those in distress.

 

5- Rally support.  We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. (Psalm 55:15 KNJV) To sustain comfort encourage five or six others to help you execute steps 1-4. Fellowship with other believers produces its own sweet comfort. Oswald Chambers wrote - God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute. Gather others to help someone in need get past the strain of the moment.

 

   Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. (Jesus of Nazareth, AD 33) When you hear of someone suffering trough a difficult time, bear the fruits of fellowship, attentiveness, empathy, practical assistance, and sweet counsel with other Christians to those who are in any trouble, and they will be blanketed with God's comfort.

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday@blogspot.com 

Post Election Christian Angst, Frankenstorms, the Amerca Dream, and Dying Minor Gods

You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are born again…

   Years ago on my first mission trip to India I visited a small shop in Kolkata looking for some token gifts for my wife and friends. The shop owner was Hindu. On the wall behind his cash register was a large photo of an older man with a long grey beard. He was very elaborately dressed. He wore a fancy headpiece. I asked who he was. The shop owner replied, “He is my god”.  I asked, “Have you ever met him?” He then proudly told me about several times he had met his god personally. I asked how old his god was and he simply replied, “Oh, he’s dead. He died five years ago.” I told him that my God had died two thousand years ago, then rose again. I asked what happened to all the people who had followed the teachings of his god. He told me, “No problem, there are plenty of gods. They found another one.”

   In John 3, Nicodemus, a great Jewish leader in the temple at Jerusalem went to meet Jesus personally to try to figure out who or what He was. Jesus immediately told Him, You cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven unless you are born again… This was more than a meet and greet. Jesus offered Nicodemus (and through this verse us) eternal life. No god before or since Jesus had the power or authority to make this offer. As Followers we believe this verse. We have prayed the prayer. We have repented our sin. Jesus has saved us. Our hope is in Him. We await His glorious returning…..

   So why has an election outcome that didn’t go the way they voted got so many of my Christian friends tied in knots? They are convinced their country will not survive. They say the American Dream is dead. What is the American Dream that is so fragile a thing that one term of a president can destroy it? I’m tempted here to define and pick apart the counter biblical elements of the American Dream comparing it to the biblical standard, but I won’t. Instead let me ask you to tell me about your kingdom dream.

   I’m a flag lovin’, gun totin’, chicken eatin', bible carryin’ patriot. I love America. I’m blessed to have been born American. But I am far more blessed to have been born again in Christ. My passport identifies me as American, but I have emigrated to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is my current primary residence. My eternal life won’t begin when I die. It began the moment Jesus saved me. It will never end. That citizenship will still exist a million years from now. When the earth as we know it has perished, The Kingdom of heaven will remain unchanged. When we are there we will look toward the Throne of the Ancient of Days and see the Son seated at His right hand, 2012 will be a dusty memory and names of presidents unimportant. Christian friends, relax! You voted. Your choice lost. You have a president you don’t like but a King you love. You are still citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. That will never change.

   American and our particular version of the American Dream are minor gods that can die. Since its inception America has been in a state of constant change. We began as a slave state but changed that. We used to jail debtors but changed that. We’ve experienced civil war, world wars, terrorist attacks, dust bowls, depressions and even Frankenstorms. We are a great social experiment. Some of what we try fails, but we always center ourselves and continue.

   As Christians we can be patriots but must never love our country the way we love our Lord. We can never exalt our American Dreams like we exalt out God. We have a God who can never die and leave us looking for a replacement. He is a God of peace. If the election has left us without peace, we are looking for peace in the wrong place. Our angst over this election is misplaced. Where is our angst for the poor, the lost, the unloved, the homeless, the abused children, the lonely? Where’s our angst over the need for prayer and revival? We must not let one election divert our eyes from the Kingdom of Heaven and its reigning King, Jesus. 

   I lift my eyes to the hills (far above Washington). From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, maker of Heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1,2 NKJV)

 

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted in whole or in part without written permission if a reference is given to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com