Harvest Thoughts

Looking at Us

Elizabeth-
    "Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."    Luke 1:25

  Elizabeth, wife of Zacharias, has conceived.  The previous verse relates that, once it was discovered, she hid herself away for five months (probably the latter five months of the pregnancy when she would surely be showing), and then... verse 25, she makes her declaration.  It's a beautiful saying, moreso than perhaps it seems at first.  How to better spell out its subtlty and depth?  A paraphrase.

  "God has given me a child!  He looked on me; now, even in my old age, He looked on me!  He is never late in hearing and answering prayers.  He has also given me a child to heal my shame.  How much does He love and care for me!"

  I suppose I could be reading something into the text from my re-translation, but I don't think so.  A wringing of the text yields great rewards.  Elizabeth and Zacharias were old when she became pregnant.  Verse seven, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years."  The phrase "well advanced in years," might be New Testament era understatement, a more polite way of stating the obvious: they were old!  And, although they were old, they weren't, according to the text, old enough to stop wanting children.  Our main verse shows Elizabeth praising God for her child, blessing Him for seeing her and for removing the stigma that was attached to women in that day (and in that culture, even today) who couldn't conceive.

  Think now about the middle phrase, "in the days when He looked on me."  We've seen what exactly those "days" were.  They were the ones she was in at the time, the latter days of her life; "the golden years."  But, see what she says; "He looked" on her.  Specifically.  Intently.  The idea denotes full attention, scrutinous focus like an art dealer sizing up a painting's myriad angles, dimensions, quality and inherent elements.  Or, like a master craftsman fashions an object; a figurine, a tool, a relief of some kind.  He touches it with his eyes and hands, and surgically fashions it according to its own design and his own intent, undistracted by other pieces or peripheral concerns.  Nothing outside of the object at hand is in his masters' focus.

  When Elizabeth said, "He looked on me," what was she thinking?  Did she simply interpret His answering her prayers as His eye passing over her, and express it as such, or is there an element of other, older words and worship she came in tune with in that moment?

  Genesis 6:8 says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."  In a similar situation to Elizabeth's, Hannah, Samuel's mother, when she was barren and without a child, prayed, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life... (1 Samuel 1:11)"  Samuel was born, and she similarly praises God; "My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD.  I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation (1 Samuel 2:1)."  Mirroring her own shame before she conceived, she blesses God for exalting her horn over her dericive enemies, and for letting her smile over them, wheras she had obviously, in contrast, been downcast before them beforehand.

  What about, 2 Chronicles 16:9 and Zechariah 4:10?
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behlaf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."
"For who has despised the day of small things?  For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabal.  They are the eyes of the LORD, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth."

--He sees all, He knows all, but occasionally He lets us know it; He allows us to feel the wholesome sweep of His eyes as He engulfs us in His gaze.  A seeming paradox, to see everything at once, and yet carefully observe it all, even being recognized as familiar and particular and personal at times.

  Finally, John 1:47-50; "Jesus saw Nathaneal coming toward Him and said of him, 'Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!'  Nathaneal said to Him, 'How do you know me?'  Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.'  Nathaneal answered and said to Him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!'  Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe?  You will see greater things than these.'"

  Before Philip came to get Nathaneal he had been just where Jesus said he'd been, under a fig tree.  He could have been doing anything, but it's the opinion of many scholars that Nathaneal had been the only one of Jesus disciples who was actually following the rabbinical tradition, ascending through the various stages of preparation involved in the process of training to become a rabbi.  He could have been asking Yhwh for a rabbi to follow and to train under.  He could have been asking Yhwh to reveal falsehood in him, as he sat under the fig tree.  It may explain Jesus' first statement to him, and possibly reveal a new shade of meaning behind Nathaneal's suspicion of Jesus; "How do you know me so well?  How did you know what I struggle with, and what I pray for?"  Perhaps Nathaneal had been asking, like Elizabeth, that Yhwh look upon him, to guide him and to uncover secret sin within him.  Perhaps, like she did, he prayed for a miracle, for a sign and for Yhwh's intervention?

  All we know for sure is that Jesus shows up, in both cases.  Jesus' advent brought about John's birth.  Luke even records Gabriel's words to Zacharias, saying, "(John) will be great in the eyes of the Lord... He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit...  And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.  He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:15-17)."  He quoted Malachi's prophecy of one like Elijah coming immediately before the Lord Himself.  And, with Nathaneal, obviously, Jesus shows up.  And, in doing so his life, Elizabeth's life as well, finds shelter in the loving gaze of God.  He shows up and shows off that He is looking; He is intently staring at, and missing nothing in their lives.  He loves them too much not to.

  He's looking today.  Looking at Us.

-SRD

Till We Have Faces: A Christian's Search For Authenticity

 

“But God… while we were still sinners…”    -Romans 5:8

 

Isn’t it amazing the amount of emphasis the unbelieving world puts on the church of Jesus Christ in terms of its “separate-ness,” its “other worldliness.”  Its “righteousness” and virtues are both boons in the eyes of certain ‘outsiders,’ and as burned out ruins by many more.  Oftentimes, the church is viewed as the broken toy that used to entertain the Western world until Europe grew up and crushed it with Reason.  It’s also, incredibly, seen as a phenomenon by others; a source of hope and spiritual devotion that somehow mankind developed a need for, and, in that it ‘scratches’ that sociological ‘itch,’ it’s great.  –“But, it would be ideal if those people got over it, if they could,” would come the honest, skeptical reply.

 

More amazing is how much emphasis the church of Jesus Christ itself puts on its own “holiness,” “righteousness” and “spiritual discernment!”  When we’re not stealing children from their families because our American dollars let us do it- “in Jesus’ name” ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_americans_detained )- then we’re disclosing certain oracles pulled from God’s omniscience to television audiences all over the developed world, outlining private discourses the people of  a certain Central American country has had with the devil, and the deal writ in blood that forged their “pact” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM&feature=fvw ).  Simultaneously, we maintain that we are “free,” we are “healthy;” we “are rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing;” it’s the others who need to change!  Is it any wonder why the ‘un-churched,’ or the ‘pre-churched’ don’t know the gospel and don’t really care to?  -We’re just like them, they know it, we’re just illusioned by our airs, them content with what present reality brings, and unconcerned with the hypocrisy so often on display within the ranks of the “saintly.”

 

“For when we were still without strength…”    -Romans 5:6

 

It’s almost as if those inside the church and those outside are similar.  And, maybe they’re similar in more ways than one or than both of them would like to admit?  -Are you seeing where I’m going with this?  Since when did it become unfashionable in the Christian church to forbid boasting in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 11:30), to refuse confessing our sins to one another (James 5:16) and to fail to restore each other with faith-filled words of forgiveness and friendship (Galatians 6:1&2)?  Was it, because of “what it might look like if I sympathize with him or her;” if I bear my arm and show the scars of my past to another?  “What if they think I’m weak and lose respect for me?”  -Sound familiar?  A little mental justification as to why the work of living Christ-like and reconciling a world to God might not be your “cup of tea?”  ~  Write it down!

 

Now, just in case you’ve been a good Bible student, or a thorough and researched arguer, and looked up the verses I’ve only excerpted from, let me quote them completely, then explain their context, as I see them.  Lastly, I’ll make my thesis plain.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    -Romans 5:8

And, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”    -Romans 5:6

 

These verses, along with each of the nineteen brother and sister verses in Romans 5 say loudly the greatest single truth of the crucifixion (when Jesus hung on the cross as God in our place to make us one with God): that Jesus’ righteousness is the singular basis of every person’s right-ness with God, the Father.  Jesus did it, no one else.  His own ability, grandeur, as God, and Messianic selection accomplished rescue for His Bride, the Church, and purchased the right from God to spare us from His own just punishment against all our ugliness and disobedience of heart and mind, and lavish grace on us as children and friends.

 

  However, chapter 5 cannot be separated from chapter 6, where Paul writes, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness” (Romans 6:17).  In other words, the fact of Jesus’ authority over sin, and His purchasing of us for His pleasure and our eternal, wrath-free joy, even His immense, divine power, won’t stop Christian people from choosing to, in Paul’s words, “present (themselves) as slaves to obey… sin leading to death.”  We still have to choose to do what we know is right, to choose His way.  He wants us to choose obedience towards God and His word, in light of the fact that He loves us, and that He died on our behalf.

 

My thesis, then, reads like this: Jesus’ purchase of sinful men and women for His own purposes did not come to His church like an excuse to separate and “unplug” from our day to day lives and neighbors, even our global family within humanity scattered abroad.  He purchased us for God by His blood on the cross so that we would be raised up before his broken world- as He was- bleeding, suffering the loss of our own lives in order to give life to the weeping or indignant, huddled masses strewn around our own lives’ crosses.

 

Pretensions are a waste of time and a veil for pride.  Satan loves a phony and a weak-willed man or woman; both are easily toyed with and turned away from truth or the will of God for their lives.  Instead, what grows up before them is a jungle of confusion, dense and impenetrable, till scared and utterly debased they break and cry out in truth to Him; no airs then, no doubts or hesitations.  The pain of tasting the fruit of their pretensions purged the soul and brought them to their knees again, before a powerful and patient God.  Then, and only then, will he or she boast in their weaknesses; they will have lost the will to live for themselves, if even only for a day or two, or a month or a year.

 

That’s a special time, when all is Christ, and “having been set free from sin, (we) became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18).  It’s a free time, a joyful time; it’s a moment sweet and filling, welling up into Hope.  And, Hope, it says, “doesn’t disappoint” (Romans 5:5).  –I could use some, A lot of that!  What about You?

 

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    -Romans 5:7&8

Love in what? ...

 

‘Τεκνία μου, μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν λόγῳ μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ, ἀλλὰ ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ.’

“Children, do not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in action and truth.”

 

     – 1^st John 3:18

 

 

Is it possible for us to read this and separate loving only in word with not loving at all? 

Frequently, when this verse is mentioned it’s implications are only cursorily explored; “When we say we love our neighbors, but we don’t give them a hand with the groceries…”  “When we say we love our Christian brother or sister and we don’t confront them with the things we see in their lives…”  “When we say we love our spouse but we don’t put the toilet seat down even though we know they don’t like it…”  First of all, if I were your neighbor and you came over, picked up a grocery bag out of the trunk of my car and then began following me into my house, I wouldn’t think “love” was driving you to do it but “crazy.”  Secondly, confronting your fellow Christian IS a loving thing to do, but it’s simplistic and immature if it’s ALL that’s done.  In other words, without real depth of relationship experienced and proven through actions and shared time together, the words seem hollow, judgmental, pretentious and uncaring.  And, as far as the toilet seat analogy goes, come on!  Being husband and wife is much more than toilet seat positions and toothpaste in the sink.  The illustration is superficial at best, not coming close to penetrating to the heart of what John is talking about in his letter.  His message to the wife or husband would be something more like, “When you say this Tuesday is ‘date night,’ and then cancel it for gossip with the girls or games with the guys or work, you are NOT loving your spouse.”  Saying one thing and doing another is unloving, is not in line with God’s character and not a hallmark of His Kingdom.

 

...More to come.

 

    -SRD

 

 

 

"These Words" ~ Natasha Bedingfield

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995O4irnepo&feature=channel

The Roadblock of "Pleasing" / Fearing

 

 

“If I were still pleasing people I would not be a servant of Christ.”

                                                                                  -Galatians 1:10c

 

  Paul writes to the churches of Galatia a message that- if it were sown into the soil of our churches, homes, our own souls- would have more impact today than, perhaps most any other we could hear.  A word is set before us, as it was before them, that- I believe- most every modern day, Western, evangelical “Christians” would have to avert their eyes while its being spoken for shame, and sink inside- at least a very little- upon hearing it.  Why?  Because Christians “please people;” Christians fear people.

 

  Jesus says that His Church would be made up of men and women, young and old who believe in His Messiah-ship; in His Christ-hood and His Lordship.  He says that she (His Church) will possess “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” promises that what she “bind(s) on earth will be bound in heaven,” and declares that even hell’s gates (Hell’s offensive, tactical, demonic, God-mocking gates) will not “prevail against” her.  And, yet, she is afraid to the point of paralysis in most quarters today.

 

  If we take Paul’s words to be true, then pleasing people is more than just what some might consider a “roadblock” to Christian maturity- something that need be avoided at all costs, but ultimately inconsequential.  Instead, it is that which reflects on our service, our devotion and our worship, removes us completely from looking unto Him; “not a servant of Christ” is a servant of man, a servant of people.  This kind of “service” is not casual, is not helpful, is not part of Christian life, nor is it seen in the life of Jesus.  The Savior’s first service was to Someone greater than you, me or the host of human beings we are daily tempted to fear and acquiesce to.

 

  “Pleasing people” is posited as an extremely negative thing in the passage.  Paul says that if he were to do it it would be opposite of Christ, that it would oppose Christ.  Yet, why is the church house still that ‘70s color green?  Why can’t the skate boarders be allowed in the church parking lot?  How is it that with churches sitting fat on the fringe of every (mostly decaying) major city in America, secluded in the suburbs, there are so few groups pouring resource into the ghettos and projects that need so much help and hope; places that need it so desperately?  Can we sing “How Great Thou Art” outside a crack house, or offer prayer and deliverance on Bourbon Street?  Well, of course we can, but what would people think about us?  -“We would surely turn into one of those churches everyone loves to talk about and criticize, inevitably.  Right?”

 

  People pleasing, then, becomes much more than a "roadblock," but 1) a means of quenching God's Spirit in a person or a place, 2) how worship finds itself redirected- away from God and focused on man, and 3) how men and women of all backgrounds remain bound in sin and fear, without the grace of rescue, oppressed by "the tyranny of the urgent" and others' expectations.

 

  America and the West needs a generation more in love with Jesus than American Idol, and a new movement driven by the hope of the glory of God rather than the hope of new Facebook friends and opening night seats at the premiere of Wolverine, Star Trek or Terminator: Salvation.

 

  Speaking of salvation, precious human beings forged by the hands of God and filled by His breath need salvation and a faithful witness to God’s gospel, not new cell phones, super model partners or bank accounts filled with college tuition money. Those things can’t hear, see or think.  At least cell phones can tell time, so they can measure the distance between now and how much or how little progress you and I make in this world, this side of eternity for Christ and His glorious, grace-saturated, gainfully-employable gospel, in the next however long we have to do so.  They can count, but they can’t count the cost of discipleship; you and I can.  They can dial out, but they can’t “phone a friend” into God’s big show; you and I can.  They can store numbers, but they can’t store up treasures in heaven on our accounts, or place them like gifts into the lives of others; by God’s grace, you and I can.

 

  “Let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

                                                                     -Revelation 19:7&8

 

  Serve Christ today, and please Him only!  Make yourself ready, heavenly Bride!  Please!  And, help me do the same while you’re at it; I truly need help too!

 

    -SRD

The Savior Lecture Series: "Perfect Love"

 

Matthew 5:43-48

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

--Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

Resolved:  “Perfection” is bound up in Loving like God loves; BOTH ‘righteous’ & ‘unrighteous’ people.

 

            God is able to perfectly love all human beings; the ‘good,’ the ‘bad,’ the wasteful and the wonderful.  Even those who deny His existence or gracious appeal through Jesus He loves, loves, loves.

 

--How is this possible?

     Don’t the Scriptures say that He knows the offenses of the unrighteous and that He’s angry about it, going so far as to say that His “wrath” is revealed against all ungodliness and wickedness? >>                                              >> Romans 1:18

     Simultaneously loving & hating something sounds more like the behavior of a schizophrenic, not the God of the universe!

--Again, how is this possible?

 

            He made us “in (His) image;” that’s where we & everyone looking into this subject must begin.  We hold His form in our bodies, souls, and in our spirits.  He has formed us as His children; we are not Him, but we are His in a very fundamental way- All of us.  In this way He can love us- the wide scope of humanity with its saints & satans.  Bear in mind, a father can love his wicked child and still call the police on them because it is the Right choice, not the one they Want to make.  So too, God loves All the “sons of Adam” & “daughters of Eve,” but He will be objective in each of their just sentencings in the hereafter.  Perfect in Love, and perfect in Justice: He is the only One worthy to judge each of us, and know our hearts’ true intentions, and on that basis decide our yet-future destinies as well.

 

Remember our Resolution from above?

--  “‘Perfection’ is bound up in Loving like God loves; BOTH ‘righteous’ & ‘unrighteous’ people.”

 

            That is the entirety of Jesus’ message in Matthew 5:43-48.  He’s not questioning whether or not God will be correct in His actions, fair and just at the Final Judgment.  Nor is He questioning His Father’s character.  Do you see what Jesus’ impression is of His Father?  He says that the disciples’ Father in heaven is “Perfect.”  Simply, Jesus is interested in the development of His Father’s perfection in His disciples.  Let what is inferred here be stated explicitly: the disciples were Not perfect and Jesus knew it!  And, if we are honest with ourselves neither are we, today.  Some will admit that quickly, but not ask the question that the text begs of you and me: “Where are you failing in Love in your life?”  Notice, Jesus doesn’t look at specific instances of failure in one or more of His disciples’ lives; they were All failing in Love, and as long as they dwelt on the earth- no matter how long they “walked with Him” or “grew in grace”- they were going to fail.  Jesus knew they would.  He didn’t “cast the first stone.”  He gave Himself, and the means to Love more widely, more deeply, and more fully those in the world around us.

 

What I can take away from all of this is: 1) I am not Him & 2) I have been told by my Lord to model and give out perfect-type Love instead of judgment.  I cannot dole out final judgment, so mine is the former work rather than the latter; that of Loving All regardless of their pasts & indiscretions, criminal records & their every poor, major and minor choice’s outcomes.  To love them is my only work.  It is, according to the text, a “perfecting” one.

           

                Are we striving towards Perfection today?  -“Love,” says the Lord to His disciples.  “Love and keep loving.  Then, you’ll prove that you’re Mine; that My words live in you, and that My Father is also your Father!”

 

*See also Oswald Chambers’, My Utmost for His Highest; February 3^rd, or follow the link…  http://www.myutmost.org/02/0203.html

"The Kingdom's" Come...

“The Kingdom of Heaven:” What is it?

“In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’  This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke…”        -Matthew 3:2a

One of the major themes of Matthew’s gospel is “the kingdom of heaven.”  The verse above is the first mention of “the kingdom” in the gospel.  The term is used 32 times in this, the first biographical sketch of the Savior.  The gospels aren’t just biographies of Jesus’ life, they are his memoirs painstakingly set down by men who loved him most in his day, his marching orders to everyone who would follow him and imitate his example, and his much-adored “Lectures To My Students,” meant for our up-building, our heart’s needful consolation, and our every day’s moment-by-moment inspiration to “look unto,” “Behold,” and “listen to” him in and through all things that come our way.

 

Each gospel writer is an artist that sees Jesus a little different and paints his portrait accordingly.  Matthew’s can seem more like a landscape than a portrait at times, revealing Jesus as the greatest part of a huge plan God has grown and brought to pass in the precise moments of his Son’s earthly advent.  The coming of ‘the kingdom of heaven’ makes such a landscape idea of the gospel so appropriate; ‘the kingdom’ incorporates much more than it may seem to at first glance.

 

First, John says, It (the kingdom of heaven) “has come near.”  It was near, not far away; beside them, not long-distance.  It had been “in heaven,” but now it was coming to “earth” (6:10).  Verse two hasn’t even had a chance to end before John links the kingdom to its King, Jesus: “He is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke…”  John, in relating the truth of the kingdom’s ‘coming near’ says, “Jesus is the kingdom, without him there is no kingdom; the kingdom is near because he is near!”  At this precise moment, when John makes this declaration, Jesus hasn’t been baptized yet, but Jesus is there, his ministry is poised to advance on Judea, and the kingdom he came to set up is- even then- being established through widespread repentance in the area.

 

John is a part of this kingdom.  Those who hiked into the wilderness, were convicted at the words of a wild man, and went down into the cool waters of the Jordan for cleansing, seeking purity in which to stand before a holy God, were in the kingdom.  And, the King had come; the one who is “Lord” of the kingdom (7:21), possesses the “secrets” of the kingdom (13:11), holds the “keys” to the kingdom (16:19), is “the greatest” in the kingdom (18:4), and who opens the door wide for all those who will enter the kingdom to come in (23:13).

 

Jesus, the kingdom’s King, is the greatest cause for praise and pomp, and the greatest example of meekness, deference, and humility.  He is the majesty enthroned who rules from the palace floor where his children play, in the kingdom (19:14).

 

We begin with a look at ‘the kingdom’ where it is introduced in Matthew’s gospel: chapter 3, verse 2.  This is the beginning of the definition: 1) the kingdom is near, and 2) Jesus is its King.  But, there is so much more to unpack throughout the gospel.  We’ll see that Jesus weaves a tapestry, combining color, design, quality and craft to the idea of the kingdom.  Bear in mind, for Jesus the kingdom is not “irrelevant for today,” it’s not abstract and impractical- meaningless to the common person, to the poor, to the infirmed or to the sinner; the kingdom is personal to him (19:21-23, cf. Mark 10:21a) and he is netting-in all creation for his specific, ‘kingdom’-purpose (13:47).

 

Next: “How ‘Near’ IS the Kingdom?”

 

Coldplay's 'Till Kingdom Come' ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8YEiHxtohA