On the third floor of this building is a window that overlooks the busy boulevard below. I pass this window often, and each time I look through it I notice that it really needs cleaning. It is so scummed with grime and other things that it obscures the view like fog. Colors are faded, details are blurred, light shining in is diminished.
When it’s dark outside, the view seems clearer. The lights out on the street are clearly seen, and the film on this window is no longer obvious. The grime is still there but it’s just not as noticeable.
Even being so dirty, the window lets some light inside. But if the window were cleaned, how different and more pleasant the light quality would be. At night, the hallway light would shine outward through it like a sparkling beacon onto the street.
We’re like that window. Jesus commanded us to let our light shine before men. The trouble we have with that is that we don’t keep our windows clean. We allow the stains, grit and grime of sin, indifference and offense to cloud our ability to shine outward. And we fail to see that those same stains, grit and grime prevent light from shining into us. Windows go both ways… shining out into the darkness outside and allowing light to shine into us and illuminate our dark places.
Keep your windows clean.
“Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:15-16 (NIV)
I’m looking down the road, caught between the anticipation of what’s next and the realization that I’ve live at least half my life on earth already (maybe more – God knows), and where am I? I don’t feel my life has really begun yet, and I certainly don’t consider myself old. I’m still establishing myself and trying to make sense of things. I hold to the understanding that my latter days will be greater than my former days, and my hope is that I will not wither but increase in strength and fruitfulness. I have wonderful role models for this: Abraham, Moses, Zechariah, Sarah…
Time is not my enemy. Someone recently remarked that time reveals God’s intentions. Ultimately, time is my friend. How I spend it is up to me. I can have all the time in the world but not have the time of day for someone. I can waste it or invest it.
Although we talk of making time, we don’t actually make time. We each have been given exactly the same amount of it in a day, like an allowance. We set it aside for things but cannot buy or produce it. Nor can we hold onto it. We can only use it.
We each have been given a sense of eternity. God has put eternity in our hearts, and although we measure our lives by time, times and seasons, we generally operate on a “having all the time in the world” basis. So we have eternity, but time on earth runs out. It’s a paradox: being eternal beings living within limitations of finiteness.
A friend sent me an encouraging email this morning that contained this statement:
WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.
WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
Spiritual beings are eternal. The Bible is clear that our eternity is based on how we spend our time here. We live like we’ve got forever, as if there are no limits, as if time is not running out. At the same time we live as if we have no time: no time for people, no time to fix the faucet, no time for interruptions, no time to make that phone call or go see Grandma. We despise delays in schedules and fret in traffic tangles. We dislike standing in line waiting for the next post office window to open up (thank God for e-mail). We don’t have time to read the Bible, to pray to God, to journal or to listen to someone’s problem. We don’t have time to listen to God. The thing is, we do have time. We just choose to use it in some ways and not in others.
God has made everything beautiful in its time. He established the times and the seasons. He determined a time to plant and a time to harvest. In between there’s time to cultivate and wait. God will actually sit and wait for us.
We were created for eternity. As eternal beings we are right now living in our eternity, right here in the midst of our humanness. We are passing though this stage of life. God blesses us here and also there. Jesus talked about “this world and the next”. This world is not our home or destiny if we know Jesus Christ. We don’t stop living when we die and then start up living again. We just change location, so to speak.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart… Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)
I think we can all agree that Job went through crap. He was a godly man who was known for his godliness who went through devastation, rejection, physical pain and emotional shame all due to a wager made in heaven that he had nothing do to with. God wanted to prove something to Satan and used Job to do it.
Job got a bad rap. He didn’t deserve what he got. His setback was not the result of bad living, and he knew it. His three buddies tried to persuade him otherwise, but he knew he was innocent. He spent a lot of time deflecting their verbal blows. That ongoing effort must have worn him down even further.
So Job went through crap, both figuratively and literally, since he was sitting on the dung heap. Yuk!
What was God doing during all this? It took Him long enough, but He finally responded to Job’s complaints and questions. What is interesting is how He responded… He did not directly address Job’s questions at all. Yet Job ended up satisfied with His answer.
What Job went through, I think, was a season of pruning. Pruning will most always feel wrong, feel bad, and cause us to consider ourselves and our ways. When everything seems to go upside down and we go through it, there’s a reason for it. We’re being pruned. Stuff that doesn’t matter is removed and we’re able to see that it really does not matter. We’re caused to run after God more fervently with our implorings. We seek Him more deliberately because we can’t figure it all out and fix the situation. We simply have to just let all the balls we’ve been juggling drop to the ground and lay there. There’s nothing we can do. If we don’t rely on God we’re toast.
We cannot save ourselves.
So we’re being pruned. Unpleasant as it is, pruning is the thing that makes us more fruitful. We produce more fruit and better – more robust and beautiful – fruit because of it. Seasons of crap are the fertilizer that nourish our fruit. They’re the strength-building vitamins and minerals that help us increase our strength and renew our determination. In God’s hands, the result of a pruning season is always better than before we were pruned. Pruning ensures our increase. It is not meant to defeat us. What appears to be a setback or disaster actually has consequences for our benefit.
Like Job’s friends did, there will be people who come around us and try to analyze our situation for us. They’ll point out that we must have screwed up somewhere or we don’t have enough faith, otherwise this wouldn’t be happening. They’ll want to rehearse all the details of our lives to determine what caused our demise. These sorts of friends may not be encouraging, but they are participating in our pruning. Did Job buckle under and cry uncle to his friends’ pressure to “’fess up? No. He stood on the solid ground of truth and did not accept their false accusations. There’s a lesson there for each of us.
There are times when setbacks are the consequences of our choices. But if you’re going through a season of crap right now – financially, emotionally, physically or spiritually – and it’s not due to what you’ve done, consider that God might just be pruning you, and that you’ll survive the season and emerge from the dung heap more full, satisfied and capable than ever.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-2
Rules, those pesky regulations we submit to day in and day out, are generally a good thing. They keep us safe, monitor behavior and give us a checklist to measure our goodness by. There are moral rules, rules of nature, rules of thumb, rule of law. There’s even a Golden Rule, although its author was most likely not intending it to be defined as such. We have civic rules and religious rules. These rules provide the semblance of right living and truth. No matter how free we might claim to be, we each submit to rules and suffer the consequences when we break them.
We don’t all follow the same set of rules, and not all rules are beneficial. Religious and philosophical forms found in human tradition actually ensnare and deny us our liberty. Rather than walking the in freedom accomplished by Christ’s death and resurrection, many Christians fall easily into following regulations as if the regulations themselves had the power to save, heal or keep our hands clean in God’s eyes. Following rules lull us into believing lies without even realizing it.
No rule can transform us. No rule will increase our faith.
When we follow regulations imposed by human concepts we give them power over us. We live to follow the rule and measure our lives against the rule rather than follow the example of Christ. Jesus gave a few commands: love each other, make disciples, seek God’s kingdom, baptize, celebrate His last supper, etc., but He made no rules. If you think about it, even the Ten Commandments are not really rules. They each address relational concerns.
Rules and traditions keep us from living in the Kingdom of God. They remove joy and impose guilt. They are earthly rather than eternal. We can actually disqualify ourselves and miss the greater things of God’s desire for us when we focus on the incidentals. By following rules we miss out on following Christ. You see, Jesus Christ is a person. We have relationship with a person. We don’t have relationship with rules.
Paul addressed this in his second letter to Timothy when he cautioned against associating with people who had a “form of godliness but denying its power”. We will not live in the Kingdom of God by adhering to rules put forth by mankind.
We don’t like rules in general, but we find it easier to follow them rather than pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ. Relationships are hard. Rules are easy. Relationships require vulnerability. Rules are superficial. But rules don’t save us. Jesus Christ does.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ…. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ”Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.” Colossians 2:8, 20-22 NIV
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 NIV
Lighthouse at Aquina, Oregon, USA
I enjoy engaging in apologetics, which is not making an “apology” for what Christians believe, but is instead making a reasonable argument for that belief. It’s similar to making a defense in a court of law or arguing a position in a debate. To give someone reasons why you believe something is true based on evidence rather than feeling or wishing can be effective.
Yet, to expand on a point I made in my previous post, few people are argued into believing something. Most of the Christians I know chose to become a Christian not through a tract handed to them or by who won a debate about creation or evolution, but by observing their friends, family, neighbors or or co-workers live genuine Christian lives.
The greatest tool of persuasion is the life a person lives – how he or she responds to the situations and the challenges they face. We do not live in a vacuum. If we live genuinely, openly and consistently as a Christian, people will notice there’s “something different” about us. This is what Jesus was referring to in saying, “Let your light shine in front of people so that they may see the good stuff you do and give God the credit” (my paraphrase). I think that, if you’re a Christian and people are not asking you what’s different about you, you’re not living openly and letting your light shine.
People don’t need to come to church services and Bible studies. They don’t need tracts handed to them as they pass by on the sidewalk. They need to see that Jesus Christ is the forgiver of their sins and the answer to their dilemmas. They need to experience real relationship and acceptance. They need to trust that they’re cared for and loved, no matter what. They need us to spend time with them, enjoy their company and engage with them.
You can pray for your unsaved friends. You can read scripture to your unbelieving family members. But if you’re not pursuing relationships with them, they’re not going to have the opportunity to see Jesus in you, and it won’t matter to them what or why you believe.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 NKJV
…having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12 NKJV
US Marine NCO Saber
People hold their opinions and ideas securely. and it’s not often that they will be argued out of them. In many cases, a person retains their opinion even when presented with evidence that contradicts it.
Ideas and opinions are lofty and are presented as truth. But we know that no two things can both be true if they contradict each other. That’s just logical. We also know that ideas are accepted as being true when they are not challenged or exposed. It is very difficult to move a person away from a position when he is solidly planted on it.
As Christians, our trouble in persuading people is that we tend to focus on the argument, not the spiritual issues behind it. We argue – even in apologetics – on the basis of reason alone and therefore fail in our attempts. We first use our minds and eschew the use of the spiritual weapons God has placed in our hands. (Note: for those uncomfortable with the word, “weapon”, let’s use the word, “tool”.)
Opinions are no match for God. Opinions will be taken out by spiritual means, not by intellectual arguments. Spiritual weapons (tools) demolish lofty opinions.
Even the practice of apologetics is ineffective without the spiritual tool of prayer. Prayer accomplishes more than any mere argument can. Only the spiritual can outwit and undo a well-formed intellectual assertion. Why? Spiritual tools don’t argue or attempt to convince, Instead, they convict.
In using our spiritual tools (prayer, worship, salvation, righteousness, truth, Scripture, etc.) we need to be courageous, wise and skillful. Any tool is ineffective when not used properly. That’s why we need to train and prepare. All of these concerns are summed up by Paul in his letters to the churches at Corinth and Ephesus:
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Ephesians 6:10-18a NIV
View of the Los Angeles National Cemetery. Photo courtesy of the Greater Los Angeles VA
In my quiet time this morning I found myself (I didn’t plan it – it was on the list for today in my Bible reading guide) reading Psalm 144. In it, David opens with these thoughts:
Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. -Psalm 144:1-4 (ESV)
My father was a soldier. My daughter is a Marine. They each were trained for war, to engage in battle. They each laid everything on the line, walking away from comforts and life as they knew it to fight. They each understood some things are worth laying down your life for, and that our lives are not to be lived for us alone.
God trains us for war. Hey, we are in a war, no matter how much we might want to ignore it. God knows it, and gives us armor and weapons (Ephesians 6:10-18). Our weapons are not forged in the world, but belong to the kingdom of God and are effective when used well. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6). It should be obvious that we’re expected to go to war. It should be obvious that we’re guaranteed victory (Exodus 14:14, 1 John 4:4).
I live in a free and privileged nation, whose landscape is marked by the graves of men and women who gave their lives fighting for and defending its freedoms and privileges. From Arlington National Cemetery to The Los Angeles National Cemetery, the thing I note is that most who fought came home alive. My dad did not die in World War II. My daughter did not die in OIF. But they were willing to. Freedom is not free. It is neither automatic nor a default position. Someone pays the price for it.
As a Christian, my freedom from sin and its penalty, death, has been bought and paid for. Jesus Christ paid the price. I lived blessed and free.
David ended his psalm with these words:
May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord! Psalm 144:12-15 (ESV)
Battles for freedom have bought our privileges: of raising strong, healthy families, of vocational and personal success, of prosperity and wealth, and of peace on our soil.
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. Luke 15:1 (NKJV)
I saw something very significant in this snippet of scripture. I think it’s significant that the people didn’t stay where they were but gathered around Jesus and went in close to hear Him. They put themselves into position to listen.
When people gather around it creates a sense of intimacy. Physical proximity creates a special place that shuts other things out. When positioned close, we can hear better, see better and come face-to-face with the speaker. We lean in and focus on the one who is speaking. In doing this we affirm that the speaker and his words are important.
Drawing near is a physical movement – a change in location. It requires deliberate action. It involves putting other things behind us for a moment. In an intimate circle other things are shut out.
Drawing near is done for a purpose. There is a reason we want to come close: we don’t want to miss anything. Closeness allow for discussion, asking questions and conversation.
Are you drawing near enough to hear Him?
To forgive means to send away, to release, to dismiss. Forgiving dismisses the guilt of the person committing the offense as well as the cause of the offense itself.
Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (ESV)
The news media reported today that President Obama gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod, and my first response to that news was, "What does the Queen want with an iPod? How will it look for her to be running around in her hat and suits with earbuds hanging off both sides of her head?" The gift just seems to me as sort of… inappropriate… for someone of the Queen's standing and style. She is reported to have accepted this gift graciously and may already be enjoying the 40 or more Broadway show tunes loaded onto it.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17(NKJV)
