Something Wonderful I Found In Romans

 Something Wonderful I Found In Romans

Whoever has read through the Bible once has only read through the Bible once. When we are in relationship with Jesus and attentive to the Spirit, the Bible becomes a living thing. Every time you open it, it will speak to where you are in life. It always remains the same but what it addresses in you is where you are today. When you approach it as a living word it will astound you every single time.

I always look for direction from the Spirit when I begin again to read the Bible through, from cover to cover. I want him to tell me what I should be paying attention to. One year he had me look at how the Bible is a slow revealing of who Yahweh is and what his relationship is with us. As I moved through the Bible I witnessed how he slowly revealed himself until Jesus showed us his heart and we realized him as Father. He went from Creator, in Genesis, to Father, in the gospels.

Another year he had me look for the importance of relationships, Father with us, us with Father and then us with each other. I can never look at the Bible the same way again after seeing it in this light. We have failed in relationships ever since Eve. It is the single greatest failure that has disgusted and moved Father to action. All of humanity has suffered because of this ongoing failure, right up to this present day. 

I find that Paul’s letter to the church in Rome has one of the greatest explanations of the cause of and the solution to broken relationships. Paul starts off by explaining the condition of humanity outside of Jesus. It is ugly and disastrous and is the natural state of all human beings. No matter how much we try to fix ourselves we can’t. We can see the problem, even name the problem, but we can’t fix the problem because we are incomplete. We were designed for life with Father and without him we just can’t function properly.

Paul names the problem : selfishness. Every single hurtful thing we ever do to each other is found in this foundation of selfishness. Every act of rebellion toward Father is fruit from this selfish nature. And there is nothing we can do to change it. No matter how hard we try to free ourselves from it, it will just suck us back in. The only path of freedom is found in Jesus. But there is a problem here too.

Too often we want to treat it as a “one and done” kind of event when we give ourselves to Jesus, but do you remember what Jesus said we had to do to follow him? Not accept him but to follow him. “Deny yourself”, or better understood as “say no to yourself”. Jesus was addressing our selfish nature. It is a process to grow into the maturity of Jesus. It is a day by day process where the Spirit helps us develop the habit of saying no to ourselves and yes to him.

Paul does describe what proper relationship with each other looks like but he also stated that the only proper way to do this is to die to ourselves and to live in the Spirit. Too often we go with the flow of our human nature. We act on impulse. We do what comes natural and it gets us in a lot of trouble. To live in and by the Spirit takes an attitude of purposeful living. It requires a relationship with Spirit, where we spend all day having conversation with him. It is where he guides us in living according to Father’s heart and not our selfish desires. Without his input, guidance and power we will do what our selfish nature dictates. We cannot succeed in this life without the Spirit of God empowering us to say no to ourselves.

Today it is possible for us to live in relationship with each other in the way Father created us to. Paul summed it up with a single word when he wrote to the church in Corinth : love. It is not about perfectionism but it is about love empowered by grace where we give each other the freedom to live with repentance and forgiveness in our living together. Because I have chosen to live according to Father’s heart it means I have chosen to love you. So when you offend me, and you will, I say no to my right to be offended, lean into the Spirit, and forgive you empowered by grace. Amazing isn’t it? And this same grace empowers me to admit when I am wrong or have done wrong.

So, if we find ourselves being offended by those who we are bound with in the Spirit, we know we are getting it wrong. If we find ourselves trying to make excuses for our offenses instead of confessing them, we know we are getting it wrong. It is so easy to know when we are wrong but is our relationship with Jesus real enough for us to say no to ourselves and choose the Royal Law? The Kingdom is about relationships and only he can empower us to get it right.

If Only There Were Instructions

 If we spend thousands of dollars on an appliance we would be pretty foolish not to read through the instructions on how to use it properly. We would be even more foolish if we read the instructions and then decide to use it however we felt like it. And we would probably be the first person to be calling the manufacturer when the appliance broke from our misuse.  King Solomon was like this.

Solomon had prayed for discernment and Yahweh was pleased that he had. So he gave him a discerning mind which led to wisdom, and then he gave him riches, fame and peace as well. But the covenant also required that Solomon would follow all of Yahweh’s instructions and worship him all his days.

Part of these instructions was not to take many wives and not to take foreign wives who would turn their husband’s away from Yahweh. There were also instructions not to go back to Egypt, not to become too wealthy and not to possess too many horses. Yet the first thing Solomon did was make an alliance with Egypt by marrying Pharaoh's daughter. He also entered into a horse trade which built up his personal wealth. Obviously the big problem was the many many foreign women he married who turned his heart away from Yahweh. If only someone had warned him. Oh, wait! Someone had.

That’s the problem most of us have. We have been given instruction on how to do relationship in the way that pleases Father’s heart. It is clear and it is doable. When we follow these instructions blessings flow. But we ignore the instructions and end up with broken relationships, and we act surprised, as if we had no access to the Bible and Spirit.

No one is saying that relationships are easy because they aren’t. They involve imperfect people but the instructions already take this into account, dealing with apologies and forgiveness. The Bible puts relationship in the center and everything else revolves around this; our relationship with Yahweh and our relationship with each other. There is nothing saying it doesn’t get messy, only that such value is placed on them that we have been told to do what we can to keep peace in these relationships.

When we don’t follow the instructions things get broken. Thankfully Spirit is the greatest repairman in all of eternity.

We Need To Stop Using The 1940 Playbook

This morning I was listening to two of my children having a discussion concerning saddles in Minecraft. My 7 year old daughter was explaining to my six year old son that you cannot craft a saddle but instead you have to find it in a storage trunk or by fishing. My son was insistent that this saddle could be grafted with the right ingredients. Suddenly my daughter turned to me:

"Daddy, can you craft a saddle?"

I will admit that I "play" Minecraft with my children as a way of "bonding" with them in what interests them. But my knowledge of the game is restricted to mining, defending myself against bad creatures and planting crops. I like mining. So I had no idea about saddles and told my daughter as much. She quickly turned from me and spoke into the air:

"Hey Google, is it possible to craft a saddle in Minecraft?"

And Google gave a lengthy response of why it is not possible to craft a saddle and what a person can do to obtain one. 

Now, if you don't have a clue what I am talking about you are proving the point of this post. Things in this world are in constant motion, in society, in technology and in how people do things like relationship. Trying to stop these changes is as useful as trying to stop a speeding Mack truck by stepping in front of it. We need to suck it up and try to keep up. However, there is one thing that doesn't change.

Our Father never changes and the purposes of what he has created never change. For example, we were created to need people. Isolating ourselves will cause us mental distress. If we don't ever want to be with people it is a sign that there is already a brokenness in our function. I am not referring to a desire for alone time. I need alone time. Most of us do. But we are also designed to need people.

The principles of the Kingdom never change but methodology does. Looking at the example of my children, there is a new way to acquire knowledge. No longer are dad and mom the only source of knowledge. No longer do children need to hear the answer for "Why is the sky blue?", "because God made it that way". That may be the underlying reason but if a seven year old daughter asks that question to Google she will receive a length and complete answer from science. So, parents need to shift from being the source of knowledge to teaching children how to discover trustworthy sources of knowledge.

Kingdom people need to make this shift as well. The principles remain the same because they have been established by the unchanging King. But we cannot continue to operate from the 1940 play book. Methodology changes. Could this be why Jesus never healed two people the same way? Could it be that our Father wants us to use the imagination he gave us to see all possibilities in presenting his love to the nations?

There are certain methods used in the past, such as fear and manipulation, that should never have been used. We are dealing with the consequences of these past methods in the closed doors of today. The way people communicate is different today. The way people live out relationships is different. The need for relationship is still real but how we do it can be different.

There was a time that the Church cared for "the least of these" by building hospitals, orphanages and retirement homes, but the government has taken over most of these. But government is not good at relationship and we are. James says it is our purpose to "love and value our neighbour as we love and value ourselves". The question is, what does that look like today?

Preaching on the street corner has been changed up to preaching on social media. Gathering for worship has been shifting from a physical gathering to a digital gathering. Not all these changes are the most positive so it is up to us to lean into Father and his wisdom to find the best method today. The same is true for relationship.

I will be honest, I use many methods in building relationships but the most effective is still the face to face. There is something encouraging and pleasurable in the embrace of someone you love. There is something wonderful in seeing the twinkle in their eye. But the best method does not mean the only method because the best is not always available. There is great value in the encouragement of a video call, of the old method of a phone call, in the newer method of a text message. But it goes beyond just these kind of relationships.

I don't agree with it but there was a time when the methodology of communicating to the world their need for Jesus was to condemn them for their rebellion. We were mean and hateful, most of the time. We feared their sin and that fear provoked an unholy reaction. We need to seek Father for his wisdom for loving people who are unable to see in an ever darkening world. How do we give them Jesus' invitation in a way that they know it is sincere, better than what they have and what they desperately need and want? The old playbook does not work in a world that is bent on doing what it wants to do. 

For sure we need revival. But it's not what most of us think of as revival. We need to be revived to hearing Father's voice, to relying on him instead of our own understanding, to desiring his heart above everything else. We need to be revived to this dependent relationship and then from it's overflow the world will see the love of Father and will hear and be attracted to this invitation to drink from the Living Water. Methodology may change but the needs remain the same. 

Being An Island Sucks

You are not meant to be alone. You are not meant to face life here on your own strength. You are not an island. You need people. More accurately, you need your brothers and sisters in Christ. That is how it was designed. It is a spiritual fact and when we fight against it, decide against it we are deciding against Yahweh. Don't do it.

A simple verse to put the truth in focus is:

"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)

I make it a point not to argue against the words of Jesus. Even if I may not understand it at this moment I have found it is best policy simply to trust that Jesus is right.

There are a number of challenges with fellow Christians because each person is an individual and no one is perfect. We have certain expectations of each other and we all fail those expectations. We make mistakes, we hurt each other, we don't always follow Yahweh's instructions, we are sometimes selfish, we often try to manipulate things to our advantage. This causes hurt and when we are hurt the first thing we want to do is withdraw. This is natural to us. But we no longer allow our old nature to reign but instead support our new nature.

The first and most important aspect of this new nature is forgiveness. The only way the Body of Christ works is when forgiveness is always our first reaction. The only way we can be brothers and sisters is when we are liberal in our forgiveness. The only way we can make sense of anything is when we learn to forgive in the same manner we have been forgiven.

I am not talking about the forgiveness that says "I forgive but I will not trust you again". The forgiveness we have received from Father says "I forgive you and will continue to forgive you for eternity. I am making myself vulnerable to you and will absorb the pain in order to continue to forgive". Now if you want to talk about a definition of real love, this is it. It is that decision to not withdraw from the people who hurt us but to forgive them and to sacrifice ourselves for them, even if they hurt us again. This is love as defined by Jesus who told us to love each other as he has loved us.

If we choose to withdraw, to be alone, to isolate ourselves, it is because we have failed to understand what it is all about. It means we haven't surrendered our heart to Jesus but have simply paid lip service. This is not a physical or emotional response but a spiritual reality. Jesus transforms the surrendered heart, strengthens it to love as he has loved, unconditionally, with unending forgiveness, willing to be hurt countless times in vulnerability, always being healed by love. We are not an island and when Paul described the Church in 1 Corinthians 12 he ended it by explaining how this impossible thing was possible:

I want you to desire the best gifts. So I will show you a much better way. (1 Corinthians 12:31)

And then he gave us 1 Corinthians 13. Love is how it all works. Love makes the impossible work. Love provokes you to forgive those who hurt you and to draw close to them. These are the decisions we have to make. We have to decide not to withdraw, to stay close, and to make friends out of our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter the cost.

Do We Know What It Is To Love As Jesus Loved?

Relationship is far from easy. Even the best ones take a lot of work, investment and maintenance. We soon discover that if we do not look after our relationships they will slowly fade into non-existence. They can be complicated and at some point require us to make the decision to continue or walk away. But some of the best relationships are those that cost us the most.

Much of the philosophy today tells you to walk away from anything that isn't positive. But what is positive? I hope it is obvious that any abusive relationships should be abandoned. Emotional and physical abuse are not things that anyone should have to tolerate. This is certainly negative but much of the message from people these days is that any form of negativity should be cause for abandonment. If this is the case, Jesus would have walked away from everyone he encountered.

At some point the principles of the Kingdom need to rule your decision making, especially when it comes to relationships. According to what Jesus taught and demonstrated, relationships are not about what you get out of them but about what you put into them. Excellent relationships involve two sides who live by this Kingdom principle, but even if it is only you, that relationship is worth it because you are serving and ministering to that person. You are the aroma of Christ to them.

What is the reason you do not give up on your relationship with Jesus? It is not always easy. Many times we are asked to trust when we see no just reason to do so. Many times we are asked to do things that we disagree with. There are even times when we feel isolated and alone. So why do we keep going forward, seeking even greater intimacy? Is it not because of how Jesus served us; what he has done for us?

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

The Lord has proven his love for us many times over so when things get tough we are willing to trust him; trusting that he is for us not against us. That is the level of relationship we are to have with people. Friendship is proven in the fires of difficulties but it is built upon acts of love, mercy, grace, compassion, forgiveness. It is not easy to love everyone but you soon discover that the best relationships are those that have cost you the most.

Jesus has never and will never give up on us. We know it, he has proven it and we move forward in that confidence. So now, be that friend to someone else. Be the person that people know they can trust to never abandon them even in the midst of their stupidity. Everyone needs someone to love them at their worst, so show them the sincerity of Jesus' love by loving them as Jesus has loved you.

What To Do With The Broken Relationships In Our Lives

There is nothing more important in your life than relationships. At times we may lose sight of that fact as we become overwhelmed with school, work, illnesses, stresses, finances, sin but it remains a solid truth. You can have all the money in the world, all the toys, all the knowledge; you could have all the spiritual gifts and a great ability to communicate with people, but without love you have nothing and you are nothing. In the end the only thing that counts are the people you love and those you tried to love. Mother, father, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, wife, children, friends; but the most important of all is Jesus. Without his love you are completely lost.

Relationships require some special ingredients to work in our throw-away society. Too often we are prepared to throw away relationships that don't seem to be working, that somehow got broken. But we know from Jesus' perspective that relationships are worth pursuing at all cost and that with the special ingredients he supplies everything can be repaired. The ingredients are simple.

It starts with love. Not the Hallmark love but the trench warfare love. The love that says, no matter the cost, you will protect your buddy's life, the guy who is fighting beside you. You might not like some parts of his character but in the fight you have come to appreciate each other, despite the differences, and you would give your life to protect and defend him as he would for you. Love is a decision and from this applied decision other things begin to spring up.

Relationships grow strong where their is a decided reaction of forgiveness. No matter what your friends, or even your enemies, do to offend you, that relationship is so important to you that forgiveness covers over anything that offends. Love also demands vulnerability, a willingness to be hurt, trusting that Jesus repairs the heart. This means you take actions of trust even if the other person's idea of love may not be perfect. You decide to trust and live with the consequences. Wow, does this ever fly in the face of what is being taught today. Love is a risk but the rewards are so great that it does not matter.

Where am I getting this from? Watching Jesus. It is what he did for us. We were his enemies and he threw himself into our arms. He loved us from the start and because of that love he chose to forgive us even though we did not merit it. There are a lot of broken relationships in your life that do not merit your forgiveness, but they have enough value that they are worth the price of forgiving.

When Jesus allowed himself to be nailed to the cross there were no guarantees that anyone would respond to his sacrifice. He hoped, he trusted, he longed for us to respond, and many have. But many more have not. Most of the world has rejected his love, his forgiveness, his grace. Imagine the hurt he feels from this after all he did. But he considered relationship with us to be worth the risk of the sacrifice. Some of the broken relationships in your life will not be repaired despite your step of trust and vulnerability. There are those who have allowed their hearts to grow cold toward you, but don't let the brokenness remain due to your lack of effort and love. No one can accuse Jesus of not doing enough because he did it all.

There is a verse in Lamentations that we use a lot because it gives each day a sense of new hope. In context this it what it says:

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!” (3:22-24)

It speaks of the great love of Yahweh for his people. Those people are us. In the fulfillment of his promise he sent Jesus to represent his love and forgiveness. It is because of his mercies that we are not consumed. His compassion for us never fails, even though we often fail in the relationship. He renews this relationship every morning as we open our eyes. His faithfulness to his promises, to us, is beyond words. We say it time and again: Jesus is our everything; he is our portion; our promise; our hope. And in this relationship of love he told us, "love as I have loved you".

How can we accept such incredible love, demonstrating to us how real relationship works, and then not love people in our lives in the same manner? It doesn't matter who broke the relationship, it only matters how we respond to the brokenness. You aren't responsible for how they react to you and if it is rejection then it is rejection, but you never give up. You never walk away. You love even if they become your enemy. There is a cost to love without there always being a benefit. That is the nature of Jesus' love. Relationships are all that matter and Jesus' relationship with us is the foundation in our life from which we build all other relationships. Doesn't matter if you like it; it is fact. Now are you mature enough to act on that fact?

Happiness Is Not That Difficult

We all want to do well. We all want a successful life. We all want to be content with who we are and with what we are doing. We want to be happy. It is a reasonable desire and one which we make a lot more complicated than it is. It is unfortunate that in our Western society we equate success with "things". We fill our lives with "stuff" that we think will bring us happiness and pleasure. This "stuff" can be possessions, toys, gadgets; or it could be finances, healthy bank accounts, money to do stuff with; or it could be relationships, people we lean on. This "stuff" might also be academic achievement, education degrees, or perhaps our profession, the thing we dedicate our life to doing. But happiness is not that difficult.

All this "stuff" that I listed above are temporary. They look solid but really they are here today and gone tomorrow. We don't have any control over them at all. We may work hard to gain them but in a blink of an eye they can be taken from us. Our expectations can be shattered in an instant. One wrong word, one thoughtless decision, one indiscretion; gone. One accident, one disaster, someone else's mistake; gone. Life happens and in a flash we can go from victor to victim. What of happiness then? But happiness is not that difficult.

What of your expectations? What happens to you if you fall short of your goals? What if you don't obtain the stuff that you think will provoke your happiness? What if your grades are not good enough to get into that specific university which would allow you to apply for that certain career? What if in not getting that career you had to be satisfied with a lesser salary which would not allow you to buy all that "stuff" that you believe brings happiness? What if your investments don't work out and you end up closer to poor than rich? What if you can't support that great life-style? What if your perfect relationship turns out to be a nightmare of abuse? What happens when your expectations are not met? Is your life an unhappy ending? But happiness is not that difficult.

Things that are not possessed of eternity will never bring us happiness because they do not touch the deeper place of our life. There is a hunger in us, a desire to be in relationship with the One who created us. We try to satisfy this longing with "stuff" but "stuff" cannot reach the deeper place. "Stuff" cannot satisfy the longing of our soul. Only Jesus can respond to the longing of our soul and only that relationship brings us eternal satisfaction. Once possessed, nothing can touch that relationship because Jesus will never fall away no matter what we go through. Happiness, or what we know as joy, is simple and it is found in a passionate relationship with Jesus Christ.

There is a Scripture that best describes the attitude of those who walk with Jesus, who find their satisfaction in him, who exude joy in all circumstances of life. This is their code:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

To those who are pursuing happiness in all the wrong places this sounds like a fine sentiment that they may put on a plaque on their wall. But to those whose entire purpose is found in Jesus, this is the reality they live every day and it comes from they joy that they live. It doesn't produce the joy because the joy comes from the relationship but it is found in the river of joy that flows from the relationship. People who make Jesus their everything trust nothing else but him. They do not trust their own thinking on matters but desire to live the truth of his Word. They do not segregate their relationship with Jesus from what they do in the world. Jesus becomes their reason for what they do; all action and decisions are provoked by this relationship. In living in this relationship Jesus directs their affairs, their decisions, their paths, their direction and everything is for his purpose.

Happiness is not that difficult. It is found in a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship causes the colours of this world to fade in comparison so that the false joy of the "stuff" is replaced by the genuine joy of eternity. We are an eternal creature living in a temporary circumstances longing for relationship with our eternal Creator; and when we have it we know the experience of real joy.







 

The Pebble Effect

How do you see yourself in this world? It's a good question. How you handle life depends a lot on how you see your relationship with the world and with others. If we really see ourselves as "passing through" then we wouldn't get so emotionally invested in things that have no eternal impact. As much as I enjoy my Montreal Canadiens winning, I am not about to get emotionally tangled in something that does not matter for eternity. In other words, I am not about to feel low because my team lost.

You may think that sounds silly but many of us allow unimportant things to impact our day in negative ways. We get upset because we heard that someone we hardly know doesn't like us. We get upset because someone dented our car or because one of our kids broke a plate from our good China set. We get really bummed out because we flunked our calculus test and now our grade point average will drop, affecting which university we can approach. It sounds disastrous in the moment but when we are standing in eternity we won't even give it a thought.

So what is important? Relationships. Relationships and our role in them. Some would say that we have a responsibility to win people to Jesus. Do you know the Bible doesn't tell us that? Do you know that Jesus never told us to do that? Salvation belongs to God and conviction is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to share the Good News and to make disciples. You see, our role is that of teachers. We are to teach others what we have been taught.

This was one of the many things that Apostle Paul reminded Timothy to do:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)

You see, you have the responsibility to teach others what you have received and they in turn have the responsibility to teach what they have received. We aren't simply "passing through". As we pass through we have to leave an impact for Jesus. People should be able to look back on our path and see the countless relationships we have impacted with Jesus. They should see changed lives that go beyond the people we touched but include the people who were touched by those we touched and so on. Our life should have the pebble effect on the still pond.

Is this what you see in your life? Is this the lasting, eternal effect you are having in this world, or that Jesus is having through you? Are you reaching out into the lives of every person you are in relationship with, in an effort to teach them about Jesus? How many people will you meet in eternity who are there because you took the time to teach one person about Jesus?  Let's gain a proper perspective of our time on this earth.