5/20/20 In, Not Out of Romans 8:36-39

Romans 8:36-39

As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalm 44 reminds us that our persecution is not without precedent.  It has happened before and as before, You are not asleep nor will You be absent or without Your glory in the moment.

Paul connects our history with the present, he says "...in all these things we are more than conquerers."  Not out of these things.  Our conquering comes not by avoidance or removal, but by enduring them. You are faithful in our trials, not by keeping us from them.

A perspective check: For Your sake, we are killed all the day long.  It is not about me, it is all about You.  You were killed unjustly and we may be too if we are not separated from You.  Deliverance is not from, but in.

A number of months back was our second “founding fathers” for Cornerstone Dental, retreat. (Bill, Dan, Fred, Randy, and me.). Very sweet time remembering and telling old stories and catching up on what has happened in the intervening years.  Part of the reliving is a discovery of how those things have shaped us into who we are now.  How easy it is to forget Your faithfulness in the midst of those times, how easy it is to miss in the midst of things, Your presence, Your care, Your provision, and even Your comfort.  Remembering the steadfast love and faithfulness of the past strengthens our faith and trust, which gives us hope for the future, and inspires us to be present and loving in the present.  Seems like I remember someone saying once, “Now abide faith, hope, and love…”  Abide, what a wonderful combination of presence and endurance. 

It is good to see that You are indeed conforming us to the image of Your Son, maybe most especially in the suffering and sacrifice, and for that I am grateful.

LHM/CHM

5/20/20 - Awe and Wonder Give Context to Life.

Psalm 119:161, 169

“…my heart stands in awe of your words.”

Let my cry come before you, O LORD;

give me understanding according to your word!”

Proverbs 1:7

The fear (Awe) of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Awe and wonder give context to life.  When we disconnect awe and wonder what sounds like wisdom may well be foolishness.  (Job, Ecclesiastes)

Words are revelatory, I see You in Your word as You reveal Yourself to me.

When this Psalm speaks of Your word, your law, Your ways, Your statutes, etc. all of these reveal who You are and what You are like.

Do these create awe in me?  Does awe give me humility and open me to mystery?  Do I delight in what is revealed? Am I drawn to what I see?  Do I find hope, joy and shalom in Your word?

The ultimate question, am I drawn to You, is my desire for You, or am I drawn to something other?

Create in me a clean heart, O God...give me an undivided heart that desires and is satisfied with only You. LHM/CHM

5/16/20 - Am I Afraid of the Fire?

Deuteronomy 5:4-5, 27

The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I (Moses) stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. 

(You, Moses.) Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’

The people of Israel are afraid to go near and be with God, they wanted Moses to be between them and God. This is a pattern we see for "the people of God" through time.  Later Israel will demand a King to lead them rather than have God as their king so they can be like the other nations.  Now in the New Testament church have we created a clergy to come between us and God?  Have we forsaken the risk and adventure of the priesthood of all believers for the safety of a professional clergy?  What is the meaning of this as it relates to the Spirit of God living in us and our need to rely on Him?

It seems to me that in the New Testament we have taken gifts of the Spirit, preaching, teaching, shepherding, even apostleship, which are given to exercise for a task, and turned them into “offices.”  Office in the sense of position in an organizational structure.  This has almost inevitably become to be perceived as a hierarchy of sorts that results in the people of God defaulting to the clergy to hear from God.  As I read Acts, this was not how God’s Spirit seems to work.  He seems to be active in people’s lives regardless of training, position, or perceived personal authority.  When the Spirit speaks or leads, He chooses whom He wills and goes where He wills.  Yes there is the difficulty at times of knowing when it is the Spirit speaking or leading over our own desires and wants, but I wonder if we have come to rely on clergy over community to discern the Spirit’s leading?

4/6/20 - The Difficulties of Holiness

Numbers 33:52-53

“You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.”

This is what holiness looks like, the absolute removal of all that is not holy.  (See the video on holiness by the Bible Project) Israel is being asked to participate in the restoration of the land, the reintroduction of holiness and wholeness.  They are warned in Num 33:56 that partial holiness, just being better, is not enough. Holiness is an absolute state, it exists or it does not, I cannot aspire to be kind of holy.

I struggle with why You would command the people of Israel to enter the land and destroy everything, I among many, tend to see this some how as a flaw in Your character.  Yet I do not struggle with the idea of a final judgement, (Therefore, You are not a different God in the OT vs. NT.) a final setting of all things right, the prevailing of justice and the return of a new heaven and a new earth.  I not only don't struggle with it, I long for it, and the promise of it brings me hope. See Ps 92:6-8 journal entry.  Embedded in this hope is the desire and the implicit understanding that  the promise cannot come about unless You remove all that is not good, right, and holy.  By definition "heaven" is a place where those things do not exist.

How is it that I desire, even expect for You to make things right, remove what is not holy...all this something You did not create, we did...and then have the audacity to call it a flaw in Your character when You do?  Rom 3:5

I am repulsed by the idea of being asked to participate personally (Vicariously through Israel.) in the clean up because I find it repulsive, dirty, painful, difficult, and messy (physically and morally). Do I really think it is any less any of these things for You?  Do I even have any sort of emotional or spiritual attachment to any of those I expect You to destroy? Do  I understand the deep loss You feel personally, because You love them far more than I do?  I am like my grandchildren who gleefully make a mess and are then insulted when asked to help clean up...in their minds one of the functions of a grandparent is a built in clean up crew.  Relearning this for them is not a pleasurable experience.

You are asking us to participate in the "nasty,” holy, business of the restoration of holiness, one that You are left with all the time and will complete in Your time.

I get myself into trouble if I think I know or can decide who is worthy of judgement...only You can know or decide.  Israel's task was by direct command and the command was not given lightly or without compassion or grace (See Gen 15:16.).

We are invited now to participate (Ah, this is what it means to follow Jesus.) in the sacrificial aspect of restoration as we follow Christ as Your bride.  We too are not given the option of choosing what nor to whom we will sacrifice, we are merely called to “fill up the suffering of Christ” with our sacrifice. We are to give ourselves up, no longer the sword, (external force, outside in.) but ourselves, a sacrifice of our lives. (Inside out). This too is hard for us to understand as it was for Peter in the garden of Gethsemane.   Both aspects of restoration (Fire/sword and sacrifice.) are difficult, but it takes both for the restoration of holiness.

You our God of the OT, are no different in Your heart toward us or the cosmos, the end toward which the story is moving, or Your judgement vs. Your love, etc.  The methodology of the NT, at least in how it pertains to us, has changed.  We are no longer called to be the sword of the judgement, we are asked to sacrifice ourselves and absorb, if you will, the evil, to die to it and with it so that it is buried with us in death and then left behind in the resurrection. (What an interesting clean up plan.) Who could come up with such a wild and wonderful scheme to consume evil (unholiness).

So why is there a different methodology (For us, not You.) in the OT and NT?  That is way above my pay grade, as I might add is all my muddled processing above, but it seems to have something to do with Jesus, the center piece of the story.  His death and resurrection opens the way for our redemption and that of the cosmos and through time, You, our Father have seen fit to intimately and intentionally include us in the process.

Forgive me Father I pray, for my arrogance and my desire to participate in what is good without participating in the hardness of its coming.

LHM/CHM

Additional note:

If Your holiness is a consuming fire it is then impossible for You to approach us with out Your “wrath” (incompatibility with what is not holy) judging (Consuming) all that is not holy.  It is  Your love that moves You irresistibly toward us even as we move away, and it is Your grace that provides a way, a shield if you will, if we turn and stop running.  Because by nature You are a consuming fire, dealing with it is always a requirement.  My inability to comprehend how hot that holiness is, prevents me from seeing Your love and grace for what it is in practice, holiness with steadfast love and faithfulness.