Daily Archives: March 13, 2013

The God-Season

Christian Life, , ,

THE GOD-SEASON

“Then He turned to the crowd: ‘When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’ – and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’ – and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.'” Luke 12:54-56 (The Message).

What was the God-season of which Jesus spoke? For four hundred and thirty years, God had been silent and apparently inactive. But behind the scenes He had been preparing both His people and the world for the moment when He would break into the earthly scene with His personal and final revelation of Himself.

His appearance ushered in a new revelation of His nature: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NIV). Over the centuries, the people’s understanding of God had been eroded away until they perceived Him as one who was legalistic and only appeased by strict adherence to a rigid code of conduct, mostly rules that their own rabbis has superimposed on God’s prescribed way of living.

Jesus came to show His people that the Father is not like that at all. The essence of God’s nature is a loving Father who passionately longs for fellowship and oneness with them. Jesus brought grace and truth to light by showing God’s compassion and mercy in His healing and teaching ministry.

It was truly a new season for His people, oppressed and harassed both by Rome and the devil. He came to teach them how they could live in a new inner freedom, regardless of their circumstances, because their restored relationship to God the Father as His sons and daughters meant that they were no longer burdened by rules and ritual. His death would free them from the bondage and power of sin to live in fellowship with the Father.

Tragically, the religious leaders refused to understand what He had come to do. They resisted His teaching; they blasphemed His miracles, attributing to the devil what the Holy Spirit was doing through Him and, at the same time, they accused Him of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God. They chose not to examine the evidence of His claim and condemned Him to death for being guilty of being the Son of God and the King of the Jews!

Yes, Jesus came to usher in a new God-season of grace and truth, and has given the world an extended opportunity to return to the Father and escape the judgment we deserve because of our rebellion against Him. For two thousand years the Holy Spirit has been actively wooing and nudging people back to the Father. Jesus paid the debt of our sin so that we can experience the unconditional love and forgiveness of the Father. “…God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” 2 Corinthians 5:19 (NIV).

How tragic that millions in the world have heard the message but have rejected it as did the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, choosing rather to continue in their false belief system, enjoying their sin and not caring that there is a day of reckoning coming. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Hebrews 9:17 (NIV).

God has made provision for us to live in the eternal glory of His presence and blessing, but the choice is ours.

Stumped

Christian Life, , , ,

STUMPED

“One time, when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on Him, watching His every move. Right before Him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars, ‘Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?’

They were silent . So He took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then He said, ‘Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath.’ They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.” Luke 14:1-5 (The Message).

How often did this scene not repeat itself and how often did Jesus not have to say the same thing and yet the same criticism was levelled against Him time after time. ‘Sabbath-breaker!’ What was wrong with the people that it was so difficult for them to understand the simple message of Jesus? He spoke it and lived it for three years and they still didn’t get it.

So what is this message that we have failed to grasp for the past two thousand years and are still not getting in spite of Jesus’ glaring example? It’s about mercy and compassion, not religion! Every time I encounter the ritualistic mumbo-jumbo that is done in the name of Jesus, I ask myself the question, “Is this why Jesus came?”

We have even managed to turn the work of the gentle Holy Spirit into a ritual. We lay hands on people and they have to babble or fall down, otherwise the Holy Spirit has not touched them! Is that really what we glean from God’s Word? How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that His church has wandered so far from His example and mandate.

The Pharisees were so stuck in their notion of God that not even the Son of God Himself could shift them from the beliefs and traditions that overruled their own Scriptures. They were so blinded by their arrogant pride and self-centred performance that they were unmoved in the presence of God Himself.

Strange that the ones who claimed to know God, never experienced Him right there and yet, people like Matthew and Zaccheus, greedy and wicked men, were transformed after one encounter with Him. And what of adulteresses, prostitutes, thieves, irreligious and thoroughly bad people? They melted in the presence of His holiness and were drawn to Him like moths to a candle.

When we meet in His name, what is the purpose of our gathering together? Is it to perpetuate our beliefs, traditions and practices or is it to have an encounter with Him that heals our ‘swollen joints’ and releases us from our pain and imprisonment? Jesus did not come to start another useless religion. There are enough of those already. He came to show us the compassionate heart of the Father and to release us from the bondage of Satan’s deception into the freedom of the sons of God.

Jesus is about taking us to the Father and introducing us to Him as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). He is about reconnecting us to the Father and to one another so that we can experience our true humanity in unity with our Creator and His creation.

How does our futile religious gobbledegook contribute to His purpose? What does eating this and not eating that, or doing this and not doing that, do to help us do life together with one another and with God? Does keeping laws do anything to rescue a child or an animal that has fallen down the well on the Sabbath?

You decide…

Strangers to Grace

Christian Life, , , ,

STRANGERS TO GRACE

“‘That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in – and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.'” Luke 13:28-30 (The Message).

This makes terribly sad reading for those who have experienced grace, the unimaginable favour of God that takes worthless sinners and makes them over into beloved sons because they have taken seriously what Jesus was saying.

Imagine getting to the end of the road, so sure you are right, only to find that Jesus was right and you were wrong and now there’s no going back. The Pharisees and religious leaders were so cock-sure of themselves that they exterminated Him on the strength of their conviction, only to find that what He predicted happened – He rose from the dead and proved them dead wrong!

“Consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness.” Romans 11:23 (NIV).

God’s offer of kindness in forgiving sin, wiping the slate clean and starting you all over again is extended to everyone without exception, but He never forces His kindness on anyone. He has provided the sacrifice – His own Son, Jesus – and made the offer, but it is up to us to take what He offers seriously or pooh-pooh His grace and face the consequences.

God’s sternness is reserved for those who are foolish enough to brush aside His provision as though He were either a liar or irrelevant. If His warnings fall on persistently deaf ears, we have no-one but ourselves to blame when we hear His sorrowful words, ‘Go away. I never knew you.” For those who have a conscience (and who hasn’t, except that many pay no attention to it), there is no excuse because conscience is God’s inner voice built into us at conception.

“When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong…” Romans 2:14, 15 (The Message).

God has no pleasure in tossing people onto the eternal rubbish dump (called hell), but He has no option but to uphold His word and confirm our choices. Like seeds, God has put endless potential into every life. Look at an apple. What do you see? A tasty fruit or a forest-in-the-making? It depends on our perspective. God looked at Abraham and saw a nation. It’s all about potential. His greatest sorrow is to have to discard people eternally because of wasted potential.

He has woven into human beings (that’s us too), the potential to become sons of God with all the rights and privileges Jesus has as God’s Son. He has actually named His sons heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, reigning with Him in eternal glory! Why pass that up for a stubborn refusal to take Him seriously?

Hence Jesus’ warning, “Before your day-to-day choices are confirmed forever,” He said, “take the trouble to verify My credentials, My trustworthiness and My promises, and act on what you discover.”

Once again, it’s your choice…

Simply Be Yourself

Christian Life, , ,

SIMPLY BE YOURSELF

“‘When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.'” Luke 14:10-11 (The Message).

Strange how pride and self-promotion actually do the opposite of what we want to achieve! Jesus gives us a bit of homely wisdom which may not appear to be important in the bigger scheme of things but it will make a big difference to our lives in the long run. ‘Don’t promote yourself,’ He said, ‘Let someone else recognise who you really are and give you the place of honour.’ When we are so self-absorbed that we see no-one and nothing else, we are likely to trip over our own big feet!

King David, in his teenage years as a shepherd caring for sheep and living close to nature, made a discovery which influenced his whole life and contributed to his greatness as Israel’s model king. He captured his discovery in his most-loved psalm – Psalm 23. We miss the impact of what he was saying in the translation. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want,” is so familiar to us that we are comforted by the promise of God’s faithful provision for all our needs. But why should we be amazed that God does what He said He would do because He is who He is – a loving and caring Father?

The underlying thought in this observation is far more significant than God’s faithful provision for His children, as great a promise as that is for us. God is far more interested in who we are than in our circumstances. Let’s explore the deeper meaning of David’s words. “The Lord is my authority (implying that He has the last word – no-one can contradict or oppose Him); therefore I shall never be diminished.”

God is all for giving us understanding of who we really are. Our sin nature has an inbuilt capacity to diminish us in our own estimation and Satan has a field day with our ‘self-worth’. We have to bolster it up by self-importance and self-promotion, like the person who elbows his way to the top of the table. Jesus assures us, ‘You don’t need to do that because your real worth lies in who you are, not where you sit or who notices you.’

We evaluate ourselves, very often, by the way we feel, and our feelings follow our interpretation of events. For example, a woman who was molested as a child feels dirty, guilty and responsible for what happened to her. She interprets her worth according to her feelings and, consequently, diminishes herself and believes that everyone else diminishes her as well.

When Israel was in slavery in Egypt, they were diminished to the status of ‘property’ and were treated like possessions to be handled by their slave-owners as they chose. God had to re-educate His people to the realisation that they were people, not possessions and precious and beloved to Him. His first promise, hidden in the words of His preamble to the Ten Commandments (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery, out of the land of slavery…”), has this assurance hidden in the Hebrew words, ‘Your authority grows inside the boundary of your submission and worship’. In other words, ‘As long as you submit to and worship me as your God, you will never be diminished.’

There’s the key to understanding who we really are, not in the attention and accolades we seek from so-called ‘important’ people (who are they really but ordinary people like ourselves), but in the value God puts on us as His sons and daughters, created in image to reflect Him. And so Jesus concludes, ‘If you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself’.