A CRY FOR JUSTICE, MAYBE...

I’ve often thought, rather than learning to bless those who curse me, perhaps it would be better if God just dispensed some of that Justice He is so good at. Really, don’t you cry out for justice? Isn’t that one of the reasons it is so difficult to bless someone who has done you harm? You’d rather there be justice. Quick, severe and absolute.

When I tire of being the punching bag and when the mayhem de-jour is served up in the nightly news-I cry out to God for justice. God where are you, send your justice. God are you uncaring-how could you let this go unpunished, you are just aren’t you? Then send justice.

And God says to me-alright, Brian---

where would you like me to start with this dispensing of justice?

Should I start with you?

Maybe I should start with your children?

Should I begin with your closest friends, perhaps their children?

Should I go all the way back to Adam?

Would that be a good place to start and put an end to all of this?

Suddenly my cry is no longer for justice-but for mercy. Mercy from an infinitely good and competent God who is nothing like the God described by the mean spirited, condemning Pharisees around us. The ones who know exactly which human beings will end up where at the end of the age. Yes, mercy, oh My Father.

It somehow makes it more appealing to learn how to bless those who curse you, let it go and shower on them forgiveness. After all forgiveness is the language of the Kingdom.

BLESSING THOSE WHO CURSE YOU

Of the things I am learning to put into practice, at the top of the list is learning from the Master: How to bless those who curse me.

I’ve had some experience being cursed and if you have spent anytime in the church (small ‘c’) you have as well.

What does it mean to bless those who curse you?

It means to will the good of another under the invocation of God.

Whew…that’s a mouthful! To will the good of another. Stop right there.

I have just uncovered my first problem. I’m not sure I want to do that.

God, they have hurt me so deeply. Friends who claim to be friends who turn on you, spread lies, speak half truths, stab you in the back and then blame you for bleeding all over their carpet. To will their good??

Would it be a good thing to will someone else’s good? Would it even be safe to do that? Yes, IF, I do so under the invocation of God. In other words, calling on God to do for me what I cannot do myself. This is invocation.

And because the Lord is my Shepherd, He will make sure I am cared for.

So, can I learn to do this as a disciple of Jesus? The good news is yes.

First-I have to be one who is not thrown off by being cursed.

This involves not a Pharisaic approach to obedience but an inner spiritual transformation. Where I become the kind of person who isn’t bothered by being cursed because I am becoming the kind of person who doesn’t have to get what they want. I am no longer into protecting me. To do this, I must engage in disciplines that lead to a calmness of soul. Perhaps blocking out some time in my day over a significant period of time to be quiet. To listen to God speak. To empty myself of this desire to defend, give slap for slap and discover that just because someone hurt me doesn’t mean I have to run out and hurt them back.

Second-It requires understanding their situation and condition. These people who curse others, especially when they can so seemingly easily curse a friend, are the kind of people who NEED a blessing. They certainly are not going to benefit from me cursing them back. They too are human beings whom God caused to come into existence. How we see other people is a major component as to how we treat other people.

Third-train yourself under God to ask Him to give them good things.

Am I willing to ASK God to give them good things. This is absolutely necessary because it allows me to turn loose of the agonizing pressure of controlling or being responsible for their lives.

I can do this when I realize it is much preferable to being the kind of person who curses others. I have to look no further than the kind of lives people live who routinely curse, criticize and gossip. Frankly, they really are miserable people that need a blessing. They don’t need more cursing.

Besides, it will be a revelation to them and confuse them-they won’t know what to do with that kind of response. You will be engaging in actions as a disciple of Jesus that completely changes the makeup of the relationships.

By our lives we actually switch things around and these, who are so in need of a blessing, will be drawn into a different kind of world…The Kingdom Among Us. And then the Kingdom of the Heavens they are so antagonistic towards, will be unleashed into their lives and God will change them too. If they don’t want to change, we learn to trust Him with that as well and say: Thank God you are changing me. Yes, Thank God for God.

AT THE GRAVESIDE OF MY MOM

I was asked by my father to conduct the graveside service of my mom along with my nephew Joshua. I have been asked to reduce what I said to writing. For those familiar with me, my teaching and understanding of our lives before God, this will sound familiar:

Graveside Service; Greenwood Cemetery; December 31, 2011

We often quote as professing Christians Romans 8:28. For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who know God, to those who are called according to His purposes.

This is a part of the ‘ALL THINGS’ and now we, mom’s family have the opportunity to find out if we believe this or just profess to believe it.

Will God make this work so that our lives are richer because this happened?

That is our big God. The danger is always not thinking big enough about His purposes and plans. This is indeed part of the all things He promises to cause to work for His good. For His purposes. So, of course we grieve, but we grieve not as others who have no hope.

This is not mom in this casket. It is her body. That does not mean it is insignificant. It is very significant because God will raise it up on the last day and glorify it. But it is not Mom. She was not her body and because she was not her body she did not pass out of existence.

She was more than her body and has but stepped in to her next phase of existence.

If that is true about mom then it is true about us. We are not our body.

We are more than our body.

If this is not mom, if she was not her body than who is she?

Mom is a spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s wonderfully created universe. Mom has but stepped in to her next phase of existence as this never ceasing spiritual being.

If that is true about mom, that it is also true about us.

Who are you? You are a spiritual being who will never stop existing with an eternal destiny in God’s created universe. That’s the glory of the human being God has created and made provisions for.

3 things I can tell you are true about mom.

God planned to bring her into existence. God invested His life in her. God likes her. Those three things.

If that is true about mom then it is also true about us.

God has planned to bring us into existence as never ceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe. God has invested His life in us through Jesus Christ. And, He likes us. Not just loves us. He likes us.

But you get to choose whether this One who has invested in you is the real deal. Mom did.

PRAYER:

Father, God, Sovereign, Creator, Eternal One, He who is from everlasting to everlasting. We humble ourselves before you and know that you, with your abundant mercies, can assuage the grief that is very real. I pray for each here what mom had. A rich life of joy and power. Abundant in supernatural resources and a clear vision before each of us of the eternal significance of our life and work day by day. That each of us here would have a radiant life and a glorious death just as mom had.

Amen.

LIFE

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

Paul’s prayer is what he profoundly longed to see in the lives of these he ministered to. This life of which he speaks, is nothing less than the result of inner transformation, spiritual transformation, a life of grace in the One who has been transferred into life in the ‘Kingdom of His Beloved Son’.

All of this is the result of life, in being risen with Christ beyond death.

1 Corinthians 15:17 “If Christ had not been risen you would still be dead in your sins.”What about the cross? The cross must never be presented without the resurrection. You don’t have a cross that means anything without a resurrection. Without resurrection you have a dead salvation that does not relate to the present spiritual life in Christ of the believer. For Jesus, life was the issue.

This is why we must get past a view of atonement in which all that matters is that Jesus has taken the punishment for our sins. The problem with such a reductionist view of the gospel is evident in the lives of many who limit it to such. What about discipleship? It is viewed as not required or even irrelevant to the status of our now ‘saved’ condition. Why? Because ‘saved’ has been reduced in meaning to my sins having been forgiven.

LET ME EMPHASIZE (because it is ever apparent that I now must say what I don’t mean by what I say!): It does indeed mean the glorious truth that my sins are forever forgiven, without which any hope of change, transformation, discipleship, eternal life, heaven would be an unreachable hope. Of course it is forgiveness, it is not just forgiveness.

The theme in the New Testament is life, regeneration, who we are becoming and becoming like Christ. From God’s perspective the basic truth of salvation is the impartation of life. Over and over this truth is proclaimed.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

and 1 John 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Without this truth, inner change (spiritual transformation) is seen as an oddity, irrelevant, perhaps a bit ‘monkish’ or even heretical. But if understood from the perspective of a new life received from above, then it can be seen as a transformation in this life. A progressive transformation because who we are becoming is of primary importance to God the King.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE KINGDOM

Mark 11:22-26
Jesus is giving instructions on asking in faith. Moving mountains and requests being granted. The disciples have been enamored with the death of a fig tree and are asking about this unique event. In this teaching moment Jesus is encouraging His young followers and telling them of the marvelous strength of prayer. He then adds a seemingly extraneous instruction: And when you stand praying, forgive.

Why? Because forgiveness is the language of the Kingdom. You can’t stand in the powerful resources of the Kingdom without practicing forgiveness.

How do I handle the unfair and spiteful attacks from those I neither know nor have contact with? I am aware there are some unmerited criticisms (both verbal and written) being disseminated in our community about me, even condemning me as a heretic and worse. (The authors may not know this but some of them clearly border on libel.)

I was asked today, why I do not defend myself?
The reason is because I forgive them.

I hold no animosity in my heart toward them and I will not build my life around their offense nor will I make them pay for what they have said and done to me. I don’t need to. As I trust Christ, I know what is going to happen to me, He is going to take care of me.

What makes forgiveness possible is His grace at work in our life to accomplish what we cannot do on our own. That is why grace is not just for guilt, it is for life. The sinner needs grace just to forgive sins, the disciple and follower of Christ depends on grace for every step, every action as they move more clearly into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

For those who mistreat you, you can ask, ‘who are you?’ as you hold them up next to the One who says, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (See: Romans 8:1) Besides, they try and condemn me but forget, “I am dead and my life is hidden with Christ in God…” (Colossians 3:1-4).

One of the more unpleasant statements of Jesus is found in Luke 10:3 in His great experiment of sending out the 70: Go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

Just examine the evidence yourself and look at the vituperative, unpleasant and mean-spirited language used in the attacks. The sniping and calling me out. The relentless barbs and references in blogs. The snide letters and language.

Who are the wolves?
By their fruits you shall know them.

BETTER THAN ABC's

I strongly suggest that all readers of this blog check out Casey’s recent blog of 5-23 (http://caseysliquidblog.blogspot.com/). Both of you will be enlightened...oh wait, Casey you are one them and Jess is the other!!
OK, I too, digress. Casey, once again you nail it.

In one way or the other-most of our presentations and definitions of the gospel deal solely with the question: what am I going to do about my sin? Is there then any connection to either the message of Jesus or His ‘Great Commission’ of Matthew 28:16-20?

If grace is but for guilt we are led to the inexorable conclusion that had we never sinned we wouldn’t need God, His way of life or His grace.

If grace if just for guilt, then what is to be an interactive, living relationship with God degenerates into a religion of Christianity which is more like a Clichéianity. This leaves us with the strange anomaly today of thinking that one can be a ‘Christian’ and not be a disciple of Christ.

2 events blessed me beyond belief this week. The first was a recovering narcotic addict who told how he found he could have a personal relationship with his ‘Higher Power’ through one who was called Jesus Christ. The second was from a dear sister in Christ who worships God in the Catholic tradition. I had written a letter to her defending her against ones in our community who attacked her form of worship. She wrote me a beautiful note extolling the beauties of entering the Kingdom as a little child and finding the ‘healing love of Christ’.

Neither one of these used the catchwords of the ABC’s of salvation Casey so eloquently exposed in his blog. Neither used the catchy religious slang and by-words that become like secret passwords among the indoctrinated. Yet both spoke of life. Real life Jesus gives as we follow Him.

I’d stand with either one of those on the path of life as we learn together the ‘healing love of Christ’, finding a righteousness beyond that of the Pharisee and learning from the Master how to live life, over any of the other countless religious elite who hold to the party line and clichés of a dead religion.

God bless you Monte and God bless you Shauna for opening my eyes to the purity of following Jesus into real life. And God bless you Mikey and Patti for proving to me once again that life in Jesus is a life no one could genuinely experience and want anything else. And God bless you Casey for challenging my thinking.

MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

One of the embarrassing things about Jesus was His utter lack of concern in who He hung out with, touched or welcomed. Consider the leper in Mark 1:40. Lepers weren’t supposed to be approaching people but with the typical generosity of Jesus He welcomed him, spoke to him, challenged him and touched him. Not a touch like we would have given. The word there means to embrace or adhere to. I imagine Jesus helping the man off of his knees and bear hugging him as He welcomed him into his new life.

Jesus presents to us the opportunity to be joint heirs in nothing less than this new type of humanity-the Kingdom Community of the redeemed. All recovering sinners, all blessed of Him. Not seeing how exclusive we can be in drawing our circles but how inclusive we will be.

A community learning together the great transformation process that can happen through the new life received from above where we aren’t concentrating on doing religious things but learning to actually be loving people, from whom flow the living rivers of water.

This new type of humanity is the complete obliteration of social status-where we gather as Abraham’s seed. We have ‘put on Christ’ and now there are no distinctions, which are to be made (Galatians 3:26-29; Col. 3:10-11).

In this community made up of a new kind of humanity, we learn to discard everything that comes from other than the work and person of Christ in His crucifixion and beyond. (1 Cor. 2:2) Because He is ‘IT’. The Messiah who comes as the solution to the human problem. (2 Cor. 5:16-17)

There are not many who would be put on the world’s list of who’s who.
We are the list of the world’s last and least. But to us the Kingdom is available, forgiveness in abundance, grace without limit and the opportunity to become the kind of people He always intended us to be in spite of what we may have been in the past. This is the New Creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
And dare I say, ‘The making of all things new’ (Rev. 21:5).