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What Life is About…..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’” Luke 4:8 (NLT)
424 Your relatives, colleagues and friends are beginning to notice the change, and realise that it is not a temporary phase, but that you are no longer the same. Don’t worry, carry on! Vivit vero in me Christus—it is now Christ that lives in me —that’s what is happening.(1)
The picture accompanying is this blog is on of the high points of a trip I took a few years ago. My wife and I were wandering around Rome, on a trip that was an incredible gift. As we were, we came across this building, with lots of excavation around it. It was rough, worn, old, and we wondered what it was….
As we rounded the front, we realized it was the Pantheon, a place built and rebuilt for the Roman Cultic worship…. a place were ritual sacrifice was done, a place of martyrdom as well. The Roman Pantheon, perhaps the best kept of all of the ancient buildings of Rome…Re-built early in the 2nd century, it is amazing.
But for nearly 1500 years… it has been something more significant – it has been a church. A place where God is glorified, a place where His peopel have been gathered, and blessed. A place that has over time been redeemed, been blessed, and amazed people for its grandeur, for its arts and craftsmanship, for the history and skill it contains, skill that speaks of something greater… the work of God. The meeting of God and His people to celebrate a love that is beyond measure….for His people to return that love, as they lay their lives down as living sacrifices to Him, giving of themselves to love Him, including loving Him by loving those He’s brought into our lives. That place where other gods demanded their sacrifices, for a longer period of time celebrated that God sacriced Jesus… for us.
This love of His changes us, completes us as we walk with Him. St Josemaria is correct – there is a change in us, even as there was in the use of the Pantheon, We cannot know God’s love and be the same. The Westminster Catechism as it right as well – our purpose in life changes drastically, as we realize who God is, and how He relates to us.
Worship becomes more powerful, as we realize it isn’t a duty, something we must do, but as it becomes a reaction to God sharing everything with us, including His glory. How can we read St. Paul’s words to the church in Colossae and not rejoice?
27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. 28 So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. 29 That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me. Colossians 1:27-29 (NLT)
This is what life is about, this is the abundant life…
Lord have mercy, and help us to share Who makes us who we are…
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1898-1902). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Westminster Larger and Smaller Catechisms; Electronic Edition, Wordsearch
The Lord’s response to “Lord please defeat my enemies!”
Devotional Thought of the Day:
15 Then I said, “LORD, you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I am insulted. 16 You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, LORD God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness. 17 I did not spend my time with other people, laughing and having a good time. In obedience to your orders I stayed by myself and was filled with anger. 18 Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won’t they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?” 19 To this the LORD replied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them. Jeremiah 15:15-19 (TEV)
419 An apostle must not remain at the level of the mediocre. God calls him to be fully human in his actions, and at the same time to reflect the freshness of eternal things. That is why the apostle has to be a soul who has undergone a long, patient and heroic process of formation. (1)
A few days ago, I wrote a blog that we as Christians don’t really have enemies, we have adversaries. That our goal was not to defeat them, or crush them, but instead to love them, to pray for them, to come alongside them, that they may know the love of God. That is what following in the footsteps of Jesus is, that is what being a child of God looks like. Growing in our trust of God to the extent that we begin to love as Christ does.
I got a bit of feedback, some quite defensive saying we can’t avoid enemies – they will come after us. My point seemed to be lost, or maybe poorly communicated? It is not that they don’t oppress us, or challenge us, or even hate us. That’s on them. But when we decide that they are enemies, when we make that judgment, it places us in a battle, either offensive or defensive, and negates our ability to minister to them. Our reaction to enemies is different than our reaction to an adversary.
this morning in my devotional time, I read the passage from Jeremiah above. Jeremiah is one who had significant opposition, primarily for speaking out for what God wanted from His people, what He expected as part of the relationship, how He expected them to love each other, and Him. Not a easy message then, nor is it one today. He got a lot of opposition, and here we see him asking God to take care of it. The opposition is real, death threats have been made, serious ones. This isn’t just whining because he didn’t get his way.
But his attention in the midst of the opposition has shifted. It has become personal, this opposition to God’s word. Jeremiah has lost his focus, as we all do at times. He focuses in on his on righteousness, his own goodness.
And God rebukes him, takes him back to the beginning.
God doesn’t promise vengeance on them, instead He tells Jeremiah to return, to repent, to re-focus on the relationship between God and Jeremiah.
That’s a message many of us, including me, perhaps today especially me, need to hear. For we get tired and weary, as we see people choose evil, make decisions that ignore God, and walk on paths that are self-destructive. The temptation is to compare their journey to ours. “Wouldn’t they be better off like us, why can’t they see this?”
While what we should be doing is speaking to them about Jesus’ love, about His mercy, about their need for it in their lives. They need to hear His message, His gospel, His word, and that may take some time. It may take some time for us to get it right, to learn to speak His word, not focus on our situation, to bear His cross, to pray for those who persecute us. Rather than just condemn them and desire wrath, or to give up hope for them, we need to learn that if God is patient with us, not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance… than that is our path, our desire. This focus on the eternal takes time – even for prophets and apostles… we just need to remember to turn to Him…..
So we need to pray for them, ask God to save them, Speak the truth in love regarding their sin and ours, and that God offers hope… He will return them… He will welcome them home.
Lord, have mercy on us ALL…. AMEN
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1878-1880). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Why Are You Still Getting Paid for Sin?
Why Are You Still Being Paid…
For the Wages of Sin?
† In Jesus Name †
May you know in the depths of your being, that incredible gift of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, the freedom from sin, satan and the fear of death, and the gift of eternal life!
That’s it?
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you worked so hard you were physically and emotionally exhausted? Where you were so tired you couldn’t get up to walk to the refrigerator to get something to drink?
When you finally got home, kissed your spouse, hugged your kids, patted the dog (at least you know you did those things, not sure which thing to whom! ) sat down and fell asleep?
And then, you wake up, realize your paycheck is still in your pocket, you open it up and wonder…. “that’s it?”
That’s all I get for breaking my back, for losing my hair over this job?
I ought to go look for another one. There has got to be something better out there… something less exhausting, something with more of a reward, something that gives me some sense of satisfaction, some sense of life.
Now let’s say that you are offered the position of a lifetime, you are to replace the president of Microsoft, or Apple computers, or become the new head of the I.R.S. Your salary won’t be 6 figures, it will be 8……. A 30 hour work week, and that includes your own staff that does your nails, combs your hair, flies you to Hawaii in your own personal jet….gets you front row tickets to the Spurs, Patriots and Red Sox games…
After taking a week to think it through, you aren’t sure, and so you ask for a month, and for some reason you still aren’t sure…..
Wait – why wouldn’t you take that job?
Well, my bet is that is what you are doing spiritually these days… because I know I am doing it too! Matter of fact, that problem goes all the way back to St. Paul, and the church in Rome!
We have to stop collecting the wages of death, and allow God to give us life!
Why are still collecting death?
As we look at this passage of Romans, we see this point in each paragraph.
In verse 12 and 13, Paul begs us,
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Romans 6:12-13 (ESV)
In verse 16 he Says,
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16 (ESV)
And in verse 21, Paul reminds US,
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Romans 6:21 (ESV)
What don’t we understand about this?
Yet we freely give in to envy, to lust, to hatred, to gossip about each other, to selfishness. We forget the needs fo those around us, and focus on our wants. We even disregard what God says, choosing to think what we want, thinking what we know is right, doing what brings us momentary pleasure?
We should be receiving Holiness, Righteousness, the Ability to do the things that take us this way…
Paul has spent an entire chapter telling us to live so hindered, so in bondage to sin is unnecessary. In the next two chapters, he will describe this war even more, For he fights it as well. Paul knows what it is, to do the things we know are sin, and do not want to do. He knows the heartache of wanting to do what is right, but failing to do it, over and over.
He started by saying we died to the power of sin, and satan, and the fear of death in our Baptism, when we were united to Christ’s death and resurrection, He will say in chapter 8, again referring to our being united to Christ, that there is no condemnation for those of us in Christ.
Here he says,
“present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Romans 6:13 (ESV)
and
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:17-18 (ESV)
and
the free gift of God is eternal life….
You see, this justified, sanctified life that we have, isn’t by our power, it isnt’ lived by our strength. It is found in dwelling in Christ, in realizing His work, in keeping our eyes on Him, and realizing He lives in us. It is found in being quiet, and listening to the Holy Spirit.
It is realizing what happened to you in your baptism, what is given you at this altar, it is the reason we have joy and hope, the answer we have when others wonder why we can have hope, in the midst of this exhausting world.
It is the same power at work in us, when we look around us, and see the needs of others for Christ, and do everything we can, even more than we can, sacrificing to help them see Christ revealed in their lives. That same power, as we are focused on Christ that enables us to serve the hurting, the broken, whether they don’t know Jesus yet, or whether they’ve known Him for 30 years, or 80.
For we all struggle, for we all do battle with sin, and all need to be re-focused on God’s work in our lives, as He counts us righteous, as He works through us, to see His greatest desire come pass, that all come to repentance, to realize that He is their delivered, their Lord.
As we realize that those who serve Christ, aren’t just counted as slaves, but as His friends, (John 15:15) As we become adopted children of God the Father, co-heirs with Christ.
This is why we don’t continue to dwell as if we’ve earned death as our paycheck, as if we are still slaves, employed by the firm of Sin, Shame & Guilt LLP
Know my friends, that this is God’s plan for you, that you would see Christ. That would know Christ, that you would love Christ…..
And then look back, and see that God has used you, to bring to others, that incredible peace you know, the peace of God our Father, in which you dwell in Christ, your hearts and minds secure in Him. AMEN?
Being Blunt and Honest With God….. A Necessity..even when I am ticked off
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long. 8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, “Violence! Destruction!” LORD, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message. 9 But when I say, “I will forget the LORD and no longer speak in his name,” then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back. Jeremiah 20:7-9 (TEV)
333 Think about this carefully: being transparent lies more in not hiding things rather than in wanting things to be seen. It is a matter of allowing the objects lying at the bottom of a glass to be perceived, and not trying to make the air visible. (1)
it has been one of those weeks. The kind I have had far too often recently, but this one is up there.
Six years ago, even though I read the verses above from Jeremiah many times before, I actually preached on it. I was at the time deciding to accept a call to the church I presently serve. Leaving behind friends and a church that was described by my predecessor as the nicest church he had ever encountered in 50 years of ministry. So why would I leave? And what did it mean that I would preach on this dark passage from Jeremiah?
Weeks like this one. Where I started the week praying for friend that was likewise moving from one parish to another, at the choice of his supervisors. Trying to grieve the change, while ministering to those he was coming to serve. Difficult. Very difficult. Another old friend this week revealed that he was also moving from one church to another – re-assigned by his supervisors. A challenging move for him as well, and then another friend last night, was told it was time to move in his ministry.
I am praying for one of the men I had a part in training for ministry, he has brain cancer and is fading fast. Another friend I found out this morning, who I also trained as a deacon, had a heart attack. Last night, out of the blue, I found myself discussing the death of one of the best friends in my life, who ministered at my side for far too long. There as well was another of my best friends, who lost his dad a month after I lost mine, and a few months later, his mom went to be with God as well.
Tomorrow, as our children wish us Happy Father’s Day, for the first time we can’t go to lunch with our dads, or talk to them on the phone. Some 15 of our friends lost dad’s or a granddad after ours passed.
This is not counting the trauma of those around us, which dwarfs our own. Dear friends with health problems. Families torn apart and going through death, others through divorce, family facing issues with those they love who are in bondage to drugs or alcohol. People dealing with financial crisis, people dealing with disabilities, including those of the mental health variety. Missionaries who are trying to deal with poverty that makes our headspin, or with violence and threats and potential martyrdom. Other people making decisions that will wreck their lives, decisions they know are wrong, but justify with justifications that…
It is enough to make you want to scream “stop”, or yell out in anger and frustration.
And if we admit it, if we are honest and transparent, the One we want to yell at …. is God.
Couldn’t He do something? “In only you had been here Lord,”the sisters of Lazarus has said. Whose fault is all of this suffering, all this pain? Why can’t life be simple and pleasant and without all this…. painful crap… (I wrote something else there.(shit).. but edited it)
It took preaching on Jeremiah’s hitting the breaking point, to be able to realize that it was ok to yell at God. That you can say that God tricked you, deceived you, to cry out like a 5 year old, “That’s not fair” or “This sucks…. That transparency with God, about our feelings, our frustrations our pain is a good thing, and I will dare say, it is necessary.
Because being that transparent with God is a matter of faith, it is necessary if we are to trust Him to bring us through the situation, if we are going to allow Him to walk us through the fire, through the storm, even through the valley of the shadow of death. It is necessary to grieve, because then acknowledging the pain, we can let Him, ask Him, count on Him, to bring healing, to bring peace, to flood our lives with His love, and comfort.
You can’t do that if you are hiding it, if you are bottling it up, letting it turn to resentment. Pouring it out on those who become you victims, because you won’t let the frustration and anger be turned on the One who has shoulders to bear it, shoulders that bore the stripes of whips, the very stripes that Isaiah prophesied would heal us, cleanse us… save us.
Have to admit, I don’t like writing this blog. Have to admit – I would love to just spend tomorrow walking along Lake Ossipee, with my son, and yeah – with my dad.
It needs to be written, for my own sake, but perhaps for yours as well. To give us the confidence to say,
Lord have mercy…. which can only be said… when we know we need it… even desperately need it.
Amen.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1555-1557). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
How to Pass the Test of Your Life….
Devotional Thought of the Week:
5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT)
Last night, as we looked at the end the book of II Corinthians in our midweek Bible Study. The above verse (in read) really stuck out, really became the focus of the study.
To examine ourselves, to look bluntly at our lives, to understand where we’ve failed, is not easy. Even the way we deal with others hurting us, (or being able to hurt us) can result in our sinning, it can result in our not doing what is right. Examining ourselves isn’t easy, partially because our very nature will take everything to the worse case scenario. We again get it wrong, when we think that examining our lives, our souls, is about beating ourselves up, as if somehow the worse we feel about ourselves the more righteous we are. Or the more we beat ourselves up, the more we’ve atoned for what we’ve done wrong.
It doesn’t work that way, this examining ourselves, this putting our faith to the test.
When I used to teach in the computer information systems introductory course at a community college, one of the question on the final was a pass/fail question. It was a simple question based on the microsoft office program. It asked, “what does the F1 button on your keyboard do?” The answer was simple, it is the HELP button, the button you push when you don’t know what to do, and things aren’t working the way you think they should. There were many other questions on the test – but that one was critical. If my students could remember that, everything else they needed to know was readily at hand. Get that question right – the rest of the test opened up, miss it, and well, you were done.
Life has the same kind of test, according to St Paul. One question, get it right and life opens up, even our mistakes, our errors, our sins can be dealt with, no, it has been dealt with at Jesus’ crucifixion.
The answer to life’s test? Simple – Christ is in you!
Paul talks about it again to the church in Colossae:
26 This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. 27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:26-27 (NLT)
There’s the secret, there is the test. Not to be perfect – for we are simultaneously sinners, yet righteous in Christ. The key to examining ourselves isn’t to beat ourselves up, but to know we need Jesus, and to realize He is here, He is with you, reconciling you to the Father, and then to others.
Christ in you – Christ with you, the very hope we have that the test of life is passed…
Life changes when we know we are welcome in His place… it changes our heart, our mind, our life, our eternity.
The test is that simple…..
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1558-1560). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Traditions, Athanasius and the Best Practices….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
21 The LORD says, “I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them! 22 When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings. 23 Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. 24 Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry. Amos 5:21-24 (TEV)
314 “Who said that to reach sanctity, you need to seek refuge in a cell or on a solitary mountain?” That was what a good family man asked himself in amazement, and he added: “If that were so, it would not be the people who would be holy, but the cell, or the mountain. It seems they have forgotten that Our Lord expressly told each and every one of us: be holy as my heavenly Father is holy.” My only comment was: “Our Lord, besides wanting us to be saints, grants each one of us the relevant graces.” (Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1490-1494). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition. )
Sunday,we will do something in my church, that we only do once a year. We will pull out of the closet a statement of faith, a creed that is 50 verses long. It’s one of those kind of ancient writings that demands you stop and think through a verse before going to the next. It describes the relationship of the persons of the Trinity, and the complete unity at the same time. It describes as well how Jesus is 100% God, and yet simultaneously man. It is complext, and glorious and needs not 10 minutes to recite it in church, but hours to talk through and realize how incredible this God that it describes is.
Personally, I love it, as I will love the conversation during Bible Study that follows, as we take some time and dissect it.
But I fear that many who will say the words, will walk away, not understanding this complex creed, or why we do it. That is a pastoral concern, and one we should have. It’s one we must have.
But for many of us, tradition has become what the “monastery” of our age. We hide in it, find peace and joy in it, and mistake that peace for the peace that accompanies holiness. We find comfort in the old ways, and romanticize and idolize them, thinking they are the keys to our spiritual health, to our orthodoxy, to our faith. As St Josemaria points out so clearly, it is not the mountain top, or the tradition that is called to be holy. We are.
That’s why in throughout the Old Testament prophets, there is a condemnation of people’s sacrifices. Sacrifices that God called for, things that were the closest thing to the sacraments we treasure today. They were supposed to be a means, a conduit of God’s mercy,yet they had turned into something else, a meaningless time, spent in trying to attain a perfection that ignored their very reason for existence. They didn’t communicate that God was their for the broken, there to heal, to forgive, to pour our righteousness, to let the justice that comes from the cross to lift people up. A purpose to help people realize they walk, their life journey is done with God.
Such is the nature of a baptized, Pentecostal life. A life lived in communion, in fellowship, in a relationship with the God who created the heavens, and comes to us.
Traditions? Practices? Creeds? Do they give people what they need to know about Christ?
They can, they cannot. It is not the traditional practice, whether 1500 years in practice or 15 minutes that makes people holy. It is the presence of Christ, revealed, known, that the Holy Spirit uses to transform us. May all we do bring us to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and therefore ours.
Amen.
We Are His!
Alleluia! He is Risen…therefore
We are His!
John 17:1-11
In Jesus Name
As we walk through this life together, may we know the grace and peace of God, for He has made us His own…
He is Risen, and therefore…
There is an old tradition among God’s people, to greet and respond to each other during the seven weeks between Christ’s resurrection and Pentecost with the following words,
Alleluia! He is Risen!
(Some respond “He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!”)
Let’s all try that – English and Chinese at the same time
Alleluia! He is Risen!
(response)
We’ve added something to that, this year in our congregation. It is that I respond, “therefore” and the congregation responds, “we have risen indeed! Alleluia!”
In each of our sermons, then, we’ve looked at what it means to be the people of God who are united to Christ in His death and in His resurrection. Today is the last day of that series, and in our gospel reading we see the incredible truth,
He is risen and therefore we know we are His!
If there is something that should cause our praises to be heard throughout California, through the world, it is this. You and I are Christ’s, and therefore dwell in the presence and glory of God!
Let’s look at how this is laid out in John’s gospel….
But first I want to hear it one more time.
Alleluia, He is Risen (response)
therefore, ((response)
The Son Gives us Eternal life
In verse 2, we are reminded why Jesus came, what the moment of His glory was all about. It says there,
2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.
But what is eternal life? My first funeral sermon was done back in 30 years ago at a church in Yorba Linda. Since then, I have done hundreds, and I’ve heard people talking before and after the services about what heaven is, or at least asking the same questions.
“Will my dog be there?”
“Will there be golf?”
“How old will I look?”
“Will we know each other?”
Or one of my favorite comments,
“When I get to heaven, I am going to ask God, (or maybe the Apostle Paul) why….
Most of the questions, we can’t respond to, they aren’t dealt with in the passages that describe heaven, like 1 Corinthians 2:9 – which says it is beyond our ability, or the passages in the Book of Revelation, where it talks its perfection.
Jesus describes eternal life here though, in this passage, in a way that is simple and clear.
3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
Eternal life is simply knowing the Father and the Son, to be in a relationship with them, to dwell in their presence, to dwell in their glory. This is what it is, this relationship with God that is described here eight times in these verses, that we are His!
I think that deserves a Alleluia! Or if we translate that – a “Praise the Lord” or in Mandarin (teach English speakers to say it J )
Eight times as Jesus prays we are described as being God’s, either the Father’s or that we’ve been given to Christ by the Father!
- Keep His Revelation
We are God’s people, that has been the plan since before the foundation of the world, it is what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and it is there that we are united to His death, and to His resurrection.
We see that relationship described in verse 6 as well, as we are described,
6 “I have revealed you* to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
We are described here in a way that is incredible. We have kept the Father’s word,
“Kept His word.” Some translations in English translate this as obey, as if God’s word is simply about obeying the Ten Commandments, checking each one off, one by one. The words go deeper than that – the word for kept is to guard, to observe, to value and treasure and protect. In English it goes back to the most secure place in the community, the castle keep, where you put all of your treasure. TO keep something was to secure it, to guard it with every ounce of your strength, for it is precious.
It is the same word as in verse 11, where Jesus asks the Father to protect us by the power of His Name. The word for word is rhema in Greek – God’s declaration, God’s official statement regarding the issue.
In this context, I think of the word, as that which we find in Moses writings, and in the prophets, the statement that God makes to us.
“You will be My people, and I will be your God” or “You will be My people, for I AM your God”.
That is a declaration of God that should be at the core of who we are, for it completely defines who we are.
We are His!
And that is worth treasuring, not just with “a” Alleluia, or a Praise the Lord, but a life filled with praises, a life glorifying Him, as we live in complete awe of His love for us!
- Keep/protect Us
I mentioned before, that the word translated as “kept” was also seen in verse 11 as “protect”, when Jesus prays,
11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name;* now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.
This word, keep/protect, brings up the last point of our message, our reason to celebrate today. The power of God seen in our lives again, as God protects us, as God guards us, protects us with the full power of His name.
That is something to have confidence in, to be in awe of, and to contemplate. That God cares about us so much, that we are protected and His treasured people. That He would take the time to cleanse us of sin, to deliver us from the bondages of that sin, and of Satan, that He would free us of our anxiety and fear of death, for we know we have life eternal.
It is from this place of security, this place of peace, this walking with Christ daily that holiness and unity flows.
We are one, not because of our work, nor are we holy because we decided to be holy. We find our unity, our eternal life, in God, in His making us His people.
All because God the Father send Jesus to us, to claim us for we are His.
For jesus Christ was born of Mary, was crucified, died and Alleluia! He is risen! (let them answer) and therefore ( We are risen indeed.)
Hear it as Paul wrote to the churches in Colossae,
1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3 (NLT)
So treasure the eternal life you’ve been given, know the blessings of God revealing that you are His children, His people, and be confident, that you are kept in Christ and we are one in Him! To sum it up,
He is Risen, and therefore We are His!
Dare We Speak of Wanting to Leave God???? We must??
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
67 Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?” 68 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. 69 We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:67-69 (MSG)
257 The Lord, the Eternal Priest, always blesses with the Cross. (1)
Last night, as we gathered in Bible Study, we talked about Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12. We talked of how he had a thorn in the flesh, and how he begged the Father in Heaven to remove it, not once but three times. Each time he received an answer. Peter had a similar discussion once with Jesus as well, three times having to hear an answer. We all laughed, knowing that some of us need to hear what has to be said 4 or 5 or even 211 times. Jeremiah accused God of deceiving Jeremiah. St Josemaria tells us that Jesus always blesses with the cross…. but that means there is a cross.
Yeah, there are days like that. Days were we have to give voice to that which flows from our hearts. The pains, the doubt, the brokenness. We can’t bury it, we can’t just ignore it, and let our hearts harden, for then they will surely shatter.
There are times where you have to exhale the poisons in your system, before you can breath in the Spirit. You have to let it go (O gosh – not that phrase! 🙂 ) Prior to seeing the answer that is there.
In the gospel reading above, the crowds have abandoned Jesus. They don’t want to admit the depth of their need, a need that can only be met through the body and blood of Christ be given and shed for us, to be more than just those who observe, but those who are joined to Christ’s death, that we would be joined to His resurrection. With all abandoning Jesus, He turns to the last dozen…..and offers them an opportunity to leave the pain, to leave the discomfort of the message that challenges their nicely fabricated holiness.
Somehow Peter gets it right, No, not somehow rather by God’s grace.
Where else could we go Lord? The best hope we have, the only hope, is to walk with you, through whatever it is that opposes us. It’s the cry of faith, that God is God, we aren’t, and so we trust in Him. Or like a paralytics father cried out, “Yes I trust in you Lord, help me to trust in you!” As odd as it seems, we need the times in Elijah’s cave, we need to have rants like Jeremiah or Moses or David. We need to have the times like Peter on the beach, and like Paul struggling to really hear God, distracted by a thorn in the flesh.
I think that cry of faith can only come from the point where we know nothing else, Where we are broken and weak, the place and time we’ve given up on trying to do it by ourselves. It is then we look up and see that God’s been there all the time. It is then we hear His words, and know they are the words of life. It is then, as we feel His embrace, that we know His mercy, love and peace are endless. Sometimes we don’t realize the value of that, until we face walking away from it.
And then – our hearts lifted by the the words of life, we find ourselves given that life, dwelling in it, for we walk in the presence of God.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Location 1254). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Alleluia! He is Risen, therefore… We Praise Him!
Alleluia! He is Risen! Therefore
We Praise Him for He Keeps His Promises!
Psalm 146
In Jesus Name
May you praise God our Father as you realize the richness of the grace, the depth of the mercy, and the overwhelming love given to you in through the work of Jesus Christ.
He is Risen….response…and therefore!
Once upon a time there was a pastor who tired of his work, and that people never seemed to hear the message that he labored to create. As the story goes, he decided to do an experiment, and started to preach the same sermon, week after week. Eight weeks or so later, one of his elders asked him if he had used one of the stories in the sermon before, because it sure sounded familiar.
Now, I’ve never done that, probably never will, but I have to admit I’ve been tempted a time or two.
I do imagine that some of the series we do get repetitive. It’s not just me, it’s the readings and the focus of scripture. Though it may say the same thing many different ways there is but one message we preach – Christ Jesus who is the hope our glory.
Since Easter, we’ve used a familiar cry, getting more familiar it, perhaps even tiring of it. (though I hope not!)
Alleluia – He is Risen!
(He Is Risen Indeed, alleluia!)
and therefore –
(We are risen indeed, alleluia!)
Because of the resurrection, we have a new life, a holy life set apart to God, Because of our resurrection with Jesus we have peace, and we persevere.
Today we realize we live a life that is lived in praise of God, because He has kept His promises to us, to those who call upon His name.
LORD versus YHWH
They’ve got to hear this… but so do we!
Luther’s explanation of the 2nd!
As we look at Psalm 146, which is the passage we focus on this morning, we see one word repeated over and over. LORD – is all capital letters.
The word LORD is there, because the translators didn’t quite know what to do with God’s name. It is the name he revealed to the Moses, to reveal to the people He would save. It is the name we are commanded to never use in vain, but to call upon in times of need, and as we see today, to use to praise God.
Does it make a difference, whether we use Lord, which is a title, or the personal name of God? Imagine a man call his wife, Mrs. X, or saying, “wife, come here!”. As I asked people such questions this week, there was a consensus that using a title puts distance between two people, it acts as an insulator, moving the relationship from personal and intimate to more distant, more uncaring.
Luther, in talking about the 2nd commandment, talked of it, not just using the name of God improperly, but by using it in vain, because we don’t use it when we should, to praise Him, to praise Him by laying before Him our lives, our problems, our struggles. That’s what we are supposed to do, that’s how we are supposed to use His name.
God gave us His name to use, to help us realize how committed He was to keeping His promises, the actions that He would take and complete. That’s is why we have hope in YHWH, in God.
Hear the actions He takes again,
He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry! The LORD frees the prisoners! The LORD opens the eyes of the blind! The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down! The LORD loves the godly! The LORD protects the foreigners among us! He cares for the orphans and widows! But he frustrates the plans of the wicked!
Where others fail us, God doesn’t. We aren’t going to get that kind of response from anyone else. We shouldn’t expect it from powerful people, yet we so often do, and complain when they let us down. Their plans don’t last past the time they leave office, never mind until they breathe their last. If our faith, if our trust is in God, then we have something, in them, not so much.
That is why we praise Him.
The Incarnational life – but not quite the way we think
That’s why we praise and glorify Him.
Just a few months ago, during the Christmas season, we praised God because, as the Gospel of John put it, “He came and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
We call that, using church words, the incarnation.
But we praise Him now for a different incarnation, that He has gathered us and given us a new birth Himself. We were born again, linked with His death, so that we could be raised with Him, so that we could relate to God the Father as our Father, so that we could use His name. He who dwelt among us, calls us to dwell in Him.
That is what Christianity is all about, the relationship we have with our Creator. With the God who loves each of us, and pulls us into Him. It is seen throughout our church service, from allowing Him to cleanse us from sin, to our leaving our burdens, the things that cause us anxiety in His hands in prayer, to communion, the most intimate meal’
He gives us His name to call upon, in prayer and praise. Knowing He is here, knowing He loves us,
That’s were find comfort, and the strength to do amazing things, as we reach out to those around us, loving those who do not know love, or the power of God to fix and heal relationships.
Incarnate, dwelling with God, or to use the old phrase, abiding in Him, we find something the world cannot give…..
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, and we are kept there, secured in that peace by Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Is This Claim Audacious, Blasphemous or Simply Crazy?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (MSG)
1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (TEV)
200 “When you consider how many people do not take advantage of a wonderful opportunity, but allow Jesus to pass by, think: where does this clear calling which was so providential, and showed me my way, come from? Meditate on this every day: an apostle has always to be another Christ, Christ himself.”
If you read the words of St.Josemaria Escriva (in blue) first, they might startle you. Every apostle has to be another Christ? We have to be Christ Himself? How in the world can he say those things! How audacious! How….. blasphemous it seems!
It becomes even more audacious when I tell you that by apostle, St. Josemaria means each of us who follows Jesus. Not just the 12 back in the day, not just missionaries who go to exotic places, meet interesting people and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not just pastors and elders and deacons. Each one of us is sent by God into places where we represent Him, where we reflect His glory, where we bring Christ’s love to invade the darkness.
You who are reading this, God has placed you where you are, to reflect His love today. for you dwell, in Christ. You have, since your baptism.
Audacious to think you are Christ? Blasphemous to say you are? Or perhaps you are just nuts, insane, and have a Messiah complex?
That’s why I noted the two Bible passages above, where we are transformed by God into the image of Christ. When our attention is so captivated by the mercy of Christ, by His love, by His presence, that our old self is killed off, and all that remains is what is of Christ. That is why Paul will also write:
“19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:19-20 (NLT)
We don’t have to die on the cross, as Jesus did, for we died there with Him. But there is another part of that, the what does our baptismal life mean? How do we live, and we need to remember and struggle with the fact that we are to continue the work of Christ, that we are those He has sent, even as the Father sent him. Does this mean we need gimmicks and programs and all have to head off to seminary? No. Does it mean we have to sell everything we have, give it to the poor, and move to the Amazon or Siberia?
No, you are where as God placed you – that is where He has sent you. (for now) To be a father, mother, employee, boss, child, parent, but to do those things in view of your vocation as an apostle, as a son/daughter of God who has been put there to reflect His glory, to help people see God, to help them realize that Christ is there, and they can’t just let Him pass by. Because you are there – reflecting the Father, and Christ is loving them through you. The prayer in my devotional this morning said it well:
At every moment of our existence,You are present to us, Father. In gentle compassion help us to be present to one another so that our presence maybe may be a strength that heals the wounds of time and gives hope that is for all persons, through Jesus, our Lord and Brother. Amen. (2)
May this be so….may we live to Christ, dying to self. AMEN.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1041-1045). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) from Celtic Daily Prayer – May 17th, the year of Aidan
