Jesus often used loaded words. just go to the red-letter bits in your bible and note how Christ's wordchoice was intentional. buttons were pushed on purpose; challenges were issued; the world changed forever.
still, we sometimes forget that the words we read are not the words Christ spoke. english, as a language, hadn't even been invented yet. everything that we read as the words of Christ has been translated and interpreted in the translation- yet through all of this 'due process' the Holy Spirit is at work, ensuring that somehow the intended meanings remain his.
so when we read Jesus' words spoken in john 14.15-31 about the sending of the Holy Spirit, we need to read these words with an open heart, seeking to understand the Divine through the lenses of our context and experience, as well as through the translated words provided for us by God's grace.
the word that is translated as counsellor in the NIV appears as comforter in the King James version. It’s not just that we would be receiving one who gave advice and direction, but would do so from a place of personal, relational interest, desiring our peace…
This comforting counsellor came upon the people gathered in the upper room to pray at the beginning of Acts 2, and spread like wildfire through the crowd, anointing each person who would receive him with God’s capacity to be instrumental in the redemption of the world… to bring a sense of ongoing jubilee and restoration to our fallen planet; to become love to, for and with others.
it is a wonder that, as we read in acts 2.47, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved…not because somehow the disciples were fools and blowhards (although this was probably true to a varying degree for them all) but because the movement of the Holy Spirit to bring about new life and restored shalom to an environment rife with so much to the contrary is, if nothing else, wondrous.
and that we are entrusted with this legacy, with this anointing to bring salt, light and God's comforting counsel to a world gone mad a couple millenia later is both exaltive and humbling at the same time.
sudoku is usually played on a 9 by 9 board, divided into 3 by 3 cells. the solution of the puzzle is to place symbols on the board such that each row, column or cell contains each symbol exactly once, without moving the initial clues. it's what my parents do on Sunday afternoons to keep their minds sharp in their autumn years...
i'm sure that, when God made prescriptive remarks through the prophets about rest and the day of the Lord, he wasn't talking about this...
but are we able to look beyond the obvious? i mean, could it be that this addictive activity gives us a glimpse into the mind of God somehow?
we know that there are no wrong numbers- simply numbers that are in the wrong place at the wrong time. we know that each number in each row and each square relies on the others to be part of the solution to the puzzle. displace one and the whole thing collapses.
the thing about sudoku is that the puzzle is already complete: the numbers are already there- we just can’t see them.
when God looks at his kingdom, does he only see the numbers that are currently 'actively serving', clues to the order of the entire puzzle, or does he see them all?
you may work in a barbershop- you may know how to cut hair… (Bob Dylan)
self-pruning is a lot like trying to give myself a good haircut… in my desire and effort to accomplish balance and realize or release inner beauty outwardly, i run the risk of taking a little too much off here in order to compensate for having taken a little too much off there…
in our earnestness or our lack of discernment, we can begin an intentional self-pruning process that eventually cuts away everything in our lives including the vine itself... and the branch that cuts itself from the vine withers. we are unable to self-sustain. we must be fed and replenished.
so what to do? if we self-prune we run the risk of cutting our own heads off, but if we fail to see to it that we receive this pruning somehow, we cease to bear fruit in our lives and the bearing of fruit seems to be the point.
Jesus says we are not to worry. the trees of the forests and the grasses of the fields do not prune themselves, nor do they require conservation officers to attend to them- and yet they thrive in the environments in which they are placed. they live in complete submission to the Divine, and as such are exactly what the Almighty Vinedresser intends for them to be.
God is the gardener. what do we need to do become part of in order to allow him to truly prune us that we would be truly fruit-bearing branches, delivering the nutrients and life from the vine to the rest of the world…
remember that fruit is God’s distribution system for seeds.
scripture: john 15.1-6; galatians 5.19-25; matthew 6.25-30
Worship music is part of our preparation... It readies us for an encounter with God. It affords us a sense of sanctuary, a cleansing of the heart and mind from all distraction, baggage and fallenness that has attached itself to us, rendering us incapable of sensing the presence of God and experiencing a life-changing encounter with God that will fuel us into the coming days and relationships where we are to be, as Jesus said, salt and light for him.
A friend of mine made some observations about worship gatherings- in particular, those times when we are released from the imposed structure of the lyric in order to just sing and pray within the worship space:
I have noticed when the spontaneous song is released, so often that is when the pictures and visions are seen. It's as though when the singer taps into the song, the sound being released by the Father, those who see tap into the visual. There is a higher level of faith released corporately when we work together like this, we can go higher than we can individually and we see His creative words and ideas released corporately. There is joy in sound that enters my heart. (Joanne Lepp)
During such a worship time in the small group I meet with, God gave me a picture of his person which I wrote down…
the man of darkened face, unshaven because he's been tirelessly working, covered in mud but smiling- delighted to see new life rising up through the soil. the field/garden is already green. he is not planting- he is tending to these new seedlings, able to recognize the weeds from the desired plants, but pleased to have them grow together for this time.
john 20.14-16 man didn't recognize...
it is the gardener that recognizes the plants, not the plants that recognize the gardener. the plants turn towards the light and the gardener makes this possible by tending to the garden....
so after three months of heavy activity and nonexistent blogging, i've decided to change up my approach here- time to think outside the existing box. rather than post lengthy expurgations of the notes from my talks which just takes too long and is probably not the best use of my time or anyone else's, i'm going to move to something simpler, more direct and (we can only hope) more frequent...
it really helps, though, if there is discussion. that is much more interesting for us all, so leave a comment or leave a remark or take the dialogue in an entirely different direction- all of the above if you like.
although we sing songs like light the fire again, rarely are we actually seeing ourselves being engulfed by a pillar of fire like the one conjured by my friend in this video.
it's more symbolic.
in scripture, fire is a powerful symbol, used in one of three ways: 1) representing God’s presence and holiness (e.g. Exodus 3.1-6- burning bush; 13.21- pillar of fire night) 2) representing God’s anger and attitude towards sin (e.g. Genesis 19.24- destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah) 3) representing purification, testing and refining (e.g. 1 Kings 18.38- Mt Carmel; Revelation 3.17-18- Gold)
however, there is a related word which is often used in a much different way in scripture: the word burn. burn is often used as an emotional word to describe intense feeling, opinion or desire… (e.g.Song of Solomon 8.5-7; Luke 24.32- Jesus’ words)
burn refers to the fire of passion that burns within and demands by its very nature, some form of outward expression…and it is used to describe these things in people, not just in God.
we need to ask not only ‘where’s the fire’ but also ‘what does it imply about us and for our behaviour?’
God had a purpose in giving you your inborn interests. Your emotional heartbeat reveals a very important key to understanding his intentions for your life. (Rick Warren)
but when we speak of someone’s passion, what are we really talking about? when we say “she’s very passionate about that” or “it’s my passion,” what do we actually mean?
we read God’s words through the prophet jeremiah about ‘heart circumcision’ (jeremiah 4.4) and at first it's just a rather awkward metaphor conjuring up mental images of scalpels and elective surgical procedures to today's mind. we need to take into account everything leading up to the statement in order to understand its implication.
if we look at those four verses, we can see a little more clearly what was going on. the first bits speak of how a return to God was needed involving some repentance. promises and oaths needed to be reaffirmed in order for the relationship to be restored, for there had been a lot of promise breaking. a radical breaking of hearts was needed, resulting in deeper obedience and ultimately an inside-out change in the very identity of the heart of the nation that would be recognized not merely outwardly, but by those who knew the people most intimately.
circumcision is a loaded word. outwardly there was no evidence that a jew was circumcised. he wouldn't saunter bow-leggedly down the street displaying his gear for all to see. everyone knew that to be a jewish male was to have this mark. however, there was no hiding or disguising it from those most intimately acquainted with the man.
circumcision of the heart would be the same. any outward evidence of it would be superficial at best. however, for those most intimately acquainted with the heart of a person, the passion and submission of that passion to almighty God would be impossible to hide or fake.
there's something more: to be in all ways given over to God's will, God's bigger agenda is to see our larger purpose realized in our faithfulness- as we read in psalm 37.4-5
recently there was a great example of the giving over of the passion of the one to the greater purpose of the many in game 7 of the 2009 stanley cup final series between pittsburgh and detroit. late in the second period of this hockey game, pittsburgh's captain, sidney crosby, was taken out against the boards. as he hobbled off the ice, many speculations were made by commentators and bookies alike concerning his involvement in the final twenty minutes of the game and his team's hope of sustaining their rather tentative lead without their key leader and playmaker.
as the third period got underway, crosby did a bit of skating, but it was unconvincing. as he lined up for the first face-off of his first shift, it was very clear that there was something wrong, and although he survived that shift, everyone knew he was done. although he was still faster and stronger and more intuitive that any of the boys on our church hockey team, he wasn't the sidney crosby that his team was going to need to win the game.
upon leaving the ice, he shrunk back on the bench, his head bowed and his face grimacing in agony- not simply because of the tremendous pain he was enduring, but because he knew that he was done. everything that made him captain of this stanley cup bound team was telling him that for him to pursue his personal passion for playing hockey was to leave his passion for leadership and the desire to lead his team to a stanley cup victory unrealized and unexpressed. so he did what any great leader would do. he led his team to victory by staying off the ice for the rest of the game.
when our passion to do is outranked by our passion to be, we can be part of something bigger- something that is larger than our skillset, interests, education and experience can see through to realization. someone posited recently that there is a fine line between passion and addiction, but that line separates that which burns brightly for all to see, serving as a beacon of truth the way Jesus suggests in Matthew 5.14-16 when he speaks of being the light of the world, and simply being destroyed by a flame that eventually goes out when the fuel is consumed anyway.
so we need to ask: Q: what passions burn within us that can be used of God if surrendered to him? Q: what passion has us in its grip in an unhealthy way because it is yet to be redeemed? Q: what sacrifice is God calling us into as we circumcise our hearts?
Don’t let my love grow cold I’m calling out: Light the fire again Don’t let my vision die I’m calling out: Light the fire again You know my heart, my deeds I’m calling out: Light the fire again I need your discipline I’m calling out: Light the fire again (brian doerkson)
in 1989 i attended a chinese circus and was fascinated by the acts of extreme balance that were performed. one of the acts featured several girls, rolling around on the stage, dancing, posing, even standing on their heads- all the while keeping several plates spinning on long, thin sticks, like large vibrating flowers from an episode of the original star trek tv series…
if people refer to ‘keeping the plates spinning’, they’re typically drawing a comparison between the many responsibilities and interests that they have to balance in their lives. however, when it comes to making analogies about our ability to balance in life, most of us feel like we have more in common with this man…
ever start feeling like the fun is gone- like your existence on planet earth has moved from the pursuit of a good living to barely surviving?
All I really gotta do is live and die but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why… (Alabama)
bad theology leads to bad faith, and bad faith could very well be the source of all this anxiety…
see, we have Lordship issues… we see God in the wrong way.
we fail- even refuse- to see God as the author and finisher of faith and all good things involving light and life. some prefer to see God as this perpetually frowning, cosmic spoilsport who is out to take away everything fun a replace it with christian TV, Left Behind novels and awkward attempts at collective spiritual intimacy called ‘church service’ when what they’re really looking for is a party- a celebration of the life they have left after the week has taken its pound of flesh and the taxman has taken his cut of what they got in trade…
i had an opportunity to engage in some interesting dialogue with a friend of mine the other day. it all began with a link to a fun site called The Brick Testament.on this site we find edited highlights of the bible, all illustrated with tableaux created out of lego blocks.
but why is God frowning?
it's not that i think God always smiles- that wouldn't be a real person. however, neither is a God who is perpetually frowning. i mean, why would God say that everything was good and very good if the divine was actually uniformly displeased?
my friend shared some thoughts:
I do believe that God does not have a lot to smile about when He looks at Canada.
Let's be honest about it - we are a nation of luke-warm believers. I don't think He is smiling much when He thinks about spewing us out of His mouth.
When the Bible tells us to "run the race", how many of us do you feel are actually running to win? I think we are power walking at best some of the time. How many of us praise Him as we should - He created us and protects us . How many of us truly walk in obedience - He sacrificed his only Son for our sins. How many of us search the scriptures daily and spend a significant amount of time in prayer - can any of us say as the Psalmist "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee" or as Paul wrote "That I may know Him and the power of His resurection and the fellowship of His suffering"
The race that I am in - I certainly am not running. I know that is a choice of mine - I own that 100%.
I am placing no judgement or condemnation on anyone - this is just my perspective and I thought I would share it with you as my friend.
yeah, there is much to frown at in canada and around the world.
however, as he pointed out, the lordship issues are our own. the fact that we are unfaithful, disobedient and spiritually flacid is due to the choices we make- our stewardship of God's greatest gift next to life itself: our free will.
when our kids make decisions that represent some kind of sell out or compromise- the turning from what they know to be true in favour of what they just want to do- i think that we as parents typically have some degree of frustration, sure, but we also love our kids and try to walk them through this stuff, affording them grace and mercy that is only God's to give.
i think that in light of all the willful disobedience and disregard for love and provision, it's more likely that God's eyebrows / \ in sadness, disappointment and teeth gnashing pain, than they go \ / in anger, judgement and retribution. that's how i, with only a small portion of love, grace and mercy, respond to mistakes in the lives of those i love...
here's something to think about: God has agreed to withhold judgement from the earth until that final day. see, grace is really a breach of justice... 'unmerited favour' of God. God cannot be both gracious and impartial because they are polar opposites. we don't get what we deserve and will continue to live under the canopy of God's mercy until there's nothing left to say, no cases left to plead, no intercessions left to be made. then, and only then, will God rise up from the mercy seat and separate the sheep from the goats... yet even then, i can't imagine his eyebrows furrowed with the chill of retribution. not when it means losing his beloved forever. i think the expression of God will contain much more pain and sacrifice and utter hopelessness than sanctimonial fury.
speaking from experience, i think we frown at ourselves far more than God frowns at us.
in his insightful book, The Shack, William Paul Young observes: You humans, so little in your own eyes. You are truly blind to your own place in the Creation. Having chosen the ravaged path of independence, you don’t even comprehend that you’re dragging the entire Creation along with you… (W.P Young)
dragging all of creation along with us as we try to be God? hmmm.
what would happen if we saw God without the frown? what else might we see once we realized not only that we were safe with him, but that all of our efforts at command and control are based on bad faith?
the first worship song i ever wrote went this way: i wish i could find the words to exalt your holy name but things like 'wondrous majesty' are difficult to rhyme and i wish i could put my adoration to a beautiful symphony yet i often struggle with basic 4/4 time
but Jesus, you're the one who loved this prodigal son even when he showed no sign of humility upon returning home i see the glory of your throne and i realize you're God and i'll never be
i think of the love you've given and how much of it i've never returned it makes me want to slip away to a place where i can hide because i feel i'm so unworthy like a beggar with a crown of gold why do you rescue the criminal standing guilty and yet untried?
but Jesus, you're the one who loved this prodigal soneven when he showed no sign of humilityupon returning home i see the glory of your throneand i realize you're God and i'll never be
Jesus, in his famous talk with some of his friends, challenges us to stop trying to be God, restricting all that God intends to do by the faithless grip we maintain on the many budgets and blessings entrusted to our care. (Matthew 6.19-34)
some questions hang in the air the way plates don't: Q: what are the plates that we are trying to keep spinning? Q: how does controlling them with our mortal hands inhibit what God seeks to do with them? Q: what do we need to do to release these spinning plates to God's supernatural will, allowing them to move beyond the basic rules of this physical, temporal life and into the realm of the miraculous?
