'He brings one down, he exalts another.'
(Psalm 75:7) God is a Leveler. The good news is, his level is always higher than yours or mine, and truer. So when God brings you down, he brings you up. When he brings you up, he brings you up. It is always up with God, like it is always 'Yes!' in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20) In God and Christ the pursuit, the purpose, is always God, always Christ. He is the reward, and he is eternal life. (John 17:3) This is beyond our minds, and beyond our hearts and appetite. It is so spiritual it is other, a complete upstream walk. We prefer to see the purposes of God in our lives to be an outworking in our earthly lives, like healing, provision and peace. It is true - and great news - that God pours himself out on our earthly lives, and answers our calls (Psalm 118:21); but it is helpful - and important – to remember, to really see and believe, that heaven itself, like earth, is from the word of God, and sustained by the word of God. (Heb 1:3; Col 1:16-17) To know God, to hold Christ, is to go through the 'door' of life. (John 10:9) Life is Christ, and in Christ. It is an all-consuming, spiritual truth. Now the course of distaste of stepping out of earthly values and pursuits into the heavenly realm, is the same course as its reward. The cross marks the spot not only of a crucifixion, but of a resurrection. The darkest point as access to the brightest arrival. Jesus constantly challenged our hold to the earthly, and its hold on us, and he did and will let us 'walk away sad.' (Matthew 19:22) If the Lord is moving in your life today, and it feels like he brings you down and exalts another, let go and rise in his spirit. This is a lifting, a raising up, an eternal positioning and healing. 'Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and he will lift you up in due time.' (1 Peter 5:6)
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Most lines and boundaries in our lives are drawn in our own heads. Who likes who, where trust starts and stops, what groups exist and don't exist, loyalty lines, legacies...
Paul (author of 12 of the New Testament books of the Bible), opens our eyes to the deeper 'lines' of life's realities. He writes, 'We wrestle not with 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.' (Ephesians 6:12) That is a significant empire of spirit world right there! Rulers, authorities, powers, evil... Jesus himself addressed this kingdom of darkness when he said, 'The prince of this dark world stands defeated.' (John 16:11) Prince? Again, we see power structures. This spirit world is not one to obsess about, but is real, and is far bigger, more complex and more populated than our own temporal and physical world. Another fascinating scripture about seeing behind the 'seen', is when Elijah opens the eyes of his servant to see the real forces that surround them. (2 Kings 6:8-23) Interestingly, our own lives as followers of Christ are 'on display to the heavenly bodies'. (Ephesians 3:10) So what really drives us when we act and respond or anticipate situations? What structures and realities are we believing, referencing, deferring to? What princes are we bowing to, norms following, values navigating, deities honoring? Jesus said, 'Anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.' (Matthew 7:24-25) Does something haunt you in your past? Maybe something done to you, or maybe something you've done? Does the future look bleak - even an eternal one, a heavenly one - because this hurt will always 'have been'?
Despair creeps over the soul like a mist, and not even death and destruction can rewrite history... Or can it? Now listen to this story - the most important one you will ever hear - and consider: God made you. He made you in the image of God (Gen 1:27), and this is a powerful responsibility. Like Lucifer, we have used our God-image and capacities to rebel against God, to reject him, to compete with him. We have God-like power for destruction, for evil. Maybe this is all too clear to you. Now here is where we need to heed. Really look and listen to this truth: God put a rescue plan in action, that would satisfy the soul... So here we stand, in pools of our own blood and that of others. We are destroyed. It is here that God puts his own glory aside (Phil 2:6-7), after hundreds of years 'foreshadowing' and 'foretelling' this moment (Is 7:14; 9:1-7; Is 53). He 'becomes nothing', becomes one of us. What happens here is the only thing we would accept from a God we blame. He allows us to beat and kill him, to get all our anger out on him, to hate and betray and mock him. He allows us to pour out all the hell in our souls over him like a drink offering. And here he takes us even deeper. He takes this 'sin' on himself and 'becomes sin for us'. (2 Cor 5:21) He takes death into himself, and dies with it - like any hero who has to sacrifice himself to defeat the enemy. So our sin is on him, and death in him, and death itself dies with him. (1 Cor 15:54-58) Then Jesus rises from the dead - 'the firstborn from among the dead'. (Col 1:15-20) He comes back to you and me, his killers. In fact, he uses his blood, the blood we spilt, to buy us back. (Rev 5:9) And with his defeat over death and all sin of all time, he offers to give us - to create in us - 'a new heart and new spirit.' (Ez 36:26) He offers you not only a new future, but a new past. It is a bloody affair, God's blood on our hands, but it is a God-sized, spiritual truth: to write you a new future, and write you a pure past. Call on him. 'Come, let us reason together,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow.' (Isaiah 1:18) Some of the most powerful movies are the ones where the boat was missed. Not accidentally, however. It's when the hero set out to catch that boat to the new world, new opportunities, fortunes, adventures, and has said all his goodbyes. But then he stops. He considers. He lets the ship sail without him.
Paul writes to the Romans, to the Gentiles, and to us today, 'Although they knew God... they exchanged the glory of the immortal God...' (Romans 1:21-23) All of us have sailed away from our soul's true home. God calls each of us back, to come home, through the 'door' of Jesus Christ. (John 10:9) 'I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in...' (Revelation 3:20) 'Good deeds' are indeed good. He who judges another man's good deeds should take off his sandals and back away, for he treads on holy ground.
Scripture is full of admonition to do good, and even the deeds of men who worshiped pagan gods came up before the true God, and moved him to reveal himself. (Acts 10:1-4) But good is only good, insofar as it is good. And herein lies the perennial prob' with all things Scripture. When Jesus was addressed as 'Good Teacher!' he quickly exposed our motive for reciprocal praise, and responded: 'Who is good? No one is good except God alone.' (Mark 10:18) In dealing with God and Jesus, there is no reference to our goodness. It does not feature. To factor it in is to miss everything that Jesus is, and Jesus suffered, and the door that Jesus is to salvation. 'By good works, no one will be justified in his sight.' (Romans 3:20) We cheer kids on. We cheer adults on. We cheer when someone is going after a goal, laying hold of a dream, business or rehabilitation. We cheer not because of what it is, primarily, but because of what it means. We cheer for the same reason we lament when that same 'dream' becomes a nightmare, when you no longer hold and pursue it, but it holds and pursues you. We now find ourselves pleading with you to let it go, to not let it define you, to not see yourself bound up in it...
If you sign up to the dream and put your soul in it, you sign up to the nightmare also. Jesus said, 'My words are spirit and they are life.' (John 6:63). And the truest you, the one we cheer and rush to rescue, is spirit. 'I have carved your name in the palm of my hand.' (Isaiah 49:16) Religion describes everything we think we are doing for God, but that he is actually doing for us.
Ever thanked a kid for something you shouldn't have - like eating their dinner - and then they actually say, 'You're welcome!'? Well, I have 5 kids, and lots of these stories... You wanna bark at the chillen that they are the one who should be saying 'thanks', but then why did I say thanks? The point here is that we 'do' for God, things that he's doing for us, and we actually think that he should thank us. Jesus lived and died to fill our life story with spirit and meaning. We think we suffer church for Christ, when actually he suffered that we might have and enjoy church, a light and haven in the dark week. We sacrifice money for Christ, when actually he came and set us free from the love and dictatorship that money had on my life and soul. We sacrifice worldly experiences, when actually he brought us a 'door' to heaven, so that we now have deep and eternal purpose in avoiding worldly experiences. This morning was one of those days. Rain still coming down hard. A couple days ago I had a young man - very young - speaking to me about his own 'suicidal thoughts', which he always associated with darkness descending outside, then inside...
So this morning my mind continued to race up and down corridors of 'discipline', truths we have to believe and hold, in order to stand firm on solid ground. And this battle is real, and necessary, and daily. But then I cast my thoughts to heaven... I pictured stepping out of the ocean, in crystal blue waters now, onto warm, comforting, white sand. The sunlight beating heat onto my body and into my soul. Respite. Arrival. There are 2 powerful passages and pictures of heaven in the very last 2 chapters of the Bible, and at the end of a 'raging sea' that is the book of Revelation. In chapter 21:1-5 and chapter 22:1-5 (look them up!), we see a place not only of outward bliss, but of inward capacity to enjoy; there we will stand beside crystal clear waters flowing from a throne, through a city, with trees with leaves that 'heal nations'. We will have no 'sun' because the Son will be the light. There will be no more sadness within, no more tears without, no more sorrow. There will be no more struggle in the soul to hold to truth, because Truth will hold us. (Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:1-5; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2; John 5:24) Do you really want that other job? Do you really want to change that car or house or watch or channel - and pour all that time and effort and distraction into that?
If you look around you, for a quiet moment, and defy the general angst and sorrow of life and living, you might see your dream already come true. Is there a kid, or spouse, or parent, who you now, this very instant, have the time and resources to love? Maybe a call, or coffee, or puzzle? What, exactly, am I running from or running to, if right here, right now, I have the dream? 'Jesus stood up and said, 'Is anyone thirsty? Let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me... streams of living water will flow from within him.' (John 7:37-38) Sometimes I go to church, to have gone to church. Get that done and dusted, so I can get on with living, working, worrying... God in a box. Signed, sealed, and delivered out of the way.
It is against this backdrop - and core, universal trait of all mankind - that the question to, and answer from Jesus is so profound. A theology teacher of the day asked Jesus, 'What is the most important command?' Jesus replied, 'To love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.' (Matthew 22:36-40) |
AuthorPeter Walker. I hope you enjoy these reflections. Please feel free to comment!:) Archives
February 2024
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