As it turns out living and loving are much harder than I was ever warned they would be, and of the two, loving is definitely the more difficult. Then again, maybe someone did warn me, but I didn't love Him enough to listen.
Love is the most powerful force in the cosmos because ultimately it is love that moves the heart and hand of God.
What did God see when He saw His Son dying on the cross? Love. Love that a Son has for His Father, and love for what His Father loves most of all - you and me.
How could Jesus love His Father that much? Was it that He knew His Father like no other being ever had before? To know God, is to love God. To know God more, is to love God more, and Jesus knew His Father perfectly. "For now we see there a glass dimly, been then face to face."
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Strong Enough to Strengthen Us
"Now to Him who has the power to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the sacred secret kept silent for long ages, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations-to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ_ to whom be the glory forever. Amen." Romans 16:25-26 (Holman CSB)
However, the word "strengthen" in this text does not refer to physical, spiritual or mental power and capacity. The word comes from the Greek verb "sterizo" which means to establish, and since it is in verb form we can understand that this work of establishing us is an on-going work. Another way of saying it might be that it is God who is at work , working within. When we first came to faith in Christ God established us in the kingdom of His dear Son, but then goes on to strengthen us for the work He wants us to join Him in. Care has to be taken when looking at the word "strengthen", because at first glance, if we apply our default definition, and that definition is wrong, it will take us in a wrong direction, one that is more man-centered, focused on man's strength, than Christ-centered, focusing on His life within. Two Bible verses come to mind that might help to drive this home. "It is God who is at work within us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Phil 2:13), and "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
The strength referred to here is not the kind that causes bullets to bounce off our chests or that enables us to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Neither is it the kind of strength my grandchildren think I have when I hoist them up on my shoulders, up so high that there is barely enough oxygen to breath, and then run around with what seems like inexhaustible superhuman stamina. Little do they know that those 5 minutes, that seems like forever to them, seems like forever to me too, but in a completely different way. When they finally get down and speed off to other adventures in another room, so do I. But they are off to more fun, while I duck into an empty room, gasping for air and grabbing my chest, hoping to keep my heart from leaping out. At 56 my mind says "Yes!" but my heart says "Now that was stupid! Next time, maybe, we can act our age?"
The strength Paul is referring to at the end of his letter to the believers in Rome, is the kind that results from being firmly attached to something outside yourself, something that has the power to hold you up when the storms of life prove to be too frequent and too strong to endure again. The images that come to mind to illustrate this are those of monstrous waves hitting some the world's oldest and most famous lighthouses, like the "Le phare du Four" in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France. It isn't just the structure of the lighthouse itself that allows it to withstand such extraordinary battering waves, but what the lighthouse built on. This is exactly the kind of strength Jesus spoke of when he said to the crowds "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a sensible man who built his house on a rock." (Matt 7:24).
In order to be strengthen or firmly attached to what is eternally immovable we have to hear AND act on the words of Christ. Why Christ's word? Because his resurrection from the dead proved that what he said was true, because as one of his disciples said to Him, "...you alone have the words of eternal life." It is by the obedience of faith (hearing and acting on the words of the gospel), that we are strengthen/established on those things God has revealed to be eternal and immovable. And if there was a time when the world could convince us that it is stable thing, it certainly isn't now. But then again, this is something the scriptures have been shedding light on as long as there has been light. I can't help but think of a verse from an old hymn I sang as a child growing up in the Baptist church, "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand."
Here then is the sacred secret that was been kept silent until the coming of Christ _ that every person, in every nation, can be established on The Immovable; The Eternal; The Immortal, and everyone is established upon them in the same way...the obedience of comes from faith in Christ Jesus. It is through hearing and acting on Jesus' words, and the words of the prophetic scriptures, that God sets our feet upon the Rock of Ages, the Rock of our eternal salvation. God fixes that believer's feet upon this Rock with an epoxy that no solvent or power has the ability to dissolve, loosen or break, and all the praise and glory belongs to God alone because none of us has what it takes to bond ourselves to what God has established and revealed as immortal and immovable. We do not have the desire, the strength, the power, the wisdom, the love or the authority to do for ourselves, what God in His wisdom, mercy and love has done for us, and that God has already done all this for us, is part of what the sacred secret reveals. This might be why the Apostle wrote in another letter, "Now to Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through all ages, world without end. Amen" (Eph 3:20).
The obedience of faith is a most critical thing. It was what God was looking for in His own people after He brought them out of 400 years of bondage in Egypt, but regardless of what He did and said, it seems there was a precious few who heard and acted on what God was saying and doing. Sadly the same can be true today. Though God has revealed the sacred secret that was hidden for many ages, the mystery that held the attention of prophets and kings, that beckoned to three wise scholars from the East, as they followed a star that eventually lead them to a stable in Bethlehem, precious few still really hear and act upon what God has now revealed for all to see and hear. Could this be why many today, who call themselves Christian, feel so weak and insecure in their faith? Wasn't it the Apostle James who wrote "...faith without works is dead"? In other words, just hearing is not enough, we must add actions to our lives, that are based on what we claim we believe. This was the point the LORD was making when he said, "Why do you call me 'LORD, LORD' and do not do what I say?"
Friend, God has all the strength we need, and is standing by to establish us firmly and eternally upon that which can not be moved or shaken - ever. In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, and has revealed in the gospel that we can be established, once and for all, to what which is eternally immortal and immovable. For our part what is required is that we hear and act upon the words of the gospel where the sacred secret is revealed. When we do God promises in His Word and by His Spirit to supply life now for eternity above, and hope now to support us while we are still here below. "On Christ, the Solid Rock, I Stand."
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Battles Over Love
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| My grandson Cole. Now, how can you not love a face like that? |
Wouldn't it be something, after all has been studied and said on the topic of conflict, to discover that all the battles we face in life are really the result of humanity's refusal or inability to give and receive love perfectly? We don't give love perfectly, and so the receiver is wounded. We don't receive love perfectly, so the giver is offended. Because we struggle to give and to receive love in right and healthy ways we frequently end up demanding of others, either verbally or by our silence, what we ourselves are incapable of giving and receiving...authentic love that is flawless. Think about it. Is our refusal or inability to love authentically and consistently not at the root of all of life's greatest and seemingly most difficult problems? As a present day example we can look at the complex financial problems in the world. There is a uproar all over the world, including here in our own nation, because of these problems themselves, as well as the systemic causes at the root of them. The questions many are asking are: "What is the cause of these problem?", "How did we get to this point?", and "What are the solutions?" The answers are as varied as the classes of people effected by the mess. Some say corporate greed is the problem, and in saying so they would be partly right. There can be no doubt that that exists, however, it always has. Others say that the wealthy have access to special loop holes in the tax code that allow them to legally pay less than their fair share of federal and state taxes. Doubtless there is some truth to this too, but again, loop holes have been around as long as tax laws and tax lawyers have been. We have to go deeper. The truth and the solution is much simpler, (not necessarily easier) and more foundational than the current Q&A gets to. What is really at the foundation level of this problem, for all people, Christian and non-Christian alike, is the refusal or inability to genuinely give and receive authentic, Biblical love. The Biblical doctrine of Divine love is as impossible to comprehend as it is difficult to accept. That GOD could possess perfect love is something simply beyond our ability to understand. We just do not have the capacity for it. Doubtless there are people with some pretty big heads and mighty large hearts, but they are not nearly large enough. Add to our limited capacities the fact that God could and would give His perfect love in a perfect manner to a race that is wholly incapable of receiving it perfectly, and we find ourselves lost in a truth that we can't understand and struggle to embrace. Then because we can't, our natural and most common reflex is to deny that such a thing could ever exist. When we find ourselves faced with something we can not image the next step is to doubt that it exists. But then we find ourselves in a conflict with reality, because if it doesn't exist where does our own desire to give and receive love better than we do now, come from? When we are struggling with relationships or issues that are very important, and come to what seems like an dead end because resentment and unforgiveness have made it impossible to go any further, who among us does yearn to give or receive the kind of love that offers perfect restoration and forgiveness, regardless of the personal costs? But who also does not know that longing and possession, that having a gift and giving it away, are often worlds apart. If a higher standard of love does not exist why is humanity forever trying to reach for a better, purer and greater love than the race has ever, ever been able to produce on its own? The truth is, regardless of how much we may try to deny a longing for love that is greater, most people desperately want to find that one does. Why? Why if none exists do we continue to long for it? The truth is, one does exist, even if none of us has ever seen it demonstrated first hand. So, where do we begin to look? No where is there a more stunning and baffling demonstration of what perfect love is, of what it looks like in the every day battles and conflict, both with others and within ourselves, than what has been historically documented by life of Jesus Christ. His words, deeds, his sufferings, death and resurrection are all the evidences we need to begin to believe that a greater love exists than mankind has ever be able to generate on its own. If we are genuinely interested in looking at the best historic example of perfect love the world has ever witnessed and documented we not need look further than the person of Jesus Christ, and his brief earthly life. Whether you accept him to be the Son of God or not, there can be no denying that he holds the exclusive position as being the only person who ever love perfectly. If this is true then it makes sense to ask ourselves how Jesus came by this ability to love in the manner he did. What was it about him that made him the exclusive possessor of love that is greater than any other one before or after him, has ever shown us?
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