What if you died, went to heaven, saw all the glory of God there, and then He asked you to go back to earth and now live here again? The thing was, He set you down on earth like in the terminator where they go through time with no clothes and nothing at all? (Okay, so you get one set of clothes to start with).
But He also gave you a set of priorities: 1) build His kingdom and love Him first, no matter what 2) love all the people you meet 3) do what you can to get people of all the ethnic groups in the world following Jesus 4) strengthen other people who believe as much as you can in their faith and love for God & 5) do as much good as you can anywhere you can, but especially for other believers. The tools He did send with you are 1) His written message for the world 2) His presence and person inside of you 3) access to Him to request help, and anything, really, that you need to accomplish His priorities 4) His promise that He will be with you and never leave you and that IF you keep His priorities first, He will take care of all your needs for living in this world and 5) the reality that there are other people on earth who are followers of this same God.
How would you set off to arrange what you would do here on earth? Where would you start?
What would you begin to do?
I want to propose that the VERY LAST THING you would ever consider would be to adopt living like 99.9% of American people live as your first priority. It would be laughable. "Oh, I will first go get a job so I can buy my own house and invest in 2 cars and enough clothes to have a change for every day of the year and so I can have enough electronics to entertain myself for most of the hours I am not working at my job. Oh, and I want to make sure that I have enough food so I can eat as much as I want every day. And I have to be sure to have my own dwelling place with enough furniture to fill every room. I will also pay money to make sure if I die that my heirs have a million dollars to live on and never have to work. Yeah, that's how I will start." Umm, what does ANY OF THIS have to do with the priorities you were given or the tools God gave you when He sent you back here?
Yet that is where I have found myself and I am undone. I have to go back to the start. The first sentence. This is me and this IS us. But I find myself with pretty much a lot of that stuff now with me. I have had it backwards. You don't start, I should not have started by thinking I should focus on fulfilling the second half of tool number 4 listed above. Why would I even think that? Because that is just what is done here in America. Oh... the American dream. To me has become a nightmare of sorts. "Let me go, I want to be free, I want to live, and follow the One who brought me back from the dead." "NO, YOU MUST SERVE THE AMERICAN DREAM AND GIVE ALL YOUR SOUL TO FIND IT; YOU MUST NEVER FOLLOW THE PRIORITIES THAT GOD GAVE YOU AFTER HE BROUGHT YOU BACK ALIVE. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
So now I MUST re-Imagine my life. Start with the priorities of God, start with His tools He gives me. And whatever else gets in the way of those, and does not help or serve those, they go. Adios. Hasta la vista, baby. They must. "If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." If we want to be Jesus' disciple, we have to say to ourselves NO! Then we must DIE. Then we are given life and we follow Jesus. And following Him means we adapt to His priorities and use the tools He gives.
We DON'Tadapt his priorities to us, to our way of life, and make His tools serve our purposes. Oh God have mercy. This is NOT ABOUT MONEY. It is about priorities and whom I am serving. But in America we give lip service to saying we get that it is not about money. WE DON'T GET IT. We do serve money and live for money and follow money and do everything we can to preserve our way of "life" instead of putting everything on the pyre for the use of the King and reorienting everything about us toward His mission, His goals, His priorities. If we do that and He lets us have money aplenty to bless and do good, praise His name. And if He lets us live with 4 other families and share 2 cars and eat rice and beans so we can follow Him, praise His name. And if He lets us live on 100 dollars a month and have one set of clothes and live in a tent and walk from town to town to share the good news and we are beaten by the unbelievers there, then Praise His Glorious name. And we might then understand how our Indian evangelist brothers, maybe some of them, live their lives for the King. Would it not be better to be laughed to scorn, thrown to the lions and lose our very lives than to sell our souls for money and follow a dollar? We are children of the great King, and we bear the name of the suffering servant: and no servant is greater than his master. Let us follow HIM wherever He leads. And one day, on THAT day, to hear from His lips, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," oh what bliss. We will know that we have pleased Him who is our very LIFE.
Unless we can re-IMAGINE our way of living to accomplish God's priorities with the tools God has given us, we will continue to be sucked along with the American way of life.
Christians: we are dead people brought back to life. Re-Imagine your time here with faces solidly focused on our Savior. We must, we must, we must, we must.
If you want to read more on this, read Francis Schaeffer's book, "True Spirituality," and Romans chapter 6.
a blog of thoughts on life and faith by K T Mat
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Is the red rubber ball enough?
In America, important topics like life and death and meaning and purpose are hard to talk about. Everyone has his or her own viewpoint and we try to respect that. But sometimes we differ and we don’t like to offend our friends. So I offer this little essay to my friends to hear a bit of my personal journey of discovery where it can be read in quietness and thought. I hope you will simply hear it as the discovery of a friend and consider what I say. Some things are too important to keep to ourselves.
A few years ago I heard a man talk about his “little red rubber ball.” He was creating a metaphor for searching and finding meaning in the little red ball he had chased as a boy on a playground. That ball had pointed to his athletic ability, and to what was most important to him. The metaphor is powerful because it says we should follow our dreams, the things that really make us come alive, wherever they take us. In his words, keep chasing the red rubber ball no matter what.
Much of my life I have tried to pursue life by how well I got through a day or how much I enjoyed what I was doing in my life, by the use of my wits and my ability to explain hard things in a simple way. But I have come to the place where I know this is fruitless and has not satisfied who I find myself to be in a deep way. I have come to see that things or vocation or time or even pleasures cannot be my little red rubber ball, nor anything that is only of temporary existence. I know I am made for more than that. These things just do not fulfill.
My discovery is that maybe all this is looking for life in a fundamentally wrong way. What if life cannot be found in day to day existence, and really isn’t about making it through another day, or having our heart beat for another year, or even in finding out what we do best or are really skilled at? Maybe life really isn’t just our biological existence, and the ways we make that tolerable or interesting. So where then do we find a life that is actually life?
Only 86,400 seconds in a day; it’s not enough!!!! Tick tock tick tock tick tock
Philosophical thought: If the universe is fundamentally impersonal, then why should we expect life to be found anywhere at all? I don’t think, in the case of a cold and empty universe where all there is is physical matter, that life can be found. How could it be? My “life” would just be existence for a mere 70 to 80 years and then back to dust. No matter how interesting or eventful my existence was, that would be the fundamental thing. Life would be simply prolonged death, and there is no meaning.
No meaning in this by itself
But what if?
But what if?
But what if?
What if the universe is fundamentally personal? What if a personal being made this universe and calls us into personal fellowship or friendship with himself as the fundamental thing life is? Then that would mean that all the searching for purpose and meaning and “life” in the impersonal, in things or existence or physical pleasure, whatever I can do and muster up, was searching in all the wrong places.
The personal God creates
The personal God puts all here into His creation
The right place to search would be in the realm of the personal, the realm of the creator who is personal. This is what I now believe life is. It is not existence biologically, no matter how interesting or extravagant that existence is. It is friendship with the one who is the personal core or center of this universe: its creator. Many years ago I was approached by this creator to start a friendship, but it has taken many years for me to realize that he did not want to make my “life” better or easier or more satisfying. He wanted to become my life itself.
Jesus Christ said that eternal life is to know this one true God, and himself, who had been sent by God. Life is found in the personal creator God. Jesus also said that if we heard his words and believed the one who had sent Him, we had crossed over from death to life. Fundamentally we are dead apart from knowing Him. But we are also alive when we hear him and begin to believe him and to have a friendship with him.
I am not saying that life is anything about becoming religious, joining a church or synagogue, giving money to poor people, or becoming a good person. Those won’t make dead people come alive. But the person who holds the power of life and death can. And He wants to. And he says that life is in knowing him. Jesus said He had come to give us life, and to the full. And he gives it through Himself.
Jesus gave himself for us in this world and he took away the cause of our alienation from his Father, the guilt of our evil that is a very part of our natural selves. We see this spring up often, in the lies we tell to protect ourselves to the desires we have to advance at others’ expense. We see it in the self centered nature of our existence where we primarily protect our own existence to the lack of concern we have over our creator’s desire to be loved by us. It permeates us. So does a specialness, no doubt. We have a sense that we are special and valuable and worthy. But that does not negate the fact that we have fallen short in many ways of what we know we should be.
We can pretend we are fundamentally good, but we know better when we are alone and realize we don’t have friendship with our creator just because we might wish to.
Historical thought: God has said all through history that the way to come to Him is by offering a sacrifice of a life for all the evil we do; you can read about this in the Bible in the book of Leviticus, and many other places. It is called the Jewish sacrificial system. All those sacrifices that have been offered point to the real sacrifice that makes us friends with God in light of the wrong we have done: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a cross in the year 30 AD or so in the land of Israel.
Religions, or doing good, these are not life!
Jesus did this so we could know Him and find life in Him. “He died for us, so that…we might live together with him.” He also was raised from the dead, and therefore we can know him now.
Being someone who knows Jesus is to be someone who is finding life in him. We start by stopping our effort at giving ourselves life, and instead let Him give us life by what he did for us in His death and resurrection from the dead. And then we can begin to know and love him, to become his friend. And life is forever found in knowing him more and more.
Back to the metaphor of the red rubber ball. Someone put that red rubber ball on the playground for that little boy to find. So, I don’t need a red rubber ball, what I need is the one who put the red rubber ball on the playground. I need the person, not the impersonal thing he has given me that seems to satisfy for a while. And once I begin to know him, I can be content. And then he may just give me a rubber ball to express much of my love and friendship for him in a way that suits me best. But that keeps the red rubber ball (or is it golden? Or grey? Or green?) in the right place.
Thoughts from your friend,
Kevin.
A few years ago I heard a man talk about his “little red rubber ball.” He was creating a metaphor for searching and finding meaning in the little red ball he had chased as a boy on a playground. That ball had pointed to his athletic ability, and to what was most important to him. The metaphor is powerful because it says we should follow our dreams, the things that really make us come alive, wherever they take us. In his words, keep chasing the red rubber ball no matter what.
Much of my life I have tried to pursue life by how well I got through a day or how much I enjoyed what I was doing in my life, by the use of my wits and my ability to explain hard things in a simple way. But I have come to the place where I know this is fruitless and has not satisfied who I find myself to be in a deep way. I have come to see that things or vocation or time or even pleasures cannot be my little red rubber ball, nor anything that is only of temporary existence. I know I am made for more than that. These things just do not fulfill.
My discovery is that maybe all this is looking for life in a fundamentally wrong way. What if life cannot be found in day to day existence, and really isn’t about making it through another day, or having our heart beat for another year, or even in finding out what we do best or are really skilled at? Maybe life really isn’t just our biological existence, and the ways we make that tolerable or interesting. So where then do we find a life that is actually life?
Only 86,400 seconds in a day; it’s not enough!!!! Tick tock tick tock tick tock
Philosophical thought: If the universe is fundamentally impersonal, then why should we expect life to be found anywhere at all? I don’t think, in the case of a cold and empty universe where all there is is physical matter, that life can be found. How could it be? My “life” would just be existence for a mere 70 to 80 years and then back to dust. No matter how interesting or eventful my existence was, that would be the fundamental thing. Life would be simply prolonged death, and there is no meaning.
No meaning in this by itself
But what if?
But what if?
But what if?
What if the universe is fundamentally personal? What if a personal being made this universe and calls us into personal fellowship or friendship with himself as the fundamental thing life is? Then that would mean that all the searching for purpose and meaning and “life” in the impersonal, in things or existence or physical pleasure, whatever I can do and muster up, was searching in all the wrong places.
The personal God creates
The personal God puts all here into His creation
The right place to search would be in the realm of the personal, the realm of the creator who is personal. This is what I now believe life is. It is not existence biologically, no matter how interesting or extravagant that existence is. It is friendship with the one who is the personal core or center of this universe: its creator. Many years ago I was approached by this creator to start a friendship, but it has taken many years for me to realize that he did not want to make my “life” better or easier or more satisfying. He wanted to become my life itself.
Jesus Christ said that eternal life is to know this one true God, and himself, who had been sent by God. Life is found in the personal creator God. Jesus also said that if we heard his words and believed the one who had sent Him, we had crossed over from death to life. Fundamentally we are dead apart from knowing Him. But we are also alive when we hear him and begin to believe him and to have a friendship with him.
I am not saying that life is anything about becoming religious, joining a church or synagogue, giving money to poor people, or becoming a good person. Those won’t make dead people come alive. But the person who holds the power of life and death can. And He wants to. And he says that life is in knowing him. Jesus said He had come to give us life, and to the full. And he gives it through Himself.
Jesus gave himself for us in this world and he took away the cause of our alienation from his Father, the guilt of our evil that is a very part of our natural selves. We see this spring up often, in the lies we tell to protect ourselves to the desires we have to advance at others’ expense. We see it in the self centered nature of our existence where we primarily protect our own existence to the lack of concern we have over our creator’s desire to be loved by us. It permeates us. So does a specialness, no doubt. We have a sense that we are special and valuable and worthy. But that does not negate the fact that we have fallen short in many ways of what we know we should be.
We can pretend we are fundamentally good, but we know better when we are alone and realize we don’t have friendship with our creator just because we might wish to.
Historical thought: God has said all through history that the way to come to Him is by offering a sacrifice of a life for all the evil we do; you can read about this in the Bible in the book of Leviticus, and many other places. It is called the Jewish sacrificial system. All those sacrifices that have been offered point to the real sacrifice that makes us friends with God in light of the wrong we have done: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a cross in the year 30 AD or so in the land of Israel.
Religions, or doing good, these are not life!
We feel alone; alienated; self centered.
Sacrifice after sacrifice
POINT to One sacrifice for all time.
One final sacrifice to take away all guilt
POINT to One sacrifice for all time.
One final sacrifice to take away all guilt
One resurrected Lord we can know forever!
Being someone who knows Jesus is to be someone who is finding life in him. We start by stopping our effort at giving ourselves life, and instead let Him give us life by what he did for us in His death and resurrection from the dead. And then we can begin to know and love him, to become his friend. And life is forever found in knowing him more and more.
Back to the metaphor of the red rubber ball. Someone put that red rubber ball on the playground for that little boy to find. So, I don’t need a red rubber ball, what I need is the one who put the red rubber ball on the playground. I need the person, not the impersonal thing he has given me that seems to satisfy for a while. And once I begin to know him, I can be content. And then he may just give me a rubber ball to express much of my love and friendship for him in a way that suits me best. But that keeps the red rubber ball (or is it golden? Or grey? Or green?) in the right place.
"I am your life, not the ball.
I gave you the ball, find life in ME.
Enjoy me as you play with the ball I give you."
Thoughts from your friend,
Kevin.
Monday, October 17, 2011
where are all the eyeballs and gotees?
This message is for all the 20 and 30 somethings that have decided church life is not for them.
There are some bodies walking around our country missing some eyeballs, gotees, lips, ears, arms and legs. If you are someone who knows Jesus, really knows Him, His body needs you. One of the reasons I suspect you dropped out was that the church you were a part of, either growing up, or briefly as an adult, offended, bored, alienated, pushed, or became irrelevant to you in some way. However, what you failed to realize for some reason, maybe not your own fault, was that leaving permanently was like taking the eyes and ears of that church with it. Especially if you left because you saw or heard things that seemed wrong, there is a good chance that church even lost its mouth. If you had stayed and spoken of those things that bothered you, a humble body that knew it needed wise words might have listened. If not, no doubt the disease might have gotten worse and they may have smacked themselves in their own mouth. Prophetical people don't exist in a vacuum, God puts them among other sinful saints. That's the deal. But if parts of the body get up and leave, that body is left without a gift to it, and it weakens. If the mouth is cut off, perhaps God wants to give a mouth or eye to some other body in need of it. A transplant.
You may think that they don't need you and you can get along without them. Can an eyeball and mouth make a body? No. They die. So if you have found like minded people you now hang out with, good chance that you are missing some key parts, like legs and hair and feet. Who knows. But likely all the parts are not represented. You need the body and it needs you. "Well, I ain't goin' back." Fine. Jesus wants you simply to encourage other believers and be part of a body that is operating like a body. Read Hebrews 10 and 1 Corinthians 12. Start a new body that follows Jesus. Change what you didn't like and follow Him together. But you will probably need some people that are different than you and who do or say things that make you feel uncomfortable. Rebuilding Frankenstein had to hurt. But, at least he was alive.
We need our young voices, our young eyes and ears. Don't leave if you are presently part of a body. Learn to speak up and make those around you listen. If your body doesn't like a mouth that says too much, try to whisper. But don't try to become a toe; God made you as a mouth. Same for any other part. Our old bodies need to change, no doubt. And we need the eyesight Jesus is giving you about what the world is like now to change in the right ways. We need your sensitivity (nerves) and your insight. We need you to be a mouth, or an elbow, or the feet willing to go places that older people won't go.
This is important. Jesus' body on earth needs to be whole. We need you.
20 or 30 somethings, please stop the bloodshed; build a body or join one as a transplant. Please.
There are some bodies walking around our country missing some eyeballs, gotees, lips, ears, arms and legs. If you are someone who knows Jesus, really knows Him, His body needs you. One of the reasons I suspect you dropped out was that the church you were a part of, either growing up, or briefly as an adult, offended, bored, alienated, pushed, or became irrelevant to you in some way. However, what you failed to realize for some reason, maybe not your own fault, was that leaving permanently was like taking the eyes and ears of that church with it. Especially if you left because you saw or heard things that seemed wrong, there is a good chance that church even lost its mouth. If you had stayed and spoken of those things that bothered you, a humble body that knew it needed wise words might have listened. If not, no doubt the disease might have gotten worse and they may have smacked themselves in their own mouth. Prophetical people don't exist in a vacuum, God puts them among other sinful saints. That's the deal. But if parts of the body get up and leave, that body is left without a gift to it, and it weakens. If the mouth is cut off, perhaps God wants to give a mouth or eye to some other body in need of it. A transplant.
You may think that they don't need you and you can get along without them. Can an eyeball and mouth make a body? No. They die. So if you have found like minded people you now hang out with, good chance that you are missing some key parts, like legs and hair and feet. Who knows. But likely all the parts are not represented. You need the body and it needs you. "Well, I ain't goin' back." Fine. Jesus wants you simply to encourage other believers and be part of a body that is operating like a body. Read Hebrews 10 and 1 Corinthians 12. Start a new body that follows Jesus. Change what you didn't like and follow Him together. But you will probably need some people that are different than you and who do or say things that make you feel uncomfortable. Rebuilding Frankenstein had to hurt. But, at least he was alive.
We need our young voices, our young eyes and ears. Don't leave if you are presently part of a body. Learn to speak up and make those around you listen. If your body doesn't like a mouth that says too much, try to whisper. But don't try to become a toe; God made you as a mouth. Same for any other part. Our old bodies need to change, no doubt. And we need the eyesight Jesus is giving you about what the world is like now to change in the right ways. We need your sensitivity (nerves) and your insight. We need you to be a mouth, or an elbow, or the feet willing to go places that older people won't go.
This is important. Jesus' body on earth needs to be whole. We need you.
20 or 30 somethings, please stop the bloodshed; build a body or join one as a transplant. Please.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Americans complain about all the wrong things
"I hate housework"
"I have taxes that are too high"
"I hate getting up early for my work"
"Raising children is too hard"
"I am done being a mother"
"We have too many laws in our country restricting us"
To which I reply:
At least you have a house. Would you prefer a cardboard roof or the shanty of a Brazilian slum dweller?
At least you have a government that does help its people. Would you prefer a military junta that offers no education for the children of the country like in Myanmar, or one where the teachers take the money but don't show up like in NE India?
At least you have work that pays you 10 dollars or more per hour. Would prefer work that pays you 2 dollars per day like around 800 million people in India live on?
At least you have children. Would you prefer the one child policy of China? Or the tradition that leads to most baby girls in India being killed because of wanting more males?
At least you are a mother. Or would you prefer to be barren or to be left in old age with no one to think of you or visit you?
At least we have law and order. Would you prefer to live in Sudan or other places where there is genocide or guerrilla warfare?
We Americans are rich and spoiled. We have so much and take so much for granted. Maybe more of us should take a trip to see another spot in the world.
"I have taxes that are too high"
"I hate getting up early for my work"
"Raising children is too hard"
"I am done being a mother"
"We have too many laws in our country restricting us"
To which I reply:
At least you have a house. Would you prefer a cardboard roof or the shanty of a Brazilian slum dweller?
At least you have a government that does help its people. Would you prefer a military junta that offers no education for the children of the country like in Myanmar, or one where the teachers take the money but don't show up like in NE India?
At least you have work that pays you 10 dollars or more per hour. Would prefer work that pays you 2 dollars per day like around 800 million people in India live on?
At least you have children. Would you prefer the one child policy of China? Or the tradition that leads to most baby girls in India being killed because of wanting more males?
At least you are a mother. Or would you prefer to be barren or to be left in old age with no one to think of you or visit you?
At least we have law and order. Would you prefer to live in Sudan or other places where there is genocide or guerrilla warfare?
We Americans are rich and spoiled. We have so much and take so much for granted. Maybe more of us should take a trip to see another spot in the world.
Monday, October 3, 2011
What is "life"?
I want us to think hard about what "life" is. Our answer to this questions really shapes us and our experiences as a human being. I believe that most of my time here on this planet I have been answering this question deistically. Let me explain.
If we view life as our experience of time and the events that occur within it, we are not approaching "life" any differently than a rock or a flower, because they also "experience" time and events, in that time and events march forward around them and affect them and change them. We are no more alive than they are in that sense, and no less. When we think of life in this way, as the motion forward of time and our experience of events and moments and feelings and biological existence, how do we view God? He becomes the mover of that "life", and perhaps one more experience and mover of our "life". He is an outside actor influencing us, and nothing more. He might be a great influencer and very important to us, but that is all He can ever be if our framework for life looks like this. This is a deistic view of God. While we may see Him as personal, He is interpreted as only another great influencer of our "life". Everything about what we believe "life" is simply goes forward whether He speaks or not. You see, He is just an add-on in this way of seeing.
Jesus said many things that touch on this, but unless we reorient our understanding of "life", we will miss what He said. We must let His words rock us to the core. I am going to quote several verses, and then you put these up against the former definition I discussed.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6 If life is simply our experience, this makes no sense. Life is a person, a particular person, Jesus the messiah, the second person of the Trinity. It is not an experience or event or biological process, it is HIM.
"This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent." John 17:3 A very clear definition that life is knowing God and His Son. Life is a personal relationship, not deistic, that centers on knowing God. To have "life", we must have a knowing of God, and of Jesus.
"I am the bread of life." John 6:35 We must "feed" on Him to have life; we must draw life from Him. It is not external to Him anymore than the nourishment of bread is external to it.
""I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24 The only way to enter into life begins by hearing His voice and entering that vital personal experience with Him. Otherwise we have no life; we are dead.
"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself." John 5:25-26 Jesus has life in Him, as does His Father.
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:11-12 Without Him we have NO life.
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39-40 We must absolutely go to Jesus to have "life." There is no other way. Any talk of finding eternal life apart from Him is meaningless.
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thess. 5:9-10 Heaven and eternal life are being with Jesus. Just as life here is not in our experience of time or biological activity, eternal life is not an endless experience of that either: eternal life is an ongoing experience of Jesus.
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 Jesus Himself is life, and if we believe in Him, death itself does not take "life" from us, because it cannot take Him.
People who do not know God experience existence, but they do not have life. They are dead. And they will know this deadness forever. O Lord, have mercy on the people of this world so they might see your Son and hear His voice now before it is too late.
Life is Jesus. Life is knowing (in experience) God. Life is knowing (in experience) Jesus. It is a personal union and experience of and with the one true God.
One of the reasons I have been so up and down in my "life" is that I have viewed "it" wrong. Going through a day has been about the endless 24 hour cycle. This is not life. And so I have been buffeted by every experience and event and activity around me. This has changed, and is changing, now. Life is Jesus. So instead of my going through a "life", life is in me and I know Him, who is life. These other things are simply the backdrop for my experience of Him. They are what I walk in as I walk with Him. I think it used to be vica versa. He was the backdrop as I experienced events and activities. And when it was that way, my view of Him could change with the weather, so to speak.
If you ever read John chapter 10, read it with these other verses in mind. I will finish these thoughts with a quote from that chapter, and then a few comments: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 Amen Jesus, let me have YOU to the full. The thief is not looking to make "life" hard, but to steal us from Him, to kill our union with Him, to destroy us from ever knowing Him. And Jesus wants us to have Him in fullness. This is what He meant. He did NOT mean that we should have happiness (unless we know that is in HIM) nor ease nor great experiences of time and biology; He meant and means for us to have HIM. O Lord, make it so.
So tomorrow, when I get up, I get to experience Jesus some more during my waking hours. I get Him. He is no longer just in my life tomorrow. He is my life . I won't endure Him to have 24 hours tomorrow of life. I have Him tomorrow, and if He wills, 24 hours will pass while I walk with Him and experience life in Him. And His wonderful love and goodness I get to know and enjoy. Thank you Jesus, for opening my eyes, to this reality that centers in you.
If we view life as our experience of time and the events that occur within it, we are not approaching "life" any differently than a rock or a flower, because they also "experience" time and events, in that time and events march forward around them and affect them and change them. We are no more alive than they are in that sense, and no less. When we think of life in this way, as the motion forward of time and our experience of events and moments and feelings and biological existence, how do we view God? He becomes the mover of that "life", and perhaps one more experience and mover of our "life". He is an outside actor influencing us, and nothing more. He might be a great influencer and very important to us, but that is all He can ever be if our framework for life looks like this. This is a deistic view of God. While we may see Him as personal, He is interpreted as only another great influencer of our "life". Everything about what we believe "life" is simply goes forward whether He speaks or not. You see, He is just an add-on in this way of seeing.
Jesus said many things that touch on this, but unless we reorient our understanding of "life", we will miss what He said. We must let His words rock us to the core. I am going to quote several verses, and then you put these up against the former definition I discussed.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6 If life is simply our experience, this makes no sense. Life is a person, a particular person, Jesus the messiah, the second person of the Trinity. It is not an experience or event or biological process, it is HIM.
"This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent." John 17:3 A very clear definition that life is knowing God and His Son. Life is a personal relationship, not deistic, that centers on knowing God. To have "life", we must have a knowing of God, and of Jesus.
"I am the bread of life." John 6:35 We must "feed" on Him to have life; we must draw life from Him. It is not external to Him anymore than the nourishment of bread is external to it.
""I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24 The only way to enter into life begins by hearing His voice and entering that vital personal experience with Him. Otherwise we have no life; we are dead.
"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself." John 5:25-26 Jesus has life in Him, as does His Father.
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1 John 5:11-12 Without Him we have NO life.
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39-40 We must absolutely go to Jesus to have "life." There is no other way. Any talk of finding eternal life apart from Him is meaningless.
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thess. 5:9-10 Heaven and eternal life are being with Jesus. Just as life here is not in our experience of time or biological activity, eternal life is not an endless experience of that either: eternal life is an ongoing experience of Jesus.
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 Jesus Himself is life, and if we believe in Him, death itself does not take "life" from us, because it cannot take Him.
People who do not know God experience existence, but they do not have life. They are dead. And they will know this deadness forever. O Lord, have mercy on the people of this world so they might see your Son and hear His voice now before it is too late.
Life is Jesus. Life is knowing (in experience) God. Life is knowing (in experience) Jesus. It is a personal union and experience of and with the one true God.
One of the reasons I have been so up and down in my "life" is that I have viewed "it" wrong. Going through a day has been about the endless 24 hour cycle. This is not life. And so I have been buffeted by every experience and event and activity around me. This has changed, and is changing, now. Life is Jesus. So instead of my going through a "life", life is in me and I know Him, who is life. These other things are simply the backdrop for my experience of Him. They are what I walk in as I walk with Him. I think it used to be vica versa. He was the backdrop as I experienced events and activities. And when it was that way, my view of Him could change with the weather, so to speak.
If you ever read John chapter 10, read it with these other verses in mind. I will finish these thoughts with a quote from that chapter, and then a few comments: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 Amen Jesus, let me have YOU to the full. The thief is not looking to make "life" hard, but to steal us from Him, to kill our union with Him, to destroy us from ever knowing Him. And Jesus wants us to have Him in fullness. This is what He meant. He did NOT mean that we should have happiness (unless we know that is in HIM) nor ease nor great experiences of time and biology; He meant and means for us to have HIM. O Lord, make it so.
So tomorrow, when I get up, I get to experience Jesus some more during my waking hours. I get Him. He is no longer just in my life tomorrow. He is my life . I won't endure Him to have 24 hours tomorrow of life. I have Him tomorrow, and if He wills, 24 hours will pass while I walk with Him and experience life in Him. And His wonderful love and goodness I get to know and enjoy. Thank you Jesus, for opening my eyes, to this reality that centers in you.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
What is eternal life?
How do you envision eternal life? Golf every day all you want? Freedom to rest and do nothing and be at ease? Is it people of every race able to sit together and be at peace? Is it a place, heaven? Having streets of gold and mansions and riches and a body without defect?
"This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3 NIV
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 NIV
If we believe that eternal life has to do with stuff, or location, or feelings, we have missed the whole point of the good news of God. We get to know Him, and His Son. Only in Him are our hearts healed and our bodies made whole and we are given ease and hope and peace; IN HIM. He is the giver and the true eternal life. So most importantly, we must have HIM. Cry out to God to know Him, to be near Him, for Him to reveal Himself to you. And He most assuredly will hear your cry.
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 NIV
Why did He die for me? So I could have stuff? Peace? Not go through physical death? A happy life? NO NO NO NO NO Non Niet Maningmanae!!!
He died for me and anyone who reads this so we can BE WITH HIM. I get to live with Jesus forever, and I get to know Him now. The healer of my heart and the one who satisfies my deepest longings, and will do so forever and ever and ever.
Death didn't stop Him, can't stop Him, and won't stop me from being with Him; nothing can. Nada, nothing, no one.
Jesus let a good friend DIE so that we and those around Him and anyone who cares to notice can see His glory, and the glory of His Father. And in so doing He loved them and us. What we need is Him and His glory. He is greater than death, and we need Him more than we need to stay alive. And if it stands in the way of us seeing Him, then He will even let death come to us so we can see Him.
I urge you to listen to these two sermons by John Piper in there entirety. This story of the dying friend we find in John chapter 11. Piper opens these to us. May they bless your soul and help you to see and know Jesus better.
Sermon 1: Jesus' glory sermon 1
Sermon 2: Jesus' glory sermon 2
"This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3 NIV
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 NIV
If we believe that eternal life has to do with stuff, or location, or feelings, we have missed the whole point of the good news of God. We get to know Him, and His Son. Only in Him are our hearts healed and our bodies made whole and we are given ease and hope and peace; IN HIM. He is the giver and the true eternal life. So most importantly, we must have HIM. Cry out to God to know Him, to be near Him, for Him to reveal Himself to you. And He most assuredly will hear your cry.
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 NIV
Why did He die for me? So I could have stuff? Peace? Not go through physical death? A happy life? NO NO NO NO NO Non Niet Maningmanae!!!
He died for me and anyone who reads this so we can BE WITH HIM. I get to live with Jesus forever, and I get to know Him now. The healer of my heart and the one who satisfies my deepest longings, and will do so forever and ever and ever.
Death didn't stop Him, can't stop Him, and won't stop me from being with Him; nothing can. Nada, nothing, no one.
Jesus let a good friend DIE so that we and those around Him and anyone who cares to notice can see His glory, and the glory of His Father. And in so doing He loved them and us. What we need is Him and His glory. He is greater than death, and we need Him more than we need to stay alive. And if it stands in the way of us seeing Him, then He will even let death come to us so we can see Him.
I urge you to listen to these two sermons by John Piper in there entirety. This story of the dying friend we find in John chapter 11. Piper opens these to us. May they bless your soul and help you to see and know Jesus better.
Sermon 1: Jesus' glory sermon 1
Sermon 2: Jesus' glory sermon 2
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Overspending in the day of slaughter
I am absolutely stunned, and shocked, and feel caught in a whirlwind of hedonism in America. Why do we spend money and use resources here the way we do? And I write this for those who follow Jesus, or who really want to that live here. I understand why those who don't live this way: they think life really does consist in the abundance of their possessions, and they seek to fill an eternal soul with that which won't last. This is an endless hopeless goal. And I am ashamed and saddened that I have walked this selfish and indulgent road myself. But when so many people in the world are lost, and so many peoples have never heard the good news, how is it possible that those who follow the one who laid down his life and had no place to ay his head have SO MANY places to lay theirs.
Let's consider some numbers:
First: we comprise about 330 million people which is about 5% of the world. We use 25% of the world's oil. 25%. (This is from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/09/bp-energy-statistics-consumption-reserves-energy#zoomed-picture).
In 2009 we were about 29% of the world's consumer market. This is from Wikipedia's list of largest consumer markets.
In 2010, the average American income was about 61,000 dollars. We spent on average about 3200 on healthcare, 2500 on entertainment, 7700 on transportation, 1700 on apparel and services, about 5400 on personal insurance and pensions, and about 1600 on "cash contributions." This last one is our charitable giving, which would include all money given for missions. "Cash contributions, which includes payments to charities and religious organizations, fell 6.0 percent from 2008 to 2010." This is from the website www.bls.gov.
I am afraid we are caught in a whirlwind of the tyranny of money, consumerism, and comfort. We work as hard as we do so we can have the lion's share of whatever we want. I am also convinced by my experiences in the past 30 years that those who follow Jesus live just like everyone else. There are exceptions.
It is not a cutback here and there that those who follow Jesus need. That's like fish in the fish tank deciding to take a few plants and move them over to the other side of the tank, or move a bauble here and there. I think we need to jump out of the bowl altogether.
And wealth, per se, is not the issue at all. We can do much good with wealth.
The thing we must do is get our heads around perceiving the needs of the world, those who are lost, and perceiving the commands of Christ that relate to them and His call on our lives, and living in such a way that supports accomplishing that call. We should NOT be just jumping into the American way of life and then asking, "Oh, by the way, Jesus, what do you want from me?" It's too late and what we do then will probably mask the deep issues that really keep us from following Him sacrificially. I believe that is what has happened to me and I am determined to change course and go a new way. But I have a hunch I will need to travel with others who want to do the same. Maybe we can start a new way of living. My hunch is we will have to go together, go in prayer, with a keen eye on His commands and call.
I am not sure where to start, but I think it starts with not assuming ANYTHING I have or do right now is mine. It is all on the altar and all needs to have a match at the ready. Cell phones, internet, insurance, multiple cars, etc. Unless anything supports His call and His commands, why is it in my life? Regardless of how it got there, it is now my enemy if it contravenes His call. Oh Lord. lead and guide out of this morass of consumer self-indulgence.
Let's consider some numbers:
First: we comprise about 330 million people which is about 5% of the world. We use 25% of the world's oil. 25%. (This is from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/09/bp-energy-statistics-consumption-reserves-energy#zoomed-picture).
In 2009 we were about 29% of the world's consumer market. This is from Wikipedia's list of largest consumer markets.
In 2010, the average American income was about 61,000 dollars. We spent on average about 3200 on healthcare, 2500 on entertainment, 7700 on transportation, 1700 on apparel and services, about 5400 on personal insurance and pensions, and about 1600 on "cash contributions." This last one is our charitable giving, which would include all money given for missions. "Cash contributions, which includes payments to charities and religious organizations, fell 6.0 percent from 2008 to 2010." This is from the website www.bls.gov.
I am afraid we are caught in a whirlwind of the tyranny of money, consumerism, and comfort. We work as hard as we do so we can have the lion's share of whatever we want. I am also convinced by my experiences in the past 30 years that those who follow Jesus live just like everyone else. There are exceptions.
It is not a cutback here and there that those who follow Jesus need. That's like fish in the fish tank deciding to take a few plants and move them over to the other side of the tank, or move a bauble here and there. I think we need to jump out of the bowl altogether.
And wealth, per se, is not the issue at all. We can do much good with wealth.
The thing we must do is get our heads around perceiving the needs of the world, those who are lost, and perceiving the commands of Christ that relate to them and His call on our lives, and living in such a way that supports accomplishing that call. We should NOT be just jumping into the American way of life and then asking, "Oh, by the way, Jesus, what do you want from me?" It's too late and what we do then will probably mask the deep issues that really keep us from following Him sacrificially. I believe that is what has happened to me and I am determined to change course and go a new way. But I have a hunch I will need to travel with others who want to do the same. Maybe we can start a new way of living. My hunch is we will have to go together, go in prayer, with a keen eye on His commands and call.
I am not sure where to start, but I think it starts with not assuming ANYTHING I have or do right now is mine. It is all on the altar and all needs to have a match at the ready. Cell phones, internet, insurance, multiple cars, etc. Unless anything supports His call and His commands, why is it in my life? Regardless of how it got there, it is now my enemy if it contravenes His call. Oh Lord. lead and guide out of this morass of consumer self-indulgence.
This life is His reality
I paint; or sometimes I have. When I paint, I put paint on a canvas or other surface to show what I want. The canvas is my world. I put together the mix of color and pattern I want or find pleasing.
This life is most assuredly God's world and His reality. He is putting together the colors of experience for the human race and mix of the whole creation in the way He sees fit. And the way He sees fit will bring glory to His son Jesus. And as God sees fit to accomplish whatever He pleases to glorify His son, and that included sacrificing Him on a tree, He has given the same authority to Jesus. A friend recently prayed how Jesus is reality. So if He wanted to walk on water, He could. That is reality. The creation does not bend the creator to its will; no, it's the other way. So in a very fundamental way, reality is about Jesus, NOT about us. We are on His canvas and He is the painter.
And His will for this masterpiece includes people from all languages and ethnicities to be part of the glory of what He is painting; He's not leaving anyone off. The painting has us in it, but He is the painter and it's all for His glory.
I think many of us need to think about this; our life FUNDAMENTALLY is NOT about us, it's about Him. He is the painter, we are the paint.
This life is most assuredly God's world and His reality. He is putting together the colors of experience for the human race and mix of the whole creation in the way He sees fit. And the way He sees fit will bring glory to His son Jesus. And as God sees fit to accomplish whatever He pleases to glorify His son, and that included sacrificing Him on a tree, He has given the same authority to Jesus. A friend recently prayed how Jesus is reality. So if He wanted to walk on water, He could. That is reality. The creation does not bend the creator to its will; no, it's the other way. So in a very fundamental way, reality is about Jesus, NOT about us. We are on His canvas and He is the painter.
And His will for this masterpiece includes people from all languages and ethnicities to be part of the glory of what He is painting; He's not leaving anyone off. The painting has us in it, but He is the painter and it's all for His glory.
I think many of us need to think about this; our life FUNDAMENTALLY is NOT about us, it's about Him. He is the painter, we are the paint.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)