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Imitate Jesus….at the cost of our idolatry
The Good Shepherd, carrying His own.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross. Philippians 2:8 (TEV)
625 Your obedience is not worthy of the name unless you are ready to abandon your most flourishing work whenever someone with authority so commands.
5 Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. 6 And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. Romans 1:5-6 (NLT)
If you want to grow as a Christian, one of the things you need to do is confront your idols. To see them, confess them, and let God circumcise your heart and soul, removing those idols that would destroy you.
Two words can help in this examination.
Obedience
Submission
Even as you read those words, like me, something in your stomach reacted, or perhaps you became a little jittery, as defenses began to rise up. I don’t want to submit to my boss, we see teens struggle to obey their parents, and you want to really have fun, bring up the idea of wives submitting to their husbands in a Bible Study!
Most Christians would nod appreciatively when we talk about imitating Christ. That we should have the heart for the lost, for those who are broken and destitute, We may think of them, and pray for them, and pretend we are like Christ. We may give money to missions, and think we’ve done our part, that we’ve made our sacrifice.
But will we, as St Josemaria notes, abandon what is going well, what is flourishing, what seems to be blessed, to obey Jesus?
That’s another question entirely, and strikes to what obedience really is.
Will we embrace hardship, to love? Will we give up that which we’ve invested our lives in because we’ve heard the voice of God, because we know this is what God has planned, because it is in accord with the heart of God, that has been revealed to us in scripture?
Would you leave your business, like Peter, Andrew, James and John did, with an unheard of catch of fish? Or leave success as Matthew did, literally walking away with tables full of money?
That is obedience. Jesus calls.
But please, understand me, this is not a blog to create guilt, but to help us learn to trust in God, to depend on Him, for that is the source of obedience.
Obedience is not blind, it is not mindless, to set aside our desires, it requires us to be in prayer, to examine our consciences and allow God to purify them.
It requires us to hear God.
Which is probably why the word in Greek for obey is – hyper-hear.
To listen and let it stick, to internalize what is heard.
TO hear the voice of God, and be so overwhelmed, we respond in love, in adoration.For we realize that nothing, no idol, no desire, no amount of success is worth the joy of being in His presence.
This is our life. This life of walking with God, of hearing His voice, of knowing Him, and knowing His love for us.
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 1477-1478). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Don’t Know it All? What an Incredible Blessing!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 *Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.g 13 *So faith, hope, love remain, these three;h but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13:8-13 New American Bible. Revised Edition.
152 Don’t you sense that more peace and more union await you when you have corresponded to that extraordinary grace that requires complete detachment? Struggle for him to please him, but strengthen your hope.
As our Wednesday Night Bible Study has been meandering through the Acts of the Apostles, the last two weeks have encountered people with partial knowledge. Apollos and the 12 Ephesian disciples. In both cases, they were missing significant, I would even say critical knowledge about Jesus, about His death and resurrection, and about what it means to depend on Him in life.
Yet they were still called believers, disciples, knowledgeable.
They had people lovingly correct them, Priscilla and Aquilla, and Paul. Things were corrected, and God was revealed to them, so much more graceful, so much more loving.
But it, and today’s readings. got me thinking about how easy it is to idolize knowledge, especially theological and spiritual knowledge.We expect that it will protect us against heresy and heterodoxy, that it will cause us to mature, to grow in our ability to enter into discussions and win them (the discussions/debates – not necessarily the people) for Christ. I’ve been there, done that,offended people, been condescending and arrogant, as I’ve strived to know it all. I’ve had to repent, and on more than one occasion apologize and confess and pray for forgiveness.
Yet scripture is clear, and we need to understand we can’t know it all. I can’t learn it all, nor keep tomes and tomes in my brain. I won’t be the next Augustine or Pascal or Melancthon.
To realize this, is a blessing that is incredible.
To realize that I won’t have every answer, that I will continue to grow, that my sight will always be indistinct, that my knowledge will always be partial is so freeing!
It frees me from an idol, one called knowledge. It stops me from becoming thinking that knowledge is the highest of virtues, and reminds me of something I need- to depend on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.
Coming face to face with my own inadequacies leads me to search out for Jesus Christ more than to search out for another theological guru, another academic tome. For His grace is communicated through His word and sacraments, through the Lord’s supper, and in the promises poured out with water in baptism, as the burdens of sin and unrighteousness are relieved as I hear the words,”Your sins are forgiven!”.(2)
It is Christ that protects us, it is the Holy Spirit that lifts us up, whether we can adequately diagram the text, or explain the communication of magisterial attributes. (these are actually helpful – but they ain’t God, nor do they automatically make us more godly!)
Knowing we don’t know it all, that we can’t, drives us to the cross, brings us to walk humbly next to Him, depending on His as a disciple, and this is good.
It is a great blessing – for as we lean on Him, as we trust our Lord, this is where we find peace, and the greatest knowledge of all.
That is this:
“The Lord is with you!”
AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 488-490). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) I would recommend reading the Apology of the Augsburg Confession for a partial list of other sacraments, such as prayer, and helping the poor.
Politics, Hard Decisions, and our Faith
Devotional Thought fo the day:
But these men pressed the king. “Keep in mind, O king,” they said, “that under the law of the Medes and Persians every royal prohibition or decree is irrevocable.” 17 So the king ordered Daniel to be brought and cast into the lions’ den.* To Daniel he said, “Your God, whom you serve so constantly, must save you.” 18 To forestall any tampering, the king sealed with his own ring and the rings of the lords the stone that had been brought to block the opening of the den.
19 Then the king returned to his palace for the night; he refused to eat and he dismissed the entertainers. Since sleep was impossible for him, 20 the king rose very early the next morning and hastened to the lions’ den. 21 As he drew near, he cried out to Daniel sorrowfully, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve so constantly been able to save you from the lions?” 22 Daniel answered the king: “O king, live forever! 23 My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not hurt me.b For I have been found innocent before him; neither have I done you any harm, O king!” 24 This gave the king great joy. At his order Daniel was brought up from the den; he was found to be unharmed because he trusted in his God. NABRE, Dan 6:16–24
509 To be able to judge with rectitude of intention what is needed is a pure heart, zeal for the things of God and love of souls, free from prejudices. Think about it! (1)
I will admit – I don’t have the purity of heart, and not enough zeal for the things of God, and while I try to love souls, there are days this isn’t an option.
If we were back in the days of Darius and Daniel, I can hear the FB and Twitter comments blasting this King, trying to force him to release Daniel, calling him names, and crucifying him in the media for doing what he did. Or the opposite – for not dealing with Daniel severely enough.
They didn’t see his sleepless night, his mourning, His brokenness.
If we were there, we would see someone in power doing that which we know he should not have done.
His heart wouldn’t have mattered, only his actions. His only hope was in the God Daniel trusted, only then could the king know peace. He wasn’t Darius’s God, yet. Darius would praise him, indeed, order his entire country to praise the God of Daniel
26 Then King Darius wrote to the nations and peoples of every language, wherever they dwell on the earth: “May your peace abound! 27 I decree that throughout my royal domain the God of Daniel is to be reverenced and feared:
“For he is the living God, enduring forever, whose kingdom shall not be destroyed, whose dominion shall be without end, 8 A savior and deliverer, working signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who saved Daniel from the lions’ power.” NABRE Dan 6:26-28
This is a lesson for us, for our tendency to judge before we know; before we see the big picture, and the heart of the man in authority Before we realize that God is at work, as promised> We need to pray for our leaders, for the decisions they have to make, that they may not want to make. Even the decisions we disagree with, and find evil in our view.
We can only do this if our faith is in God, even as Daniel’s trust was. Only if we are convinced of His promises can we endure, or watch others endure their own lion’s den. Its not our faith in the Darius, or even in the Daniel, it is God’s reliability we are talking about here…
The God who restores things that are broken, from governments ot leaders, to our own souls.
Trust Him, know He will deliver us… and be confident in His work in you. DOing such will leave in you peace… free to love, to serve the Lord. AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 1938-1940). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Deepest Theological Statement is only 4 words!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
Alleluia!(1) He Is Risen! (2)
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
1 Corinthians 15:14-19 (NLT)
What would it mean if Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus, had not taken place? Would it mean just one more corpse, insignificant among the statistics of world history, or would there be more to it? Well, if there were no Resurrection, the story of Jesus would have ended with Good Friday. His body would have decayed, and he would have become a has-been. But that would mean that God does not take initiatives in history, that he is either unable or unwilling to touch this world of ours, our human living and dying. And that in turn would mean that love is futile, nugatory, an empty and vain promise. It would mean that there is no judgment and no justice. It would mean that the moment is all that counts and that right belongs to the cunning, the crafty and those without consciences.
There would be no judgment. Many people, and by no means only wicked people, would welcome that because they confuse judgment with petty calculation and give more room to fear than to a trusting love. (3)
62 Our Lord did not confine himself to telling us that he loved us. He showed it to us with deeds, with his whole life. What about you?
Some people think theologians live in ivory towers, deeply disconnected with the world. I will admit some of us do, and more often than not we get accused of it. Surely we go off on tangents, and make little details bigger than they ought to be. In doing so, we find ourselves blinded by these little things, to the greatest of theological truths.
One of the reasons I love being a pastor in the Lutheran Church is our habit that Easter isn’t just celebrated for 1 Sunday, but for 40 days, and then every Sunday after that for the entire year. The reason it is important to me is that I have to be reminded, and remind you of one simple truth, one we say over and over for these weeks.
Alleluia! He is risen!
(if you know the response, go ahead and say it… you know you want to.. and it is good for us that you do so!)
There are no words deeper than these theologically! (There are some equally powerful, but hearing these you understand them, and vice-versa) To overlook them turns our religion from a glorious, incredible mystery, into simply the most pathetic thing on earth! To overlook them is well described in Pope Benedict XVI’s words in blue above. For if Jesus doesn’t rise, God didn’t act in the incarnation. He didn’t act in the life of Jesus lived in our midst, tempted at every point as we are. And God didn’t act in Christ’s death…. which assuredly He did.
And I love Benedict’s words, which we don’t both with the church because we confuse God’s judgment! We think of His judgment as some sort of cosmic balance sheet. Were we good enough; did our sins reach the point of no return, is our brokenness beyond God’s patience, and therefore, He might be unwilling to deal with it. What happens then is we take this fear to the extreme, dismiss the God whom we fear, and create gods of things that help us ignore that which we fear.
We run from God, instead of understanding that because of the resurrection we can run to Him! We can trust in God to use the power that raised Christ from the dead to raise us! (see Romans 6 for an excellent description of this!) We can trust this love of God, which gets involved in our lives, to the most hidden details, and starts bringing about the healing, patiently overwhelming us with His love.
He doesn’t just say He loves us, He shows it, by making the resurrection known, by revealing the depth of His plan, the purpose of His covenants, to those He no longer counts as minions, but as his beloved friends. (John 15:15)
This is all wrapped up in those words; He is risen! We can meditate on that for hours, for days, and we should. For from these words of life we find our life, our hope, our very being.
This is what our religion is based on; this is what is the foundation to why a Christian trusts in God. As Benedict XVI, perhaps the greatest theologian in the 20th century wrote:
All this makes clear what Easter does mean: God has acted. History does not go on aimlessly. Justice, love, truth—these are realities, genuine reality. God loves us; he comes to meet us. (3)
Alleluia, He is Risen!
the Lord is with you!
AMEN!
——-
(1) Alleluia simply means “Praise God! (YWHW)
(2) This is our Easter cry, taken from Matthew 28:6 ” 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. ” Matthew 28:6 (NLT)
(3) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (p. 126). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
(4) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 444-446). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Which is Your Hope: To Be Comfortable, or Comforted?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
3 “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! 4 “Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them! 5 “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! Matthew 5:3-5 (TEV)
Instead of divine consolation, they want changes that will redeem suffering by removing it: not redemption through suffering, but redemption from suffering is their watchword; not expectation of divine assistance, but the humanization of man by man is their goal.
In his book on the Rapture, Tim LeHaye justifies his belief in the rapture based on the emotional appeal that Christ would never allow His people, the Bride of Chrsit to suffer. (p.65-69) He pictures the church not surviing such suffering, such pain, such horrors. He pictures Chrsit wanting to eliminate suffering for all believers, now, not just in eternal life. He fears the Tribulation, and even suggests that the church would not be able to sruvive it, should she be left behind.
I don’t want to focus on errors in his eschatology, but rather in the presupposition that God wouldn’t allow the church to suffer. This is a much larger issue in American Christianity, for it is not just those that hold to the teaching of a premillenial rapture that would come to the conclusiont hat God wants the church comfortable. i don’t know fo a theological system that doesn’t fall prey to this at some point, including those who like me express theology in a Lutheran or catholic-sacramental context. ( In our modern version, this often means saving people from martyrdom or political oppression. Or in our denial to seek help, whether it be from a father confessor, or a counselor, or a doctor. )
We all have our desire to be comfortable manifest itself in ugly ways. It might be in our attempts to isolate ourselves from the ugliness of sin, or to hide anything that would cause us to feel sharem, or grief.
I think it is a matter of maturity and faith when we can set aside this desire for being comfortable with the desire to be comforted. And when faced with suffering or sacrifice Benedict XVI was right, we want to be redeemed from suffering, to be saved without experience the guilt and shame that tells us we need to be delivered. If we want to be saveed – it is from the guilta and shame, not from what causes it.
But to desire to be comforted, even in the midst of the pain, is something radically different. It means relying on Jesus, on His wisdom, on His promises that what we are going through doesn’t seperate us from Him.
That’s different.
The article I quoted form Benedict above had another quote qorth including:
Before this image, the monks prayed with the sick, who found consolation in the knowledge that, in Christ, God suffered with them. This painting made them realize that precisely by reason of their sickness they were identified with the crucified Christ, who, by his suffering, had become one with all the suffering of history; they felt the presence of the Crucified One in their cross and knew that, in their distress, they were drawn into union with Christ and hence into the abyss of his eternal mercy
There is something about that which cries our with great comfort. We do not walk alone, that we are not abandoned by God to make it through this vail of tears on our own. The Lord is With In our brokenness, in our need for answers, in our need for hope, we find Him, we realize that He is holding us in His hands, bearing our sorrow, our grief, our sin.
So how do we grow in this, how do we lay aside our rights, our comfortability, our pleausre? How do we take up our cross?
By trusting and depending upon Jesus. By finding our refuge in the comfort of His love, by dwelling in His presence, for there we know His peace, there we know comfort, and we experience a joy that sustains us.
Seek His presence, seek His kingdom, there is comfort there… and the more you know it, the easier it becomes to seek.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (pp. 122–123). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
What if the Lord didn’t ask for you to be the martyr, but..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 The LORD spoke to Moses and said: 2 Consecrate to me every firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelites,a whether of human being or beast, belongs to me. Ex 13:1–2 NAB-RE
209 You made me smile, because I know what you meant when you said: I am enthusiastic about the possibility of going to new lands and opening a breach there, perhaps very far away… I would like to find out if there are men on the moon…Ask the Lord to increase that apostolic zeal of yours. (1)
On facebook this morning, I saw a man saying that he definitely would speak for Christ if he was put in the place of a potential martyr, where the decision was to either say he believed in another god or Jesus. And then he challenged everyone else to claim they would as well.
It made me think of the passage in red that I came across a few days ago, about the command of God to dedicate to His service every firstborn. We can think of those who did in scripture. Hannah comes to mind, as does Elizabeth. Abraham had the question put to him, and his faith in God was proven true. And less we forget Mary’s first son, who she watched God the Father dedicate to the purpose of saving all of mankind.
Dedicating a child to God’s work isn’t something new, but it is something forgotten. During the middle ages, and even until recent history, the second male was encouraged to enter the ministry. Not the first, because that would be the heir of the family name, but the second. (Who gets the better inheritance IMHO)
These days, we aren’t so ready to do so. Not with the first or the second. We aren’t ready or willing to give them up to a life of service, or for that matter, a life of martyrdom, as they sacrifice and even are sacrificed to accomplish the work of God.
Fewer men are entering the ministry, fewer women dedicating their lives to working in the church and church schools as well. Fewer willing to go on the mission field, whether far abroad or here in the inner cities.
We claim to be people who trust God in everything, will we trust Him with our children? Will we trust Him with those who are precious to us?
Even if their vocation is to be a pastor or priest, missionary or even if they are called to martyrdom?
Do we trust Him with life?
Again, go back to Mary’s son, her first born. The only-begotten Son of our Heavenly Father. Who was the pastor, priest, missionary, and yeah – martyr as He died on the cross. As He saved us from our sin. As He came to us.
The firstborn of the firstborn.
May our trust in God grow, as we consider what God the Father committed and consecrated His firstborn to do, and may we seriously encourage more and more people to consider a vocation that sees them ministering to others.
Amen.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1082-1085). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
We Can See!
2 Cor. 3:12-4:6
May the glorious gifts of mercy and peace you receive from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ shine into your world, as God transforms you into the image of Christ!
The Unnerving Glorious Mathematical Law
As we look at the incredible Transfiguration of Jesus, we need to understand it mathematically.
That is right; I said Mathematically.
We can show this mathematically, because of the of the epistle reading. We can understand why the transfiguration is much more than what was revealed that day to the three terrified apostles. As we see Christ revealed in all of His glory, we can make a connection from that event to our lives today, to our lives this week.
To what Paul talks about in Colossians 1,
“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 1:27 (NLT)
Read that last sentence, this gives you the assurance of sharing His glory.
What a glorious promise, what an incredible truth!
So what about the math?
There is a mathematical axiom that dates back to the time before Christ. It goes like this.
If A=B and B=C, then….
C=A.
Simple, right?
Now let’s apply it to scripture.
In verse 18 of our epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 3, it states this.
“And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
So the transition could look like Our Image => Image of Christ
Jesus Christ is the exact likeness, the exact image of God,
Then we are being restored to what we were created to be, going all the way back to Genesis,
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NLT)
This is amazing, glorious, that we would be undergoing a transfiguration that will leave us sharing in the glory of Christ.
That is the work of God in us! This is true of you and me, for we are being remade in the image of God!
That Which obscures this in all of us
That is a heavy burden if you consider it for a moment.
Does God expect us to live, to speak, to think… like Jesus, to be like God, in whose image we are created?
Are we going to be judged based on how well we each resemble Jesus? How our thoughts are His thoughts, whether we love others like He did?
I think that is the problem the Jews had, for they measured their righteousness against the Old Covenant law. Because of that, all they could see was failure, they missed the presence of God. They hear the “you shall keep the Sabbath Day Holy” and miss the idea that we find rest in God’s presence, as He gathers us together, as His family. They hear “you shall not bear false testimony,” and look around at all the evil and unrighteousness, not realizing the comfort and security we have, trusting Jesus to care for us as promised.
Legalism comes from looking at the rules, and trying to keep them, without realizing why we do so. As we focus on the law, we are blinded to the God, who describes our life with Him in that law.
Because we are blinded, we miss Him!
If the Law is our focus, our lives our failures, for the burden is beyond anything anyone can accomplish. Judged by that law, we know what scripture tells, we all fall short of His glory. All have sinned, no one is good, no one but God!.
Even the reflection of God’s glory in the face of Moses would fade…as it did as Moses left the presence of God.
How this transformation occurs
This transformation then is not by our effort; it never could be! We cannot keep the law perfectly. That veil, that inability to look to God, to recognize His presence can only be removed by God.
Notice it says,
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.
We’ve had that veiled removed; it is not something we’ve done. It is the work of Christ, on the cross, and pays for all our sin. It is the Holy Spirit at work as well, who through word and sacraments like baptism and the Eucharist assures us that we are united to Jesus. United to Him in death, and then that death, that veil removed as we rise with Him, cleansed and healed. We’ve become adopted children of God our Father.
We are being transformed into His image, even as we see the glory of God in Christ, as we adore Him. As we look to Him, as our focus moves off of our sins and failures, and off of those around us, we begin to reflect that glory, it becames more and more natural…
That is why Paul tells the church in Ephesus,
4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT)
This transformation we are undergoing, it gives to God great pleasure!
This transformation, where the Spirit removes the veil in baptism, who keeps us close as we commune, as we hear that our sins are forgiven, that we can see God!
What this transformation looks like..
What an amazing change this is in life, to know God’s desire is fulfilled in reconciling us to Himself, in revealing His presence in every aspect of our life! In securing us to Jesus.
The results? Paul talks about this way of God giving us boldness, that we will never give up! That as His mercy is revealed, as we know it is mercy and love towards us, we stand in that love.
Everything else fails away, for there is nothing that compares to it. We do not have to force God’s love on people; we simply share the hope we have. We do not have to put out false images of perfect lives, we can share the hope that comes from seeing God, and that image becomes imprinted on us.
It is why Paul can use the “image” idea as he tells the people in Corinth,
33 I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I do not just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. 1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:33-11:1 (NLT)
Going back to our math, and the A=B and B=C, we find ourselves, our eyes on Christ, running a race without thought of sin, just focusing on Him. We see that image imprinted on Paul. Knowing His love, being transformed into His image.
We find ourselves doing what Christ did, inviting people into the presence of God, making the sacrifices that would remove that which blocks them from Him. For that is what He did.
So look to Jesus, for you can see Him! He is the author and perfector of your faith, who with joy gave it all, discounting the shame, the pain! Who now waits for us at the right hand of the Father!
That is our destination; that is why the Spirit transforms us, readying us for that day. Comforting, empowering, causing us to grow and transform, as we dwell in His amazing peace. AMEN!
where does loving my neighbor stop…..
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
16 And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. 17 Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ’s. 18 There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment. 19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. 21 The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also. 1 John 4:16-21 (TEV)
869 If you really loved God with all your heart, then that love for your neighbour, which you sometimes find so hard to have, would come as a necessary consequence of your Great Love. You would never feel hostility towards anyone, nor would you discriminate between people.
Your neighbor, the one that cut you off on the freeway. Or maybe the one who was promoted over you unfairly at work, he’s your neighbor, isn’t he? what about your old high school friend, who stabbed you in the back/ Or what about that false preacher, the guy who doesn’t agree with anyone else (or so it seems) in your denomination, is he your neighbor?
If these are those you are called to love, is there a point where you can stop loving them?
Where you can with all purity of heart wish God’s wrath to fall on them? Where you can hope that they receive justice, and not the mercy of God?
i can perhaps come up with 50 reasons I should be able to just hate them, or dismiss them into obscurity. Those I have heard as a pastor, and some I came up with myself. We may not want to deal with them, we may not want them in our neighborhood, or our church, or our denomination.
Yet, we are still called to love them. To not only do what is best for them, but to do it in a loving way. (not gritting our teeth, or just saying – this will hurt – but its what’s best for you… ) We are still called ot be like Christ in the way we deal with them.
I had a friend who once said you don’t change anything as a pastor within your church, until you know its place so well it hurts you to change it. If that is true for a practice, or a tradition, can you see the necessity of the same attitude towards a person?
this is the atitude of God, so clearly seen in the words from Ezekiel,
” 10 The LORD spoke to me. “Mortal man,” he said, “repeat to the Israelites what they are saying: ‘We are burdened with our sins and the wrongs we have done. We are wasting away. How can we live?’ 11 Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?” Ezekiel 33:10-11 (TEV)
Would you cry over than neighbor’s continued lack of repentance? Or would you rejoice? Would you carry a cross for them, for the joy set before you? Or would you simply dismiss them as having rejected God, because they rejected you? ( And would you count on Jesus to forgive you your debts, even as you refuse to forgive them theirs?
Hard questions? Sure!
But they should cause you to run to the only place the answer can be found. In the wounds of Christ crucified, in the eyes of the one who cries out for our forgiveness, even as He steals our sins from us.
You see, to love your neighbor like this requires only one thing…. our unity with Christ.
Nothing else will make it happen, nothing else will cause us to desire it to happen. We will search for every lookhole, try to find every exception, Look back into our lives to every pain and challenge God saying, “You can’t mean this one Lord, the pain is too hard”
It is then we realize the depth of our need for Jesus…. and His faithfulness.
Which is what we need to know about Jesus.
May every service, every mass, every Bible study with others, every quiet time of prayer, devotion and study, reveal to us His presence… so we can know the impossible, is certainly doable….. AMEN
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3073-3075). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Can You Hear Him Now?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT)
364 When are you going to make up your mind! Many people around you live a life of sacrifice simply for human reasons. These poor people forget they are children of God and act the way they do perhaps only out of pride, or to excel, or to be more comfortably off later on in life. They give up all kinds of things! And you, who carry the sweet burden of the Church, of your family, your colleagues and friends, motives for which it is worthwhile sacrificing yourself, what are you doing about it? With what sense of responsibility are you reacting?
Maybe it is helping that guy who is begging, not just giving him five bucks, but actually offering real help, and the respect that befits a child of God. Maybe it is going out of your way to bring someone to church, or staying for the Bible study, so they can as well. Maybe it is giving up a saturday morning, or some event you were hoping for, or stepping aside so someone else can do that which you love to do. Maybe it is opening up your house to a missionary who needs a place to stay while in the states, or to someone you know – who can’t live where they did.
Maybe it is forgiving that person who hurt you last week, or 20 years ago. Deciding to let God judge the situation, rather than seek revenge, or hold in that resentment.
Maybe it is simple, sacrificing a meal, or a movie a week or a month, and sending the money to help a missionary in Papua New Guinea, or a Syrrian or Iraqi refugee in Turkey, or a kid in Kosovo learn about Jesus, while learning to play baseball. (btw – I know how to make all those happen – contact me if they strike a nerve) Maybe it is going on the mission field youself, or taking your family on the field for a year or 10.
May it is humbling yourself to go to that person you offended, giving up your pride, asking for forgiveness, intent on seeing one thing happen. Reconciliation.
If you listen to Jesus’ call to follow Him, you will hear a call to sacrifice, a call to humility, a call to go beyond just going to church a sunday a month, or maybe a bible study. You will hear a call to go, a call to be there as He calls people to faith (even at your work, or at a doctor’s office, or at Walmart, or in the Philippines) You will look for people in need, and your heart will break, even as Christ’s broke when he saw the widow mourn the loss of her son, or as he looked out over the city of Jerusalem.
What are you willing to sacrifice? That isn’t the question.
What is worth hanging onto, when Jesus is calling you to hear His word? Will you hear Him calling, when He asks if you love him, not more than things, but with everything you are? Will you hear Him, see Him, loving you that way?
Look to the cross…. hear, see, know His love…..
For as that happens, all you are, will become something you can demonstrate your love to Him with, as you love those around you….
Can you hear Him? Listen…. and Love
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1434-1439). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Necessity of Good Works
Devotional Thought of the Day:
4 May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! 5 Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. 7 And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. 8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. 9 Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you. Philippians 4:4-9 (TEV)
116 Fill yourself with good desires, which is a holy thing, praised by God. But don’t leave it at that! You have to be a soul—a man, a woman—who deals in realities. To carry out those good desires, you have to formulate clear and precise resolutions. And then, my child, you have to fight to put them into practice, with God’s grace. (1)
Since Adam and Eve left the garden it seems, there have been discussions about doing good works, about purity of thought, about living a life that would please God.
I realized something about such conversations, they are rarely practical.
They can be theological, discussing how faith and works interact. Or how works and salvation are related. Most say that works aren’t necessary for salvation, but the arguments occur after that seemingly go on forever. The same can be said about the laws of God, and the Law of God. How does it impact believers, are we bound to first use of the law, or is there a third use.
Nice academic exercises.
One of my parishioners recently hit me hard with a comment, showing what conversations we don’t have. She mentioned that I explained the what well, and the why well, but often leave out the how. I thought about it, and I think she has a major point. It reminds me of one of my greatest fears. Trying to teach my wife, or my son, how to drive a stick shift, a manual transmission. It is about sensing, not thinking, and therefore it is hard to explain. Well, that is my excuse, and I won’t stick to it.
So here goes…. how to accomplish good works
When it comes to works, the first step has to be internal. You can’t do what is right, if our minds are always focused on what is not.
Which is why Paul tells us to fill our minds with things that deserve praise, the good things in life. Think on these things, On God’s love, on mercy, on His presence and peace. Don’t just think about them for thirty seconds, but often dwell on them. Think of Christ’s example, or that of apostles or those who’ve gone before us in the faith.
From dwelling on these things – to the point of desiring them in your life, desire them. Think of the good you can do, and for everyone this is different. It might be holding the hand of someone who is stressed and anxious. It is always praying for people, not just saying that you will keep them in prayer. It may be offering help, physical, financial, more often emotional. POinting them to that which will help their anxiety fade, pointing them to what will strengthen their faith. (An example – asking them why we commune, or what their baptism means – and reminding them that God is in their life..reminding them of passages like Romans 8:28-38)
Desiring to spend more time walking with God is the key, hearing Him, knowing Him, realizing the peace He brings, That is the key to doing good works, and yes, in Christ we can… for our lives, our souls are God’s good work, as He transforms us and guides us in doing what He has planned….
So think on Christ’s love, often… let it dwell in you richly… so much you sing about it unconsciously…..
Oh and the necessity of doing this? Try it for a while, then you will understand….for what happens is beyond our understanding….
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 610-613). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
