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The Word Became Flesh, Part Three

23 Friday Dec 2016

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This is the final post in a series on the Incarnation with meditations from John chapter one.  Read the rest of the series here:  Intro, Part One, Part Two. 

It’s interesting to think that if there is a personal God who is jealous for our worship, and if Jesus is anything less than God, we Christians are in a world of hurt for worshiping Him as God.  And yet, if His claims are true–if Jesus really is Emmanuel, God with us, then we are equally as bad off if we reject Him in favor of worshiping only the Father, as the Jews of Jesus’ day were inclined to do.

He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.

To worship a mere man is preposterous.  Indeed it is treasonous. And to bow down before a tiny baby as the magi did is laughable.

Unless somehow God becomes a man.  Unless somehow that baby was more than just a baby.

But if we stop to think about the incarnation, and if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s about the most unthinkable thing, isn’t it?  The only way we can reckon it even being possible is to say that “with God all things are possible” and that “He does whatever He pleases”.

So often people seem to meditate on the fact that God would become a baby.  We’re reminded of the smallness of His stature, the utter dependence upon His mother, the poverty of His earthly family.

But the marvel of the incarnation is not so much in the tininess of the Infant nor in the lowliness of His socioeconomic status, as consequential as these may seem to us, but rather that He would become human at all.

Would we lose our wonder if He had indeed walked upon the scene as a fully-grown, handsome, rich, powerful ruler?  Those earthly things might impress us, but they don’t impress God.  The gap between the rich and poor, the greatest and the weakest of our world as it is applied to the birth of Christ is a rather silly consideration in light of the infinite gap between the majesty, sufficiency, and immensity of our Creator and mankind’s collective vulgarity, dependence, and feeble littleness.

His humility and condescension would have been on display even if He had come as the most impressive of men, simply for having clothed Himself with flesh and blood.

But we are a bit dense and our values quite backwards, so in keeping with the lowliness of becoming like us, He showed us that the Mighty One of heaven needed nothing of earthly riches, power, or glory.  He was content to empty Himself of the heavenly riches, power, and glory so that He might be like those He came to save.

We see in Jesus, the Word of God, all the perfections of character that are in God Himself; we see what it means to be Emmanuel, God with us.  And we see what it means to be a truly great human being–in the only human life with which God is well pleased.  His is a greatness so far beyond our reach that in the light of the incarnation and the life of Jesus Christ on earth, we see our desperate need for God to enter into our dark mess in order to pull us out of it.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  Isaiah 9:2

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. 

And so He came.  The glory, the humility of the incarnation is not so much that Jesus was born small and poor, but that He was born into our world at all.

And so we are invited to come.  And see.  And receive.  And worship this One to whom not only the wise men but also the angels of heaven bow down.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Merry Christmas.

The Word Became Flesh, Part Two

22 Thursday Dec 2016

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This is Part Two in a series of meditations on the incarnation from John chapter one.  If you are new to the series, check out the Intro and Part One. 

How are we to know God?  Psalm 19 describes how the heavens are telling the glory of God, and how His word works in the heart of man.  Psalm 119 is another ode to the word of God, while Psalm 104 praises the Lord for His creation.  Romans 1 teaches that His invisible attributes are seen in all that He has made.

And yet…

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…

The Creator now converges with creation.  The Infinite enters into finitude.  God becomes a man.

But unlike the written word of God which is powerful and yet not personal, and unlike the Creation which reveals aspects of God’s nature but is not inhabited by Him in any sort of pantheistic sense–no, unlike how God had revealed Himself in His word and in Creation, He has now revealed Himself in a Man–in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).  This cosmic intertwining of the spiritual with the material, the eternal with the temporal, is the chief way in which God has chosen to reveal Himself.

“He’s a person not a plan,” Michael Card reminds us.  Jesus isn’t just a ticket into heaven.  He’s the reason you want to be there, the One who created you, the One with whom your soul, if awakened, longs to be.

Jesus isn’t just a means to an end, but He is Himself the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.

How does this impact the way we view that Babe in the manger, so seemingly small, so apparently needy?

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…

Have you caught your breath yet?

More tomorrow…

Part Three

The Word Became Flesh, Part One

21 Wednesday Dec 2016

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This is Part One in a Series of meditations on the incarnation from John chapter one.  If you missed the intro post, you can find it here. 

Jesus is the Word of God.  I’ve been meditating on John chapter one for a while now (months, actually), and I can’t get passed this description.

Words are essential to clear communication.  But written words alone can’t always give us a completely accurate picture.  Ever sent an email that was completely misinterpreted by someone because your tone and inflection was taken in a totally unintended way?

In Jesus we have a picture of what God is like and who He is–in words, in deeds, in emotion, everything.  We don’t exactly have a visual because we are those who believe without having actually seen Him (1 Peter 1:8, John 20:29).  (Cheesy nativity scene pictures admittedly don’t help, but alas I have succumbed.)  Nothing seen can truly define the unseen God anyway.  Maybe that’s why the bible didn’t come complete with an inspired painting of the Lord.

Still, in Jesus Christ, we have the ultimate representation, the ultimate communication about God.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.  Hebrews 1:1-3

This Word was not only spoken or written, but it was translated into real, live humanity.  To be seen.  To be touched.  To be felt.  To be heard.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

But more than a mere representation, more than just a communication, the scripture demonstrates that this Word has been around since the beginning.  This Word was with God.  This Word was God.  Emmanuel, God with us, isn’t just a platitude or a nice meaning for a nice person’s name.  It describes the very essence of the incarnation itself.

It tells us who Jesus is.

More to come tomorrow.  But for now, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Have you ever longed for God to show Himself to you?  Second Corinthians 4:6 says “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” How does this compare with the description of Jesus in John chapter one?  How does this meet our longing, at times, to see God? 

Part Two   Part Three

The Word Became Flesh: A Short Series of Meditations on the Incarnation from John Chapter One

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

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The opening of the Gospel of John is a grand invitation to “come and see” who this Jesus, this “Word” and “Light” and “Son of God”, is.  The first sentences to leave the apostle’s pen are some of the most poetic and yet absolute statements about Christ in all of scripture:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him,

and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Three verses, six strong assertions.  They are foundational statements–not merely about this man Jesus, but also about the nature of God Himself and the relationship of Jesus to all of Creation.

This isn’t a passage to gloss over.  It is rich with grandeur.  To simply nod and move on doesn’t seem right.  I have to weigh these statements because they are heavy.

Who is this Jesus?  Do I believe the things John is saying about Him?  Do I also accept the testimony of John the Baptist that “this is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”?

The apostle John says that “His own did not receive Him.”  Jesus warns in the Sermon on the Mount that few actually believe and follow Him.  And so I have to ask myself these questions and not rush past them.  I have to take time to ponder, to let it all sink in.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:12-13)

So the invitation is to come and see–and believe.  Come and see–and become a child of God.  Come and see–and receive grace upon grace.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14)

I invite you to join me in meditating on the incarnation over the next few days leading up to Christmas.  Let us sit for a while in John chapter one as we prepare to welcome and celebrate the One who has come and is coming again.  

Part One   Part Two   Part Three

Great Joy

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

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This is a journal entry from a few weeks ago that seemed appropriate given the theme of joy that characterizes the Advent and Christmas season (or the painful lack of joy some suffer more acutely at this time of year).  I hope that this will encourage and strengthen your heart as it has mine.

Creative Joy

There’s a GK Chesterton quote I have written in my home management binder that got me thinking the other day…

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening ‘Do it again’ to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

In Genesis we read that God created everything.  And He said it was good.

As humans we delight in our own creative works—how much more, then, does God?

If our greatest project to date is broken or corrupted, if our best artwork goes unappreciated, we may lose heart, but even though God’s good creation has been broken and corrupted by sin and unappreciated by His creatures, He does not lose heart.  He is being creative still in working all things together according to His will and pleasure.  Like a master chess player takes great joy and delight in taking whatever move his opponent makes and using it to his advantage.  Or how a composer uses all the instruments, notes, dynamics, and dissonance to make a beautiful piece of music.  Contrary to how I might imagine Him at times, God has great joy!  He isn’t some brooding but somehow benevolent grandpa in the sky.  He is a divine, cosmic orchestrator, enjoying and delighting in His own work!

Contagious Joy

Psalm 16 ends with a rather exuberant declaration:

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

At one time in my life I read this verse and thought that the joy to be found in God’s presence was in the heart of the creature delighting in God, but my view was strained because while I had imagined that those who are in God’s presence must somehow be moved to great joy, I still imagined God Himself as somehow still quite austere, even stoic and grave.  But that is not how the scriptures paint Him.  He is holy and righteous.  But He is also love and peace and delight.

If the believer’s love to God is made possible because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and because He Himself IS love (v. 16), then it seems quite plausible that our joy and delight in Him stems from His own joy and delight in Himself and in His works.

If joy and laughter are contagious, as I am told, then our joy in the presence of God need not be somehow mustered up within us—we need only to see Him as He is, and then we will be like Him (1 John 3:1-3).

As for this side of eternity, where we do not currently see the Lord face to face, we have this promise from Jesus in John 17:  “these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”  He has given us His word for our joy in this life—not merely as a tool so that we can conjure up our own joy, but so that we would have His joy made full in us.

All of these meditations brought this hymn to mind.  I particularly like the arrangement found here.

Thou lovely Source of true delight,
Whom I unseen adore;
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight,
That I may love Thee more.

Thy glory o’er creation shines;
But in Thy sacred Word,
I read in fairer, brighter lines,
My bleeding, dying Lord.

’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop,
And sins and sorrows rise,
Thy love with cheerful beams of hope,
My fainting heart supplies.

Jesus, my Lord, my Life, my Light,
O come with blissful ray;
Break radiant through the shades of night,
And chase my fears away.

Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of Thy love;
But the full glories of Thy face
Are only known above.

Continual Joy

God is not merely unmoved or unsurprised when things on earth seem chaotic, upended, or just plain bad.  Our blessed God is joyfully working out His plans through it all.  He is delighting in His children, His creation; and He rejoices when a wayward one comes home to Him through faith and repentance (Luke 15:7).  Though God hates and grieves our sin, and though He sympathizes with our weaknesses and even weeps with those who are broken, no tragedy on earth will steal away His joy—nor, by extension, our joy if it is rooted in Him.

As you hold fast to your faith in Christ, through this season and the years to come, may you serve Him with gladness, awaiting with expectation the day when you hear, “Well done…enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21)

Rejoice!  And be glad!

These are my own meditations and not meant as a thorough treatment of this subject.  If you want a much better biblical analysis of this topic (seriously, so much better), check out this article at Bible.org:  The Joy of God.  I found this article as I was getting ready to post my own and loved it! 

The Grace of Grape Tomatoes

29 Monday Dec 2014

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I was on my period. I hadn’t had enough to eat. It was about 11am, and I was at the grocery store with two little boys. We grabbed some bananas and carrots, and then I saw them: organic grape tomatoes. With the exception of one picky eater, my family enjoys snacking on these little red gems. So I picked up a package to examine it. Some of the tomatoes looked a bit wilted, so I placed it back on the temperature-controlled shelf and began to reach for another box.

And that’s when it happened. The box didn’t exactly like the way I had set it down, apparently, so in protest it decided to slowly lean forward until it fell to the ground, bouncing from cauliflower to lettuce to floor, where the box finally burst open, allowing over half of the precious fruit to scatter on the icky grocery store tile. Since there was no store clerk around to tell me, “Oh, it’s ok, I’ll take care of that,” I bent over and picked up every last tomato, closed up the box, and put it dutifully in my cart, with the words, “You break it you buy it,” spinning around in my head.

I thought at this point God was trying to teach me something: despite my being a bit of a grump about the whole thing, at least I did the right thing by picking them up and paying for the potentially damaged goods. But God wasn’t done with me yet, nor was He done with the grape tomatoes.

We meandered through the store, grabbing the things on my list (or was this the day that I went in for nothing more than peanut butter and made a list in my head as I shopped and ended up with half a basket full of groceries?), until we finally made it to the checkout line and then headed home.

My blood sugar levels were dropping by now and my muscles felt a bit weak. But we had to unload and put away the groceries before sitting down to eat lunch, so I got to it. I rearranged a few things in the fridge, managing to make room for the abundance of groceries I hadn’t planned on bringing home today (but when you’re out on Monday you might as well make the most of it and try to get what you need for the week so that by the time Thursday rolls around you can be at home doing something productive instead of having to go out to the store again, right?).

Then there they were, the last item to put away, those floor-germ-infested tomatoes. I figured I’d give them a preliminary rinsing off before putting them in the fridge using just water, until I thought better of it and pulled the vegetable cleaning spray out from under the sink. Spray, spray, spray. Toss, toss, toss. Rinse, rinse, rinse. That wasn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll just do this again before serving them so I feel confident that they’re clean.

And then it happened again. As I was turning toward the fridge, my limbs defied me and, after bumping into the refrigerator door, I dropped the box of tomatoes onto the floor…the kitchen floor that didn’t get cleaned last Friday like it was supposed to. And, sure enough, the box opened on impact and all those clean tomatoes went rolling on the floor, under the lip of the fridge, the oven, and the dishwasher.

I started to get angry. One of those less-than-justified “Why, God?!?” moments. But then I felt the tension in my clenched fists subside as I realized this was from His hand—not a curse, but an opportunity. An opportunity to see that I don’t have it all together. Not only am I not as physically in control as I’d like to be (hello, dropping the same box of tomatoes on the floor TWICE in the span of about 90 minutes), but neither do I really have things together emotionally or spiritually. I was ready to raise my fist at heaven, figuratively speaking, to whine and complain and throw a grown-up tantrum…over some tomatoes. Forget that I “did the right thing” in purchasing them at the store. I grumbled against the God of heaven. These tomatoes were simply a small chisel in the hand of a master craftsman, working to chip away at the hardened, bitter stone of my heart, in fact rebuking my self-righteousness by revealing to me that there was work to be done there at all.

On many occasions this kind of scrutiny, though private, would cause me to despair because I wasn’t living up to the perfect standard that I so desperately desire to meet. But in this instance, those tomatoes became a means of grace for me. As I washed them off again, with tears beginning to form in my eyes, I realized that Jesus came to save sinners. He came to die for sinners, to make them clean. And I am one. There is hope for me. There is grace for me, a sinner.

Like those tomatoes that needed washed yet again, so did I. What a joy that His gift of forgiveness, love, and cleansing is not given begrudgingly, as I grumbled at first to clean the tomatoes, but freely. In the very moment that I knew my sin and unworthiness, I also knew that “It is finished,” and I am redeemed, restored, and loved.

There are a lot more elaborate ways the Lord could choose to show me my sin and His love. But this simple little demonstration was sufficient to show that my attitude in such a small thing revealed big things about my heart. But “where sin abounded grace abounded all the more.” His mercy and grace are infinitely bigger than my sin. And so I thank God for the grace I found in an ornery package of grape tomatoes.

The Rich Young Ruler

28 Sunday Dec 2014

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From Luke 18:18-30

Hearing that the great Teacher was in his neighborhood, a rich young man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. Being a well-mannered man of high society, he begins this dialog politely by addressing Jesus as “Good teacher.”

Instead of commending him for his platitude, Jesus immediately recognizes the man as a flatterer.

“Why do you call Me good? There is no one who is good but God.” If this man calls Jesus good, whom the rich young ruler only sees as a mere man, a “good” teacher, Jesus can likely perceive that this man would be willing to call himself good. And that’s exactly where Jesus takes the discussion:

“You know the commandments…”

The young man could be beaming and hopeful at this point, “Yes, I have kept them from my youth!”

“What you lack is this: sell all your possessions, give to the poor, and come, follow Me.”

But the man goes away sad, because he owned much property. He’s just unwilling to let it go.

This rich young ruler came to Jesus asking what he could tack on to his self-professed squeaky-clean life in order to secure salvation for himself. Jesus pointed out to the man that it wasn’t something he could do, something he could add on, just one thing more for extra credit. What he lacked was the willingness to be lacking in possessions for the greater treasure of following Jesus—he was unwilling to let go.

Jesus basically told the guy, “He who does not forsake all to follow me cannot be my disciple.” “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Certainly the good deed of giving to the poor was a good and right goal that Jesus put before the man, but it was also a device to reveal the man’s heart—he had not, in fact, kept all the commandments. He’d blundered the two most important ones. He didn’t love God or the poor, he loved his honor and his riches. He didn’t have faith in God, he had faith in his own assumed “goodness”.

I wonder if the man went on in self-righteousness after that point, or if Jesus’ words eventually opened his eyes to see that he wasn’t so good after all.

I wonder if he clung even more tightly to his wealth, bearing the misery of an old miser to his grave, or if he finally did let it go, embracing instead life and joy and peace with God.

I wonder if we will recognize our own tendency to love our stuff more than God, more than our neighbor.

I wonder if we will take the blinders off and see our own spiritual poverty, despite what material riches we may possess, and trade it in for the true riches Jesus offers to those who are humble enough to see their need of Him.

Books Read from July 2012 to June 2013

13 Saturday Dec 2014

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I have, for quite some time now, wanted to keep a record of the books I’ve read each year.  What better place than on a blog?  I started keeping track of this in 2012 in my day planner, but now here it is making its debut on the interwebs.

Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp  Excellent overview of parenting and child-training according to biblical commands and principles.  At the time I had a one- and three-year-old, so it was a good time to take a first pass at this book.

The Autobiography of George Mueller  Incredible testimony to God’s grace and provision, not to mention a great example of faith and prayer.  Must read.

The Hand of God by Alistair Begg  This book was given to me by my youth pastor when I graduated high school.  It’s a look at the life of Joseph, eleventh out of the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel), sold into slavery in Egypt, raised up from the dungeon by God to save his people and declare God’s good purposes in it all.  It’s a Romans 8:28 kind of story.  And one that I’ve read through twice now.

Managing God’s Money by Randy Alcorn  Very thorough look at the Christian view of stewardship.  Challenging our usual perspectives, freeing us to give generously and manage our money well so that we can use it wisely for God’s purposes (because, as the title suggests, it’s all God’s anyway).  I only slightly disagree with the handling of the subject of debt, being that my husband and I have a conviction to never go into debt–even for a house.

Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic I read this little gem of a parenting book twice that year.  Encouraging.  Hilarious.  Spiritual heart-surgery for moms.

Lose Your Mummy Tummy by Julie Tupler  Having a one-year-old at the time and recently discovering that my stomach muscles were not quite where they used to be, I picked up this book and have been doing the exercises (when I think of it) and have indeed significantly improved my condition.

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot  One year after giving birth to my second son, I had just gotten off of prednisone, and the darkest year of my life was finally giving way to somewhat brighter days, but the struggle for joy, vision, and stability continued.  Elisabeth Elliot’s words in this devotional pointed me to tough, trusting stability in Christ and in Him alone, helping me to crawl out of my pit of depression.  God bless Elisabeth Elliot.

The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson  Dealing with depression you can hardly see straight enough to motivate yourself to do anything, much less inspire your children as you care for and train them.  This book by Sally Clarkson gives fresh perspective on motherhood, encouraging moms to give grace to their children, looking to the life of Jesus as our example.

Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon  This would be a follow-up to Nourishing Traditions which I must have read the previous year.  They promote properly prepared grains and legumes, whole foods, low sugar, and healthy fats (particularly coconut oil and cod liver oil) to aid weight loss and alleviate health problems.  Good read, but many of the recipes are far fetched for my lifestyle.

Preschoolwise by Gary Ezzo  Love ’em or hate ’em, I have read most of the Babywise books.  I don’t necessarily endorse them, but have found them helpful in establishing order (generally more so with toddlers and older) and especially for the tools I can add to my child training toolbox (blanket time, anyone?).

The Pilgrim’s Regress by C S Lewis  Listened to this as an audiobook.  Fascinating exploration of ideologies that compete with a biblical worldview.  The “regress” section of the book, however, is quite disappointingly short, but that is understandable since Lewis penned this book shortly after becoming a Christian himself.  He couldn’t write what he didn’t yet know.  🙂

Oh, For Real! by Heavenly Homemakers’ Laura Coppinger  This is a cookbook.  And it is a wonderfully practical whole-foods cook book.  Yes, I do read cookbooks.  This one has a great bunch of introductory information and tips.

Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst  As you may have noticed, there are a couple of cook books on this list.  So you might safely assume I have a thing for food.  And that explains the need for this book.

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman  I revisit this book regularly.  It’s a great read every time, and a great resource when I need to refocus on one particular area of my life as wife, mom, homemaker–so much is covered in this book.  It is a manual for life.  I believe this was the second time I read it.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry  The follow-up distopian novel to Lowry’s The Giver.  Nathaniel and I read this together on a road trip.  I still need to find a copy of The Messenger to complete the series…

The Jesus StoryBook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones  I have read this through I don’t know how many times with my boys.  What a joy to cover the stories of the Bible from beginning to end, all with an eye to the main story of redemption through Jesus Christ.  It is beautifully and whimsically illustrated.  While I enjoy this book with my children, I do feel that at times it does a bit more interpretation than I would have liked, especially in the way it puts words into Jesus’ mouth that are not even real paraphrases of things He actually said.  Creative license?  Yes.  Main message remains unchanged?  True.  But it is still an area in which I think we ought to exercise a bit more caution.  That is all.

The Good Samaritan

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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From Luke 10:25-37

An expert in the Law of Moses came to Jesus and asked Him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The Scripture says the man asked this question to test Jesus, and in accordance with His usual style in such situations, instead of answering the question Himself, Jesus asked the man what he thought: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” What tasteful conversation skills—allowing the expert to speak on his area of expertise. Well played, Jesus.

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’, and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

This was perhaps a brief moment of pride for the law expert—his conclusion had just been affirmed, after all. But he wanted to justify himself, the scripture says. So he asked this question: “Who is my neighbor?”

At this point, Jesus could have very easily just answered straightforwardly—“Well, anyone near you who is in need is your neighbor.” That is how we like to summarize Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. But that’s not actually the point. Jesus never really answered the man’s question, despite the fact that the question itself does logically follow the train of thought of the command, “Love your neighbor”.

As Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, it demonstrates that this expert in the law was asking the wrong question—and for the wrong reason.

Let’s read the story for ourselves in Luke 10:30-35:

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. `Look after him,’ he said, `and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

This scenario gives us one man who is hurt, and several men who interacted with him. If Jesus were directly answering the man’s question, he’d have set up a story in which one man is wondering who his neighbor is, and then has to choose between several options. Jesus turns the question on its head, demonstrating that obeying God by loving others doesn’t begin with my evaluation of their worthiness, but with my willingness to help anyone who is in need.

The priest and the Levite demonstrate the hearts of someone asking the wrong question—seeking to justify themselves, they’re the ones thinking, “Who is my neighbor? This man? No. I don’t know the man. Besides, I am important and must get to my important destination and do my important religious things for God. This man’s blood will defile me and make me late. I don’t have to help him—he’s not my neighbor. Perhaps someone else will help him.” Ah, the logic of self-justification, taking the word “neighbor” in God’s command and finding in it a loophole that allows selective obedience.

In contrast, we see a Samaritan come along and take pity on a man who is his social and political enemy—by no stretch of the imagination is this injured man his neighbor. The Jews despised Samaritans, and it’s likely the Samaritans returned the sentiment. This Samaritan, however, doesn’t seem to get tripped up with “Is this man my neighbor?” He simply sees a man in need. And then sees to it personally that those needs are met.

How does Jesus bring this lesson home for the man who sought to justify himself?

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Never mind the first question, Jesus is saying. Answer this question.

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

He Remains Faithful

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Christian Encouragement

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So often I’m confronted by my own lack of faithfulness.  To keep up with housecleaning, to keep up correspondence with precious old friends and family, to proactively train my children, to to keep up with finances, to write in my journal, to meditate on God’s word, to stick to a meal plan (or follow through with any plan, for that matter), to keep the things of the Lord at the front of my mind, to keep looking to Jesus as the greatest treasure of my life when I am faced with lesser things that vie for my attention.  And I have a tendency to become consumed with my failures, endlessly looking within until all I can see is my own inadequacies.  It’s a good recipe for discouragement.

IMG_4265Such was my state of mind the other morning as I sat out on our front porch, soaking in the early morning sunlight and breathing the crisp, cool air, trying to wake up enough to read my Bible before the boys awoke and demanded my attention.  Since we’d recently had some good rain, I could hear a quiet rush of water in our creek, the sound gentle but constant.  The birds, squirrels, and even a deer had all put on a small show for me.  Getting to see some of God’s curious creatures always seems a special gift to me that makes me smile.  Some relaxation and a smile was nice, but still I was carrying the weight of my own failures, my own lack of faithfulness.

I began to study the trees, now rich with colors of orange, red, green, and brown.  I love fall.  Every year.  Every … year … It struck me how faithful and constant the seasons are.  And how mankind has for all of his history depended upon them for survival, for sustenance.  All of the constants by which we measure time and number our days, the sun, moon, and stars, the day and night and seasons, these things are constant because they are made and upheld by the ultimate constant:  God.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.   Genesis 1:14-15

He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.  Acts 14:17 

He [Christ] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.  Hebrews 1:3

So many truths of Scripture poured into my head as I gazed upon the beautiful view of fall foliage on our own little slice of creation.  But most of all, I was struck by God’s constancy, His faithfulness, His utter dependability–especially now in contrast to my own lack of the same.  The God who created the heavens and the earth, who keeps this world spinning, who keeps the seasons coming, on whom we all depend whether we realize it or not–this unchangeable, trustworthy God has sent His Son to die in my place, wiping clean my record and crediting His faithfulness to my account.  He has called me His child, promised to never leave me nor forsake me, and has promised to return for me some day, righting all the wrongs and establishing His righteous kingdom forever.  Why do I despair over my own instability when I have such a Rock to lean on?

So often, blinded by my own self-reliance or self-loathing, I fail to hear creation screaming to me of God’s faithfulness (see Psalm 19).  The beautiful, constant, humbling reminder that all of creation–and even all of my salvation–depends first and foremost (and ultimately) upon God’s faithfulness and not my own.  Praise God.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
 
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
 
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
 
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!